Bio: Amy Wagner, PT, DPT, PhD, GCS, is a Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX. She has scholarly interests in the areas of motherhood, postpartum health, aging, disability studies, and health humanities. She has presented at several national conferences previously, including the topic of disability and motherhood. Dr. Wagner holds several leadership positions in the American Physical Therapy Association.
Susan N. Smith, PT, DPT, PhD, PCS, is a Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Smith’s areas of interest and research include infant powered mobility, babywearing for children with special needs, and experiential learning in physical therapy education. She is a clinical director for the Special Olympics FUNfitness program and an advocate for both children and adults with developmental disabilities.
Amy F. Crocker, PT, DPT, PhD, OCS, FNAP, is the Director of Social Accountability and Experiential Learning and Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Crocker’s areas of interest and research include social accountability, interprofessional education and collaborative practice, and experiential learning. She creates partnerships with local community organizations to promote future healthcare providers’ engagement with individuals of all abilities.
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the graphic representation of reproductive labor, from conception to birth, experienced by birthing persons as portrayed in comic art and graphic novels. Emotions around events associated with the reproductive process that seem taboo or “difficult,” such as infertility and miscarriage, can be expressed more effectively with the combination of text and images through the comic medium than in either alone. Non-normative reproductive journeys can be represented effectively through non-colonizing self-portrayals in comics, such as autobiographical graphic narratives of fertility treatments or pregnancy/birth with a disability. Theoretical frameworks to interpret graphic novels and comics material include matricentric feminism, motherhood studies, materiality theory, Foucault’s medical/clinical gaze, embodiment, maternal thinking, and decolonizing methodologies of constructing knowledge and being. Comic works discussed in this paper include graphic novels: My Body Created a Human: A Love Story, Kid Gloves, Graphic Reproduction, The Best We Could Do, and various webcomics.
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