My Body, Our Rights

Book excerpt: Radical cartoonists tell it like it is about abortion, contraception, healthcare, and identity. The cartoonists of World War 3 Illustrated present comics on living in the body in a hostile society. From personal testimonies to collective chronicles, over 30 artists and writers deploy graphic evidence that bodily autonomy is essential to the individual and to communities. Abortion is revealed as lived by generations before and after being legalized. The mythic roots of misogyny, the rigid rules of gender, are exposed as outdated shams. Brave new lives are charted through the wilderness of broadening possibilities and furious backlash. Artists, activists, healthcare workers, and students unite in the belief that while my body is mine alone, our rights are always social, and must be named and claimed in the public sphere. Once again WW3 elevates truth-telling to the art of resistance. Artists include: Roberta Gregory, Sabrina Jones, Sue Coe, Trina Robbins, Paula Hewitt Amram, Lee Marrs, Joyce Farmer, Rebecca Migdal, Sandy Jimenez, Seth Tobocman, Peter Kuper and many others.