GRAPHIC NOVELS

Our Lady of Birth Control: A Cartoonist's Encounter with Margaret Sanger

Soft Skull. Jul. 2016. 160p. bibliog. ISBN 9781593766405. pap. $19.95. BIOG
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Thanks to the Catholic Church and antisex crusader Anthony Comstock, "Tell Jake to sleep on the roof" was the state of contraception education when Margaret Sanger (18791–966) worked as a nurse before World War I. But Sanger captivated and bullied both friends and foes to establish birth control as an acceptable practice for Americans, and supported development of "the Pill." Clever, flirtatious, and obsessed with the tragedy of unwanted pregnancy, she loved physical passion herself and recruited her husbands and lovers to assist her. Jones (Race To Incarcerate) intercuts her own activism with Sanger's story, bitterly noting Rush Limbaugh's 2012 shaming of Sandra Fluke for testifying in Washington that college women need health-care plans covering contraception. Heavy, swirling black drawings convey the force behind both Sanger's and the author's concerns.
VERDICT The feminist slogan "the personal is political" was never more apt as when considering contraception, and Jones's account shows how one committed person can change the world. For teens and adults interested in activism and women's issues. Includes some sexual depictions. See also Peter Bagge's outstanding Woman Rebel.
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