One Simple Question About Society’s Ridiculous Biases Around Gender

Text: A Common Complaint: Comic by Justin Hubbell

(Ten individual portraits of people. Each one has a different story and thinks a different word that, when read together, formulates the sentence: “Why does gender have to be such a big deal?”)

Panel 1

(Kamya – Black, cisgender, gay – reads an anti-gay flyer and appears upset.)

Kamya: Why

Panel 2

(Michelle – Latinx, questioning, pansexual – looks annoyed, having received a feminine dress as a gift that doesn’t match her “tomboy” style.)

Michelle: Does

Panel 3

(Cameron – white, transgender, questioning – looks exhausted after another difficult day in junior high school.)

Cameron: Gender

Panel 4

(Emma – Jewish, Asian-American, cisgender, bisexual – looks frazzled as she juggles a conference call with holding her crying newborn baby.)

Emma: Have

Panel 5

(Wendy – Chemehuevi, cisgender, straight – looks determined, but troubled as she participates in a walk for tribal survivors of domestic violence.)

Wendy: To

Panel 6

(Joe – mixed race, cisgender, straight – stares off into space looking disturbed as he thinks about toxic masculinity.)

Joe: Be

Panel 7

(Hay-Yun – Asian, cisgender, lesbian – looks incredibly anxious as she thinks about coming out to her family.)

Hay-Yun: Such

Panel 8

(André – Black, transgender, asexual – is trying to relax at home, but he looks stressed after being harassed in the street.)

André: A

Panel 9

(Ahmed – wearing a hearing aid, Muslim, cisgender, straight – looks worried as he thinks about how his cousin is mentally abused by their father.)

Ahmed: Big

Panel 10

(Willow – White, genderfluid, transbian – looks engrossed as they wait for the start of their trans support group.)

Willow: Deal???