Disseminating Queer Theory

Abstract

This chapter explores how Dykes to Watch Out For establishes a playful and deprecating relationship with queer theory that is simultaneously a hallmark of Alison Bechdel’s individual craft and something made possible by the unique formal properties of comics. Specifically, this chapter considers instances where Bechdel uses the gutters of the comic to represent how knowledge can be lost or obfuscated as it moves through (everyday, public) time that is teeming with distractions. As a result, the collected DTWOF is stirring, instructive even, for anyone invested in critical theory’s capacity to affect meaningful and sustained change. The method developed in the chapter draws on the significance of the gutter as identified in comics criticism; it advocates placing one’s attention on the gutters and focusing on how information is shown to be successfully, or unsuccessfully, transmitted across them.