Like the other books in the series, this one unpacks dominant cultural ways of understanding relationships, and how those impact us, as well as the messages about relationships and ways of relating we learn growing up. It goes on to help readers locate their own ways of relating, exploring conscious, consensual relationship practices, and the kinds of support systems people might build around their relationships. Throughout the book, we also try to hold the non-binary bothness that relationships hold for pain and pleasure, trauma and healing, restriction and freedom.

Vitally, How to Understand Your Relationships is about all kinds of relationships. While it will hopefully be helpful for those focused on partnerships – of the monogamous or non-monogamous variety – it is equally applicable to friendships, family relationships and parenting, work relationships, and relationships with other humans, non-human beings, and beyond.

You can order the book via the publishers here, and it will soon also be available as an audio book. Watch this space for a video with Alex, discussing the book and what it means to us.

You might also like to check out Alex’s other book, Trans and Disabled, which also just came out, and which includes a chapter we wrote on plurality.

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In the interview we explore the myths and misconceptions about sex and sexuality which we wanted to confront in the book, the problems with the idea of sexual ‘dysfunction’, and what Jules and I are hoping to achieve with our contributions to Icon’s graphic guide series.

You can find the full interview here.

Between the Pages: ‘Sexuality: A Graphic Guide’

Author Meg-John Barker explains why the comic book medium is perfect for exploring sex.

Written by

David Hopper

From the creators of graphic books, “Queer: A Graphic History” and “Gender: A Graphic Guide” comes “Sexuality: A Graphic Guide.” Published in 2021 by Icon Books, the 176-page comic book offers an informative and inclusive look at sexuality.

Writer Meg-John Barker and artist Jules Scheele, who both use they/them pronouns, take the reader on a Scooby-Doo, gang-like journey as the book’s four main characters encounter monsters like patriarchy, heteronormativity, ableism and white supremacy. The book is packed with quotes from (and illustrations of) leading sex researchers and theorists, helping make academic topics more accessible and fun.

Barker is the author of various+ books on sex, gender and relationships, including “Life Isn’t Binary,” “How to Understand Your Gender,” “Enjoy Sex (How, When and IF You Want To)” and “Rewriting the Rules.” You can read their blog at www.rewriting-the-rules.com.

In this exclusive interview with Giddy, Barker discusses the common sexuality myths they wanted to dispel, why a focus on sexual “dysfunction” is problematic, Scheele’s eye-catching illustrations and more.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What would you say is the purpose of the book as well as the intended audience?

Barker: Our aim was to provide a friendly, accessible guide to the various ways of understanding sexuality that are out there. Particularly, we wanted to highlight how the normative ways of understanding it in our culture at the moment are only one possibility, and often a not particularly helpful or accurate one. Read more…

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I think you’ll understand why I didn’t want to say no to this opportunity. Not only is this a whole issue devoted to feminist comics, but also it takes an international perspective including comics from artist and writers in various countries across South and East Asia, Africa, Europe, and South and Central America. This introduction by editors Sally Munt and Rose Richards gives an overview of what’s included in the open access special issue and why feminist comics are important.

In my interview, Róisín asks me about how I got into creating comics and why they’re a good medium, particularly for getting across ideas about gender and sexuality. We talk about the importance of working across different mediums and genres in order to be accessible to diverse audiences. I explore why gender and sexuality have been such important themes in my work, what the main ideas are in these areas that I want to convey to readers, and why. We also get into the trans moral panic and recent gender ‘debates’ and why I think it’s vital to engage with the process of these more than the content. I got to chat about why I enjoy collaborative work so much, and why I think intersectional and non-binary thought are important in relation to gender, sexuality, and beyond.

The next article which I didn’t want say no to is a piece called ‘Plural Selves, Queer, and Comics’ coming out in the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. It explores mental health and queerness in comics, particularly in relation to my comics and zines about plural selves. It develops some of the themes I explored in my talk at the Graphic Medicine conference last year. I’ll link to that here as soon as it comes out.

• Read a summary of my talk on queer, mad comics here and the article based on it here.
• My experience and thoughts about queer comics are here.
• My first plural comic is here.
• Read my interview in Feminist Encounters here and here:

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