Week 15: Underground Comics REDUX
The Underground Comics I read for Week 6 were Tijuana Bible and Tits and Clits. Needless to
say, both were very sex-oriented, but both were very different angles. Tijuana
Bible, which was written by men, has more of a carefree approach to sex.
All anyone wants to do in these stories is have sex, it’s what their lives
revolve around. Women bluntly ask for sex and men are quick to give it to them. Tits
and Clits, on the other hand, is written entirely by women and
actually isn’t all about sex. While that is obviously a major theme in the
works, the stories could feature serious stories about self-image, rape, and
sexual orientation. It’s not sensationalized or made for the arousal of other
men. Tijuana Bible was also way more graphic in
its depictions of sex, showing close-ups of genitalia and the act being depicted
as more aggressive than loving. Tijuana Bible was made as a
male fantasy while Tits and Clits was more of a commentary on
real life.
In reflection, I find it interesting
that Tits and Clits isn’t primarily
meant to stimulate queer arousal and takes the more slice-of-life approach. I’m
sure there were gay/lesbian people who liked Tijuana Bible at the time, too, but they were a minority in
readership and it was mostly banking off of straight guys. Tits and Clits was more about the complex emotions of women and the
LGBT+ community at the time. When Tits
and Clits would depict sex, it was usually gentle, but passionate love-making.
I guess that means women and LGBT+ people want more of the emotional exchange
of sex while straight men just want raw feeling and power. The difference
between Tits and Clits versus Tijuana
Bible is
best exemplified by comparing them to their modern-day counterparts: pulpy
romance novels (or even fan-fiction) versus PornHub.
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