Lena Merhej’s Comics and the Shattering of Taboos Around Sexuality and Shame

Abstract

This article examines a Lebanese female comic artist Lena Merhej’s graphic explorations of sexuality and shame. It aims at analyzing how she illustrates personal experiences to shatter taboos around gender and sexuality in contemporary Lebanon. With the publication of Beirut-based comics journal Samandal, Merhej, a cofounder, developed a comic art infrastructure and fostered a new spirit in Arab comics by encouraging young designers to use their drawings to break the silence imposed by authoritarian narratives. The article addresses the different ways Merhej strategizes the visual representation of taboo topics of female sexuality and gender by learning from past experiences on how to create contexts that will be receptive to unfolding works and establishing connection and camaraderie among Lebanese readers through works that capture shared experiences including sexuality, war, diaspora, and migration.