The Role of Michonne

The Walking Dead #29 The Walking Dead , Season 7, Episode 16 Michonne's face is the only female face, in the TV show and comic, that is brutalized this severely. There are plenty of female characters to choose from, but Kirkman and the other writers find it necessary to place Michonne in this position rather than any other female and to show her face freshly cut, bruised, and bleeding. There are plenty of other characters who suffer terribly in this story. It's a horror story, a graphic novel and cable network serial, and viewers can see bad things happening to everyone. No character is immune to suffering. Another main character, a blond woman named Andrea, receives two large permanent scars on her face, but there are no images of her face completely broken like this. I think in general, for many decades, viewers have become accustomed to seeing the spectacle of suffering black women and are immune to it. Often it is assumed that white women are more delicate and sen...

The Walking Dead, #28 In The Walking Dead #28 , the Governor has taken Michonne to a locked storage compartment and tied her there. He asks her, "Tell me, girl -- how long  do you think it would take for me to ruin your life  -- shatter your sense of security -- really fuck you up?" I couldn't help but notice a similar theme in Assata Shakur's autobiography. Here is a real life strong black woman who is kept against her will, abused, and presented to the public as a form of entertainment. For one example, when she becomes pregnant, and deals with the stress of being denied proper medical care, she also must deal with the media's telling of her situation: "I couldn't believe it. Sure enough, there were the articles. The one in the New York Daily News , i remember, was especially sordid. All of the papers speculated about who the father was and how i had managed to become pregnant in jail. One of them hinted that a prison guard was the father" (...

In  The Walking Dead  issues 28 and 29, Michonne becomes the Governor's "brown sugar" "plaything," but not without upsetting many readers who are sensitive to the issue of the dehumanization of black women by white men.  The Walking Dead, #28 The Walking Dead, #29 This issue was incredibly difficult to read, and I am not the only reader who felt this way. I would like to share some excerpts from a long letter to the author Robert Kirkman, written by a reader named Sundjata Abubakari and published at the end of issue #32. I think the letter is well written and Abubakari makes valid points that I wish to write about in further posts. (The texts in bold are Kirkman's comments) "As a man of African descent, I was quite disturbed and appalled by the image of a strong, powerful black woman stripped of her power and humanity by being raped and brutally beaten by a white man not once, but twice in the same issue. As a man of white people desce...

Comic Book Michonne is a sexualized character. She wears form fitting clothing that shows cleavage. She appears on her second cover, issue 22, but instead of a sexy badass bitch with a katana, this time she's a homewrecker.  The Walking Dead, #22 In the previous issue, Michonne and Tyreese (who has a girlfriend) have this interesting interaction: The Walking Dead, #21 . . . this is what Michonne had to say about it after the fact: The Walking Dead, #22 Sources: Kirkman, Robert.  The Walking Dead.  #21-#22. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, Inc., 2005.

Michonne first appeared in Issue 19 of The Walking Dead  comic series (2005), and season 2 episode 13 of the TV show (2012). Her introduction is mysterious, and the weirdest thing about her is the two armless and jawless walkers she leads on chains. These turn out to be guys she knew, and one of them was her boyfriend. To call her "badass" is simply not adequate. Michonne is one of the toughest characters in both stories. She is an expert with the katana, and will stop at nothing to protect those she loves. Here are the first glimpses of Michonne in the comic and the show:  I'd like to point out that on the comic cover she's wearing a Barbie pink mini skirt with black leggings. That's kind of a sexy outfit, right? Plus, she's obviously a tough lady. She stares at the viewer with a stern look that says "don't mess with me." There's a bandage on her arm, and her jacket is coming apart at the seams. She holds a katana in her right hand a...