Her Brutalized Face

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 sensitive to pain than black women are, and that a black woman can handle it better when bad things happen to her.

Sources:

Gimple, Scott M. and Angela Kang, writers. "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life. The Walking Dead. American Movie Classics (AMC). April 2, 2017.

Kirkman, Robert. The Walking Dead. #29. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, Inc., 2006.

Comments

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The Role of Michonne

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