The visualization and representation of gender in Egyptian comics, what is the fuss all about?

This thesis investigates gender visualization in Egyptian comics published in 2011 and afterwards, focusing on three main themes: the veil, violence against women, and the role played by women during post-revolutionary Egypt. The three main comics utilized in this study are: TokTok magazine, Al-Shakmgia, and Qahera. The main purpose of the study is to examine whether these three comics re-inscribe or challenge the stereotyped gender representation of women in the previously mentioned themes. By examining these three comics, this thesis argues that the binary conception of gender is no longer based on stereotypes of men and women, of masculinity and femininity. Instead, Egyptian comics are a channel through which strong clichés are dissolved. As this thesis shows, the visualization of gender is no longer associated with the portrayal of beauty and sexuality (slim, attractive, fit); reproducing a stereotyped visual gender knowledge. Rather, in Egyptian comics, gender relations can be separable from the existing visualization in our society. I argue that Egyptian comics do not perpetuate the visualization of gender stereotypes and that through these comics, new practices of gender visualization are witnessed