ABSTRACT
As populist politics heavily influences normative ideas of contemporary Southeast Asian society, spaces for those that diverge from these social norms become increasingly sparse. For young people, one imagines that digital technology provides a safe space, however, some youths, who have non-normative notions of gender and sexuality, also turn to comics as an important safe space to express themselves. In this chapter, I examine the different queer comics produced by young people who participate in various independent comic events such as Indonesia’s Comic Frontier, Singapore’s Doujinshi Market, Malaysia’s Comic Festa and the Philippines’s Komiket. I analyse the ways in which these queer comics become important tools that allow creators to negotiate queer “safe spaces” in comic events influenced by local conservative politics. I also examine the strategies these creators use by investigating the different ways they challenge heteronormative content – from repackaging their original or fan-oriented boys love works, to the active queering of local culture, to the creation of anthologies that encourage queer expression, sometimes sexual politics, in these conservative comics spaces. I argue that queer comics has given young artists opportunities to produce “safe spaces” where their queer works allow them to connect with queer content creators and discover ways they could “safely” produce queer comics in conservative environments. Through this paper, I aim to highlight how young people are using queer comics to challenge and transform conservatism in Southeast Asia.
