Alanna DeAmaral

Mrs. Orta

English 123

18 May 2018

Power, Sexuality, and Gender

While reading the book Shortcomings, I was very intrigued by the visual images as well

as the speech bubbles from the various characters. A graphic novel is a novel in comic-strip

format which portrays a story visually with images, rather than a text-based book which tells its

story with words. Adrian Tomine, the author, uses his artistic abilities to portray a variety of

images that contrast throughout light and dark shading. Each scene, even the ones without any

speech bubbles, create a visual interpretation for me about what Tomine’s point in drawing each

scene was. The relationship between two characters, Ben and Alice stood out to me the most

because Alice was a very flirty and optimistic person, while Ben was more boring and

pessimistic, yet despite their differences, they were still best friends. Feminist Literary Criticism

is defined as a literary criticism which is informed by feminist theory and uses the principles of

feminism to critique the language of literature. The feminist literary criticism associated with

Ben and Alice from the article “What If Feminist Literary Criticism?” by Linda Napikoski is

“describing relationships between the literary text and ideas about power and sexuality and

gender” (Napikoski). Ben and Alice were an example of “opposites attracting” as friends because

they were both very different from each other.

One scene I found that related very much to the feminist literary criticism that I chose

was a scene in chapter 1 from the bottom of page 13 to the bottom of page 17. In this scene, Ben

is with Alice at Crepe Expectations having breakfast. The scene begins with Ben talking to Alice

about his most recent argument with Miko. He says that Miko made a conversation about a

movie into a personal attack on him. Alice somewhat is against Ben because she refers to Miko

as responding to Ben’s “charming negativity” (Tomine 14). Ben puts himself as the victim in the
situation when he was the one being an unsupportive boyfriend at Miko’s film festival. He

seemed completely uninterested and bored being there which made Miko feel as if he was being

unsupportive towards something she is passionate about. Then Alice, being interested in girls,

finds the waitress attractive and is slyly flirting with her. Alice compliments the waitresses

hairstyle and when she tells Alice that she cut it herself, Alice then suggests that she should give

Alice a haircut. Ben rudely interrupts them to ask the waitress a question about his food. He

says, “Can I just ask… Do you know what kind of oil they cook the fries in?” (14). This example

shows how Ben can seem to be careless because he pays no mind to Alice and the waitress and

interrupts them. Bens facial expressions in this scene show how he is uninterested in Alice’s

conversation with the waitress as he was also ignorant and not mindful when he attended Miko’s

film festival. This relates to the feminist literary criticism I chose because in this scene, we

become aware of Alice’s sexuality and how she flirts with a women she has just met. Tomine,

being a male author, portrays the female characters in the novel differently from the male

characters, especially Ben. We also become more aware of how Ben feels a sense of power being

a male because he feels that in a argument with Miko that he is the victim and does not

understand that he should have supported Miko at an event where she is doing something that

she loves. He instead decided to have bored facial expressions which gave Miko the feeling that

he rather be somewhere else.

Another scene I found that related to feminist literary criticism was a scene in chapter 2

from the bottom of page 44 to the middle of page 46. In this scene, Ben and Alice are at a cafe

drinking coffee and talking. The scene starts out with Alice telling Ben about how he is dodging

the waitress at the previous restaurant they were at because Alice feels that “she started getting

all attached” (Tomine 44). Alice then starts asking Ben about how him and Miko are doing. Ben

tells Alice about how him and Miko are on a break and he uses the metaphor “while the cat is

away, the mouse will play” (45). Ben then goes on to tell Alice about seeing Autumn a few times

and when Alice says that it isn’t a good idea, he goes on to insult her by saying, “She’s twenty-
two, okay? That’s at least as old as your little waitress” (45). Tomine uses bold font on certain

words to emphasize what the character is saying. When Alice replies to Ben, she says, “Yeah.

But I’m a girl. It’s different” (46). This represents feminist literary criticism because Alice uses

the phrase “But I’m a girl” to stereotype her gender as being able to do things that men can’t.

This plays a role in the aspect of “power” because she feels that women are the superior gender

to men. Alice then pressures Ben to make a move on Autumn before he is “banished to ‘neutered

Asian friend territory’ forever” (46). Alice is stereotyping gender by saying that if men do not

make a move within hanging out with a girl the first few times, that he will be considered as a

friend to her. Alice challenges Ben’s sexuality as an Asian man and pressures him to find new

women, although he is continuously hung up on Miko.

The third scene I found that related to feminist literary criticism was in a scene in chapter

3 from the middle of page 84 to the top of page 87. In this scene, Ben and Alice are at breakfast

and it ends with them walking back to Alice’s apartment. While at breakfast, Ben discusses how

he was tired and up all night from hearing Alice and her “animal noises” (Tomine 84). Alice then

goes on to ask Ben if him and Miko are over since he has been seeing girls such as Autumn and

Sasha. While talking about Autumn, he refers to her as “pee girl” and when talking about Sasha,

he refers to her as “fence-sitter” (86). This relates to the feminist literary criticism I chose

because Ben feels like he has some type of power over women and degrades them by calling

them rude names behind their backs. Alice then says that Ben was never attracted to Miko like he

was “horny for those other girls” (86). This relates to the feminist literary criticism I chose

because Alice is making the assumption that Ben wasn’t attracted to Miko because she is

Japanese, and that he was attracted to “those other girls”, Sasha and Autumn, because they are

white. Alice saying this represents how she has more masculine features and emotions because

she is stereotyping Ben as being a typical horny guy, when most feminine behaviors or females

in general would not typically say something like this to a male.

Feminist literary criticism plays a role in analyzing the principles of feminism in a piece
of literature. A common feminist theory is “when biology determines our sex (male or female),

culture determines our gender (scales of masculine or feminine)” (Allen et al). The book

Shortcomings is an example of this feminist theory by the character of Alice. Although she is

female, she has a more masculine side to her, and is also interested in women. Her masculine

side to her is part of the reason she is friends with Ben because they both portray male emotions,

such as Alice flirting with many girls as a guy would do. Ben and Alice’s relationship is an

example of how a male and female can be friends without being attracted to each other.

After analyzing Shortcomings, I recognized how gender, power, and sexuality are the

basis of this graphic novel and play an important role in each of the characters’ lives. Ben feels

“powerful” as being a male, while Alice represents sexuality as she is interested in girls. Sasha

also represents sexuality because she is a female and a “fence-sitter” while Autumn is very

contrasting to the novel because she is portrayed as having dark makeup and is very different

from the other girls in the novel. Understanding the differences in the feminist literary criticisms

is essential to fully interpret a novel, especially a graphic novel. Although Adrian Tomine is a

male author, his book Shortcomings demonstrates as a feminist literary criticism by the way that

Tomine portrays the female characters of the novel, especially in comparison to Ben, the main

male character. In conclusion, reading Shortcomings has broadened my understanding of how

feminist literary criticisms can be found in a variety of novels, even graphic ones, and that it does

not require a female author to qualify as one. I have learned that power, sexuality, and gender

play an important role in understanding what feminist literary criticism is and how understanding

your own sexuality and gender compared to one demonstrated in a piece of literature can

enhance the writing and compare your own thoughts of feminist theories to ones discussed in a

novel.

Works Cited
Brizee, Allen, et al. “Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)” Welcome to the Purdue University

Online Writing Lab (OWL), Purdue University, 30 Mar. 2018,

owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/11/.

Napikoski, Linda. “What Is Feminist Literary Criticism?” ThoughtCo, 31 July 2017,

www.thoughtco.com/feminist-literary-criticism-3528960.

Tomine, Adrian. Shortcomings. Faber And Faber, 2016.