Webcomics Today: Cécile Dormeau’s ‘It’s All In Your Head’

More essential webcomics reading for you now — Cécile Dormeau‘s It’s All In Your Head, a tale of her mother and the minimisation of women’s pain experiences…

(As Dormeau points out, trigger warnings for gynaecologic violence)

Cécile Dormeau is a French illustrator whose works explore “themes of self-acceptance and body image.” She’s an artist whose work celebrates all women and all women’s experiences.

I stumbled across It’s All In Your Head online, and I’m so glad I did. You should already know of the issues around how medical professionals have all too often minimised or even dismissed the pain suffered by women. Across history, even now, it’s proved all too easy for physicians to brush aside women’s complaints as hysteria, just something women have to go through, peri-menopause, menopause, hormonal issues. And it shouldn’t be that way.

Here’s what Dormeau says about It’s All In Your Head, her autobiographical comic about her own mother’s near lifelong struggle with a gynecologic injury from her first pregnancy.

“I don’t know if people will be patient enough to read this comic I did, but this comics matters to me a lot, and I wanted to do it since a long time! My mother suffered from a gynecologic injury from her first pregnancy, and lived in pain for most of her whole life, without being healed and helped. This comic was made to highlight a hidden pain and give a voice to my mom, and to all the women who are feeling in pain and not finding the help they need. Studies show that women’s pain experiences are often minimized or dismissed by clinicians. Sending all my love to these women.”

It’s a simple comic that tells an important tale, one we should all be aware of. Her sympathetic yet powerful retelling of her mother’s years of agonising pain is dealt with in a matter-of-fact fashion, yet that merely emphasises the sheer incredulity we should all feel when realising that this sort of thing still goes on.

You can see more of her work here at her site, ceciledormeau.com. The full It’s All In Your Head can be found here.