Our Lady Of Birth Control: A Cartoonist's Encounter with Margaret Sanger

(Paperback)

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Working class nurse. Mother of three. Labor organizer. Margaret Sanger--best known as the pioneer of birth control--was revolutionary in more ways than one. In Sabrina Jones's graphic novel Our Lady of Birth Control, the author illustrates the incredible life of Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), framing the biography with her personal experiences of coming of age at the height of the sexual revolution. During her lifetime, Sanger transformed herself from working class nurse to an exuberant free-lover and savvy manipulator of the media, the law, and her wealthy supporters. Through direct action, propaganda, exile, and imprisonment, she ultimately succeeded in bringing legal access to birth control to women of all classes. Sanger's revolutionary actions established organizations that eventually evolved into Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Jones's autobiographical sections of Our Lady of Birth Control show her journey into activist art in response to the anti-feminist backlash of the Reagan era. From street theater and protest graphics to alternative comics, her path similarly follows in Margaret's footsteps, encountering versions of the same adversaries. Her striking imagery evokes the late 20th century, recalling the ashcan artists of The Masses, an acclaimed magazine of Sanger's formative years. Powerful, poetic, and extremely personal, this historical graphic novel is an in-depth look at the woman responsible for bringing freedom to the masses.

Reviews

"Our Lady of Birth Control is the artist's tribute to a woman who has affected women's quality of life possibly more than any other single person; it is also a kind of extended argument for Sanger's relevancy today." --The Millions "Our Lady of Birth Control isn't the first comic to illustrate the life of Margaret Sanger. But it does stand out for weaving together the fight for women's reproductive health in the past and present." --Refinery 29 "Sabrina Jones's Our Lady of Birth Control: A Cartoonist's Encounter with Margaret Sanger blends a biography of the pioneering activist and sex educator with Jones's own coming of age during the sexual revolution to create a work that manages to be both informative and incredibly personal. --Library Journal "Our Lady of Birth Control is a comic-style telling of Sanger's colorful life and times: The illustrations are interwoven with the author-illustrator's own personal engagement and experiences with her sexual health and the women's rights movement. And it's pretty damn great." --Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy, Fusion "Far beyond a history of birth control, this graphic novel weaves together a century of radical activism with the author's personal experiences. Beautifully and violently intertwined in this volume, are the political, sexual, and artistic revolutions which continue to shape our day-to-day lives."--Eric Drooker, author of Flood! and Blood Song "Sabrina Jones' Our Lady of Birth Control is a heartfelt homage to the birth control advocate who helped us all to gain, as Sanger said, "the right to Love without fear". Jones deftly intertwines the past and present of women's reproductive rights, traces the history of contraception and follows Sanger's personal story with fluid, freewheeling drawings and clear, concise text. Showing us the brutality of the past when women were kept ignorant and bound to a life of servitude, Jones puts in perspective the threats on our freedom today."--Lauren Weinstein, author of Girl Stories and Inside Vineyland "Jones' Our Lady of Birth Control returns Margaret Sanger to her rightful place in the history of women's, and therefore humanity's, liberation, with depth and a brutal intensity that does not let up. The timing couldn't be more perfect for this extraordinary book."--Leela Corman, author of Unterzakhn and Queen's Day

Author Bio

Sabrina Jones is a comic book artist, writer, and editor who began her career with activist art collective Carnival Knowledge and alternative comics World War 3 Illustrated and Girltalk. Her books Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling and Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography were named "Great Graphic Novels" by the Young Adult Library Services Association. She received a BFA in painting from Pratt Institute and an MFA in illustration from School of Visual Arts. She lives in New York City.