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We don’t get a newspaper here but I recently learned of a comic strip that I can read online thanks to the wonders of today’s technology. A friend clued me in because, on that day, it was a humorous look at a fire department. The very next week the subject being tackled was adoption. It figures, right?
Luann, featured on Comics.com, is a sixteen year old girl just living life. (You can read about the cast of characters here.) During the week in question (7/23 – 7/28), Luann and her two best friends are waiting for a movie to start in the theater. Discussion about a previous science experiment at school brings one friend to ask this question:
That egg baby project made me wonder how my mom felt when she put Ben up for adoption.
Heavy stuff for teenagers in a comic strip. The question, from even fictional teens, immediately left me thinking about my own boys. Will they ask questions like these in conversation with one another (since their ages will be so close) or with friends? Are girls more prone to discussing topics like these? Will they come to me, like the character did in the comic strip, with any questions that they might have?
The friends in the comic strip try to reassure their friend that if her mother wouldn’t have placed her brother, her life wouldn’t be what it was today. They say things like her parents might have split up and even state that she might not have been born. While well-intentioned, I wonder how hearing things like this might affect my own boys or, should the Munchkin be told similar things, I wonder how she might feel.
Other thoughts bounced around my brain as I read over the course of last week: people untouched by adoption are reading this and I wonder how they’re feeling. Adoptees are reading this and I wonder how they’re feeling. Adoptive parents are reading this and I wonder how they’re feeling. Other birth parents are reading this and I wonder if they’re feeling anything similar to what I’m feeling. The language wasn’t archaic, using “put up for adoption” and “placing” instead of the old standby of “gave up.”
Yet the truth remains that I want comics to make me laugh. I know that sometimes comics hit at deeper issues and that’s what this one was intending to do but I didn’t giggle all week, even in the next to last day. (Okay, maybe just a little as I thought of my own brother at age fourteen.) And then, as usual, as I mulled over my own emotions, I wondered why the artist had chosen the heavy topic of siblings and adoption for a week-long strip, even one that looks at issues that teenagers face on a regular basis. Does Greg Evans, the artist, have some attachment to adoption? My Googling left me without an answer but to use appropriate language and display the thoughts in such a non-negative manner, my own personal guess is that either someone in his family or close set of friends has experience in the adoption world. Either that or this guy is just that good!
While I’m left pondering the deep conversations I may or may not have with my own sons, I do know one thing: people who are untouched by adoption read the strip this past week and were hopefully influenced by a group of fictional teenagers who didn’t condemn their friend’s mom, used appropriate language and asked questions that prompted further thought. Quite frankly, I wish that the general public would act in a similar manner to these fictional teens!
Did you catch Luann’s strip last week? How did it make you feel? Were you surprised at the subject? Have you seen adoption in any other comic strips before? Which ones?
A Note: The comic strip is available for free viewing for thirty days. After that, you’ll have to trust me on what I’m describing above!)
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For how adoption is usually portrayed in your local newspaper, read:
1. Article on Adoption Subtly Coerces Mother.
2. Another Newspaper Article Misses the Mark.
3. More Negative Adoption Speak in the Media.
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Photo Credit.
Funky Winkerbean is also doing an adoption storyline right now. Lisa, the woman who is dying from cancer is also a first mom. I think he’s going to have her in reunion before she goes.
http://mamatude.blogspot.com/2007/04/comic-strip-returns-to-adoption-theme.html
Here’s the story on Greg Evans,
he and his wife are first parents:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/10/lifeandtimes/18_17_262_2_07.txt
momof2; Thank you so much for the link. In another interview with him, he referred to “three grown children” but on another site, I saw only mention of two (parented) children. This answers all of my questions.
Thank you very, very much.
Dawn; Thanks for the link. I just read back over the past week to where the adoption storyline re-entered and was pretty “amused” that it was an Ohio Department of Health envelope. Small world. Thanks for the heads up on that as well!
It was earlier this year that Bernice found out that she has an older brother. They showed bit of build up of her waiting for him to come pick her up while talking with Luann. Most of the adoption storylines have been told through Bernice’s viewpoint. The adoption storylines are very new in the overall history of Luann.