Smashing the Ideals of Docile Femininity

In the 1990s and 2000s, three Finnish comics magazines were established for comics made by women. Drawing from a multidisciplinary framework of studies on feminism, gender and humour, this article argues that the magazines used the comics form to discuss feminist issues and to disrupt essentialist conceptions and expectations about gender. The common denominator for the magazines was the use of humour as a tool, although humoristic strategies and understandings of gender varied. This article gives an overview of the development of Finnish feminist comics by situating the magazines within the discussion of women’s comics that was ongoing in Finland in the early 1990s and 2000s, and by reflecting on the magazines’ impact on present-day feminist comics in Finland.