Bitchy's Brew - Roberta Gregory - Brief Article

Bisexual cartoonist Roberta Gregory throws the hilarious Bitchy Butch into her popular comics, whether her fans like it or not

One of Roberta Gregory's favorite phrases is "Neither fish nor fowl." It's a perfect way to describe where the radical bisexual artist stands in relation to the gay community. "I kind of fit into both worlds, I guess," she says. "I've always tried to just be myself, but I still feel intimidated in gay situations sometimes, just because there are a lot of bi-phobic lesbians. I get kind of caught in the crossfire."

Gregory's position in the community is surprisingly marginal for a veteran of nearly three decades of activism. She's been one of the most frequent contributors to the Gay Comics comic book series since the early '80s, but she's never had the community recognition that cartoonists like Howard Cruse (Wendel), Alison Bechdel (Dykes to Watch Out For), and Diane DiMassa (Hothead Paisan) have earned.

"For a lot of years people tried to put her in a box," says Cruse, who asked Gregory to appear in Gay Comics when he started the series. "She's done stuff about relationships with men, and this has driven some people crazy--they want their lesbians pure--but I really admire her commitment to the movement and her willingness to put herself out there at the risk of her career."

That career has had many twists and turns since Gregory self-published her first comic, Dynamite Damsels, in 1976. As the daughter of a cartoonist for Disney Comics, she's always felt comfortable using drawings to express her ideas. Unfortunately, those ideas don't always go over well with comic book readers. Despite years of writing about gay issues and feminism, Gregory found a broad fan base only when she began drawing a straight girl.

That girl is the stressed-out, angry Bitchy Bitch. She's the star of Naughty Bits, a popular comic Gregory has written since the early '90s. Bitchy Bitch (actually named Midge) spends much of her time simmering with wrath at everyone and everything--coworkers, strangers, boyfriends, tampons. "The modern office is the equivalent of a dog kennel!" she grouses during a typical workday. "Everyone's busy sniffing someone else's butt!"

Bitchy Bitch's unbridled nastiness has won Gregory a surprising degree of mainstream success. Bitchy Bits, her series of animated shorts, has begun airing on the Oxygen network, Oprah Winfrey's new cable channel. But Gregory has mixed feelings about her sizable straight readership. She'll be met by plenty of fans when she appears at San Diego's Comic-Con International in July, but their regard is fragile. When Gregory began drawing Bitchy Butch, a dyke counterpart to Bitchy Bitch, readers protested the specifically queer content.

"A lot of people don't care much for Bitchy Butch," Gregory says. "When she first appeared, a couple of people wrote in and said they wouldn't mind if she never appeared again." So while Gregory keeps devoting stories in Naughty Bits to Bitchy Butch, she knows those issues will never sell as well as ones featuring the Bitch.

Gregory remains deeply invested in the gay community despite recent romantic involvements with men. This was always an option for her, she's quick to point out, but it's more possible for her now--"Men are a lot more evolved now than they were 20 years ago," she says. She explores a lot of her ideas about gender identity in a self-published comic, Artistic Licentiousness, that's both more thoughtful and less widely read than Naughty Bits. It's here that Gregory reveals the themes that preoccupy her in life.

"The main character in Artistic Licentiousness is basically trying to prove she's still lesbian even though she's had some experiences with a guy," she says. "It's basically a story about how you can't take anybody's sexuality for granted, including your own."

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