The new graphic novel by French-Canadian cartoonist Julie Delporte opens with colorful illustrations of Brussels, cabbages, and bodies that are nude except for their loose socks. Delporte’s color-penciled cursive reveals, “I tried to get pregnant one summer… but when he came inside me… I panicked.” The couple talks about having a child, texting about a potential name. Delporte writes, “I would have liked him to say ‘I’ll take care of her. You’ll be able to draw. I’ll change diapers. I’ll even nurse her.’ But neither of us said anything and when he came, I felt betrayed.”
This Woman’s Work is named both for the Kate Bush song about childbirth—which was written for the 1988 John Hughes film She’s Having a Baby—and the jokes Delporte’s father sometimes made about anything poorly done being “a woman’s handiwork.” The mention of her father’s misogynist comments feels like tongue-in-cheek defensiveness and a self-conscious self-burn on people meeting her artistic style for the first time.