Abortion, Online Harassment, and the Zootopia Fan Community
How’s that for a title? Strap in because this is a long one. I got a lot of important stuff to say here so pay attention and keep an open mind.
I’ve written about this in a previous blog post but I wanted to expand on it some more. In case you’ve been living under a rock the past week the Zootopia fan community has been in quite a tism lately because of a comic that has resurfaced, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t throw in my two cents on the issue. What am I talking about? Well about a year ago an artist on DeviantArt, Borba, drew a Zootopia fan comic called “I will Survive,” and it centers around Judy getting pregnant and wanting an abortion and Nick trying to convince her not to. My first response to this was, “Huh? What?” and I went about my day. But other people, mostly shitposters, took the comic and memed the hell out of it, swapping out the dialogue with absurdist humor about fast food and other random stuff, and posting it all over social media. Now some very vocal people have been calling out the comic for having a “pro-life” message and others have been urging people not to repost the comic, even going as far as to try and get Borba’s DeviantArt account deleted.
I want to go over why I think this accusation is nonsense and potentially slanderous to Borba himself, but before I do let me paint a picture of Borba for you to create some context for his comic. Borba lives in Brazil, which is very, VERY Catholic. Brazil’s abortion laws also state that you can only terminate a pregnancy in cases of rape or if the mother’s life is in danger and any abortions performed outside of those parameters are punishable by up to three years in prison. So…yeah, not one of the best countries for pro-choice advocates. Now one thing you need to know about Borba’s comic is it does bring up one of these parameters. Judy worries that the fetus may be harmful to her in the long run because it came from a fox and may be too big for her. Sound reasoning, and one that again, relates back to Brazil’s laws. But she also brings up her career and how having a kid could impede her from moving up in her field. Understand that by pairing these two reasons together I believe Borba is saying that the two are comparable to one another. In other words, he’s saying one is just as valid as the other. Nick responds by saying something along the lines of Judy has been a light to him ever since she came into his life, and had her mother decided she wanted to abort Judy, he’d still be a miserable schmuck lost in the darkness. Just real heavy dramatic shit. That’s going to be important later.
Something you should be aware of here is the way Borba’s comic plays out. It’s set up very much like a soap opera. The dialogue is very dramatic, over the top, and cheesy. The way the panels are framed is like a cheap TV show. The ending has no definitive resolution, leaving the reader wanting to know what happens next. It’s these elements that lead me to the assumption that Borba cares less about making this about the issue at hand and more about the drama between the characters. Think of it. No character gets what they want in the end. Both are left in pain and nothing is resolved, much like a soap opera. I’ve read enough Chick Tracks to recognize pro-life religious propaganda when I see it and this has none of that. Were this comic about promoting some pro-life message it would have ended tragically with Judy dying during the abortion procedure or her uterus getting destroyed so she’d never be able to have children. Or it would end with Judy coming to her senses thanks to Nick’s diatribe of sanctimonious guilt tripping, and they’d both live happily ever after with their kids. No this comic is more about creating a dramatic story about Nick and Judy’s relationship, and it uses the issue of abortion as a basis for that.
So why are people saying this comic has a pro-life agenda. Well it all boils down to one line Nick says toward the end. “It would have been better had you kept me in the dark about your premeditated sin.” That’s it. That’s the smoking gun. That’s the single line of dialogue that brought an entire fan base down on one lowly artist. One line of dialogue that honestly means nothing in the grand scheme of the whole comic. Remember Borba comes from a Catholic country, and it stands within reason that he’s Catholic too. He may very well view abortion as a sin, but this doesn’t strictly mean he’s pro-life. Also, Borba’s english isn’t too great so you have to consider that something could have been lost in translation here as well. Look, we’re all human beings and no one thinks entirely in black and white, but more so in shades of gray. You can be pro-choice and still think getting an abortion is wrong for you personally. It doesn’t mean you want to dictate to others what they can and can’t do with their own bodies.
Now as I’ve said before in my last blog post, I don’t know Borba personally. I don’t know his politics and I don’t know what his feelings are on these issues. He could very well be a pro-life religious ideologue, but we can’t make that assumption off of one line of dialogue from one stupid comic. I checked out some of his other non-Zootopia related work and most of it seems to be based off of Greek myths he likes, and I’ll be honest - a lot of it does have some disturbing subject matter. But we can’t use his work alone as a reliable descriptor for who he is as a person. Would you go out saying a director who put a rape scene in his movie is pro-rape and anti-women? Of course not, that’s ridiculous. The same must be said here. The backlash Borba is getting for his comic is ridiculous, harmful and truly problematic.
People grow, they change, and their views change with them. Unless Borba is out there explicitly promoting some pro-life agenda, then we can’t weigh blame on him for a single line in a comic strip. I stopped by his DeviantArt page and it is riddled with people spamming his comment sections with hate and vitriol towards him. Exactly what I was afraid would happen. How can we claim to be against harassment and bullying online when we engage in the very same tactics with people we disagree with? How can we have any rational basis for our distaste in others when all we have to go on is a single sentence that can easily be taken out of context? It doesn’t make us better. It makes us just as wrong.
Look I’ll be honest. When I read Borba’s comic for the first time, I didn’t like it either. Putting the politics of it aside for a second, it’s just fucking weird subject matter for a property that’s ultimately aimed at children. But I didn’t go on a hate spewed bender against Borba because he drew a comic I didn’t like. No, I’m a fucking adult and I got better shit to worry about than what some random Zootopia fan artist is publishing on DeviantArt.
So I will stress this again. Please please PLEASE don’t harass Borba, or anyone for that matter because they draw art you don’t like. Don’t jump on a reactionary band wagon just because some asshole on twitter said something you don’t like, or because they said someone else is “problematic.” Think for yourself. Do research. And most importantly give everyone the benefit of the doubt despite what you’ve heard. Otherwise you’re just as bad as the assholes you claim to be against.
