Gender Politics and The Walking Dead: Gendered Violence and the Reestablishment of Patriarchy

Given that the acclaimed comic book series The Walking Dead allows readers to confront our greatest fears, as civilization has collapsed and zombies proliferate and prey upon the living, the paucity of literature addressing the gender dynamics in such a lawless society is disconcerting. In our analysis of 96 issues of the series, we explore the social construction of gender roles and the context of gendered violence and victimization in this post-apocalyptic world. Moving beyond a narrative analysis, we consider how comic art conveys that even in the zombie apocalypse, the patriarchal structure remains, the realities of sexism and gendered violence endure, and, sometimes, women literally pay with their flesh for trying to break out of stereotypical gendered constructs.