In Persepolis, one of the most popular comic books ever written by a woman, Marjane Satrapi details her experiences, fears and transformation during Iran’s Islamic Revolution. More than a recommended reading, it’s a testimony of a growing woman against society – a great lesson for us, who’ve grown in Western countries, and still think that those issues are way too far from us. You might’ve seen this quote somewhere, but Satrapi writes about a powerful lesson she’s learned: “You should always be louder than your aggressor.” She decided to do it through art, so why can’t we just do the same? Talk about men, careers, college and the future – they are daily aggressors. Helô D’Angelo might have or not thought about it, but she’s certainly doing it: whether it is being a feminist, journalist or an artist, she’s already helped us laugh a little bit or question the world by some of her projects. Check out a tiny bit of her passion for art and how is she getting ready to face the world.
Age: 21
Major: Journalism
Year: 2016
Hometown: São Paulo
Sign: Gemini
1. Why you chose to study Journalism?
Basically, I didn’t know what to do with my life and still don’t. [Laughs] However, I’ve always liked storytelling, which is the same answer to everyone who studies Journalism, and also because I enjoyed to do it in different media: writing, video-making and drawing. Above all, it came from inertia, since I had to choose something because it was getting quite near to applications and tests periods. I was going to apply for Architecture before, but I decided to do something with less Maths and Physics and more words.
2. I saw on Facebook that your Course Completion Assignment is about women’s stomachaches. How is the gathering info process going?
We face many difficulties when trying to find a woman who agrees to talk to us about it, and of course, when they do, we still have to find a safe place to talk to them, which is usually their own home. It will be a comic book that tells the stories of five women from different backgrounds, like social class and age, and how they deal with their “stomachaches”. It’s been an incredible experience, and kinda tough too, since it’s a theme that has a lot to do with misogyny and also envolves crimes.
3. How and when you became interested in comics? Which comics and writers inspire you?
I like to draw since I was little; It’s something I kept on doing even after that phase when almost every child likes to do so. [Laughs] I also used to enjoy doing it with my father, so when I was about 12 I started a drawing course. At first, I wanted one focused on mangas, but my mom convinced me to do a broader one, so I could get in touch with more art styles. Anyway, my teacher was very connected to comics, since he also taught in this great comics course in São Paulo, so I ended up learning a lot about comics with him. The first one I read is called Blankets, by Craig Thompson, which is really beautiful, autobiographic, literary and deep. So I went looking for more, discovering women like Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) and Alison Bechdel (Are you my mother?), and Brazilian authors.
4. As a woman and an artist, how do you see the comics’ production nowadays?
I think there’s never been a better time to produce comics than today. Before, to make you trace visible, you needed to work for Marvel or DC Comics. Now, of course, is still hard to get known since there are many people in this area, but you can always create a Facebook page and spread your comic strips. Actually, in this year’s Eisner Awards, which is like an Oscar to the comic books industry, the majority of nominees came from independent publications that aren’t, in any way, related to huge publishings. Also, people are kinda losing that idea that it’s a media dedicated to teenage boys or kids. There’s even journalism being produced in comics – Joe Sacco, for instance, writes some incredible stories about the Palestine, and Art Spielgman, who wrote Maus, which is about the Holocaust. As a woman and an artist, I think it’s important to point out that only now we’re conquering more visibility. We’ve always been there, though, as colorists, letterers, scriptwriters, without having their names credited or needing to use a man’s name so they could become popular. It’s also cool that we can write and draw about themes men can’t. In Persepolis, for instance, Marjane tells her experience about being a woman during Iran’s Islamic Revolution. There is a wide range of things women can do beyond superheroes by giving voice to other women and themselves.
5. You’ve also created the page Helozinha (https://www.facebook.com/Helozinhaflora/?fref=ts) on Facebook. How was the idea conceived?
It’s kind of a funny story. I had this boyfriend, and he left me to study abroad, so I was really sad and lonely for a while, and with lots of creative energy locked inside of me. Then someday, while I doing acupuncture, which is something awful for me, since I don’t really like needles, I had to distract myself somehow. Helozinha was born in there, somewhere with terrific amounts of fear, anger, and stuck creative energy, and she’s the representation of it all: she’s always pissed with her life and she’s rebellious. However, I don’t feel like that anymore, and I take so much pity on her being bullied by me or vice-versa.
6. In journalism, you’re also the editor of the blog Eu, Tu, Elas (https://www.facebook.com/Eu-tu-elas-773857126067120/?fref=ts) [Me, You, Them]. How’s been the experience on having your own platform? And the readers’ reception?
It was actually a project we created for college. Our professor asked us to make a platform in which readers could participate by sending us their own material, and our idea envolved a website that women could write about whatever they wanted to other women. I’ve received many emails from girls saying how much they enjoyed the blog, and how the texts helped them. There have been fights as well: we’ve once published this article that said that men couldn’t be feminists, so you can imagine the quantity of men calling girls as many names as you can imagine. After all, they’re so feminist that they can write that women are “whores who stand for abortion.” [Laughs] But the main idea is for every girl to have one more space to write: disabled women, fat, black, from dodgy areas. In short, any and every women.
7. According to your experience in these projects and your own career, how difficult is it to speak about feminism on both the internet and journalism?
It’s both sad and good what I’m going to say now, but feminism is a trendy subject right now. In the magazine I work for, the editors tend to be more open to it because it’s popular: they know that if there’s an article listing the most misogynist laws in the world, we’ll have a good feedback. On the other hand, it’s still complicated to talk about menstruation, abortion, prostitution without the romatization, compulsory maternity and postnatal depression, while there are more acceptable themes like short outfits and sexual abuse in nightclubs. Being able to talk about these deep themes is something I’ve been fighting for, and Eu, Tu, Elas is here for it. Some other day, a friend of mine who gave birth at 17 was telling me how awful she thought being a mom was, even though she loves her daughter, and how everyone expected her to be perfect while she was suffering real bad to breastfeed. You can’t talk about it in journalism because society still thinks that motherhood is a basic function of a woman. Things still haven’t changed, but I believe they’re walking towards it.
8. How do you manage to keep up with so many projects at once???
I can’t! [Laughs] I have way too many things to do but still, I enjoy doing them. The blog, for instance, I love it so much I seat on the weekends so I can work on it, talk to the other girls about it. For my Course Completion Assignment, I’ve just finished a whole story, since I love my theme and love drawing. I usually tend to leave some projects undone, but it gets on my nerve so I try to conceal everything I want to do. In the end, I end up being a mess of existencial crisis and tears, but then there’s my boyfriend, Luis, telling me I’m “capable of finishing everything.” [Laughs]
9. How do you see your (almost) four years of studying in Cásper?
I think it could’ve been better, but I was able to learn a lot. I could meet the girls of Frente Feminista Lisandra and see it grow, meet my Course Completion Assignment orientator, the professor Bianca Santana, who’s the love of my life, and many other incredible professors and women who have inspired me. There was a time, in the end of my sophomore year I think, that I almost gave up and decided to change my graduation, but then I met Bianca and Michelle [Prazeres], and they both helped me a lot through it. Cásper’s a place where you can meet people, and above all, you can explore all of our curricular projects and learn a lot from them. I mean, my blog was born from one of them. It’s been a very special experience and I’ll miss it, even though I feel like killing myself when I get to that windowless building.