Representation and Health 101: AURA – Alexis Pope

Welcome to another riveting discussion in the Representation and Health 101 column! In this installment, we are going to discuss a character who is the personification of my advocacy for enhanced representation of marginalized people. Even within a few pages, she exemplifies the need for discussions of mental health and illness as well as how to craft the narrative well. So, let’s get to talking about the shining Aura, aka Alexis Pope.

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Alexis Pope appears in the second issue of Rise: Comics Against Bullying, an anthology series published by Northwest Press, in a story called “Aura” by Dr. Vasilis K. Pozios, Marguerite Sauvage, and Rachel Deering As she goes about her day, she makes a new friend, attends therapy, and saves the denizens of her city. Her story is simple, but brimming with meaning and importance. Alexis has Bipolar Disorder and discusses what her path to healing and maintenance looked like, from “feeling like a guinea pig” to how others changed around her once she was diagnosed. Her story is a near spitting image of the experiences of many people with a mental illness.

I could easily write volumes about a character who exists on four pages, so I’ll spare you the literary epic. Instead, we’re going to talk about how true Aura is as a story. Apprehension about medication, wanting things to be ‘normal’; these are experiences I’ve heard from my own clients since I started my journey to being a psychologist. The trek from pain to treatment to healing is complicated, particularly for individuals with Bipolar Disorder. Through Alexis, this narrative is intimately explored, offering insight to readers who are unfamiliar with mental health services or catharsis for those who have experienced it.

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Alexis also explores the utility of fellowship among people with mental illness. One of the most indelible memories I have from training was a group of clients discussing how helpful the show Too Cute was for them (granted, that show is basically curative for everyone). Seeing how they interacted revealed to me the value of being able to connect with people who almost literally share your pain. Alexis embodies this fellowship by talking to a person who appears to experience active psychosis in the form of auditory hallucinations. Being able to exist with people who affirm who you are and what you experience without judgment does wonders for many people who live with some sort of mental illness. That lack of support or understanding from others, especially family, also is what exacerbates many of their symptoms.

The realism of Alexis’ portrayal conveys something that many comic readers who live with a mental illness want to see. These types of narratives move away from sensationalized, inaccurate, or downright offensive stories that incorporate mental illness. She’s someone who recognized her pain, took the arduous road to treatment, and found a way to reshape her existence. I hope that many people get to experience such a thing, because we all deserve to be happy and healthy. Yet, I also recognize the many barriers that affect people’s access to treatment, so if nothing else maybe Alexis could help them feel less alone.

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“Aura” shows that it’s not hard to enhance representation and still tell a story. In one small part of an anthology, Dr. Pozios, Sauvage, and Deering told a story that accurately illustrated the experiences of people with mental illness. For people who believe that increasing representation is a Herculean task, this story is an example that such an ideal is patently untrue. “Aura” speaks not only to the reality that such a process does not take a gnashing of the teeth and grinding of the bones, but also to the fact that when you call on an expert, whether a professional or someone who lives an experience, to write these kinds of stories they tend to be better executed.

I hope we get more characters like Alexis as she embodies compassion and the necessity of better representation of people with mental illness and other marginalized people. Her story is short, but I imagine it is one that could be helpful for many people. I continue to be blown away by how much her creators put into her narrative and how well they communicated through her. Alexis is a wonderful character that I’d love to see more of, and I’d like to see more stories be told like hers. The capacity for these stories to be told is real and desired and we deserve more characters like her.

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If you have questions about any of the terms I discussed in this article, feel free to contact me on Twitter at @80Grey. Also, if you experience mental illness and would like information on treatment or how to find a provider, please get in touch with me. I’m more than willing to help you find someone that could work for you and see if there’s any resources we can get you hooked up with.

In the meantime, you can get Rise: Comics Against Bullying #2 on Comixology. Check out “Aura” and the other awesome stories in the issue (as well as the awesome pin-ups by Jen Bartel, Genevieve FT, and Yasmin Liang)!

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