Universal v. Default in McCloud

McCloud is not quite right in positing the “smiley face” model (the circle-two-dots-and-a-line) as being perfectly universal. It is more like a default, and that default conforms to the assumed look of a white able-bodied man. This default is in turn posited as a universality, since the points of view of white able-bodied men have always been thought of as a universal—which is why women writers are “women writers” whereas male writers are “writers,” and black authors are “black authors” whereas white authors are “authors,” and so on in iterations of people of color, queer people, and intersections thereof.

If you were shown that simplistic a-circle-two-dots-and-a-line and asked to describe a person that face could be, do you think you would ever say it’s someone with long hair, or a ponytail, or very textured hair? Or someone wearing a veil or hijab or turban? Or someone with an eye patch? Or someone with Down syndrome? Or someone with a cleft palate? Or someone with a beard? Or someone with a mole? Or someone with a facial injury? If you were making a simplistic face meant to convey one of those looks, you would differ from the circle-two-dots-and-a-line template. Some people who have the traits I listed might still find their identities pulled into “the vacuum” McCloud describes, such as someone with a temporary injury who knows their face will return to the “universal default” or someone with a beard who knows their face could return to the “universal default”, but not everyone could. It’s telling that the two examples of realism that McCloud provides are short-haired white men, and the cartoon examples on page 30—Charlie Brown, Mickey Mouse, Bart Simpson, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle—are all male. Everyone regardless of gender, race, and appearance is invited to identify with the “universal default”, but the experiences of that default do not always match with the audience.

Works Cited

McCloud, Scott. “The Vocabulary of Comics.” In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. 24-45.