Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Preparation of Gene Gun Bullets and Biolistic Transfection of Neurons in Slice Culture
Published on: February 13, 2008
"Lost Your Superpower"? Graphic Medicine, Voicelessness, and Georgia Webber's Dumb
Abstract:
Unlike deafness and disability, speech-related disorders-voluntary/involuntary voicelessness, mutism, and their imperatives-have largely remained undertheorized both as scholarship and praxis. Given the primacy and over-privileging of vision, a consideration of the nature of voice/voicelessness is critical and urgent. Framed in metaphysical, metaphorical, and existential terms, Georgia Webber's graphic memoir Dumb (2018), which narrates the protagonist's temporary loss of voice, is perhaps the first graphic medical text that coheres around issues related to voice/voicelessness in its entirety. Taking these cues, the present article, after briefly reviewing the significance of voice in human life and the relationship between voice and identity, provides a close reading of how Webber negotiates her lost acoustical agency in an otherwise abundant soundscape. Intriguingly, Webber also utilizes her voicelessness as a metaphor to reflect on her own marginality in an ableist society. Finally, the essay explores how Dumb projects drawing/comics-making and self-care as recuperative projects that not only help Webber to process her suffering caused by voicelessness but also aid her in reclaiming her lost voice and to acuminate practices of self-preservation.
Related Concept Videos
Deindividuation
Loss of Tumor Suppressor Gene Functions
When the tumor suppressor genes develop mutations or are lost, cells start growing out of control, leading to cancer. However, a single functional copy of the tumor suppressor gene is enough for the cells to maintain their normal functions and cell...
Loss of Tumor Suppressor Gene Functions
When the tumor suppressor genes develop mutations or are lost, cells start growing out of control, leading to cancer. However, a single functional copy of the tumor suppressor gene is enough for the cells to maintain their normal functions and cell...
Disorders of the Skeletal Muscle
Musculoskeletal disorders
Musculoskeletal disorders involve injuries and conditions affecting the skeletal muscles and associated connective tissues. These disorders can arise from acute biomechanical stresses or chronic overuse and can occur across different age groups. Common injuries include sprains, fractures, and muscular strains, often resulting from...
Visual Agnosia
Forgetting
Encoding...

