Hugged: A Queer Autobiographical Romance

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INTRODUCTION I like sex, but I’ve always been afraid of touch. You’ll see this in Hugged in my need to drink, and in my sex work of choice as a webcam model. In fact, my work as a cam model led to the inception of this comic. I was tall, very skinny, no butt to speak of, hairy all over, trying to embrace my body for what it was, despite knowing I was trans (in a very nonbinary way, to be specific). Camming wasn’t a bad place to start accepting the body nature gave me. I had daily validation from strangers that if nothing else my body was worth money. How’s that for valid? On some cam modelling sites, one must sit and wait for customers to come along. This can be tedious. To distract myself while I waited, I drew. I pulled out my sketchbook and made comics about myself and my silly little life and posted them on the internet. Most of the comics in this collection were sketched while sitting in my underwear, being watched by masturbating strangers who weren’t paying me. The comics were not drawn in chronological order. They were random, conceived as singular moments, little snapshots of my confused existence. But they each referred to a very specific

time in my life, and there are now enough of them that, placed in the right order, you can see a fairly accurate chronological representation of my 20s. I still have a problem with being touched. Sometimes I manage. Being in love helps. Being drunk helps. Sometimes looking back at my drunken hookups, I wonder if it was all just an elaborate roundabout way of experiencing a hug I could be comfortable with. I used these comics as a way of connecting with people. I did the same with youtube videos. I would post online something about myself, some weird aspect I didn’t think anyone could relate to, and then I’d get responses from people who did. And through these online connections, I sometimes found a little bit of love. Unfortunately, in the age of banning “female presenting nipples”, Hugged has all but disappeared from the internet. But I still need to connect. So here it is, eight years in the making, restored in all its glory for those of you who can’t resist wonky sketches of bisexual transgender disaster!

About The Author Verity Ritchie grew up in England and Texas and now lives in Slovenia. Vee lives with their partner Ada in a small apartment in Ljubljana with two cats, Alba and Schnappi. Together they host queer meet ups and make weird zines. Vee continues to post videos on the internet.

youtube.com/ritchandfamous