The diary of Neaud's body: approaching the subject of Heterocentricity

Abstract

It is probably one of the first recorded uses of the word 'heterocentrisme' in a French comic book. Picture the scene - six guys (and one woman, who is asleep) are sitting around waiting to watch a soccer match on TV. The cartoonist, Fabrice Neaud, is one of the six. The conversation turns to the respective merits of Sandrine Bonnard and Andi McDowell. When Neaud, who has so far been silent, is asked for his views on soccer he replies, 'Je prefere Ie rugby, rapport a la taille des cuisses, [... ] c'est bien meilleur quand ils enculent.' Somewhere off scene a pin can be heard to drop. Question: did Neaud 'behave like an ass', as he goes on to wonder, or was his comment, and the subsequent depiction of the scene, a radical critique of the exclusionary complicity of homophobia?