The goddamned queers of Watchmen: The Silhouette, Kitty Genovese and Rorschach

Watchmen is one of the clearest examples of when Psychology has become embedded into popular culture – specifically in comics and graphics novels. Rorschach the character, complete with ink blot imagery as his ‘face’, is undeniably psychological and when we delve a little deeper it is also possible to see the distinctly homophobic history of Psychology embedded within Watchmen. The distinct anti-psychiatry themes within Watchmen are incorporated into the distinct queerness that threads throughout some of the characters. In the words of Sally Jupiter 'Some professions, I don’t know, they attract a certain type…'

In this paper I will outline just three characters in Watchmen that are identified as queer in some way: The Silhouette, Kitty Genovese and Rorschach himself. In doing so I will not only explore queer themes in Watchmen but also go some way to unveil how intertwined Psychology and queerness are within the comic.