Uppdrag underliv
(Mission: vulva)
by Olivia Skoglund
reviewed by B.J. Woodstein
Olivia Skoglund’s pair of graphic memoirs, Nästan i mål – en komisk transition (Almost there – a comic transition) and Uppdrag underliv (Mission: vulva), record and explore her transition over a period of years.
Both books have a very traditionally cartoony style, with quite a simple panel structure. The first book, Nästan i mål – en komisk transition, which was Skoglund’s debut, appearing in 2020, discusses her childhood and how she feels as a transwoman through a variety of scenes and anecdotes. She questions some female norms, such as the need for a hairless body, while also to some extent clinging to them as a way of defining her femininity.
The second book, Uppdrag underliv, is more polished, in part because while it is graphically brutal in its depiction of Skoglund’s vulva-creation surgery (gender-affirming surgery) and her recovery from it. It also discusses relationships – romantic, sexual, familial, and friendly – and is thus able to move beyond being solely a trans memoir. There are many trans novels and memoirs now, so there has to be something more to a work than just discussing issues such as therapy, hormones, hairstyles and makeup, surgery, clothing, and so on; thankfully, Skoglund’s second book does have a little more of that depth to it, whereas the first one, while engaging, tends to have a somewhat more defensive feel, as in its discussion of the difference between drag queens and trans women (she wants the reader to know that she definitively is not a drag queen). In the second book, Skoglund writes more about her poly relationships and appears to finally learn and recognise that she deserves attention and respect from her partners.
In short, Skoglund’s pair of books represent her journey, with the second memoir portraying a maturer, more self-accepting woman.
Uppdrag underliv
Galago, 2025, 151 pages
Foreign rights: the author
Olivia Skoglund, who was born in 1994, is an illustrator and comics artist. Her work is primarily autobiographical.