The Big She-Bang (The Herstory of the Universe According to God the Mother)

A fierce and clever feminist retelling of humanity’s past—a herstory of the universe—illustrated and written by acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist Marisa Acocella.

For centuries, history has been “written about a bunch of men by a bunch of men.” In The Big SHE-Bang, Marisa Acocella challenges our understanding of humanity’s past with her own Big Book. In this gloriously vibrant, clever and hilarious alternate herstory of the world, the true leaders, makers, and doers who have been omitted—the women—at last claim their place. Narrated by God the Mother, The Big She Bang celebrates the “shevolutionaries,” from Eve to the Marys—Virgin Mother and Magdalene—from Persephone, Kali, Isis, Delilah to RBG, Gloria, and Tarana. Acocella brilliantly illuminates the way women have been erased, vilified, and dominated across eons—blamed for original sin, destruction, betrayals, witchery, and other assorted (and false) evils and ills. She sets the story straight from the beginning of time to now.

Filled with stunning color graphic images, this uncompromising and hilarious book opens with a visitation: The Divine Mother appears in Acocella’s studio and takes her on an epic feminist journey that begins at the big SHE-bang. The rest, as they say, is herstsory.

Women have been relegated to the sidelines of history for far too long. The Divine Mother, speaking through Acocella, reminds all women of their essential place in the storied past of human civilization. The Big SHE-Bang celebrates those females who have come before us, and inspires today’s women to claim their equal place now and for the future.