A Canadian cartoon artist who came under fire for creating diaper fetish art based on real babies is set to speak at a family-friendly event at the Central Library in Sheffield, UK.
On February 27, Sheffield Libraries will be hosting an Author Event with Sophie Labelle, the Canadian artist behind the Assigned Male franchise, at their central location. The Eventbrite page, which now lists tickets as being sold out, invites members of the community to attend and hear “acclaimed trans cartoonist Sophie Labelle speak about her art and activism.”
Using feminine pronouns to refer to Labelle, the listing goes on to describe him as a “neurodivergent trans cartoonist and novelist from Montréal, in French Canada,” and references Labelle’s comic franchise Assigned Male, which was first published in 2014. The Sheffield Libraries event page goes on to state that at the talk, Labelle will also “speak about her art and activism, her artistic process, building community through art and growing up trans.”
On February 14, Sheffield Libraries put out a call on social media reminding the community of the upcoming event, but has since deleted the posts. In addition to the library event in Sheffield, Labelle will also be speaking in Edinburgh at Kafe Kweer.
Word of Labelle’s event has caused some concern from members of the public, who note that the Canadian artist has a disturbing history with utilizing children in fetish art.
In February of 2021, Labelle came under widespread scrutiny after it was discovered that he had quietly been producing and posting diaper fetish art on secret social media accounts, as well as furry fetish site “FurAffinity.”
WafflesArt, Labelle’s now-deleted alternate online persona, was an “adult baby/diaper lifestyle” and “diaper fur” aficionado account which published Labelle’s drawings of anthropomorphic baby animal characters modeling in diapers, onesies, and behaving like toddlers.
The art is part of a fetish subculture known as paraphilic infantilism in which adults become sexually aroused by acting and dressing like babies.
It was also learned that Labelle had used photos of real babies as “models” for his fetish art, taking pictures of toddlers from around the internet and utilizing them as reference points.
Internet sleuths were the first to connect Labelle to the accounts using post history and art style. Facing the beginnings of a scandal, Labelle attempted to “come out” as a ‘little’ on Facebook — a person who role-plays as a child during sexual encounters, connecting it to his transgender identity.
“Littleness and littlespace are mindsets in which adults regress to carefree and responsibility-free safety,” Labelle wrote in the post continuing, “In the past, many trans people’s lives, especially trans women’s, have been broken after being outed as littles, which is why I chose early on to avoid mentioning it.” He also stated the purpose of role-playing as a baby served the purpose of “connecting” with an “inner-child” for transgender people.
As backlash on social media increased, Labelle then admitted to creating the “diaperfur” art, but stated he “refused to be shamed for it,” and accused his critics of transphobia despite the fact many had even been transgender themselves.
In addition to his “furry” fetish, Labelle also appeared to have extended his affinity for the childhood role-play kink to humans as well.
On Twitter through his stealth profile, Labelle followed dozens of accounts which almost exclusively posted pornographic content, largely with men roleplaying as children for the purposes of sexual arousal. One such follow was of a model who calls himself “Little Boy” and posted sexually suggestive photos and videos of himself in diapers and surrounded by children’s toys. The user would mimic masturbation while wearing a diaper, utilizing baby oil and lotion to lubricate himself.
Aside from his “diaper fur” artwork, Labelle’s widely-distributed comic franchise has previously come under scrutiny from readers for its poor art style, complex ideological dialogue parroted by the child characters, and some of the sexual content focusing on the genitals and sex life of the underage main character.
This is not the first time Labelle has been invited to speak amongst children despite concerns about his history and sexual fetishes.
In April of 2022, Reduxx learned that Labelle was doing a speaking tour at Canadian elementary schools in the Gaspé region of Quebec, stopping at local bookshops along the way in events primarily geared towards children. Despite the rampant safeguarding concerns and complaints from the public, the events went forward.
Reduxx reached out to Sheffield Libraries for comment as well as to request information on what child safeguarding measures are in place at the facility, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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