Essay #1: Visiting Artist Lecture

Liza Donnelly is an incredible woman cartoonist who continues to inspire creativity and strong ideals in the souls of people around the world through her outspoken works of art. She has done a variety of types of cartoons throughout her past as a cartoonist, including political cartoons, feminist cartoons or cartoons that comment on the dynamics between men and women, as well as silly cartoons/slice-of-life cartoons.

One of my favorite political cartoons of Liza’s read, “Who ordered the special prosecutor?” This particular piece was interesting and humorous to me due to the artist’s use of situational humor - she placed Bill Clinton on a serving plate as a ‘special,’ using a pun to deliver a message about Clinton’s questionable political standards. My favorite feminist cartoon shown in the lecture had the caption, “You don’t have to go to his party. It’s ‘Men Optional,’” with a woman reading a party invite to a man, presumably her significant other. I liked this piece because, as Liza said, the woman in the picture is depicted with short hair and looks a bit androgynous. The published version of the cartoon was actually altered to make the girl look more ‘girly,’ but I love the original version and the statement it makes about the power women have the equality of people, regardless of gender. My favorite of her silly cartoons/slice-of life cartoons read, “I don’t see liking trucks as a boy thing, I see it as a liking-trucks thing.” I love this piece due to the fact that it plays on gender roles subtly, but informatively. It is funny, yet very innocent and sweet. It is simply two children playing in a sandbox, however it is pushing away ideas of gender appropriation to whomever may see it.

Later in her lecture, Liza discusses how Tina brown helped Liza find her style as well as her feminist cartoon voice by buying cartoons from Liza that often pictured woman characters speaking to and about men, versus the other way around. The women were seen making snide remarks to men and about men; this combatted the previous standards set in cartoons of that day. Most times, men would be depicted making fun of the women or joking about them, but Tina Brown bought cartoons that uplifted women instead of holding them down.

According to Liza, there was a significant decline in female cartoonists after the Depression and WWII, quite possibly due to getting married, having children, and being too busy to draw, etc. There were virtually no female cartoonists in the 50's and 60’s, which could be blamed on the humor of that time - it was extremely misogynistic. There were ideas of “bimbos” and “secretaries” being chased by their bosses around the desk. Finally, in the 70’s, women began coming back as cartoonists. The new editor of The New Yorker told Liza that he wasn’t looking for women cartoonists, but that he was simply looking for a different way to express humor. “If you open the doors to different ways of expressing humor, then you get different voices. You don’t get just the status quo.”

Liza’s theory about using humor to change the world stems from the idea that women tend to be the teachers of society; women were and are often left to raise the children of generations to come. Liza says “women are the standard bearers who pass the rules down. If women know the rules as well as we do and we pass them on to our children, and if humor is something that plays with those rules, why can’t we use humor to change the rules? Why can’t we use humor to expose what’s going on in our society?” She believes this will change the world. She applies this in her own work by expressing ideas through women to show the things that happen to women and things women try to do to fight this. My personal opinion on the issue gears a bit more towards equality, instead of using only women to show the issues of society, rather, I think that the standard that needs to be set includes men and women raising children to believe that all people matter and that no one is better than anyone else in any sense at all.

In recent years, Liza’s work has evolved drastically. When she began, her work was very muted aside from the occasional riveting political cartoon. Liza mentioned that she used to be very shy and it showed in her cartoons. Lately, however, she discusses women’s issues boldly and without fear through her cartoons. For example, one image showed two little girls playing with dolls on the floor. One girl says to the other, “I can’t decide what I’m going to be when I grow up - a good girl or a slut.” Liza expresses that it seems that women have a choice between the two, when really their choices are endless. People aren’t meant be confined or defined. People are meant to be just that, people. She has expanded her arena on which she shares her work by working with a multitude of publications that publish her overtly political cartoons almost exclusively online. This may very well have an impact on her reach to an audience, her ability to immediately comment on current issues, and the process she follows to create. She is reaching more people at a much faster rate through the Internet and is able to take in much more information in the news and social media in order to create more idealistically driven pieces. In this way, she can post them quickly for many, many people to publicly view to get conversations going about these issues.

Overall, listening to this lecture by Liza Donnelly was enlightening. Liza mentioned, “if we can find a way to unhook cultural restrictions, we can be freer.” I believe this applies to not only women, but to everyone. There are countless cultures, many with their own stereotypes and restrictions, and as said before, people must stop seeing people’s identity as boy, girl, Spanish, Muslim, white, black, Japanese, Christian, Atheist, etc. We must begin seeing each other as simply human beings, just trying to be ourselves. We have to stop boxing ourselves and others in. Perhaps with the help of art and creativity, people can accomplish this one drawing, article, cartoon, discovery or photo at a time.