Gender And Cartoon Analysis

Liza Donnelly, a cartoonist for The New Yorker, provided her insight on the cartoonist industry and the gender issues associated with it also while touching upon the impact that humor can have. Her presentation for the Honors Colloquium perfectly encapsulated the connection between humor and gender. Not only did she express her own concerns for being in a predominately male profession, but also took to addressing gender issues through her own cartoons. Donnelley’s first point of her talk was ‘Why?’ In this section, she touched upon several questions that asked the questions such as why does she draw cartoons and why aren’t there more women cartoonists. Donnelly expressed through her reasoning for beginning to draw cartoons that in the process of discovering her passion she uncovered traditional gendered attitudes in herself such as being shy and wanting to please.

The points addressed in her presentation were very eye opening, especially since a cartoonist is not a profession that first comes to mind and one that I know little about. Throughout her presentation, she eloquently described her approach and views about cartooning, which put the ideas behind cartooning into perspective for me. Although Donnelly herself did not draw this particular cartoon, my favorite cartoon she showed was the Charlie Hebdo and 9/11 comparisons with the two pencils as the Twin Towers and the plane as a machine gun. Her statement about how she likes to think of her pen as an olive branch really spoke to me because it brought up cartooning in a different light, than just the traditional view of cartoonists as people who make fun of people and cultures. Donnelly’s presentation was very enlightening and has exposed a side to cartooning that I never knew existed. Her ideals were inspiring yet carefully though out, which made the presentation very enjoyable to listen