From 2013 issue of The Feminist Observer- LIZA DONNELLY INTERVIEW
From 2013 issue of The Feminist Observer- Liza Donnelly Interview by Sarah Jeanne Browne
Interview with Liza Donnelly
By Sarah J. Browne
1. How do you create a cartoon? What is the process that you go through in order to use a cartoon to speak out about a subject in the realm of feminist issues for The New Yorker or Forbes?
To begin creating a cartoon, I start with a blank piece of paper and the news—either an actually hard copy of the New York Times, or more often the internet. I am always making myself aware of what is going on in the news and our culture. I gather ideas, trends, buzz words on the paper and start doodling. I try to find topics that will lend themselves to humor and at best get at a truth. It could be starkly political, like about abortion or sexual abuse in the military, or day-to-day “political” interactions, like marriage relations, dating, street harassment, etc. Different cartoon ideas go to different publications: every cartoon I draw is shown first to my editor at The New Yorker, then I might run it on ForbesWoman.com or WomensEnews.org. The New Yorker publishes more of the non-feminist cartoons I do; my cartoons that go with my column on Forbes are almost always about women and women’s rights.
2. What is your favorite cartoon that you have done to date?
That’s hard to say! My cartoons are like my babies, and I like some for one reason, others for other reasons. I have always loved “Some wine with your vest?” because it is one of the first cartoons I did that The New Yorker published that was a woman making fun of a man. The ones I have given you to print are some of my favorites.
3. What cartoon has caused to you the most “controversy” and why?
My cartoons don’t generally cause controversy. Or at least I don’t hear about it. The cartoon “Flatter Diplomacy” caused a little bit of a stir on the TED website where my TED talk was published and the cartoon was in my talk. In the cartoon, my intention was to make fun of the blonde woman but some people criticized me for making light of the woman in the burka.
4. How did you decide to use your cartoon, writing, etc. to speak out as a feminist?
I have always been a feminist, but using my cartoons to speak on these issues was a decision that evolved over time. About ten years into my career, I found a voice in my cartoons of women making fun of men, of life. Then in 2005, I wrote my book called Funny Ladies, a history of the women cartoonists at The New Yorker, and around the same time began teaching Women’s Studies at Vassar College (various courses: Intro to Women’s Studies, Bodies and Texts, and one called Women and Humor). Combine that with the general election of 2008 when Hillary Clinton was repeatedly attacked for her gender, and the increasing efforts of the GOP to take away women’s rights on a local level---I reached a tipping point and began drawing more overtly feminist cartoons. I also began drawing for WomensEnews.org, a feminist site of news about women around the world. I feel humor can reach people, help them understand what’s wrong in our society in ways that words cannot. Particularly since my kind of cartoon is about society and cultural tradition.
5. What does the male patriarchy mean to you?
It means systemic control by white men. It’s a system of control—cultural, legal, governmental, society-- that is perpetuated by both men and women alike, and is oppressive towards women and minorities. It’s a control that can be very hidden, and that’s what I try to expose in my cartoons.
6. What is your TED Talk “Rendering the Unspoken” about?
It’s about how our society (the patriarchy, if you will) makes women buy into behavior and attitudes that hold us back. It’s about how we don’t use our bodies in positive, strong ways to make ourselves known, help ourselves believe that we are valuable and important contributors to society. We have to believe—in body and mind-- that wherever ‘there’ is, we are supposed to be there! That we do not have to do what others expect of us, rather do what we feel is important and what we want to do.
7. Why do you think humor can create change?
Humor makes people see because it catches them off guard! Humor is, generally speaking, based on the rules of a culture, it takes what we know and twists it and that’s what elicits a laugh. So one can expose the rules of a culture that way, and make people realize how stupid the rules are.
8. Would you be willing to create a cartoon for The Feminist Observer’s theme about the Patriarchy that we could share?
I don’t usually create cartoons on commission like that, but I have a number of cartoons that are about oppression of women that you can print!
9. What do you want people to learn about you?
That I grew up extremely shy and unable to speak in public. Now, that is part of how I earn my living, speaking to groups. This is one reason why I wrote my book, When Do They Serve The Wine? I want young women to know that they should have confidence in their ideas and speak out when they can. Don’t follow the rules and be too much of a good girl, like I was. I wasted so much time being a good girl! My book is about having conversation across generations, something I think women could benefit more from. If we only talked to each other more, we would recognize at an earlier age all the stupid things we do and the horrid things that are done to us by our culture. What I lived through at age 21 is still happening to young women, and my hope is that young women not make the same mistakes.
10. What inspires you to write your columns and books?
I want to try to help people, particularly women, all over the world. And I love to make people laugh.
11. Where can we find out more information about you and what you have accomplished?
I have a website (Lizadonnelly.com), blog (whendotheyservethewine.com), FB artists page (Lizadonnelly), a column on ForbesWoman.com (http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizadonnelly/) , I founded and edited a blog called WorldInk.org. I tweet a lot (@lizadonnelly). And my cartoons can be found at the New Yorker at cartoonbank.com And I have numerous books: http://www.amazon.com/Liza-Donnelly/e/B001H6MXDI/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1371233512&sr=8-1
My TED talk, Drawing On Humor For Change: http://www.ted.com/talks/liza_donnelly_drawing_upon_humor_for_change.html
My TEDx talk, Rendering The Unspoken: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKdvdNU7AmU&feature=youtu.be
Thank you so much from myself and The Feminist Observer for answering these questions.
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From 2013 issue of The Feminist Observer- Liza Donnelly Interview
LIZA DONNELLY
Liza Donnelly is a contract cartoonist with The New Yorker Magazine, where she has been drawing cartoons about culture and politics for over thirty years. She is also a weekly columnist and cartoonist for Forbes.com, specializing in politics and women’s rights. And for three years, Donnelly has been drawing a weekly cartoon on gender issues and women’s rights for the news site Women’s Enews.
Donnelly is a Cultural Envoy for the US State Department, traveling around the world speaking about freedom of speech, cartoons and women’s rights. As a public speaker, Donnelly has also spoken at TED (Technology Entertainment and Design), the United Nations, and The New Yorker Festival, among other places. Donnelly was profiled on CBS Sunday Morning, NBC and BetterTV, and has been interviewed on radio and in numerous magazines, newspapers and online. Donnelly’s cartoons and commentary can be seen on various websites: the NewYorker.com; CNN.com; HuffingtonPost.com; Salon.com; DailyBeast.com; WomensEnews.org; NarrativeMagazine.com. Her work has appeared in print publications, including The New York Times, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, The Nation and The Harvard Business Review; and her cartoons have been exhibited around the world.
Donnelly is the author/editor of fifteen books. Her most recent book is When Do They Serve The Wine? The Folly, Flexibility and Fun of Being a Woman . She also wrote Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons, a history of the women who drew cartoons for the magazine, Sex and Sensibility: Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love in 200 Cartoons and Cartoon Marriage: Adventures in Love and Matrimony with the New Yorker's Cartooning Couple (with Michael Maslin). Donnelly’s new book is titled Women On Men, due out in 2013.
Donnelly’s book, When Do they Serve the Wine? was optioned by Mark Gordon Studios for an hour long comedy for television; and the book she wrote with her husband, Cartoon Marriage, has been optioned by Jennifer Garner for ABCStudios.
She is a charter member of an international project, Cartooning for Peace, helping to promote understanding around the world through humor; and is one of the founding members of USA FECO, the US chapter of the international cartoonists’ organization FECO. She conceived of and is editor for World Ink, a site of international cartoons from contributors around the globe on dscriber.com and has curated several exhibits of international cartoonists, here and abroad. Donnelly taught at Vassar College and the School of Visual Arts and is a member of PEN, Authors Guild and the National Cartoonist Society. She is the recipient of the Salon St. Just International Prize; and was a member the jury of the World Press Cartoon Prize in Lisbon and the Cartooning for Peace Prize in Geneva in 2012.
Her website is lizadonnelly.com and her blog is whendotheyservethewine.com.
“Donnelly’s cartoons are the best kind of funny—sly, smart, and right on the money.
[They] are great social commentary as well as great fun.” Susan Orlean, 2010
“Liza often steps out from behind her drawing table to make this world not just a funnier place, but a better one too.” Planet Green, 2010