Wednesday, June 13, 2007

the anti-feminist cartoon



i'm baking in my 90 degree apartment. i received yet another announcement from the u.s. post office about something with a cathy cartoon.

for all the progress women have made, none of that is apparent in the comic section of the newspaper. i know that cathy was one of the first comic strips to appeal to single women and what they were going through, but god was it ever funny?

i feel like every strip i accidentally read (i never intentionally read cathy) has to deal with weight or some other insecurity. the series is stuck in a time and place that doesn't make sense for women anymore. it's boring.

as a cartoonist (why does that sound arrogant? fuck it if it does, because that's what i am, i'm not going to apologize for it!) it pisses me off to see such a small number of female cartoonist in national syndication. i try to get my comic about being an indian girl in america syndicated, and it's really difficult. people want something unique, something made jut for them, and they want it for fucking free.

it takes time, and skill to create a cartoon. not to mention creating an entire series of them that are all entertaining or funny. cathy is not funny. cathy is not entertaining. its just one of those things that has been happening for ever and no one has bothered to re-evaluate. it's like white walls or a lamp shade. no one notices.

i refuse to believe that there aren't better, funnier, female-penned comics out there. why aren't they in the newspaper? it may not be as important as equal pay or hillary running for president, but it's important to me.

i'm so tired of the doors being opened for us as an after thought. it's not just women, but women of color, queer women, or god forbid, queer women of color.

i don't want to read it on a blog. i don't want to buy a book. i want it in the fucking paper.

it's not too much to ask.

another rant from your favorite outraged indian art critic, ha.

2 comments:

Tracey said...

Hooray! A cartoonist! I'm definitely with you on the lack of feminism in the comics that make the funny pages. But there are some great ones out there.

I like Ann Telnaes' political cartoons: http://www.anntelnaes.com/

And Stephanie McMillan has a great comic strip that's mostly environmentalist, but often feminist as well: http://www.minimumsecurity.net/

I try to keep a list of feminist cartoonists on my blog. Can I add a link to yours?

nidhi said...

you totally can!

although, my strip's jokes and such are hard to understand unless you're indian, but still. link me up! :)

thanks for the tips, too. awesome!