Abortion Rights Cartoons - by Liza Donnelly
There are many ways to get at saying something in a cartoon. One is to do a political cartoon, or a drawing that gets directly at the issue. Another is to go at it obliquely, which is what I have done over the years for The New Yorker. These are cartoons that speak to the issue, whatever the issue is, but do so in a way that isn’t direct, makes you pause and maybe think for a minute. Maybe they make you laugh, or smile. I think that when we laugh or smile, our defenses are down and we might be more receptive to new ideas.
Above and below are two sketches that I did and sent in to The New Yorker in the past two weeks. They did not take them, so I can show them to you.
This one above is less specifically about abortion. It’s directed at men (and yes, some women who tow the patriarchical line) who are constantly making decisions about women without their input. What if, when we all began as cave people, women were the ones making decisions? And we decided not to make men equal to us…..
I do a lot of cave people cartoons because I think by using that set-up, they often can show us how crazy things are in our culture. Stuff we might not even notice. Here below is one I did for The New Yorker a few years ago, teasing us about our wedding traditions.
And here below that they also did not buy. I again employ young girls to speak to a situation, a thing we need to change…rape culture.
I enjoy doing these kind of cartoons, and have done them for The New Yorker over the years. Here is another (that I may have shown you recently, forgive me) that may speak about the current gun situation. I know the govenor of NY has signed a law limiting concealed gun carry. This was drawn in the late 1980’s when NYC was going through a particularly bad time of violence. Judging from his expression, the man who runs the hot dog stand has finally had it; and, frankly, is hoping to capitalize on the problem. I don’t advocate this solution.
Sorry for the depressing post. Next one I will make more upbeat! At least NY is a state with common sense.
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