Generations Of Feminism

Cartoons that express the interplay

I am fascinated by how different generations of women interact with feminist ideas. Last night, I had drinks with a fellow cartoonist, Sara Lautman, and her partner, and we spent a good bit of time on that subject. Plus, I am listening to a book called The Right To Sex: Feminism In The Twenty First Century, by Amia Srinivasan, and the author speaks to the differences in the generations vis-a-vis feminism. Right now, the chapter I am on is about pronography, and how Second Wavers and the current generation have approached the place of pornography in our culture, as it relates to abuse of women and the patriarchy. Srinivasan teaches freshman in college, and taught a seminar on pornography with them.

When I interviewed many of the younger cartoonists for my book, I heard the differences, and I can see it in their creative work as well. It’s not a clear-cut difference, but of course it’s there, and intersectionality is key. I am hoping to write more about this soon, and just pitched an article to the Washington Post.

My book When Do They Serve The Wine? is about generational differences. When I wrote it, I was teaching women’s studies at Vassar (2007 or so), and I felt that if we would just talk to each other as women, no matter the age, we could really change things. I think now we are talking much more than when I was young, when the generations seemed so far apart, and they were: pre and post second wave generations (ie my mother and me) were quite different. And so we didn’t talk much. I believe that has changed.

Because I can’t post a newsletter without putting cartoons in, here are some about gender and differences in generations. I didn’t realize I had so many! Some are from 2013, and some even earlier. The first one below was from the 1990’s! A few, such as that one, were published in The New Yorker.