Feminism has been on my mind lately, probably because of the Barbie Movie, but also because of the unsolicited kiss by the Spain’s soccer president towards a female player. He was suspended (some believe he should be fired) but it has caused a tremendous amount of soul searching in that culture. And I imagine a lot of conversations among communities in our country as well. Sexism is ingrained and hard to change; we can change rules, make legislation, but behaviors take longer. I think humor can help.
I did intend to post about this today, but at the moment, I am watching a pioneering documentary created by Julia Reichert in 1971 called Growing Up Female. Because the documentary is so good and so accurate, it infuriates me (yet again) as to what women have been put through, and how we were (and sometimes still are) manipulated by society. I grew up exactly when this was filmed, so it rings very true. I escaped a lot of the indoctrination— the reasons are perhaps for another post —having to do with living Europe at a key point in my youth, going to a Quaker high school, and of course having parents who did not expect me to follow suit of cultural expectations.
I highly recommend watching the film. If you are young, it may open your eyes further, if you are my age, it may get you all worked up like it is me! Sadly, Reichert died last year, and filmmaker Michael Moore did a podcast about her importance and her film— listen here. He also explains where to watch it.
In this vein, then, I share some drawings on the subject, I have done so many over the last 20+ years, it would be too much to show them all! If you are interested, here is my TED talk, Drawing On Humor For Change, in which I speak on this subject ( a funny story about the TED talk: when I was doing my final run through with the curators, Chris Anderson, the founder of TED, suggested I remove the word “patriarchy” from my talk. He thought it too divisive. That was in 2010, folks).
Things are getting better, but how much better?
This one is very recent:
This and the ones below are older:
This one is a little more hopeful, showing change: