Small Strokes Big Oaks

Photo Credit: Craig Semetko, via http://lizadonnelly.com

Bio
Liza Donnelly is a contract cartoonist with The New Yorker Magazine. When she first began selling to The New Yorker, she was the youngest and one of only three cartoonists who were women. In 2005, she wrote  Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons, a history of the women who drew cartoons for the magazine as well as the present women contributors. Other recent books are 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. Liza has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, BetterTV and has been profiled in numerous magazines and newspapers. Her cartoons can also be found on two websites: wowowow.com and doubleX.com On the faculty at Vassar College, Liza teaches Women’s Studies and American Culture. She is a charter member of an international project,Cartooning for Peace, helping to promote understanding around the world through humor. Chronicle Books is publishing her next book in 2010.

1. Define the online feminist blogging community.
I became involved after being invited to have a regular feature of my cartoons on the feminist website wowowow.com There, I receive comments on my cartoons which I think provide the responders with a forum for their views. I also think it is helpful for them to see a mainstream woman, such as myself (by mainstream, I mean selling to the New Yorker) as a feminist expressing feminist views. Also, on this site and another one I now work for, doubleX.com, I am given freedom to do humor about what I want. They do not edit me, thus I can express myself and get feedback.  Most of the work I do on these two sites would  not be published by mainstream publications. In some sense, I suppose my cartoons are used to sell the sites, but I do think my cartoons provide awareness and insight that, because it is through humor, allows very easy access and relatability.

The two sites I work  for are of different generations: wowowow.com is primarily for older women, doublex is for younger. I find I slightly shift what I send to them sometimes. I think perhaps the internet may be the thing that unites the feminist  generations. Thankfully!

2. Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
Other than the sites I work for menitoned above, I have a website that has a blog capacity. I began this site to promote my feminst book, Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists and their Cartoons. Now I post blogs of cartoons and comment on there, more often than not feminist in nature.  I also began a blog on open.salon.com, to get my cartoons to a wider audience.

3. Tell me about your blogging experience now.
I blog/cartoon about women in culture, media. I make fun of women and of our cuture, hopefully being informative and thought provoking at the same time.  I never do humor that is hurtful or divisive (unless you call attacking our culture and certain male and female behavior divisive!)   This hasn’t changed since I started.

4. Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
Once a cartoon of mine was misunderstood and the guy really slammed it. It concerned me for a moment, but then I didn’t care. I think had this been 20 years ago, I would have felt more hurt. Now I am much tougher.

5. Describe your process of writing online.
I do weekly cartoons, but the ones I do for feminist sites are often arrived at differently. I saturate my brain with contemporary culture, feminist issues, and start doodling. Key words, phrases enter and I try to use what’s very current.

6. Describe your online reading habits.
I read the New York Times, the DailyBeast.com and The Washington Post online, mostly. I love sharing what I find online–articles, newsworthing things, mostly–on twitter. I get a lot from twitter as well. I think that venue is a great community for feminists. I post my cartoons there, also. I also use what I find online in my classroom because i think young women really respond to very current material. I don’t go to online feminist sites every day, I must say, but try to visit regularly. The sites I visit most often are feministing.com, theillusionists.org and womensenews.  I would do more, it’s just a matter of time.

You can follow Liza on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizadonnelly.
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here.  Have something to add?  Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.