When looking at Liza Donnelly’s work I realised most of her political cartoons are to do with the pressures that women face to achieve a certain politically or socially constructed idea on a day to day basis. I noticed a common theme through some of her cartoons that they tended to consist of young girls thinking about what they want to be when they grow up. Firstly, girls shouldn’t be thinking about these things when they are that young. Secondly, the thoughts that the girls had circulated the ideas of being a slut, being scripted, etc, and that shouldn’t be the case.
I think Humor in political cartoons is a really clever way of delivering and expressing the truth to an audience. It is likely that the truth you are suggesting is quite controversial, so in order to dampen the effect of this new perspective, humour plays a really key role in political cartoons. We did notice though, that a lot of Liza Donnelly’s Cartoons aren’t really that funny. We believe this is a way for her to express how serious the issue is as quite often problems like these can be ignored. Political Cartoons should be somewhat understood without political or historical context and I feel it is very easy for someone to understand what the points are that Liza Donnelly is trying to raise through her drawings.
In me and my partner’s political cartoon, we noticed the contrast between a lifestyle in other places in the world in comparison to Singapore. We realised that both of us are living in a bubble. Juxtaposing the political cartoon, my partner said she feels comfortable to wear whatever she wants outside without fear of being judged. Whereas my teacher, having had experience growing up in London says girls have to be conscious of what they are wearing. Through Donnelly’s techniques, the girl in the cartoon seems to be “trapped” by these “circulating” bubbles “surrounding” her. I feel this is because Donnelly is trying to convey the debatable issue of the perpetual thoughts that a woman faces on a day to day basis regarding how she looks. Furthermore, everything is posed as a question, suggesting that everything is subjective, “how short is short?” “how push-up is push up?” further relating back to the Artist’s issue.
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