In what ways does this cartoon offer perspectives of the ways in which gender roles and identities are socially and/or politically constructed?
This political cartoon offers the female perspective on gender roles in the workplace, as well as the social norms and standards set by society. It depicts a woman sat at presumably a meeting of high importance where she states how she belongs there, among a group of men. Even though this is done in a comical fashion, this still offers some insight into how women might feel in similar positions to what the cartoon shows. This cartoon speaks volumes about how gender roles are socially and politically constructed through the fact that women shouldn’t even need to be reminded that they do deserve a place of high ranking in the workplace, or wherever that may be.
How, and to what extent, is humor used to convey a truth?
In my opinion, I don’t think too much humor is used in this specific cartoon. However, maybe the fact that the woman isn’t really paying attention to the meeting and is actually thinking about how she deserves to be in the meeting can be seen as comical in a sense, and perhaps ironic. This humor is used to convey the truth about gender equality in the workplace as even though it is somewhat comical, the sentence still speaks the truth about how women are deservingly in places of high power in some cases.
Can anything be understood without an understanding of the historical, social or political context?
I think a lot can be taken away from this specific cartoon as firstly, due to the simplicity of all Liza Donnelly’s artworks, especially this one, it’s obvious that the topic is equality even without knowing much about the social or political context. Even at first glance, we can tell that the political cartoon takes place in a meeting room of some sort, and there’s a single line of text, in the form of a thought. This thought comes from supposedly the only woman in the room, where she claims she is meant to be there. Putting all these points together, and it’s easy to assume that this cartoon depicts a woman of high ranking within a business knowing she is meant to be where she is despite social norms and standards. Therefore the takeaway of gender equality in the workplace is still noticeable even without an understanding of the historical, social or political context.
