If I were a Republican, I would find Mr. Huntsman very attractive. It’s not news that he’s classically handsome, and if I were a Republican, I would find it difficult not to gravitate towards him. If only for his looks. What else is there to go on? Why not make a choice based on looks? Heck, at this stage of the game, they are all not telling the truth anyway.

The lukewarm attitude towards Mitt reminds me of a cartoon of mine that The New Yorker published in 1983. You can just insert Mitt Romney’s name in the fortune cookie caption.  It’s about the Democratic Presidential nominee Walter Mondale, and the cartoon reflects the tepid feelings towards Fritz by the Democratic party. I don’t recall there being such a circus back then as we have now, however. Also, parenthetically, this cartoon was my second sale to The New Yorker, and my first political cartoon for them.

Hopefully, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain will come out and explain his behavior and the charges of sexual harassment, and we can move on.  And maybe he can move on. I realize we don’t know for sure who is telling the truth, but the numbers of women alleging this behavior makes it seem like there was a pattern on his part. My sense is the GOP wants him to go; it’s just his supporters–whoever they are–are  sending him money. Not to mention the wealthy Koch brothers organization.

In any event–sexual harassment is real for many, and needs to end. There, I’m done with my rant.

I want to weigh in on Kristin Wiig‘s new comedy, Bridesmaids, which I got a chance to see on Saturday. I laughed a lot.  What I liked about it was not the bathroom humor, of which there is a fair amount. Frankly,  I am just squeemish about seeing vomit (however, the scene I am speaking about is hilarious in its conception, because it makes fun of the wedding industry). I loved the humor in the film that is directed at the stupid rules in our culture. Bridesmaids was at once insightful and hilarious. The characters were wonderfully acted by actors who come from an Improv background, which I am learning is what gave the movie a fresh feel– it in no way felt over-written. Sometimes in comedies, one feels like the “jokes” are highly scripted and often fall flat. Not in Bridesmaids. The humor was as whacky as it was real and insightful. Wiig is a talented comedic actress, with a body meant to be funny.

Is it a chick-flick?   No– it is a movie about people. It is funny and the actors are hilarious. Is it about a bunch of women? Yes, but the story (which is pretty thin) is about the human condition. It is a story that both men and women experience: friendship and change.

It really is not up for debate anymore about whether or not women are funny. They are. What the problem is is that the powers-that-be still think we humans segregate our humor into “for guys” and “for girls.”  That men don’t want to see a movie with funny women, and visa versa. So they keep peddling humor that they think we want: and nothing is less funny than humor written by one gender that is thought to be what the other gender likes. It just doesn’t work–it comes out forced and false.  Bridesmaids is more than what some are saying, that it is a chick-flick that can appeal to men because of the gross humor. On the surface, it may seem that way. I think it is better than that.

For years, we have been made to think we like a certain type of movie, and many women buy into it. Not any more, not with the likes of Tina Fey, Amy Pohler and Kristen Wiig (and her co-writer for Bridesmaids, Annie Mumolo) at the helm. They write material–some of which is about what it’s like to be a woman–that is funny for everyone. They seem to write and act how they want to, and this is to be celebrated.

I still have issues with some of the movie–that Wiig’s character, while not explicitly stating so, feels that she is incomplete/unsuccessful without a man. Or that the “most funny” character is the heavy-set “ugly” one–played by the talented Melissa McCarthy. These are stereotypes we need to get rid of.  Do I wish the movie had more of a story, and that the producers didn’t feel it necessary to put in the gross humor for ticket sales?  Yes. Many feminists may negatively review this movie, perhaps for reasons I mention above and more. But when I step back and think about the positives of this movie, I am encouraged for the future of women in humor.

What is  International Women’s Day? I was invited to a large gathering today to recognize this day, and I wanted to know more about its origins. Of course I was aware of it, but wanted to be clear in my mind about the why of this day. My personal feeling is that anytime we as a world bring attention to the horrible conditions of anyone, any group, it’s a good thing.  Women are half the population, are second class citizens in most of the world, and violence towards women is horrendous.

IWD been around a long time, something I did not know. The idea started in the early 1900?s by the American Socialist Party, with National Women’s Day. Here is more from the official website:

In “1910 [an] International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named a Clara Zetkin (Leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany)… proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – a Women’s Day – to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin’s suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women’s Day was the result. Following the decision agreed at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women’s Day (IWD) was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. IWD is now an official holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother’s Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.”

So, I am going to participate in the gathering today to recognize IWD. Normally, I’m not one to go to such things, I prefer to do what I can through my cartoons and by donating  drawings. Speaking out–about any group in need–is important, in any way we can, even if it is a small gesture such as a local march.  I love feeling connected to the world, knowing that there may be men and women doing the same thing in recognition of IWD across the globe.

“For every place where women’s lives have improved, there are still too many where there has not been that progress….women’s rights are human rights.”  Hillary Clinton

What’s going on in Libya is nothing to make light of.  But  as a cartoonist, it was difficult to resist drawing the above when presented with the imagery of Gaddafi holding an umbrella, combined with the tradition of taking off shoes to show disrespect.

I wish the Libyans well and hope they get what they want.

Sometimes ideas spring from just one word.  But it has to be the right word.  Doing a cartoon around the word “uprising” would be difficult. Plus, it’s not a very interesting word.  “Revolution” could lead to a lot of things.  But the word “protest” is more malleable, it can fit into many situations. It’s not an interesting word, but it is a buzz-word in the public’s mind right now, so using it at this moment in time works.

While the above idea is not really what I want to say about all the turmoil that is going on in the Middle East, you sometimes just have to go with the flow as to where words take you. Political cartoons in The New Yorker are often oblique, and are about how events affect people often far removed from the events. And unlike editorial cartoons, they are not necessarily about my opinion.  I am an observer.

I often say that cartoonists are sponges, soaking up all that is around us and then squeezing it out into ideas. But we are also grabbers, snatching ideas and words–I envision a butterfly net– as they float in the air around us. We put them on our papers and mold them into cartoons.

cartoon originally published on womensEnews.org

We Americans try to understand and sympathize with what is going on in Egypt.  It’s hard, but the least that we can do is try, like this misguided woman in the cartoon above.

An article in the New York Times recently profiled 26 year old Egyptian protest organizer, Asmaa Mahfouz.  Ms. Mohfouz had posted a video on youtube–a daring act by a woman in that part of the world–explaining her work and passion in helping to organize the uprising in Egypt.  She says,

“I felt that doing this video may be too big a step for me, but then I thought: For how much longer will I continue to be afraid and hesitant? I had to do something.”

How many of us American women have felt that? About anything–asking for a raise, a job, respect. Granted, it is not life-threatening for us to take risks in most cases, as it is in Ms. Mahfouz’s part of the world.  In our country, the decision to wear pants, when you know everyone else will wear a dress, is scary. That’s how different–or similar–we are with women in the Middle East.

I noticed on television, and read in the New York Times and DoubleX, that there are more women involved in the uprising in Egypt than in previous protests in the region. It was refreshing to see their faces on the streets, chanting and hoping for freedom along with their male counterparts. Who knows, could the measure of peace in the protests have anything to do with their presence in the square?  I wonder.

When women take risks, and try to change things, it benefits all.  Amr Hamzawy, a research director at the Carnegie Middle East Center who has spent most of the last week in central Cairo, said,  “It’s very impressive. It’s not about male and female, it’s about everyone.”

copyright The New Yorker and Liza Donnelly, 2001.  Cartoonbank.com

I wrote about the recent shootings in Arizona on my blog yesterday. It received a large number of hits, and will be reprinted on the site World Ink.  In the post, I reference  this cartoon, which the New Yorker ran in 2001 immediately following 9/11.

I just returned from giving a talk at the first ever TEDWomen in Washington, DC. It was an amazing two days, and I wrote about it today on my blog. There you will find a slide show of many of the speakers and of the exhibit I curated. Many thanks to Pat Mitchell for inviting me to speak at what for me was a life-changing event.  And I met some amazing people.  My hope is that this will bring more awareness to the issues concerning women, and also increase  the number of speakers who are women at TED conferences in the future. I also wrote a blog for The New Yorker on my talk.

Zachary Kanin,Drew Dernavich, Barbara Smaller, Liza Donnelly, Roz Chast

November 17th, The Society of Illustrators and Chronicle Books held a fun event to celebrate the publication of my new book,

When Do They Serve The Wine? We began with a round table discussion about style and voice, with the above New Yorker Cartoonists.  Then the party!  For a slide show of photos, go to: http://whendotheyservethewine.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/launch-party/