Scene @ The Sex & Sensibility Party

By Ron Hogan on April 3, 2008 9:01 AM

Tuesday night, Amanda ReCupido stopped by the Museum of Sex for a party celebrating the the release of Sex and Sensibility: Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love… In 200 Cartoons, edited by New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly (far left) and featuring colleagues like Roz Chast, Carolita Johnson, and Marisa Acocella Marchetto.

“The drive behind the project was to showcase love and sex from the female perspective, ” ReCupido reports, “and indeed, the book is filled with each cartoonist’s personal anecdotes of finding her voice (artistic and otherwise) in what was largely considered a man’s forum; the mere fact that they were regarded as ‘women cartoonists’ speaks for itself. Much of the discussion centers on the idea that what men and women find funny is separate, and the disparity only increases when it comes to sex and the female body—one cartoonist’s male colleague expressed with outrage that ‘you will never see the word menstruation in The New Yorker!’ (But now, however, it’s on GalleyCat).

“The book arrives at a time when female humorists are at the height of the scene; one only need look at the April Vanity Fair to determine this wave’s powerful presence. Donnelly sings the praises of contemporary comedians such as Tina Fey and Sarah Silverman, while still paying homage to the trailblazers (Dorothy Parker, Lucille Ball, Erma Bombeck) who made this movement possible. ‘There are definitely feminist tones to this book,’ Donnelly said. ‘I’m a feminist.’ And as to the cartoons, is there a favorite among the collection? ‘The one that still makes me laugh out loud,’ she said, ‘is one of a man with a giant penis and a woman with giant breasts, and the caption is, Well, I guess we can die now.’ I’d say that’s a sentiment at which both sexes can laugh.”