Women’s Museum exhibit examines roles through the years

By Anna Frost | SDUN Reporter

Nearly 100 years of comics, all featuring and written by women, sit behind the doors of the Women’s Museum of California, located at 2730 Historic Decatur Rd. in Liberty Station. Running until Sept. 1 – and coinciding with July’s Comic-Con International – “Wonder Women: On Paper and Off” is an extensive collection of flappers, super heroines, mischievous teenage girls and other bold women from across the decades.

The exhibit, in line with the museum’s overall goal, looks at the work of women of the past and present, exploring their connection.

“Our mission is to preserve the past and inspire the future,” Art and Programs Director Kathleen Adam said. Adam also serves as exhibit curator.

“This show looks at women in the comic industry starting in about 1900 and going until today, and it’s kind of reinstating this idea of preserving what has been done and how it has inspired what we have today,” she said.

The exhibit occupies the majority of the museum, leading viewers through a timeline of comics from newspapers and books that address and reflect social and political issues of their period. The women who wrote and illustrated these comics struggled against a strong gender bias for decades.

“Women really had a hard time breaking through the glass ceiling within the comic industry, just like in the majority of the industries,” Adam said. “It’s another example of women having to break through barriers, and they did that by perseverance.”

Though all of the comics in the exhibit tell the story of women’s journey across the decades, several starkly reflect the struggles and triumphs of specific eras. Adam said they intentionally made the exhibit “organic” to encourage discussion and feedback.

The first piece displayed, a newspaper comic from 1914 titled “Dimples,” was discovered in a thrift shop. Artist Grace Drayton’s comic features a little girl scolding her puppy as it knocks a wagon over in pursuit of a rabbit. The comic is printed in color, and illustrations of women and girls fill the margins of the full page, including a little girl holding a suffragette sign.

A decade later, the comics of Ethel Hays portray the glamorous, independent flapper woman of the 1920s. In one piece, the main character, wearing a drop-waist dress and a short bob cut, quips about partying and her inability to cook, breaking the mold of the traditional woman of the time.

The women of the 1940s continued to challenge the role of women. Crime-fighting, fiery heroines appeared in the form of Señorita Rio, a nightclub entertainer by day and Nazi-fighter by night; Glory Forbes, known as “The Woman in Red;” and a slew of other brave women who fought for justice, and often saved men.

Yet these were not the only fiery females of their time. The women who wrote and illustrated their stories broke down gender barriers with just as much spunk. A spirited letter from the Committee for Women Cartoonists addressing the men of the National Cartoonists Society – an organization that barred women from joining – is displayed in the “Wonder Women” exhibit as an example of artists’ fearless trailblazing.

Another sign of the times is seen in the romance comics of the 1950s, which supported the woman’s role in the home in post-World War II. As male cartoonists returned from fighting, they pushed women into what they deemed as a gender-appropriate job, an exhibit post said.

One such comic, titled “You Can’t Fool Love,” depicts a woman agonizing over why her lover has not proposed at the same time as reflecting on how she never thought she would want to be married.

Modern comics from the mid-1990s to the present returned to challenging social issues by addressing topics such as body image, acceptance of same-sex relationships and domestic abuse. Some of the women are illustrated to have more realistic body types, as opposed to an idealized female body portrayed in most comics. Part of the exhibit acknowledges and discusses the hyper-sexualization of women in comics as well.

Jackie Estrada, administrator of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for 23 years, is scheduled to appear at a panel discussion Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. Senior Artist Laurie Fuller and Senior Character Artist Kacey Helms, both of Sony Online Entertainment, will join Estrada on the panel.

The museum is open 12 – 4 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays. For more information about the exhibit or panel discussion, which is open to the public, visit the womensmuseumca.org or call 619-233-7963.