PATRIARCHAL SYSTEMS
Editorial Illustration Series

Independently assigned project that explored editorial illustration as a way to talk about ways traditional gender roles affect both men and women negatively; first image drawn from NPR’s It’s Been a Minute, titled “The Myth of Male Loneliness,” and the second was based off a self-driven prompt of “Where Women Belong.”

The “myth” of male loneliness talks to a rise in social phenomenon where men are lonelier than ever, caused by a lack of friendship in their lives. As discussed in the thought piece, the reason psychologists are referring to this trend a “Myth” is due to the self prescribed nature of this loneliness- Essentially, men are making themselves lonely by refusing to maintain the relationships in their lives. What makes this a feminist issue is, through the association of venerability to womanhood, these men self isolate as an extreme way to reject their proximity to femininity.



In my thumbnails I wanted to express the idea of this phenomenon being considered a social myth, but also to show the reality of how this issue became so  ubiquitous. I was inspired by the Greek myth Narcissus as a metaphor for how fragile men’s egos have become. So, by being hyper-concerned with how they’re perceived, men are becoming pre-occupied by their isolation, and ignore the importance of maintaining relationships in their lives; I ultimately went with a composition that directly refrenced the myth, showing many men obsessed with their own reflection, juxtaposed by groups of women enjoying their company.

Because I had explored editorial illustration based off of pre-written material, I also wanted to exercise making an original concept to base for a second piece in the series. I landed on “A Women’s Place” based off The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, from her assertion that “women only become women because of the circumstances in society.” So, the prescription of gender roles that makes women, women (and, by this logic, also men). 

There were a few major concepts I wanted to play with. The thing I kept coming back to was the idea of labor, both in how women are expected to give birth, and the physical workplace of a woman. I was a fan of my other sketches, and moving forward they’re all something I would like to come back to, but I went with an option that showed women’s labor as shopping. What I felt was the most compelling about this option was that consumership advertises a way to appeal to what women should be, and keeps the cycle of traditional roles going.