Reject du jour: the skinny
(image: carolita johnson)
This cartoon was inspired by my being obliged to buy myself a pair of this season’s requisite “skinny pant.” No, not because I’m a fashion victim. (Well, not that kind, anyway!) I bought them as part of my modelling uniform. I have to prove I can do fittings for whatever the fashion industry will be feeding the masses for the next couple of seasons. I also can’t show up at my “go-see’s” looking like last year’s leftovers, unfortunately. (I spent many years happily looking like several years’ leftovers, having thrown away my flesh-colored thong and quit the fashion industry, for the third time… how I miss those days! But perhaps I don’t miss waiting on line with the homeless and displaced to take a tepid 12-minute shower for 7 francs at the municipal baths quite that much.)
I thought this cartoon was an apt observation about what fashion does to a woman. This season’s hottest new thing is always the opposite of last season’s hottest new thing. It’s the most annoying thing about fashion, really, besides the expense. I knew this cartoon didn’t stand a chance when I opened up this week’s New Yorker and saw Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s skinny-pant cartoon, which, I have to admit is better than mine!
What’s odd about her cartoon is that I have the exact same haircut and often wear the very outfit the shopgirl is wearing (but Marisa assures me she was not thinking of me when she drew her). And, I’m proud to say, I’m not that skinny, either. I eat my Wheaties.
And as much as I hate to admit it, the skinny pant is really very handy for tucking into my rainboots, a lot easier than folding my boot-cut jeans into socks, and a lot easier on the ankles (no bunching). So I bought another pair. What a fashion victim!
BTW: let this be an example to paranoid cartoonists everywhere—Marisa and I never see each other’s cartoon submissions. (I just cringe whenever I hear of someone whining that they submitted a cartoon and then saw a very similar cartoon appear soon afterwards. It’s not even coincidence: we’re all exposed to the same current events and trends, and surrounded by the same cultural tics and contradictions that make for humorous situations and gags. We’re bound to come up with similar cartoons!)
October 26th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
I like your gag a bit better, actually. I think yours makes a social statement.
I’d like to see a cartoon about a girl who has purhcased a $700 PRADA bag, but in no way afford it. There’s a gag in there somewhere. I can smell it.
BTW. I thought of that “Thin Pants/Wide Pants” first. You must have stole it somehow.
Dave
October 27th, 2006 at 12:55 am
Why, you idea-stealing *%$#@! Ha ha.
Actually, Marisa corners the market on that type of gag—she’s done a rather well-known cartoon of a woman with a fancy bag begging on the street for enough money to buy the matching shoes (or the other way around), and I think it’s a Prada joke, too.
October 27th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
carolita, thank you for the compliments!
i have to tell you though, you are much much prettier than the girl i drew in
the skinny pant cartoon.
also, i love the “low life” t-shirt!
where can i buy one????
October 27th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Well, hello Marisa! Let’s have a hand for a guest TNY cartoonist! (applause, applause)!
Thank YOU! (for the compliments!)
Actually, I didn’t even know how that threadless thing worked till tonight (I just let myself be pushed around by me friend Emily, when she encourages me to do artwork that might make me money—a safe bet, usually).
This is how threadless works: an artist submits a design, and then people score the design for seven days. If the design scores high enough, a limited edition of the t-shirt is made, and sold!
It looks like everyone agrees that the signature should go, and so I may do a re-sub, reworked, and see if they go for it then.
Whether this one is a success of not, I’ll post whenever I have a design accepted for scoring! It’s a learning experience that doesn’t cost me anything, which MIGHT earn me something! You can’t beat that!
October 28th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
“It’s not even coincidence: we’re all exposed to the same current events and trends, and surrounded by the same cultural tics and contradictions that make for humorous situations and gags. We’re bound to come up with similar cartoons!” Or dissertation projects. Such a generous and honest take on collective creativity . . .
October 29th, 2006 at 12:29 am
Hehe. When I chose my dissertation subject (I hardly dare say what it was: the self-image of nuns in early christianity, specifically with regard to menstruation and the handling of the sacrements), I thought I was choosing something very obscure, but it turned out there were plenty of other people doing the same or similar subject who thought the same of theirs!
Who, me, generous? Is it generous to have your eyes wide open and not deny what you see?
Actually, it makes life so much easier!