Stella Perrett is a political cartoonist who takes aim at power and privilege across the world. She shot to prominence in 2020, when after five years of having her work featured in the Morning Star she was ‘cancelled’ following the publication of a provocative cartoon, as Jo Bartosch reports.
Political cartoonist Stella Perrett
The image in question was a response to the debate of the Gender Recognition Act; it featured a crocodile sliding into a pond, claiming to ‘self-identify’ as a newt. Following a threat from unions to withdraw funding from the paper, the Morning Star apologised for the cartoon and feminist group Women’s Place UK denounced it. Finding herself suddenly without an outlet for simply doing her job, Perrett decided to compile a book, ‘2020 The Year We Were All Cancelled.’
She explains:
“Before the pandemic, I used to put on an annual small one-woman show in my hometown every year, usually in a pub. While I was with the Morning Star, these shows were round- ups of my cartoons they had published during the previous year.”
“I also wanted to publish a book which would contain only gender critical, pro-women, pro-JKR cartoons, into the public sphere.”
“After my cancellation, and because of Covid, I clearly couldn’t put on a show for the foreseeable future. My book was the logical alternative. And more people have bought it than used to attend my shows, so in that sense it’s ‘job done’.”
“I also wanted to publish a book which would contain only gender critical, pro-women, pro-JKR cartoons, into the public sphere.”
The book is a collection of cartoons, a commentary on everything from Kim Jong Un to Extinction Rebellion. Her work has a lively energy, and the drawings range from cartoon strips to single, heavily annotated images. Interestingly she avoids too many cartoons of world leaders, instead depicting the absurdity of the everyday in people’s day-to-day existence. To Perrett, this is in itself a political decision:
“I do not concentrate on individual politicians, but on how what politicians do effects everyone’s lives.”
Before memes there were cartoons, and when memes cease to be, there will still be cartoons. Cartoonists are an important part of the journalistic community, not least because images cross cultural and linguistic boundaries in a way that writing and reporting can’t. Those who are unafraid to speak out are a threat to the status quo, and throughout the book are many references to cartoonists and journalists who have been silenced and persecuted over the course of the past year.
In an interview for Women’s Liberation Radio News Perrett reflected:
“As an older woman, I feel that I have got a duty; the older we are, we should have more freedom to stand and speak up and to say to younger people: Look, what you’re going through, we all went through it.”
Perrett’s work is important, sticking two fingers-up at the establishment whilst viewing the chaos of the world with a wry smile.
‘2020 The Year We Were All Cancelled’ is available to buy here from Amazon for £14.52.
This is a wonderful tribute to an important 'commentator with a pen' as political cartoonists have been described in pre-digital days! Stella has produced an insightful piece of work here that will be treasured well beyond the year 2020 that has brought with it all these complications to our lives. Her work will be remembered for the 'bite' she has given to the irony, the hypocrisy and the devastating pain and anger that so many women have experienced at the hands of an ideology that seeks to unmoor every one of us from our sexed bodies. I applaud her artistry as well as her wit and her book has made me a saner lesbian for having had the privilege to own a copy or two.
Just purchased Jo Thank you and stella