Why Can't a Woman be More Like a Man

This practice-based output is comprised of two original comic illustration works, created in the style of graphic novels: Why Can’t a Woman be More Like a Man (2018) and Granny Alice in Slumberland (2018). Doran created the works during her invited participation in a 10-day international artist residency at the European School of Image, Angouleme, France. The residency was part of Wom@rts, a €1.6M European Union Creative Europe Programme. Participating artists were invited to respond to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, on the 70th anniversary of its publication. Why Can’t a Woman be More Like a Man is a single loose-leaf comic illustration (30 x 40cms) consisting of 4 full-colour panels. It is a visual and textual exploration of Christine Blassey Ford’s accusation of sexual assault against the Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh in 2018; a case that achieved instant notoriety for exposing the machinery of political power. Doran’s work presents itself as a feminist critique of this case, and employs comic illustration to interrogate the dynamics of male-dominated political institutions. Granny Alice in Slumberland is a single looseleaf comic illustration (40 x 30cms) consisting of 9 full-colour panels. The work presents a critique of the work of de Beauvoir and other first-wave feminists in their relative oversight of workingclass and other marginalised women. It does so through a quasi-fictional account of Doran’s great-grandmother’s career as a writer – which explores conflicts within the female identity. Text and image are combined in such a way as to explore a world where barriers to female cultural participation do not exist.The two works were presented in a touring international exhibition, at the following venues and accompanied by a programme of artists’ talks, outreach workshops, press conferences and opening events.