By Staff -- 7/1/2004

Argentine cartoonist Maitena lampoons the battle of the sexes for Latin American and now U.S. readers.

What are the personalities and neuroses of the women in your cartoons?

Because there are no recurrent characters in my comic strip, I can play with all types of personalities. There are the confident and the insecure, the independent and the dependent, the unsatisfied and the multi-orgasmic... no, there are actually no multi-orgasmic ones. The women I portray are always overwhelmed because they try to do too many things at once: being successful professionals, finding the love of their lives, being good mothers, good daughters, and good lovers, and at the same time staying hot and skinny, without any cellulite.

Why do you think your humor speaks to so many women in Argentina and the rest of the world?

My work functions through identification, and even if it's not true that all women are the same (as some men would claim), we all have similar experiences. I sincerely believe that women, regardless of cultural, economic, and social differences, have a similar set of values and get happy or upset about pretty much the same things. I laugh at what makes me cry, and this seems to have a therapeutic effect on many of my readers.

How do you think U.S. Latinas and English-speaking Americans will react to your five-title series Women on the Edge?

I was surprised when my cartoons had the effect they did abroad. In any case, I realize that my Latin style of publicly saying things about what many people can't even admit to themselves, gave my comics a larger dimension than in countries like Argentina where people are used to sharing their personal problems with taxi drivers.

Do you plan to continue with Women on the Edge or will you begin a new series? Would you consider writing about men?

I have already started a new series, Curvas Peligrosas (Dangerous Curves), where I continue to tackle topics related to women and couples, but where I also deal with new subjects like consumerism, fashion trends, gestures, and more, in an attempt to capture the signs of our time. I actually tackle men in my cartoons, but would not do a masculine version of Women on the Edge because it would be dishonest. A male writer would have to do that, although it's hard to think about that actually happening as men don't tend to have a lot of self-criticism. When you point out a defect to a man, the first thing that crosses his mind is that you don't like him anymore.

Editor's Note: Maitena's Mujeres Alteradas series (Random House Mondadori) will be reviewed in the next issue of Críticas. The translation, Women on the Edge, will be available in September from Riverhead Trade.

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