Alternative cartoonist Diane DiMassa writes in The Nation that "Cartoon images... for years have been bombarding us with homogeneous depictions of husband/wife and race/class." DiMassa says most cartoons promote "false standards of beauty" and "a constant onslaught of white heterosexism."

DiMassa says her own strip, "Hot-head Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist," is inspired by people who "experience life from a 'second class' position [who] accumulate monstrous reserves of rage as a result of having to 'eat' injustice after atrocity after injustice."

In a work pictured in The Nation, DiMassa's lesbian heroine performs a Lorena-Bobbitt-like dismemberment on a male character while gloating, "Oooooh! This is gonna be a good day." In defense, DiMassa writes, "I heal my rage through my cartooning."

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