In the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Lady Liberty could be found crying and Uncle Sam angry in the majority of editorial cartoons, says a new study from Ball State University.

An analysis of 142 editorial cartoons published by newspapers and magazines in the U.S. and abroad found the gender-based symbols of the United States were stereotypical in their grieving for the country's losses, said Vincent Filak, a Ball State journalism professor who co-authored the study with Scott Abel, a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

In the cartoons, Lady Liberty was more often portrayed as sorrowful, fearful or a victim, while Uncle Sam was more often portrayed as vengeful, aggressive and stalwart.

"Editorial cartoons are an insightful form of commentary that can clearly define the mood of a society," Filak said. "Their use of satire and symbols makes them a pointed form of mass media that clearly illustrates both the issues of the day and the underlying social norms and values."

The study analyzed how Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty, the two most enduring human symbols of the U.S., were portrayed by cartoonists. About 90 percent of the cartoonists in the survey were men.

While both exist in fictional form, Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam have been a staple of political cartoons and political rhetoric for more than 100 years. Lady Liberty is based on the Statue of Liberty, which was built on Ellis Island as a gift from France in 1886. Uncle Sam became a symbol of American culture earlier the same century.

"Not everyone experienced the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, firsthand, but these images drawn by these artists helped provide a window into the grief of a nation," he said. "It was a time for all the world's citizens to come together to mourn. But, as the images have shown, gender bias remained prevalent in the imagery of that day."

Filak suggests that even when using fictitious symbols, the role of gender remains an issue of societal contention. People grieve in a variety of manners, but some are more socially acceptable than others.

"If I'm in mourning and I'm sobbing my head off in public, this doesn't fit with what society thinks of when they imagine a man grieving," Filak said. "If my wife, however, was sobbing like crazy, it would be more in line with what we've been conditioned to think of as acceptable grieving.

"In other words, we aren't as stereotypical in terms of our grieving as we're often portrayed in editorial cartoons," he said. "Society has created a set of grieving norms for us. If we fit them, we're fine. If not, that's a problem."

(Note to Editors: For more information, contact Filak at vffilak@bsu.edu or (765) 285-8218.)