Meet The Woman Who Got Playboy To Address Catcalling

Do you guys ever have it where all of a sudden it seems like EVERYONE you know on Facebook is sharing the same thing? This week the random thing blowing up all over my feed was not a baby seal being bottle-fed, but in fact a very cool street harassment flowchart entitled “Should You Catcall Her.” The hilarious, progressive, and feminist-minded piece was published in PLAYBOY of all publications, yes THAT PLAYBOY.

So of course, we had to find Shea Strauss, the illustrator responsible for this flow chart (and responsible for making Playboy awesome for a hot minute) and ask a few questions. But first, here is a cool picture of Shea holding a picture of a manatee.

Hello Giggles: Your “Should You Catcall Her” Flowchart that was published on Playboy.com seems to have gained a fantastic amount of traction judging by my Facebook feed. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came up with this particular piece?

Shea Strauss: I pitch ideas for things that I would like to see exist or that I think would be fun to read.

HG: What kind of response have you been getting based on flowchart?

SS: I haven’t gone too far in that rabbit hole of comments, but the response has been surprisingly positive. Never thought I would get any kind of positive feminist response for doing work for Playboy.

HG: As an artist, how does the piece fit into your body of work (in terms of style, themes, etc)?

SS: I try to make things that are both smart and beautiful. I certainly don’t know if I accomplish it, but that’s my goal.

HG: What are you tackling right now as an artist (pieces/projects) and what are you hoping to tackle in the future?

SS: I do work for CollegeHumor and currently am working on a few other comedy-related illustration projects. Designing for comedy is a particularly fun niche. I am really excited about visual storytelling, with a primary goal of entertainment but that also touches on social issues.

And we’re really excited to see more of your work all over our feed.

For more on Shea, check out her (super gorg) portfolio and her (completely awesome) Tumblr.

(Images via Playboy and Twitter)