If Hillary is playing the woman card, this is the deck she's using. [[This project is funded! Order your first-edition deck today!]]
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If Hillary is playing the woman card, this is the deck she's using. [[This project is funded! Order your first-edition deck today!]]
About this project
Donald Trump says the only card Hillary Clinton has is the woman's card. Hillary Clinton says: "Deal me in!"
When my sister Zebby—who is currently finishing her Bachelor's of Fine Arts at the University of Iowa—heard the above exchange between Donald Trump and Secretary Clinton, she almost immediately started sketching "The Woman Card," a playing card-themed portrait of Hillary Clinton featured in the video above and shown below.
This sketch became The Woman Card[s]—a deck of playing cards celebrating American women at a time when we are only going to hear the phrase "The Woman Card" used by Donald Trump more and more often. The deck will feature 13 original, hand-drawn portraits of American women chosen by my sister and me to honor the incredible achievements the women of this country have made. Each woman will appear in all four suits, and yes, this will be a full 54-card deck. (52 cards + Jokers, and no, we don't know who the Jokers will be yet.) This isn't just a novelty, somewhat cheeky deck of cards that are poking fun at Donald Trump—it's a badass deck of cards that, frankly, is the only non-History Channel deck of cards about leading American women that we've been able to find.
The first-edition of the deck will feature thirteen incredible women, who were (or are!) pioneers in their fields, ranging from politics to music to science to humanitarian work. Four quick sketches are below, with many more to come over the next few weeks.
Hillary Rodham Clinton—Ace
Ruth Bader Ginsburg—King
Beyoncé—Queen
Back of the Cards
Mockup
These are only first passes, and we will have more complete mockups available soon! If you have any suggestions, please email us at: thewomancards@gmail.com
The Women
The prospect of choosing thirteen American women was both daunting and incredibly exciting. We made the decision to select the thirteen women we thought would be the best match and then to sort out the various ranks later, according to each woman's own history. This was a lot of fun, and if you have any suggestions on ideas we might have missed, please email us at thewomancards@gmail.com
Here's what we came up with:
Ace: Hillary Clinton—The word "ace" denotes "one" or "single," which is why there is only one spot on the card. A former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is on the precipice of becoming the first woman to ever be nominated for President of the United States by a major American political party.
King: Ruth Bader Ginsburg—Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was dubbed the "Notorious R.B.G." in 2014, an allusion to famed New York rapper "Notorious B.I.G.," following her blistering dissent in the Shelby case. Since acquiring the nickname, she has often been depicted wearing the King's crown worn by the Notorious B.I.G. on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Queen: Beyoncé—Need we say more?
Jack: Clara Barton—We know that “Jack of all trades” is a simplistic moniker, but Clara Barton really did do it all. Throughout her career, she worked as a school teacher, a patent clerk, a front lines nurse during the Civil War, a civil rights activist, a renown suffragist, and an acclaimed lecturer. And then after all of that, she founded the American Red Cross.
10: Sylvia Rivera—In Sylvia's own words, "Ray Rivera left home at the age of 10 to become Sylvia. And that’s who I am." Sylvia then became a leading figure in what was then called the gay liberation movement, fighting to help protect young homeless drag queens and transgender women of color in New York City.
9: Amelia Earhart—The legendary American aviator Amelia Earhart spent her career breaking and setting flight records. (And briefly served as the aviation editor of Cosmopolitan magazine!) She played an instrumental role in creating "The Ninety-Nines," a pioneering women's aviation association.
8: Harriet Tubman—We've been hearing a lot about Harriet Tubman lately, who will soon be joining Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. During the eight years Tubman served as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, guiding hundreds of slaves to freedom, she never lost even a single passenger.
7: Mary Cassatt—One of seven children, Mary Cassatt was the most famous American Impressionist painter and often featured young children as the subjects of her work. In Paris, she befriended renown painter Edgar Degas, who once depicted her holding a hand of playing cards.
6: Susan B. Anthony—Although most Americans know Susan B. Anthony best for her activism for women's suffrage, she was also an author and historian on the topic and played a key role in initiating the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage. The tome was finally completed in 1922, after the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
5: Wilma Rudolph—The odds of Wilma Rudolph becoming known as "the fastest woman in history" were long: she contracted the polio virus as a child and spent five long years wearing a leg brace on her left leg and foot. After regaining her ability to walk, and then run, Rudolph went on to become the first American woman to ever win three Track and Field gold medals in a single Olympic Games.
4: Rosa Parks—On December 1, 1955, a Montgomery bus driver ordered four black passengers to move further back on his bus to make room for white passengers to sit. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat despite the threat of arrest. Three days later, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began, a defining moment in the American Civil Rights Movement.
3: Ida B. Wells—In 1892, three friends of Ida B. Wells were seized and murdered by a lynch-mob in Memphis, Tennessee. Wells launched a ground-breaking investigation into their deaths and spent two months traveling through the South investigating and writing about other lynchings, under near-constant threat of violence. She later became a founding member of the NAACP.
2: Dr. Sally Ride—In 1983, Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman to enter space, she remains the youngest American to have ever done so, and is the first known LGBT astronaut. She made two journeys to space, both on board the space shuttle Challenger, founded NASA's Office of Exploration, and led NASA's first-ever long-term strategic planning process. In addition, her second mission was the first space mission ever to include two women.
The Cards
- Size: Our cards are being designed to the playing card standard of 2.5" x 3.5".
- Packaging: Our custom-designed "tuck box" (pictures forthcoming!) will make sure they're easily identifiable when they're not in use.
- Cardstock: We're aiming to use the highest quality cardstock we can find. We will be keeping you updated!
Who We Are
Zebby is graduating from the University of Iowa with her Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Painting with an emphasis on illustration. She is a proud feminist and caucused for Hillary Clinton earlier this year. You can view more of her work here.
Zach is an LGBTQ rights advocate, a Democratic activist, and a pledged delegate for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. He is thrilled to be working with his sister in support of her incredible art.
The Details
As soon as we hit our goal with your support we're going to begin printing and shipping decks out! Decks will be shipped in USPS padded flat-rate priority mail envelopes so we can track them to make sure they arrive safely and promptly. Prints will be shipped flat, also using USPS priority mail. We plan to begin shipping in late June or early July, and your order should arrive no later than mid-July.
The Hat Tip
The tweet that started it all:
DISCLAIMER/UPDATE: This project is NOT affiliated with Hillary for America. (Following the launch of this project, they have released their own version of something similar.) Kickstarter's rules ban proceeds being used for political fundraising, so no funds raised by this project will go directly towards supporting Hillary Clinton's campaign for President.
Risks and challenges
In less than three and a half hours, you all funded this project! Thank you so much!!
The only challenge on our end, now, is handling the distribution of more than 1,000 decks. We are still on track to begin shipping decks in late June or early July.
Zebby is hard at work on finishing all thirteen portraits that will be featured on this 54-card deck. Zach is working on setting up logistics, manufacturing, distribution, shipping, etc. Keep your eye on this page for updates!
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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Don't worry, you're not the only person wondering! This first-edition deck is only focused on American women for now. If this project takes off and we get a lot of support, we are absolutely interested in broadening our scope to a full deck of 52 women and to look internationally. In trying to keep the project to a minimum viable product, we decided to stick with only thirteen women to start. Once we had that limit in place, we thought sticking to only American women made the most sense.
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We decided which women to include totally independent of any rank or hierarchy in mind. Once we had identified the women, we took the time to try to figure out which numbers and ranks corresponded best to each woman. For some, it was pretty obvious. For others, it took a little more research! If you have any suggestions for a better placement, please email us at thewomancards@gmail.com. We are very eager for feedback.
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YES! It absolutely is. In fact, it's a 54-card deck. Each woman will appear in all four suits. 13 x 4 = 52 + 2 Jokers = 54. For this first-edition set, Zebby is only drawing 13 women. If there is a second edition, it will likely feature 52 different women.
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Great question! This is, of course, a phenomenal "problem" to have. The reality, however, is that "overfunded" is a misnomer here. We decided to make these decks the highest quality we possibly could, so every single deck is being sold quite nearly at cost, once you factor in the costs of paying all the processing fees, designing the cards, manufacturing the cards, shipping both from the manufacturer to us and then from us to you, stuffing all the envelopes, etc.
Our preliminary calculations look like we're going to make a profit, but it's going to be a small profit. This is very much a labor of love.
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No. Unfortunately, Kickstarter's rules explicitly prevent funds raised on their site from going to support political candidates.
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We would love to see them! Please send them to us at info@thewomancards.com.
We are being a little inundated at the moment, but we're doing our very best to stay on top of email, and we will respond eventually, even if it takes us a few days!
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Yes! After the Kickstarter closes, www.thewomancards.com will redirect to a website that will accept orders for only prints. In the meantime, you can email Zach at thewomancards@gmail.com to reserve prints only. Like the cards, we expect that prints will begin to ship in late June / early July.
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We know! Choosing only 13 women for the first edition deck was incredibly difficult. As we contemplate a possible second edition deck that would expand to 52 women, making sure that we include Native American women and AAPI women is a priority for us.
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The prints are 18 x 24 inches, so they're decently large. After the Kickstarter closes, we are hoping to have multiple sizes available, but for now, that is all we have!