Diane DiMassa (born 1959) is an American feminist artist, noted as creator of the alternative cartoon character Hothead Paisan, Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, whose wild antics have been described as rage therapy for the marginalised.
[citation needed] Hothead literally started out as journal material to vent and deal with anger issues by DiMassa when first entering into drug and alcohol recovery.
[3] The first issue, published as a mini-comic,[2] was twelve pages long and elicited a roaring response, giving rise to the ongoing series, and soon after, a line of merchandise called "Groovy Crapola" which included shirts, mugs, hats, rubber stamps, etc.
"[4] This societal imbalance is explained in the Gabrielle Dean's feminist analysis of the comic strip which postulates that Hothead is a "phallicized dyke" who is "at the mercy of her own rage against society, which she expresses by castrating men who are exaggerated stand-ins for the patriarchal order.
[6] DiMassa illustrated the Pussycat Fever chapbook by the late Kathy Acker, along with Freddie Baer (AK Press, 1995); My Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein (which won a 1999 Firecracker Alternative Book Award);[7] and Sexing the Body by Anne-Fausto Sterling.