Thank you, Jason Roberts, for calling to my attention the fact that I must have accidentally turned off my blog's "Comments" function.
I just fixed it so everyone who commented, your published! Sorry, sorry, sorry.
And I really appreciate the moderating insights that many of you have left for me.
Did I over react to The Oklahoman cartoon? Maybe. But I was trying to view it through the eyes of a 12 year old girl. Kids don't "get the joke" because they don't follow the news like we news junkies do. (Having taught Intro to American Government at OU, I can tell you most college freshmen don't "get" lots of political cartoons either!)
If you don't know who those people (or elephants) are, all you see is a woman hanging by a rope and people getting ready to hit her with big sticks. I am fighting to change the culture of violence in Oklahoma. Hitting women is bad. Hanging women is bad. View the cartoon through the eyes of a young Oklahoma girl and I still think it was pretty scary.
Anyway, sorry I accidentally turned off comments a few weeks ago (I do NOT know how that happened). It is back on so, commenters, have at it!
I am very surprised at the comments on the Oklahoman Cartoon post. Your words summed up exactly what I was thinking when I saw it. To say that you had "missed the point" as one person suggested seems to me to be missing a larger point... political cartoons speak on a number of levels. They are interpreted differently based on our understanding of current issues. And yes, the most basic message that this cartoon portrays is violently sexist and racist. That's a hard message to get past, even though I can appreciate the more subtle subtext.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amanda. I am rather surprised at the interest my little blog post has generated. I have had calls from CNN, the Associated Press and KOSU wanting a quote or an interview. I have said no to all because I don't want the rantings of a private citizen (this blog) confused with my role as chair of the Okahoma Women's Coalition. Instead, I forwarded all of them on to Cathy Stackpole for a coment (sorry Cathy!). But surely this cartoon appeared somewhere else in America and we aren't the only people who were "taken a'back" by the "message" it sent.
ReplyDelete:-).
Thanks for the fix. I'm glad everyone got a chance to voice their opinions.
ReplyDeleteWhile your words here are a bit more moderate, I still have to disagree. A 12-year-old isn't going to see a woman hanging by a rope, they'll see a person.
And while hitting and hanging women is bad, I'd offer that hitting and hanging people is bad too.
Real violence against anyone is despicable, but shouldn't the goal be to view everyone as a person? To recognize that we have differences, but to treat everyone as equals?
That's the only future I want to be a part of, but the only way we'll get there is if you and those you oppose stop seeing the world as "us" versus "them," and just realize that we're all "us."
To all you supporters of men I just want to say, Oklahoma ranks fourth in the nation for men killing their partners. Men hit women more than women hit men. So women are just a tad more sensitive to images of women hanging by a rope with "peopole" holding baseball bats getting ready to wack them. Hey - the name of this blog is "Oklahoma WOMEN'S Network" for a reason. I blog from the perspective of women.
ReplyDeleteI hope I have not upset you, because that was never my intention. I only hoped to provide a needed counterpoint, one not from the position of a sex, but from the position of a person.
ReplyDeleteYou say you write from a woman's perspective, but I know many women who do not share your views. The only perspective represented on your blog is your own.
In the future, I would hope the "Oklahoma WOMEN'S Network" abandons the old ways of looking at the world in favor of one that will benefit us in the future.
~Jason
PS This week, I wrote an opinion piece in my newspaper in response to your attack on Chip Bok, from the perspective of a creator. It is reprinted here on my blog, and I hope you will give it a read.