I have seen a couple cartoons that I thought were offensive, but at the same time I see the humor in them. The most recent one that I saw when I was cruising around the internet was a woman who is clearly on a sinking ship and is complaining about the sexism about women and children being told to board the safety boats first. The reason this is funny is because she wants to lecture the man about being sexist instead of getting off the boat and saving her own life. The reason to me that it is offensive because it makes the woman look too stupid and too proud to save her own life. I know that I hate sexism, but if it is going to save my life I am going to live with it and take it like an adult.
I do not like the way it makes a woman who is a feminist look too proud to save her own life. It makes it seem that she does not care that it is her life on the line. She basically sounds unintelligent because she goes on a tangent when all was said to her was probably get on the boat.
In the cartoon, you see a shocked old man that looks so confused about how she reacts to everything that was said.
The nature of the cartoon is to make fun of feminist women. They are making fun of the fact that they are trying so hard not to conform really to the way people expect a woman to be, the house wife, the stay at home and other stereotypes like that. They make fun of it even more by putting the woman in old fashioned clothing and you see that the boat is the Titanic. The boat being Titanic shows you that this is a very old fashioned period during time. There were few feminist, but they would have gotten in the safety boat with the Titanic sinking because it is human nature to want to save your own life.
I read a quote about feminism and this is what it said, “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." ~Clare Boothe Luce
I thought this quote was perfect for the situation in the cartoon, I could twist to the fact that may be she was not stupid, but trying to show that she could survive with out the safety boat because she wanted to prove to the world that not just she, but all women were stronger enough to survive something that many people did not survive.
There is also another quote that said, “I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.” ~Madonna Ciccone. This woman was exactly that, she seems like a bitch, but she perfectly okay with seeming like a complete bitch. You see that she does not care what someone thinks about her because she has a smug smile on her face.
Women in general have come a long way in education, lifestyles, and overall opinions about life. Women don’t have to stay at home and raise children anymore these days, although some do. And I think it is very sad how they stereotype stay at home moms too. My cousin is a stay at home mom and has been since her first child was born 14 years ago. She works very hard, wow. She is a hard worker and very dependable. I say so what if women want to raise and nurture their children. It doesn’t make them any less than a woman. Some feminist I think are too extreme in their opinions. Some things are taken way out of context, like your cartoon. Maybe the man was being respectable and out of pure politeness wishing she’d get on the boat. I think we have definitely taken the right step in women rights but the men aren’t necessarily our enemy, are they? Yes, some men are awful, but so are some women. I do believe that women should be, and are equal to men in today’s society. Like I said before, I think gestures and words are many times taken out of context by hardcore feminists. I believe myself to be a feminist but I also enjoy men holding the door for me or walking me to my car. Yes, I can do these things by myself but why? Does this make me weak? I don’t think it does, do you?
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