Comments on: An email discussion about a cartoon in today’s Prince http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince/ Feminism and Gender Issues at Princeton University Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:33:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Brenda http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince/#comment-1066 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:52:39 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince#comment-1066 Perhaps we should consider the overall cartoon in bad taste, and perhaps the ambiguity leaves the message open to interpretation. But does it matter whether I am a feminist when I say that as an asian woman who reads the news every day that I am personally offended by the assumptions made by this cartoon? Would more people be offended if instead of the characters being ambiguously female, if they were ambiguously from a specific eating club, from a specific state, or from a specific class?

Furthermore, in light of the decline in women's leadership on this campus, I question what social structures are in place that discourage women or disempower them on a campus where they comprise about half the student body, and this cartoon is symptomatic of an attitude that women are clueless on world issues, a fact which is not true either for men or women.

"Risky" or not, one cannot be too careful about the representation of women in popular media, and while some would argue that popular media is informed by social structures, I believe that it's never such a simplistic one-way street, and that popular media can inform readers as well. Therefore the normalization of women's cluelessness when it comes to world affairs is in my opinion very, very risky.

]]> By: Alex http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince/#comment-1063 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:27:26 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince#comment-1063 This sort of concern treads on very risky ground. When feminists try to read sexism into everything, they ensure that no one will take them seriously when they find actual, harmful instances of women being oppressed. In most circumstances, a cartoonist is going to have to choose a gender for her characters. It so happens these characters are women.

]]> By: Sam http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince/#comment-1062 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:56:32 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince#comment-1062 I'd have to agree with Ayse – my initial impression on reading the cartoon was that it was about student ignorance inside the orange bubble – a theme which people make jokes about all the time. On the other hand I've never heard anyone joking or talking about female students in particular being ignorant of current events.

To me the fact that the two characters are women was a positive – that when thinking of a typical student the artist settled on women rather than (as is much more often the case) defaulting to men.

]]> By: xockcin http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince/#comment-1061 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:55:33 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/10/27/an-email-discussion-about-a-cartoon-in-todays-prince#comment-1061 I'm pretty sure the one playing video games is actually a guy with long hair.

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