Every Friday is Memeday here on We Hunted the Mammoth. Today, we’re taking a look at some terrible antifeminist cartoons. But not just any terrible antifeminist cartoons: terrible antifeminist cartoons done in the style of old-school editorial cartoons. You know, the kind with stuff all labeled and shit.
I ran across the cartoon above on Reddit yesterday, and it’s an excellent example of this particular genre. My only real disappointment is that the artist didn’t take the time to label the five different balls ‘n’ chains set that poor Louis CK — I assume that’s supposed to be him — has attached to his legs and, in a clever twist, to his right arm.
Given the odds against him he seems weirdly cheerful.
UPDATE: As various people have pointed out, this is an MRA-ized version of a cartoon intended to highlight male privilege. I’ve posted the original at the end of this post, along with a translation of the caption helpfully provided by the original artist.
Next up is a cartoon that’s been floating around the manosphere for a while; I found it on the Twitter timeline of Hannah Wallen, one of the Honey Badgers and possibly the strangest “thinker” in the Men’s Rights world. (Well, alongside her fellow Honey Badger Alison Tieman.) I think she is the, er, artist here. I may be wrong, but the bizarro world logic of the cartoon is right up her alley.
This next one comes from her blog; presumably she’s the “artist” here as well.
You kind of have to admire the diligence in labeling almost everything in the cartoon that could possibly be labeled. But why not go all out and label absolutely everything? The pants should be labeled pants; the shirts should be labeled shirts; the shoes should be labeled shoes. (If those lumpy things in the foot area are indeed supposed to be shoes.)
I’m a little puzzled as to the meaning of the cartoon, though. Is is supposed to show that women have a harder time on the job because their weirdo bosses make them stand on boxes?
There are fewer labels in this next cartoon, by a Twitterer called @AntiFemComics, but the effect is just as confusing.
Apparently the evil feminists have tied up some mothers, and are sending them down Feminism River to certain death over Life of Regret Falls. What all that is supposed to mean I couldn’t tell you.
And given that the mothers are already tied up, why did the evil feminists need to take their paddles, too? It’s not like the mothers could do any paddling anyway. Feminists are just mean, I guess.
Let me end with a cartoon I found a couple of years ago. Sure, I’ve posted it here at least once already. But it’s a stone cold classic!
Take that, “Today’s Lace Curtain Dominated Media!” How dare you try to silence ALL MALE OPINIONS by hanging these opinions (which are also a dude) while wearing boxes on your heads! During what appears to be a total eclipse of the sun!
Maybe instead of trying to produce editorial cartoons, MRAs should just stick to what they’re good at. Which is nothing.
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https://twitter.com/Emanu_G/status/688668767694499840
This is a website that mocks misogyny, with some thoughtful pieces here and there, but mostly to mock. No need to debunk because they’re from MRA sites, and if you peruse the site, you’ll see why.
Welcome, BTW.
As odd as this might seem coming from a man, I would love if it were possible for these antifeminists to genuinely experience what life is like for a woman for a while and see if their imaginations match up to reality. Because from seeing the stuff that I’ve been shown thanks to this site, I can’t imagine that it’s all that easy.
And political cartoons are where metaphor goes to die – some of these are as bad as the Onion’s. The best genuine one I ever saw was a cartoon of the incident where Henry Gates was arrested for entering his own home – and in the depiction the artist had helpfully labelled him with a T-shirt that said “Gates”.
And I went to university with someone who had a “lobster claw” for a left hand. Seriously – he’d been born with some sort of mutant large double-opposable-thumb thing instead of the usual five fingers, and enjoyed scaring people with it when they noticed – but he was so competent with it that I didn’t even notice for the first two years I took classes with him.
Nope, remember: We hate women making the choice to be stay-at-home mothers or focusing on their children or husbands instead of their careers and government-mandated feminist activism! So saith Katie! [/sarcasm]
But seriously though, for anyone lurking, no, feminists don’t hate stay-at-home moms or people who choose to be mothers (who might also work and stuff). We hate that women are told they have to be mothers and wives (and told that it’d be better if they stayed at home to do it), because that’s their “place”. No one should have a “place” based solely on their gender.
Some women want to be Stay-At-Home Moms, and that’s fine, but some women also don’t want that or don’t want to have kids, and that’s also fine. Feminism has room for all of these.
I’m still puzzling over that hangman one. How the hell do lace curtains “dominate” the media?
I guess they might cover your TV?
Off topic, but i just found out that an artist i really like called Revin Goff, published a song called Yiannopoulos. If Goff is a GG supporter i might just cry :'(
So would an appropriate counter cartoon be a cartoon where the viewer, who has “viewer”‘ labeled on his HIS! shirt, naturally, being beaten with a brick that has “subtlety” written on it while a drawing of the artist who wears a shirt with “artist” written on it has a word bubble that says “I AM BEING CLEVER!”?
The first cartoon was plagiarized/edited. Non-creative bigots LOVE taking the material from their opposition and making shitty edits.
re: lobster claws
The hands on those women would be fine if they didn’t have palm lines. -_- Mitten hands for distance models are pretty common. Up close, having an indent in the middle of the palm and the fat pads on the hands emphasised help viewers to read the image of a hand correctly. But at a distance, we don’t really see those details.
I don’t think MRAs can draw very well because drawing, and almost any talent, partially requires the ability to critique yourself and others successfully. From what I know about this group, they can’t do that very well. 😛
@ WeirdwoodTreeHugger- Red hair = “cr*zy feminist” has been around since that one meme of that lady who was filmed arguing with MRAs.
Hands are hard to draw is all I’m gonna say.
Oh oops, I double posted after leaving the “edit” thing alone for too long. Like, hours. Can someone please delete the double?
I suppose, but that’s kind of defeating the purpose of having one.
Are Hannah Wallen’s drawings supposed to look like tracings done in MS Paint? They’re awfully wobbly. Maybe she needs a new mouse. Or to clean the Cheeto dust out from around the tracking ball?
@karen Sometimes David goes to the trouble of debunking MRA articles. Sometimes things like their memes are just so nonsensical that there’s nothing there to debunk. A lot of it is really really repetitive. They only have a handful of canned talking points, so after a claim has been debunked 10 or 15 times, all you can really do is just laugh and lose a little more faith in humanity.
Debunking MRA memes, to me, would be like trying to debunk Timecube.
Where would you even start?
MRAs fall into the “so wrong it’s not even wrong” category. There’s just no coherent underlying thread that you could even begin to pick apart.
It would be like cutting a load of random words from a newspaper, throwing them on the floor, looking at the resultant mess and saying “Right, formulate a counter argument to that”.
@davidknewton
At least the Onion’s ones are done bad as a way tto mock far right political cartoons.
I see they recycle all the 19th century claptrap about women’s rights and the “non-feminine,” and “evil” women who advocate for those rights. They forgot to include the “atrophying uterus” argument put forth by a Harvard doctor. Oh well. Maybe they’ll have a weird drawing for that next.
I did find the “lace curtain” term and its, uh, twisted meaning.
I found the term coined by that MRA icon and go-to source for all “facts” MRA, Dr. Warren Farrel. According to Farrel, the “media lace curtain” is the attempt by media to shut out opinions that are a threat to feminism.
I want to live in whatever universe that is, in which feminism is respected and reported about honestly. I’m pretty sure that’s not happening in this one; well, at least not in the US media as far as I can tell.
Abigail
I thought the person being stomped on in the puppet-holding one was supposed to be a woman. Cuz feminists are controlling the patriarchy to abuse women, because women secretly “want” it…you know what, I’m going to stop before I throw up.
Either that, or that is some seriously inept rendering of facial expressions, to go along with the seriously inept rendering of everything else.
In other news, turns out early humans DID hunt the mammoth!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/01/15/ancient-mammoth-hunt-discovery-puts-humans-in-the-arctic-much-earlier-than-wed-thought/
Pfffft. Since when has the media even reported feminist opinions without sneering about bra-burning and stupid shit that has no bearing on the actual thing? There is no fucking “media lace curtain”, dudes. Just because you’re an even bigger joke to them than we apparently are, doesn’t mean they’re conspiring against you.
Warren Farrell not only obsesses about Dat Ass, he’s got his head way up it. So far that he can literally see nothing else.
Any effort of the media that can be read as anything other than “Men rule, girls drool” will be perceived by these blobs of glup as an attack.
“Lace curtain media” makes me think of lace curtain Irish, which is an entirely different thing.
Robert, are you also a fan of The Thirteen Clocks?
I’m a mother and a feminist, so I’m a bit confused. Would I be in the boat or standing on the banks with lobster claws? Also does the fact that I have red hair factor into the determination?
Fred, you asking that question makes me think you are a fan of The 13 Clocks.
I approve.
Not that you need my approval, but I approve.
I read the canoe one as a case where the MRM are saying yeah – we treat mothers shabbily and that darn feminism raised expectations for women, but since we’re such shitty husbands and fathers – you’ll have a lifetime of regret if you breed with us. Regret and resentment you might not have had if you were less aware (but probably would anyway).
Not sure about the crab women, but frankly I’m pretty sure that crab-human hybrids have bigger problems than helping women with shitty husbands.
@Bina
“There is no fucking “media lace curtain”, dudes”
That depends on your perspective. If your definition of feminism is “all advances in women’s rights since biblical times” then no doubt an outrageous level of feminist bias is to be seen everywhere.
Also, the stay at home mommy and the single working mommy can be the same woman. Its called divorce and it happens. As alimony is not something most residentional parents get, housewifery isn’t exactly a guaranteed permanent gig. People transition in and out of careers, relationships, etc. Children grow up. Things change. So, the idea that women are on opposing teams is ridiculous.