Party-pooping Feminist Critique of Cartoon

(XXX)

And now for something a little different. In this review I’m going to critique a cartoon I think is a Bad Thing. The main aim of this site ... well, the main aim is to find you something fun and sexy, however there is another main aim which is to get people thinking so we can enjoy the fun and sexy to the full. There is a lot of stuff out there which just channels sexually exciting material in an unthinking way. Obviously you want to get a warm buzz where it matters. However while getting your a thrill, you don't want to feel ill. The reviews on here usually aim to help you avoid that kind of thing. Eventually though, you will go off, looking for things for yourself. (Oooh, <sniff sniff>, poor li'l innocent thing, I packed you some sandwiches in a red spotted handkerchief, and I put some condoms in for you too - wink.) When you come across material that you're unsure about, don't feel you have to take it on board wholesale, use your brain.

Originally I decided to post this review without the link to the cartoon I am critiquing. I wanted to talk about the problems in it, but not encourage viewing of it. However, comments made me realise I was practising censorship. People should be able to make up their own mind so I decided to put the link in a comment. If you want to look at the cartoon in question, hopefully the critique I offer will be helpful to you in doing so. Please feel free to leave comments disagreeing with my opinion of the cartoon. It's only in open discussion that we can figure these things out. 

I was pretty grumpy when I drafted this review, LOL. There is a lot going on in the world which makes me cross. Normally I go Lalala, let's have a larf anyway, cuz if I was to get cross about everything which I think is mean and unfair, it would take a lot of energy. But I let myself go a bit here.

From a British Library
 social science blog

People are often bemused by the idea of a feminist erotica. Maybe they think feminists are just party poopers who dislike sex on principle. Of course there was a time when to be a ‘real’ feminist you had to burn your bra. But I tell you what; anyone who tries to make me burn my ice blue half-cup bra with the little silver heart dangling in the cleavage had better be wearing a bullet-proof vest. I am a postmodern feminist, darling. I do what I like cuz I do it with irony (wink).

This blogpost is a classic feminist critique not a postmodern one; I am aiming to spoil the party. The cartoon I am critiquing is about a retirement party. An old bufton is retiring and his sweet young female boss foolishly offers to grant any wish of his. 

Now I do not on principle object to his tearing her dress off and exposing her to a crowd of cheering co-workers. I like the way she is drawn: with a bouncy pair of boobs and shapely figure. It’s good to see busty beauties rather than skinny size 0 models being promoted as sexy. (Hey, anyone who is fretting about being tubby – the anorexic look isn’t actually sexy, just fashionable.)

Anorexic. From Blog on 
anorexia. (This poor kid 
starved herself to death.) 

Raquel Welch, famous for her 
busty beauty. (Still looking 
good today- aged 74.) 
From Bondambitions.com

Exhibitionism and being exposed to an admiring crowd has been a favoured fantasy for women for yonks (see Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden). However this young woman isn’t consenting either to being shown off or to having ‘tramp, slut’ etc written on her body and then being photocopied on the office copier. For many women, the idea (although not necessarily the reality) of being exposed is a turn-on. However it’s confusing to have a set of sexy pictures about a titillating activity done in the disturbing context of non-consent –commonly known as ‘rape’. (See my review of Ethan’s Grace for a consensual version). 

The retiree’s wife arrives. Rather than attack her husband for his infidelity, she launches into a tirade against the young woman. As the two drive home, she apologises for perhaps being over the top, snuggling up to hubby and saying: “Never mind, I have got you all to myself now.” So don’t worry! The sanctity of marriage is carefully protected in this story, although a young woman who has been raped is left in a compromising position tied up on a photocopier.

From Dreamstime.

Never mind. The retiree has surely been drinking at his party and he is drawn as driving the car, so I expect he runs into a lady cop in the next frame of the comic, who rams her truncheon up somewhere it wasn’t designed to go. (Um, with a condom on it, of course ;) .)

This is a sexy cartoon strip (ho ho), well-drawn and inventive. Being exposed to the admiring gaze of a crowd of appreciative men and having your body photocopied for them all to enjoy might be a turn-on. Ditto having a lady cop’s truncheon shoved up your arse. But being forced to it against your wishes is not a turn-on for anyone who respects human rights. Many women fantasize being forced into sexual activity because society so rigidly enforces the idea that we should be pure virginal non-sexual beings who produce children as miracles without ever sullying ourselves with anything as salty and sticky as spunk. “I’m a good girl,” bleats the young office boss in this cartoon, ie, I can’t enjoy anything as naughty as this; that would make me a tramp/slut/slag/trash (long list of names written on her unwilling body anyway). 

I don’t blame the artist for allowing his story to fall into a rut of well-worn social cliché as to what is sexy. (Good girl forced to endure sex is sexy, naughty slut who realises she likes showing men her tits is naughty and bad and mustn’t be encouraged.) I mean, E.L.R. James did it with 50 Shades of Monotonous and look how well off she is now. I haven’t actually read 50 Shades of Grecian 2000 but that’s not going to stop me being judgmental about it in the cause of good fun. From all I’ve heard, it sounds like a classic Mills and Boon story with a bit of domestic violence artistically dressed up as domination: reclusive millionaire meets young innocent woman; tortured incredibly wealthy genius is saved by ignorant blonde... Oh, excuse me, I dozed off there. Anita Loos did it so much better. 

I’m just kinda sorry the artist of this strip couldn’t be more inventive and allow his heroine to enjoy the party. She could’ve got off with the wife instead of being slapped about by her. I bet they would do some sexy things together on a photocopier – and probably run the whole business efficiently without needing a crowd of men to service them (wink). Oh! forgive me. We old style feminists are all actually po-faced lesbians of course. (In your dreams, LOL.)