Multiplex #48: Happy Birthday, Becky
Now I'm not a moron, I get it, and I do have a sense of humor, I did laugh. But... to me this is a bit like a racist joke, not that ti IS a racist joke, just that it illustrates something that is actually a deep social problem.
Here's what I'm on about... Notice in the first panel how the idea to torture the guy was totally mutual? It looks to me like they both had the same idea at the same time and executed it with equal skill.
Why then does the guy get attacked and the "girl" (despite being 18, and therefor a woman) merely have to announce the presence of a vagina to avoid an assault that most would agree was earned? (If one subscribes to the idea that one CAN earn assault, as most of you do judging from the latest poles on bar behavior and child rearing.)
Quite simply because, like so much gladiatorial meat, men, have almost no value beyond their production capacity. Thus, it's ok for us to fight, even if a slip could result in death for one and life in (or associated with) jail for the other. Further, since the people depicted are low income its not like anything they do matters anyway, except the girl, her job is just to stand around and be hot and pick through suitors, again, like so much meat.
Unlike the worthless (judging from their jobs and income of course, the only things about men that matter besides thier familial status)men, she's not a loser, she's merely unmarried. Which ironically makes her more valuable socially, as she represent a potential sex slave, domestic worker, and status symbol to all who are in the market for such things.
So yea, while I did get a chuckle, I am not amused.
Now I'm not a moron, I get it, and I do have a sense of humor, I did laugh. But... to me this is a bit like a racist joke, not that ti IS a racist joke, just that it illustrates something that is actually a deep social problem.
Here's what I'm on about... Notice in the first panel how the idea to torture the guy was totally mutual? It looks to me like they both had the same idea at the same time and executed it with equal skill.
Why then does the guy get attacked and the "girl" (despite being 18, and therefor a woman) merely have to announce the presence of a vagina to avoid an assault that most would agree was earned? (If one subscribes to the idea that one CAN earn assault, as most of you do judging from the latest poles on bar behavior and child rearing.)
Quite simply because, like so much gladiatorial meat, men, have almost no value beyond their production capacity. Thus, it's ok for us to fight, even if a slip could result in death for one and life in (or associated with) jail for the other. Further, since the people depicted are low income its not like anything they do matters anyway, except the girl, her job is just to stand around and be hot and pick through suitors, again, like so much meat.
Unlike the worthless (judging from their jobs and income of course, the only things about men that matter besides thier familial status)men, she's not a loser, she's merely unmarried. Which ironically makes her more valuable socially, as she represent a potential sex slave, domestic worker, and status symbol to all who are in the market for such things.
So yea, while I did get a chuckle, I am not amused.
The answer is much less sinister than you think:
ReplyDeleteIt is because it was Jason (the darker-skinned "meat") who put things over the top with his ridiculously numbers-laden sentence in the last panel, not Becky (the potential sex slave).
They are characters, not Statements.
Second-to-last panel, rather.
ReplyDeleteOh I see, so if I wire a school with explosives, and hand the controller to someone else, its their responsibility alone when they push the button?
ReplyDeleteAll art is a statement, that's the point of making it. The only variance is what's being said, and what was said by this strip consciously or not, was the subject.
I don't think the pro-Company slant was intentional, more like an unconscious symptom of a larger problem.
The idea that your opinion MUST be what was said by the strip ("consciously or not"!) is awfully presumptuous — and I don't believe it really holds up.
ReplyDeleteThe strip does have Becky attempting to hide behind a sexist double standard (that it's okay to hit boys but not girls), and this is intended to be ironic but you can read that any way you want, I suppose.
But the strip does not excuse Becky from any wrong-doing. In fact, the fact that she's recoiling acknowledges her guilt in the situation.
I'm not saying your reading is invalid; I just argue with your apparent position that it's the only possible reading of the strip. Perhaps there IS a statement — but it is not necessarily THAT statement.
And, as the cartoonist and a pinko, I find the idea that it has a "pro-Company" slant disconcerting, bordering on offensive, particularly coming from someone who is not actually familiar with the strip. (You found it via StumbleUpon, right?) You can't simply divorce one strip from the rest of the series because it's convenient to your argument.
Where do you infer that the strip is saying men have (almost) no value beyond their production capacity? Is wanting to get out of work so you can go hang out with your friends necessarily pro-Company?
"I'm not saying your reading is invalid; I just argue with your apparent position that it's the only possible reading of the strip."
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying its the only possible reading. *sigh* I love it when people straw man. I'm not going to attach qualifiers to every thing I say in some pathetic hat-in-hand attempt to make my view palatable to the implacable.
I was merely commenting on the most despicable aspect of the comic and society generally. I'm a man. I don't like being forced into a role composed of one third dirty farting cock machine, one third cut throat callous money maker, and one third brain dead berserker repair slave.
There is more to me than that. As surly as there is more to women than the media would have us believe. On a personal note, I always find it ironic that my singularity is largely the result of my seeing women as more than that, and thus failing to treat the potential mates in my circle of acquaintances as a giggling vapid screw holes with a price tags. Many young women have bought into the myths as have many young men, and so I have to speak up about it as an ethical imperative given that their numbers are growing disproportionately. While idiocracy was a funny movie, I don't wish to see it become reality.
"...particularly coming from someone who is not actually familiar with the strip."
That would go along with the above point, I'm not talking about the strip as a whole (or the set of all possible ways to interpret it). I'm talking about that one strip and that one statement, regardless of what you intended. What I spoke of is part of what makes people laugh.
Humor has been commonly defined as non contradictory fact recognition coupled with surprise. This does not have to be conscious recognition. Or in other words, "It's funny `cus it's true." From that perspective, ask yourself, what's funny about it? What are the elements, socially speaking, and free of context? We have disregard for someone else's goals. We have physical violence. We have a common menial task. etc. We have underage drinking(which I only have a problem with because its used by the criminally stupid to secure mates, thus fucking up the future). I didn't comment on any of that because it doesn't interest me or because it was not apparent (or subtle) enough to warrant comment.. We also have sexism and yet another double standard, which does interest me.
"Where do you infer that the strip is saying men have (almost) no value beyond their production capacity?"
I didn't. Now I do hold that opinion, but I do not say that this strip specifically affirms that opinion. Rather that this strip supports a number of positions that inexorably lead to a value statement (in the negative) about men generally.
The fact that a punch is the punch line (hardy har) pisses me off. Why is it ok for a man to slap a man when it is detestable when a man slaps a woman, and ok for a woman to slap a man?
Basically it boils down to a systematic disregard for a specific set of civil rights in letter but not in practice granted to men. If I punch a woman, I can expect jail time, or lethal response. If I punch a man I can expect a fight and a conversation explaining my reasoning to a cop, maybe.
I consider this in the same family as racial and rape humor(all of which is men on men which is also disgustingly sexist). But obviously not to same degree.
In short my comment is not on the comic itself so much as it is on the society that generated demand for it.
P.S. Are you the author of the strip? If so I'm glad to have the chance to get your comment, and I'm pleased at its level of civility. Secondly, I didn't check the rest of the strip because of two facts, 1. this one disgusted me rather than made me laugh, and 2. my first job was as a popcorn monkey, nuff said.
I am the cartoonist, yes. I came across your post thanks to IceRocket.com.
ReplyDeleteA large number of my readers are current or former "popcorn monkeys," so I wouldn't let that dissuade you — but I'm not sure if you'd be wasting your time reading more of the comic.
You said you did laugh (or chuckle) in the original post, but then you say you didn't in this last reply, so I don't know.
I do think racist jokes, sexist jokes, and other jokes that show a systematic disregard for others' civil rights (male or female) can be very amusing, though — in the right context. If you don't have a sense of humor about such things, then you'll definitely hate the strip.
Yea, sorry for the confusion, I laughed just not at the punch line.
ReplyDelete"...nothing say 19 like a 40."
That's some word smithing right there.
And I agree about the right context.
But this, unlike race jokes and such are not recognized. This stuff slips right past the conscious mind and becomes memory replacement or background "proper behavior" tag.
The double standard is everywhere.
http://innomen.blogspot.com/2008/02/masculism-cynism-and-woman-hating.html
P.S. I wish I could draw at all. I'd do a special variant of political cartoons.
Okay, I gotcha now.
ReplyDeleteI'm still hesitant to agree that the strip addresses that double standard in any way but ironically, but I agree the strip ends weakly.
I really have no idea why StumbleUpon likes that particular strip so much.
We're both products of our culture.
ReplyDeleteYou were simply being funny, my comment was about what counts as funny and why.
In a way it has nothing to do with you personally.
P.S. I envy you. I wish I could make a living off of my writing.
Cassandra complex FTW.
Good talking to you :)