Friday, June 12, 2009

Cartoons Aren't Always Very Funny

As a soc major, I like to zip on over to Sociological Images every once and a while to see what's happenin'. Today I found a collection of cartoons about abortion, which depict faceless, identity-less pregnant women. Cartoons, just like other forms of media, express the wide spectrum of this heated debate over the reproductive rights of women. This theme of portraying women as voiceless runs throughout advertising and print media. Daryl Cagle has a huge index of cartoons, and you can see the wide variety of cartoons from across the country that address abortion, RU-486, and reproductive rights.

Some cartoons also show pro-choice activists as angry, irrational people forcing women to have abortions. This ridiculous portrayal of pro-choice people has been a common statement made by anti-abortion groups not only these past few weeks, but over the past few decades.

A few actually seem to be pro-choice, like the cartoon I posted here. These cartoons echo my feelings of how utterly illogical many of the arguments against reproductive rights are, and how unfair the current system is towards women.

If you all find any great pro-choice cartoons, you should post them as comments!
If you have any questions, email campusteam@feminist.org

4 comments:

Serena said...

Wow, I'm so shocked that these are all by men.

There were a couple good ones - my fav was the picketer talking to the woman's stomach saying "we're only trying to save your life" and the woman says "what about mine?" Funny because it's sadly true. The entire pro-life movement is so hell-bent on saving cells, the overwhelming majority of which aren't even people yet, and yet they don't give a lick about the lives of the already existing human beings. But of course... "Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That's their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood." -Thank you Gloria, I couldn't have said it better.

Serena said...

Oh PS - by "so shocked" I meant not at all shocked. Thought I should clarify. Not that the anti-choice movement isn't well stocked with women... Too often the ones tightening our chains are fellow prisoners.

WendyM said...

Where did you get that cartoon? It's awesome!

Ellen said...

well, Wendy, that cartoon was in the Daryl Cagle index. It was hard to chose one that I like.