tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post3299292683249043698..comments2023-12-15T02:38:55.020+10:30Comments on Still Life With Cat: They just can't help themselves, can theyKerryn Goldsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-23500737567434208502010-07-04T11:50:57.204+09:302010-07-04T11:50:57.204+09:30*cough*suffragettes*cough**cough*<i>suffragettes</i>*cough*Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-56209928024289685732010-07-04T11:49:32.472+09:302010-07-04T11:49:32.472+09:30Oh all right. The cartoon made me cross, and one o...Oh all right. The cartoon made me cross, and one of the reasons I have a blog is to vent. And one of the things I like to vent about is cultural stereotyping, especially of women.<br /><br />Am wondering what will happen on the cartoon page when Bob Brown becomes PM.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-79986401361201952282010-07-04T11:37:38.906+09:302010-07-04T11:37:38.906+09:30Well actually I do respect your opinion and I do s...Well actually I do respect your opinion and I do support many objectives of feminism, such as paid parental leave etc. However I don't believe I'm obliged to agree with every opinion proffered by a self described feminist. I don't agree with for example:<br /><br />"If you can't see that the point of this cartoon is to take women down a peg and represent one in power as 'just an ordinary housewife really', then I respectfully suggest that you don't know how to read the cartoon."<br /><br />I don't believe a third party can allocate an objective meaning and intent to a cartoon, or any work of art for that matter. Art is open to interpretation and interpretation is necessarily a subjective, individual experience.<br /><br />Oh dear, I see a bunny in my garden. Must hop! Bye.Hypanthiumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-89695937941977071302010-07-04T11:17:11.147+09:302010-07-04T11:17:11.147+09:30I'm sorry, Hypanthium, but I didn't read i...I'm sorry, Hypanthium, but I didn't read it as a good faith question. You appear to be assuming that statistics alone determine the issue, and I'm sorry but you do indeed appear to be playing gotcha on that basis. <br /><br />On the whole, yes I'm sure women do indeed spend more time decorating/tidying up/rearranging than men; it's a given, and I would have thought no 'acknowledgement' was necessary. Women spend more time putting on lipstick than men, too, but if Spooner had drawn a cartoon of Gillard applying lippy, implying 'Tee hee, titivating is all women are good for really', would you or would you not have called <i>that</i> sexist? I did not claim that Spooner was misrepresenting women. I do however maintain that he is belittling them. Probably not even consciously. That's how dominant cultures work.<br /><br />If you can't see that the point of this cartoon is to take women down a peg and represent one in power as 'just an ordinary housewife really', then I respectfully suggest that you don't know how to read the cartoon.<br /><br />And if you find my explanation tortured and roundabout (I prefer 'complex' and 'not accepting of your premise', myself), that suggests to me that again you have missed the point about how stereotypes get to be stereotypes, which is what I was trying to explain. Drawing a cartoon of the Prime Minister using this housekeeping stereotype is a 'back in your box' -type trivialisation of a kind widely used by cartoonists lampooning sufragettes in the 19th century. Some of us would like to think that we have moved on.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-12726368661924452132010-07-04T10:45:07.926+09:302010-07-04T10:45:07.926+09:30I asked the question in good faith as I'm inte...I asked the question in good faith as I'm interested in your perspective.<br /><br />"If it were not a long and deeply established stereotype that on the whole women spend more time redecorating, would we now in fact spend more time redecorating because we're hard-wired to think that's what's expected of us?"<br /><br />Are you acknowledging, in a somewhat tortured and roundabout fashion, that yes, women do in fact spend more time decorating than men?Hypanthiumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-79253213249495411082010-07-04T09:48:09.765+09:302010-07-04T09:48:09.765+09:30Also, I did not say Spooner was sexist, which woul...Also, I did not say Spooner was sexist, which would be a largely meaningless remark. I said it was a sexist cartoon. Which it is.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-7632279113144266862010-07-04T09:46:21.073+09:302010-07-04T09:46:21.073+09:30Well yes, I was expecting that; I'm just surpr...Well yes, I was expecting that; I'm just surprised that it took so long.<br /><br />It's not about literal-mindedness. It's about the reinforcement of stereotypes. I know antifeminists just love playing gotcha, but you really do need to do a bit of reading to get your heads around the idea that these essentialist arguments are not the whole story.<br /><br />If it were not a long and deeply established stereotype that on the whole women spend more time redecorating, would we now in fact spend more time redecorating because we're hard-wired to think that's what's expected of us?Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-10670122342884533932010-07-04T01:10:58.758+09:302010-07-04T01:10:58.758+09:30I'm curious, if a suitably designed research p...I'm curious, if a suitably designed research project discovered that yes, women are indeed more inclined than men to spend time decorating a domicile or workspace, would Spooner still be sexist?Hypanthiumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-89403754601183287872010-06-30T18:17:27.066+09:302010-06-30T18:17:27.066+09:30Ms O'Dyne, yes of course. And it's a very ...Ms O'Dyne, yes of course. And it's a very good cartoon. It's just that every now and then something crosses my tolerance threshold for the 'Ooh a woman in public life, tee hee' mentality. I think I spent too long studying the 19th century.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-5653361234128282642010-06-30T17:38:02.280+09:302010-06-30T17:38:02.280+09:30Not as bad as you think dear Dr. Cat.
It is more a...Not as bad as you think dear Dr. Cat.<br />It is more about the ex-PM under siege, than about the new one in the office.<br />John Howard's redecorate with the green chesterfields got him a long-running cartoon whipping as I recall.<br />Spooner's portrait of musician Keith Richards was so perfect I cannot criticise him for anything else.Ann ODynehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01159263330547329077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-12317911771799286432010-06-30T16:27:20.802+09:302010-06-30T16:27:20.802+09:30MH: heh.
Fred: glad to hear it!MH: heh.<br /><br />Fred: glad to hear it!Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-25956907568962031192010-06-30T16:19:38.062+09:302010-06-30T16:19:38.062+09:30One of the cartoonists (I think that it was Spoone...One of the cartoonists (I think that it was Spooner) has already drawn Julia as Queen Elizabeth IFrednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-37356071699136780632010-06-30T16:09:15.517+09:302010-06-30T16:09:15.517+09:30Sorry... try this oneSorry... try <a href="http://images.smh.com.au/2010/06/27/1648157/Moir_Abbott-600x400.jpg" rel="nofollow">this one</a>M-Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18409916623998907121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-66743732190536919632010-06-30T16:06:24.523+09:302010-06-30T16:06:24.523+09:30On the other hand, there's this one from yest...On the other hand, there's <a href="http://images.smh.com.au/2010/06/27/1648157/Moir_Abbott-600x400.jpg%22" rel="nofollow"> this one</a> from yesterday's smh.M-Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18409916623998907121noreply@blogger.com