Free Speech And Humor

Sometimes you get it wrong

I wonder what was going on in the mind of this cartoonist, Barbara Shermund, when she wrote this cartoon (above) in the 1930’s. Did she intend to have the men saying that even women make mistakes, i.e. “women are human;” or did she intend this to be understood that the men here were finally resigned to accept women as more than just bodies?

Cartoons can be misunderstood. I have to wonder if any of mine have been misunderstood. I am sure some have been, or at least interpreted differently than what I intended. That’s just the nature of humor. Sometimes a good cartoon is one that can be interpreted many ways.

I did do one that was not well recieved by one individual, and rightfully so. I forget exactly when I drew it, but record indicate it was around 2014. The criticism/push back was that I was making fun of transgender folks. That was not my intent, rather I was trying to make fun of the men in the boardroom who were only thinking that wearing a skirt would make someone a feminist; or rather that these men thought only women could be feminists. Both of which are false assumptions, of course. Men can be and are feminists, not all women wear skirts, and wearing a skirt does not “make” you either a woman or a feminist. And some women who wear skirts are not feminists!