Who Will Be Offended Today?

I swear some people must do massive buy-ups at Bunnings and stock up on the pitchforks, and those stick-in-the-ground garden torches.  They bide their time, hear about something, then snatch up the pitchforks, light the torches, and chase some hapless patsy through the street as they yell, 'Raaaar-aaaaarr!'

All I'm reading about lately is some cartoon of Serena Williams. It's caused a shitfight that Tom Wolfe could only dream about putting in one of his novels.  Unless you've been on the Moon (in which case, welcome back and glad you didn't burn up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere), you would be aware that the world appears to have lost its shit over a cartoon that was published in the Murdoch press, depicting Serena Williams chucking a massive tanty. I've seen the cartoon, and to be honest, thought it was a good caricature. I wasn't overly amused by it, but I wasn't offended, either. It seems everyone else is offended, on the grounds it is racist.

Racist, how is what I wondered, so I did a little bit of research into what has everybody lighting the torches and sharpening the pitchforks, as well as clearing the throat and expelling the phlegm so they can yell, 'Raaaar-aaaaar!' The perceived problem in the cartoon is the style is reminiscent of the Jim Crow era cartoons in which people of colour were depicted in a derogatory and exaggerated style, and are generally considered offensive.  Okay.  That is offensive.

But is the cartoon in question offensive? Let's contextualise a little folks. This is Australia and the year is 2018. The Jim Crow laws, that enforced racial segregation, took place in the Southern States of the US from around the 1970s until 1965. I don't know personally know the cartoonist who drew this apparent portent of the apocalypse (going from the reactions of everybody from JK Rowling to the old guy up the road who used to yell at my dog), so I can't say whether he's familiar with the aforementioned cartoons. Maybe he studied that style of drawing in art history, but I don't know.  Did he draw the cartoon with a sinister racist intent?  Again, I don't know, but I kind of have my doubts.

This cartoon addresses petulant and perceived brattish behaviour on the part of Serena Williams. What its vociferous critics are up in arms about is the style in which it is drawn. I am going to point this out to the critics: the drawing is a caricature. It is not a portrait. It is a C-A-R-I-C-A-T-U-R-E. You tend to see them a lot in satirical works. One of the elements of caricature is the exaggeration of the subject's features. Put it this way: have you ever seen a caricature of Prince Charles in which his ears don't rival that of Dumbo the Elephant?

I've copped a bit of flack over my refusal to believe the cartoon set out to propagate racism. I honestly don't see any in the cartoon. I'm not so arrogant to believe that just because I don't see it, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But yeah, I just don't see it. I see a caricature of a woman chucking a massive wobbly.

I mentioned on a Twitter thread that I understood WHY people considered the cartoon racist, but didn't see anything offensive myself and that the cartoon was directed towards Williams' behaviour, and not her ethnicity. For my pains I was told by an enlightened social media user to pull my head out of my ass. I informed this erudite wordsmith that she should read my comment again properly because I acknowledged that some people see it as racist, and understood their reasoning; and I suggested she organise for Search and Rescue to retrieve HER head from HER arse (I said 'arse'  because I'm an Aussie).  Apparently my whiteness is really showing.  According to her, anyway.  Is there something wrong with believing a cartoon actually focuses on a tantrum thrown by an elite sportswoman?

Something that's really bothering me is the concept of people being afraid to work on their art, because someone will lose their shit. Good art makes people think and speak, and furthermore, art is under no obligation to conform to societal norms and morals.

Ars gratia artis, folks.