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Original poster

Ahhhhg, THAT Steve Bell cartoon

83 replies

ethelb · 28/01/2017 17:55

I don't know if there has been a thread about this and the pure misogyny in it: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2017/jan/26/steve-bell-uk-us-theresa-may-donald-trump-cartoon

Yes there was homophobic satire around Blair and Bush (and Trump and Putin) but all of those implied a degree of consent to the situation.

Theresa May is not the first and won't be the last PM to have her dealings with US foreign policy criticised. And with good reason.

But for some reason, this particular Prime Minister gets anal rape jokes 6 months into her premiership? And my Facebook is full of the menz who think it is all totes hilare, and are mortally wounded if anyone suggests it is misogynistic.

A week after the women's march people. A fucking week!

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OlennasWimple · 29/01/2017 00:17

I agree with Het - we are supposed to be shocked, because the cartoon is shocking and the situation we are in is shocking.

I do think it has a hefty dose of misogynism, though

Rainatnight · 29/01/2017 00:06

Specifically, sorry

Rainatnight · 29/01/2017 00:05

I find it really shocking. He wouldn't have done it if our PM was male. It's specially making a point about female sexual submission

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 28/01/2017 23:54

Brush up on your art history, people! Like many of Steve Bell's cartoons, it's a rip-off of a Gillray print published over 200 years ago

I have already pointed that out. It is a feeble excuse.

CorporalNobbyNobbs · 28/01/2017 23:32

I don't like it but I didn't see it as rape either or necessarily anal.

Itwasthenandstillis · 28/01/2017 23:25

You put it better than me LordRoth. I think that the Trump and erdogan things sum up what a desperate situation the UK have got themselves into with Brexit.

Itwasthenandstillis · 28/01/2017 23:16

I think the aim is show how shocking and unacceptable her determination is to have a 'special relationship' with such a vile, misogynistic,sexual abuser.

LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt · 28/01/2017 23:16

Brush up on your art history, people! Like many of Steve Bell's cartoons, it's a rip-off of a Gillray print published over 200 years ago. The original print had nothing to do with rape, it parodied a royal couple who were rather contrasting in size. To my eyes, Bell's cartoon satirises May for metaphorically getting to bed with Trump, and suggests that she will be crushed by him. I think he has a point. I am as feminist as they come, and I see nothing offensive here. I am much more disturbed by the spectacle of May courting the likes of Trump and Erdogan within the space of two days.

RJnomore1 · 28/01/2017 23:08

It's not very complimentary to trump with its little feet and fat orange calves it it.

Itwasthenandstillis · 28/01/2017 23:04

I have this picture in my mind of TM and him holding hands. Sorry but what the F was that about? Following the women's march she holds his hand?!? This cartoon may have overstepped, and i understand that it could be intetepreted as misoginistic but it is not what first came to mind for me. Seeing the picure of the pm of the UK holding hands with him made me feel much worse.

msanonymouse · 28/01/2017 23:04

Well put Mostly. I'd forgotten about Erdogan. If anything that's worse.

M0stlyHet · 28/01/2017 23:00

I found it deeply shocking, one of the most shocking cartoons I've seen for a long time - but that, I presume, was the intention. Basically it was "the US giving it to Britain up the arse" (yes, the positioning of the feet did immediately make me think anal sex). However, I take it that the whole point of the cartoon was to tap into a whole lot of terrifying associations just to make clear how politically unacceptable the situation was. And following a couple of days when May has just sold 100 million quid's worth of arms to Erdogan, and refused to condemn Trump's EO banning people from 7 Middle East countries from the US, actually, shocking as it is as an image, it is a highly effective piece of political satire. It is meant to shock, it does shock, because we should be shocked.

msanonymouse · 28/01/2017 22:54

I don't know. May's sycophancy towards Trump has been nothing short of nauseating. Finding it hard to muster any sympathy for a woman who is so happy to disregard Trump's contempt for her fellow kind. Her demeanour suggested affinity rather than reluctant realpolitik.

At the end of the day she's another nasty right wing Tory. Sod her.

AskBasil · 28/01/2017 22:43

I didn't necessarily see it as rape. Or anal sex. Just sex in that position.

But I think that's what's quite telling about it, that heterosexual sex in patriarchy, is framed as so close to rape, that we can't tell the difference in a cartoon as to whether it's consensual sex or rape.

It's obviously saying that Britain is being fucked by America. And fucking in this context, is framed as the one being fucked - women - are being done something bad too. While the one fucking - men - are dominant and powerful.

Radical feminists are called man-hating and anti-sex, when they critique hetero-normative sexual behaviour and discuss the way it is framed in patriarchy as woman=submissive, man=dominant. But male cartoonists tap into this and everyone immediately knows what they mean, gets the joke and don't for one moment, think the cartoonist is a man-hater.

Original poster
ethelb · 28/01/2017 21:55

museumum But in a cartoon as blunt as this, isn't there a fairly fine line between submissive and coersive?

I think it is bonkers to suggest that the same would happen to a man in the same position. It never has and it is unliky to ever happen.

Jon Ronson, though I can't stand the man, did some quite interesting research for 'So you have been publically shamed' where public shaming of men generally involves the online mob saying 'I'm going to get you fired' whereas with women people say 'I'm going to rape you' or 'I hope you get raped.

He (and the people he consults) hypothesise this is because as a society we talk about female rape but not about male rape. That doesn't mean male rape doesn't happen but we don't talk about it. Whether we are being right on or satirical, we just don't.

Men are threatened with 'being fired' because of the patriarchal view that men should provide and being fired is shameful.

So male leaders are threatened with not being re-elected, and female leaders are threatened with being raped in political discourse. And no one ever questions this.

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museumum · 28/01/2017 20:18

It's a vile cartoon I agree but I totally didn't read it as rape. At all. Never occurred to me that it was rape rather than consensual (albeit submissive).

Xenophile · 28/01/2017 20:14

I totally get you. Same ol, same ol.

Original poster
ethelb · 28/01/2017 19:32

I hated that one as well Xenophile. But at least there isn't a real human woman who has dared to be powerful, that we are being encouraged to laugh at and mock in that one.

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Xenophile · 28/01/2017 19:23

It's not unlike this one.

So nice to know that Trump's admission of sexual assault is providing grist for cartoonist's pens.

Ahhhhg, THAT Steve Bell cartoon
Original poster
ethelb · 28/01/2017 19:06

Gunny which Steve Bell/The Guardian has decided to portray via the image of a woman being raped by a man who has faced sexual assault accusations.

I don't remember that happening to Blair.

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GunnyHighway · 28/01/2017 19:00

I think you are all over thinking this. This has nothing to do with the sex but more about America fucking the UK.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 28/01/2017 18:53

Of course it is misogynistic. You can't tell if it is depicting a rape . It doesn't matter - it's still misogynistic and offensive.

Somerville · 28/01/2017 18:52

Yes, it's incredibly misogynistic.

No real surprise from the Guardian lately.

Original poster
ethelb · 28/01/2017 18:48

If someone can find me an example of satire that implies rape between two male leaders in the mainstream UK press, then fine. This isn't misogynistic.

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