... to wonder if these pictures are offensive?

[MrsPeacockInTheLibrary]

There were shared by an artist on a Facebook group. I think they seem offensive in some sense - but then I have also been told I am too sensitive and overthink everything. I also wonder if the original intention of the author matters, or the geographical origin of the pictures in relation to what is the style of humour captured.

I am trying to be more aware of when to "get over myself" so I would be interested to see what others think.

YABU - they are not offensive at all
YANBU - I can see what you mean

So what’s wrong with ‘pit canteen’ then..?
Can’t wait to find out....

Cartoon characters depicting an exaggeration of social history...whats so offensive?
I wonder in future if we'll see similar depictions of women going to the local shops in PJ's or onesies.....which is increasingly common now.

Our local Post Office now has a sign saying...."If you can't be bothered to get dressed, we can't be bothered to serve you!"

@IdblowJonSnow
No, he’s painting an exaggerated memory.
If you see her as sexualised , that’s on you, not him or her.
😁

The canteen picture is ok too. Back then, you started work as a teenager and usually quit and became a housewife after the first child. So most of the canteen workers then would be aged 14-20, fit, young women. It’s obviously a young woman in her prime.

I don’t understand why people are saying “overburdened”....women worked harder then. I suppose that’s over burdened to us today with our central heating, indoor plumbing and bath tubs, ovens and gas stoves/hobs, washing machines and hovers...but back then they had none of that. There is nothing wrong with showing that reality. I’d be more offended if the cartoons were romanticising things and portraying the women as sitting around drinking tea or whatever, but these women are clearly working dawn to midnight everyday with only a quick gossip break and smoke, or a snatched coffee on your feet....thus the pinnies.

I like them.

@PlanDeRaccordement @Samtsirch I also thought, “What’s wrong with the pit canteen picture?”

Then I looked a second time. I’m from a pit area, though they were all closing in my 20s. Nobody served tea in the canteen with their bra on show like that! I don’t like it - sexualisation.

@PlanDeRaccordement In a 1950s work canteen, the women serving you would be unlikely to have her tunic unbuttoned to show off her bra don't you think? Of course that could be the miner's fantasy yes....

@Ellisandra
@Rosehip10
Ah yes, totally see what you mean.
Completely missed that.😩

@Samtsirch I did too at first! My eye doesn’t naturally go straight to the “tits” 🙄 especially looking on a small phone screen!

images.app.goo.gl/7HYZmNiCFJf9iT2k6

Women were much more likely to look like this in those days. And a younger more attractive woman would look just like the pit canteen girl cartoon.

Not offensive. I don’t like that style of drawing myself though, even taking out the stereotypes portrayed.

I took it as a pit of poking fun at the pin up style, hence the breasts and figure of a pin up girl, but living the drudgery and poverty I heard so much about from my own Geordie Great Gran. The fire warming image is definitely not crude, it’s how you warm your bum, trap all that heat under your skirt!
The faux outrage makes me feel uncomfortable, especially attacking a small local artist

They're lewd, but hardly offensive.

My mum would love these as they are like her life! Her mum would warm herself
Like that, wore a pinny all the time, had boobs and bum due to having birthed 10
Kids ... later on the pictures show top and tale kids in bed - my mum as the youngest shared her bed with 4 other sisters and as the youngest slept across the bottom. She also had the last bath in a Sunday in front of the fire and used an outside toilet. Her mum would gossip with the neighbours and loved the rag n bone man coming.
Nothing offensive unless you want to find something offensive

I don’t like the drawings as they don’t seem respectful. I get the impression he is mocking working class women and he’s definitely taking some liberties that make me uncomfortable.

If that’s what we as women look like when working, a polite man does not stare long and hard enough to absorb it draw our bodies in so much detail. It just feels like he’s making light and fun of working class women from that generation.

Maybe it was the artist who posted this to get some sales or critic of his work!

How’s it objectifying women’s bodies, there are different body types in there. They are simply caricatures.

They're disturbing and sinister. OP, YANBU. The artist might have a few issssssssssuuuuuuueeees.

That cartoonish style has a long history amongst the northern working class. To me they seem like they are using the caricatured 'seaside' style to show a subject matter which was once common. I don't particularly like them, I'm not sure the juxtaposition works.

That said I don't really see why working class women doing banal, menial tasks aren't allowed to be sexy. The idea that lots of children represents promiscuity is laughable- that was the norm at the time.

To me the ordinaryness of the subject matter makes them far less objectifying than, say, a Reubens. I think there is an element of snobbishness to the criticism.

Fine not to like them, fine to think they are examples of the way society sexualised women, but the PPs who are offended are just silly.

Why is she grilling her arse by the fire in picture 1? What's that all about? Misogynistic rubbish.

Why would they be offensive? Who are they supposed to offend? They are just cartoon/caricature drawings 'of their time' surely?

I quite like them 😂 They remind me of the Les Dawson characters that I used to watch when I was little (showing my age now 🤦‍♀️) and actually my Aunty June and my mum were very much like that character, with their head scarves, pinnies and rollers, nattering loudly over the garden fence with fags hanging out of their mouths, so 🤷‍♀️

We had a tin bath and an outside loo too...👍 (I'm not even joking!)

They are fugly as hell.

They're obviously heavily caricatured and meant to over emphasis a bygone era, so I wouldn't be able to get offended by them but that said they are pretty ugly.

She warming her arse because from the look of her nipples, she’s Freezing bloody cold.

Not quite sure why her dress and apron are see through over the boobs but it’s not offensive just a bit crap.
Plus she would totally of still be smoking while bathing the kids.