The bronze winner has the right attitude to life. Let’s all be like this happy, confident dude who makes his own joy b
The Way to Be
Opinions, art, debate
Opinions, art, debate
The bronze winner has the right attitude to life. Let’s all be like this happy, confident dude who makes his own joy b
Clarissa's Blog 
Do you want men you meet in professional contexts to paw your ass and force kisses on you?
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Have you considered reading fiction? It could help you escape literal thinking and give you the capacity to access metaphorical language. I can give some recommendations.
It must be hard to go through life being unable to process even such a simple metaphor as this one.
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Thank you for demonstrating rape culture so effectively.
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Rape culture? I feel like someone put me in a time machine and dropped me in the comment section of Shakesville circa 2008.
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Well, we don’t know this person’s circumstances. Maybe she was in a coma for 15 years, and then a medical miracle brought her back to a world where everybody incomprehensibly moved away from the comforting slogans of yesteryear.
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To be fair to the anonymous commentator, it’s probably the third panel which is triggering their extreme reaction.
I admit I hadn’t noticed this in my first cursory glance and was predisposed to notice the champagne and celebratory nature as highlighted by Clarissa in the original post. On this second look, it did not look so nice and positive after all. Words and commentary do have a powerful effect on how we respond to images and visual stimuli.
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Theoretically, one could also see the cartoon as promotion of alcoholism. The dude is chugging from the bottle. This cannot be healthy. Does he even have a designated driver or is he planning to drive in this state?
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Oh, I know! He’s planning to rape the woman with the bottle so he’s emptying it to make it easier. Or maybe he’s planning to rape the other two guys. Maybe he’s a Russian soldier and these are all Ukrainians.
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Physpostdoc, it’s not an extreme reaction. It’s just that when Clarissa brought up the word metaphor, this literally became one of the definitions of rape culture.
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“literally became one of the definitions of rape culture”
What makes you think the figure in the drawing is unhappy with being kissed?
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She’s leaning away. She’s not touching the man. Her eyes are open while his are closed.
Her wanting to kiss him would be portrayed very differently.
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I’m starting to think that somebody here urgently needs some action. Because this reaction is way too intense for a person who recently had some.
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Replying to:
”I’m starting to think that somebody here urgently needs some action. Because this reaction is way too intense for a person who recently had some.”
We’re analyzing a 6-frame comic strip as professors (imaginary in my case) Each single frame is important, and one of them depicts a romantic interaction between the sexes. Shaming me for inferring meaning from this drawing as you have from other ones is silly.
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“She’s leaning away….”
Exactly… Open eyes can be (not entirely unwelcome) surprise…. one arm is free (not pushing him away) and the other is not visible but considering the angle and the fact that he’s no holding her up… she couldn’t stand like that (unless she was a profession limbo dancer) so her other arm is probably on his back.
Or…. it’s possible to realize this is just a drawing and not get one’s girdle in an uproar….
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Alright, professor, let’s try to analyze it. How would the meaning of the cartoon change if the 3rd frame was omitted? What precisely is it trying to convey and could we accomplish it in any other way?
Is it doing what makes us happy despite inconveniencing others? That has already been captured by other frames.
Is it being successful with women? What if we drop frame 3 and replace it with a frame at the very end where the guy we’re trying to emulate is surrounded by beautiful women while the higher-placing medalists are alone?
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Replying to myself in a continued discussion:
Clarissa – the transgenderism has rubbed off on you. You don’t get to be the guy in this cartoon. You’re the girl. The gender is clearly a very important aspect of the character in this cartoon.
Your other option is to replace the medalists with women. What imagery would you use to convey the equivalent of frame 3? Given that the ultimate accomplishment for women is getting a long-term partner or family formation, is it forcibly marrying the guy? Maybe raping him with another frame of babies that look like him in the end?
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One truly needs to try very hard to see rape, transgenderism and babies in this cartoon. I must reiterate my recommendation for what our British friends call “getting properly rogered.”
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I didn’t expect the cartoon to be quite this complicated but OK.
The point of the cartoon is that we make our own joy. It resides inside us. The guy who ended up third is celebrating his heart out while the actual winner just stares. What’s the point of winning every prize in the world if you still don’t feel happy?
Here’s an example. I realize that therecuk might be women much more beautiful and brilliant than I am, although after reading this exchange I am beginning to doubt the latter. But I perceive myself as a stunning beauty and a brilliant person. While those much more beautiful women can be endlessly nitpicky about their appearance and not have nearly as good a time as I do.
The joy comes from the inside. That you couldn’t see that this is a cartoon about joy and not “rape culture” is a sign to you to start thinking why.
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Of course I can see it as a cartoon about joy! But the fact that the woman is very clearly being portrayed as unwilling and used by the winner is also part of it. And the fact that you ignore or don’t notice that aspect or that the authors haven’t chosen another image with a clearly interested woman is rape culture.
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Also, Clarissa, everything you describe about the meaning of the cartoon is already accomplished by frames other than 3.
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What about alcoholism, though? Drunk driving? Warmongering? Do you not care about any of these, even though they are so present in the cartoon?
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“clearly being portrayed as unwilling”
Please explain.
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I’m still very confused as to which part of the cartoon depicts rape. One would think something like this would be easy to notice.
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Seems like a pretty straightforward reference to this iconic photo:
Which of course, also has been dubbed “basically rape” by the everything-is-offensive crowd.
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“has been dubbed “basically rape” by the everything-is-offensive crowd”
Finding offense in everything… what a horrible way to live….
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Frankly, the very last thing I expected with this cartoon is that people will see rape in it. I’m grateful to the anonymous reader for surprising me with this unconventional reading.
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IMO that’s why the anon hangs out here, instead of with her own kind. Clarissa’s combox must be like a fresh spring breeze after chilling with the crowd at the perpetual world eggshell-walking semifinals.
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Yes, I’m a secret guilty reading for many such people. It’s their version of touching grass.
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Let’s not overstrain the modest capacities of our anonymous friend with iconic cultural references. We might end up having to explain what culture is.
By the way, in the USSR, a cartoon would today be censored if a non-negative portrayal of a champagne bottle appeared in it.
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“I’m still very confused as to which part of the cartoon depicts rape. One would think something like this would be easy to notice.”
I can’t help you with that, as I’ve never said this cartoon depicts rape.
You do seem to be confused about your gender, though. You can’t be the guy in this cartoon because you’re a woman. You have a different role, quite clearly depicted.
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So… women can’t be exuberant?
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Women are unlikely to demonstrate their exuberance by grabbing strange men’s asses in public.
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You, uh… clearly don’t hang out with the same set of women as me.
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Have you, by any chance noticed, that there are no actual men in these images? This is a cartoon. These are fictional characters.
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”Have you, by any chance noticed, that there are no actual men in these images? This is a cartoon. These are fictional characters.”
What’s the point of this? It’s just as applicable to your original post. It’s all symbolic.
If I were to describe a willing woman, instead of frame 3, I’d do a last frame where the girl who presented him with the medal had one leg wrapped around his, or was standing up on her tiptoes, kissing him, while he grabbed her butt.
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Do you do this when you read novels as well?
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”Do you do this when you read novels as well?”
No, only when I analyze comic strips of 6 or fewer frames with professors.
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What a relief! That habit would suck all the fun out of books, movies, music…
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Hey, I used to be both a drinking and a sexually aggressive person. Never bit or even received any sporting medals but I have two medals from the Ukrainian academy of Arts, although I won’t make any concessions about putting my teeth to them.
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The grabbing the ass wasn’t the first thing I noticed. Who gives everyone the finger as an expression of joy?
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If you go about looking for reasons to be offended, you will definitely find them.
You’ll also be pretty miserable.
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“The grabbing the ass wasn’t the first thing I noticed. Who gives everyone the finger as an expression of joy?”
A narcissist. An insecure person whose joy heavily depends on putting others down. Groping a presenter’s ass at a public ceremony also accomplishes that.
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Tell us you have zero working-class friends, without saying you have zero working-class friends.
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People react to wildly different things in the cartoon. N’s first reaction was to the picture where the guy bites the medal. So we had a great discussion about that part.
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Biting it is how you check if the gold is real. Which is really funny if he won bronze 😉
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“the guy bites the medal. So we had a great discussion about that part”
What was his interpretation?
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