18.7.07

A notch below?

A friend objected to the cartoon I reproduced below. "This is just not you,” he said.

“It isn’t mine," I remonstrated.

“But what you put up reveals your values.”

I would have removed it, for I know he means well and I owe him one anyway. But I shall let it stay. I want to see how many people reduce me to that level so that I can gauge how limited their reductionism is.

Also, this is most certainly not a feminist statement, as the title suggests, “Things for a useless man to do.” If feminism is about using a man’s organ in novel ways, then I pity that feminism.

But I did smile when I first got this in the mail. I do occasionally like bawdy jokes and silly humour. I like Mr. Bean. I really can’t help it.

Must I? Those who can read between and beyond the words will probably see another dimension. This will add to me, not reduce me.

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PS: “Is that yours?” After all the trouble I took to make my picture artistic, there are still those who think the photograph with the profile is something taken from somewhere. If I had to do that, wouldn’t I have chosen something far more enticing or even a known person? Why this?

Of course, only the face is mine…the rest is symbolic of freedom.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I once thought that the figure in the top right corner was someone swinging a golf club

ana said...

I think the cartoon's hilarious. Irreverent, but my goodness, how does that reveal or even go against your values? Interesting, na, what feminism is reduced to.

I also think the cartoon could well have been drawn by a man! I don't think it was meant to reduce them either.

FV said...

Ana:

All I can say is I have a lot to live up to...remember the post where I mentioned how my column on feminism was seen as having an Islamic slant by a woman reader? Her letter was published but there she smartly avoided mentioning this..after all she had to maintain her secular credentials in public.

I am quite certain the cartoon has been drawn by a man and it was sent to me by a man too...a sort of MCP, in fact...so there!

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anon:

Don't ever attempt golf, although a ballet performance on the greens is not a bad idea....

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