Well, it's International Women's Day, and perhaps it's a good time to reflect on how bad things have been. This cartoon was drawn by Gardner Rea and was published in my beloved New Yorker in 1936. Sexist cartoons were commonly published at the time in many mainstream media including the New Yorker, and many of them were to my mind quite funny. Yet I do not recall very many cartoons that tried to make a joke about violence against women.
Here we have a single panel gag cartoon about a victim of wife-beating--domestic violence or spousal abuse in today's parlance--being consoled ineptly by a supposed friend. I see nothing humorous about this situation. The victim has a black eye and the plaster on the wall is broken, presumably by the force of her impact. What on earth were the editors thinking?
Here we have a single panel gag cartoon about a victim of wife-beating--domestic violence or spousal abuse in today's parlance--being consoled ineptly by a supposed friend. I see nothing humorous about this situation. The victim has a black eye and the plaster on the wall is broken, presumably by the force of her impact. What on earth were the editors thinking?
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| Gardner Rea, "Don't you worry, Mrs. McGovern--he'll be back." The New Yorker, September 5, 1936, page 22 |
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| Gardner Rea, "Don't you worry, Mrs. McGovern--he'll be back." The New Yorker, September 5, 1936, page 22 |
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| Gardner Rea, "Don't you worry, Mrs. McGovern--he'll be back." The New Yorker, September 5, 1936, page 22 |
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