And now with 40,000 notes.
AMBER’S 40,000 NOTES VICTORY DANCE
I really hate the Idiot Nerd Girl meme, so I decided to stage a cheerful coup with the aid of some friends. Join us?
(Edited to fix 2nd link. Join the revolution!)
reclaim’d
THIS. I’ve loved David Willis for this Shortpacked for forever, but Kevin Bolk always puts up a good fight as well, and I wanted to express my appreciation to both I always like seeing male artists take a stand against female objectification in comics. It needs to be an outside perspective, unfortunately, to get the point across sometimes - because as soon as a woman like myself comments on the problem all we hear in response is “you’re just jealous” and “you know you want to look like that.” Actually, I don’t. I know people who are constantly being belittled for their abilities because they’re drop dead gorgeous or they have huge breasts.
I’m not saying there aren’t women out there who want this - but let’s be honest… it’s mostly men who want this kind of woman. It is not completely their fault either - they’re constantly bombarded by media and society that tells them this is what a woman should look like, just as much as women are. Of course both men and women have a skewed perspective with this influence.
Well I have news for you - BOOBS ARE FAT. MOST WOMEN WITH HUGE BREASTS DO NOT HAVE TINY DELICATE WAISTS. That small percentage of women who do have tiny waists and huge breasts almost always have serious health issues due to so much weight on a frame that can’t support it.
But the real problem is not so much how they look - as others have pointed out, men are portrayed as strong muscled hunks in comics and other media as well (although I have to point to Shortpacked here, because they argue so much better than I ever could on that point). My major problem as far as objectification is the lack of women with distinct personalities. As a comics and anime fan, I’m constantly running up against females that are not well rounded characters. It’s like people don’t know how to write female characters. Women only use their bodies to get what they want, but beyond their bodies and sex appeal their characters always seem empty and lacking.
All I want is for female characters to have more power than the “power” they gain using their bodies to manipulate. This stems way back to the antifeminist church fathers’ writings way back in medieval times; they used to attack women for the same thing. I feel we should be past that at this point in time, don’t you?
/TLDR.
Kevin Bolk managed three sets of both boobs and butts! He is a wizard!
Birth Control 101 For Idiots
This is hormonal birth control.
As you can see on the box, you take exactly one pill per day. To make sure it works, you need to take one pill every day at the same time, or it stops working. You take only one pill, and you keep taking them regardless of what you are doing that day.
Hormonal birth control can be used to treat a lot of different diseases, like anemia caused by excessive menstruation. It is a prescription medication that can cost around $15-50 a month. Because it is a prescription medication, it should be covered by insurance, as it treats legitimate health problems.
This is Viagra.
It, too, can treat legitimate health problems like altitude sickness and pulmonary hypertension, but it is usually prescribed for erectile dysfunction. Unlike the Pill, Viagra is taken every time you want to have sex. A lot of health insurance companies cover Viagra, so it costs about as much as your co-pay.
This is a condom.
It is not a prescription medication, and has no health benefits (besides the prevention of STIs and pregnancy). Like Viagra, you must use one before you have sex: indeed, before each sex act. They cost about a dollar per condom.
This is Sandra Fluke.
She testified before a small, Democrat-led hearing after she was cut out of the actual birth control/insurance discussion. Her testimony was about a friend of hers who, because her insurance did not cover birth control, lost an ovary due to an ovarian cyst.
This somehow translates into “I, myself, personally, am having so much sex I can’t afford birth control, and so I want the government to pay for it.”
This is wrong for multiple reasons.
- It was about a friend, not her. To say her testimony was about her personally is factually incorrect.
- Sex had nothing to do with the testimony - her friend lost an ovary because of medical condition that was left untreated. A medical condition that was completely treatable, but wasn’t, because her insurance wouldn’t cover it. To say that her testimony was about her being “a slut” or “a prostitute” is factually incorrect.
- Even if she was having loads of sex, she would still only have one pill a day, not one pill per sex act, so to say “I’m having so much sex I can’t afford birth control” is completely erroneous. The Pill is not Viagra or condoms. To say that she is such “a slut” that she constantly needs more pills is factually incorrect.
- The current political debate is not “should the government pay for birth control?” The debate is “should insurance companies, that people and their employers pay for, on their own, be required to cover birth control?” To say that Sandra Fluke wants the government to pay for her birth control is factually incorrect.
- Religious organizations do not want to have birth control covered by their insurance, even for employees not of their faith, even if their employees never actually use their insurance to cover birth control. By this logic, they should also not pay their employees, because they could use that money to pay for birth control out of pocket. To say that this issue is about religious freedom and not about women’s health is disingenuous, as Ms. Fluke’s testimony demonstrates.
Hopefully this makes things a little clearer.
Dude, David Willis.
I don’t know if you guys read either of David Willis’s comics—he makes Shortpacked! and Dumbing of Age. And one of his comics just made me really happy in a sex positivity related way:
I love that David Willis spends time combating rape culture, promoting sex positivity, making comics with queer characters—Ethan, the protagonist of Shortpacked! is gay—and refusing to let his politics overwhelm what he’s really making: funny, solid, usually lighthearted comics. Partly because he knows he’s an ally, and his voice shouldn’t be the center of these political conversations. And he’s really talented, and oh man, basically just, David Willis appreciation post.
Anyway, this comic pinpoints something that’s important and doesn’t get talked about enough.
So yeah, if you’re a queer geek and/or a feminist geek I really recommend this guy’s work.
Sometimes amidst all this praise, I remember I’m still partly that little mal-educated fundie boy from backwater Indiana, and I worry I’ve raised everyone’s expectations regarding my Progressiveness unreasonably high. WHAT IF I SCREW UP???
If I’d drawn sexist jerk comics all these years, nobody’d expect anything from me! But now I’m trapped. TRAAAAPPED.
Women for Santorum: ‘A baby from rape is a gift from God’ (Found at Joe. My. God.)
Brilliant satire.
When life gives you rape, make rapeade.
