I write this letter in response to a cartoon on page 11 of the April 11 issue that depicted feminists on Equal Pay Day.
First of all, this cartoon ham-fistedly and incorrectly depicts what the day is about. Rather than having a well-informed article on the subject, the message is turned into a caricature, where a number of sexist overtones paint an inaccurate picture.
The cartoonist resurrects an age-old stereotype of feminists being loud, angry women yelling at the rest of society. This rather sexist notion fails to address the good work that feminists do. The cartoon boxes feminists into one category and diminishes the work they have worked so hard to achieve. No group deserves to be mistreated in this manner, don’t you agree?
This picture also fails to recognize the reason behind Equal Pay Day. Women, on average, receive 77 percent of the pay that men do for the equal work they put in. Many of these women are also called to perform all of the responsibilities of domestic life after their paid work is finished, known as the “second shift.”
This is not a randomly generated statistic, there is sociological evidence to support it, in any number of articles and studies readily available to any student.
Perhaps the cartoon would have been better suited to address the fact that we still have to have these conversations, both about equal pay and about sexist depictions by privileged people. Instead of using our status to demean a worthy cause, it might be better for everyone if this sort of medium were used to help achieve equality.
I am a man, and I am a feminist. Feminists work too hard to be treated like this. How about we use this as an opportunity to start a better conversation?
Jordan Clapper, MFA in Fiction