The Time Before Gender Ideology
August 3rd, 2023 Barry Posted in Becky Hawkins collaborations, LGBT cartoons, Sexism & Misogyny | No Comments »
Another collaboration with Becky Hawkins!
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels, each showing a different scene.
PANEL 1
Three children are playing on the carpeted floor; behind them we can see a wooden dresser, one drawer left open, and wallpaper with a pattern of hearts. There’s a jewelry box open on the floor with them, and they are wearing dresses (and in one case, a slip) over their ordinary clothing, opera gloves, a hat with a veil attached, etc.. Judging by hair length, they are two girls and one boy.
OFF-PANEL ADULT VOICE: Bobby, take that OFF! Dresses are for GIRLS!
PANEL 2
A girl’s bedroom; posters on the wall, a bed with a pink blanket matching the pink phone and lamp on the nightstand, snacks and backpacks lying on the floor. Three girls are on the floor, lying on bedrolls, dressed in sleep clothing (we can see Ariel from The Little Mermaid on the back on one’s shirt, and a rearing unicorn on another‘s). A fourth girl is lying on the bed. The girl on the bed is speaking to one of the girls on a bedroll; the girl on bed is cheerful, the girl on the bedroll looks nervous.
GIRL ON BED: Which boy do you like?
GIRL WITH UNICORN SHIRT: Keep in mind that your answer WILL be dissected by us and you’ll be ostracized if we don’t like it.
PANEL 3
A schoolyard or sports field; green mown grass, bleachers in the background. Three boys, standing, are surrounding and making fun of a fourth boy, who is sitting cross-legged on the ground and holding a book protectively. Two of the bully boys are grinning; a fourth is yelling loudly.
1st BULLY: Roger is weak and bad at sports and he reads a lot.
YELLING BULLY: UNACCEPTABLE! Let’s hit him and tell everyone he’s gay!
PANEL 4
We’re in an Apple Store, or something similar; white walls, widely-spaced counters displaying tablets, phones and laptops. A middle-aged man, scowling, with close-cropped hair and a dark tee shirt, is glowering at a couple of younger people. The two younger people are a bit gender-ambiguous in their dress. One is wearing a newspaper boy style cap with a rainbow-striped crop top shirt, suspenders, and big clunky purple shoes; they’re giving the middle-aged man the finger. The other has long hair, a van dyke beard, and is wearing a green floral jumper.
SCOWLING MAN: There was never any “gender ideology” when I was a kid!