By Jen Sorensen.
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This cartoonist may be making a good point about gun control, but once again, the protagonist here is female. The antagonist, all male. This does not reflect reality (the recent mass shooters in Calif. were of both genders) but rather, this woman’s misandry. Prejudice is prejudice, and in my opinion, not a constructive point of view.
Randy — I understand your frustration. But this cartoon is not solely about the San Bernardino shooting, and in fact it *does* reflect reality. The *vast* majority of *mass* shootings in this country have been perpetrated by men. I’m not saying that women do not own guns or do not shoot people. They do. But the US has a big problem with mass shootings. And sadly, for whatever reason, they are overwhelmingly carried out by men — men who have serious, serious problems.
Nobody at PW is saying that all men do this, or that all men are suspect; nether is Jen. But only says before the San Bernardino shooting, a white man shot up a Planned Parenthood in Colorado. And we do not have to think back far to get to Sandy Hook, and all the others. Would this comic be more inclusive if it included a pair of mixed-gender people in body armor? Perhaps. But I also suspect Jen is trying to avoid inflaming anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment by not referring so specifically to the two suspects in CA.
For sure, men in our culture need a lot of healing, and need to be part of the solutions; men are victims, too — both of individual incidents and of patriarchy, religion and capitalist culture in general. Too many people, including men, are suffering mental health problems and not getting the help they need. We do need to call out misandry; we also need to look at the actual statistics of these shootings and understand what those numbers are showing us.
Brilliant!