[0602] Career Opportunities
└ posted on Monday, 28 July 2014, by Novil
- Ye Thuza: Kyaw Ne Min was one of the most corrupt and brutal generals of the Burmese army. He was a horrible human being, and his debauchery got worse with each passing week!
- Ye Thuza: One day he even dared to accuse my innocent little sister of a crime which she had never committed!
- Ye Thuza: But then, the next day, he suddenly vanished from the face of the earth! Puff. As if he had never existed!
- Ye Thuza: He was last seen leaving his mansion to go fishing. Naturally, his footmen turned the whole area upside down but they never found a single trace of him!
- Dorothy Cambridge: What’s this?
- Ye Thuza: A booklet full of interesting career opportunities for teachers in Saudi Arabia.
You may be a bit confused. Misogyny is hatred or distrust of women as defined by Merriam-Webster. The term you are probably looking for is misandry, also defined by Merriam-Webster as a hatred of men. According to Colliers dictionary the appropriate adjective would be misandrous as in “misandrous feminism”.@ Amy:
What does that last panel suppose to mean?
Are we going to input subtle insults for random population and culture just because we can?
If you have negative image about somebody then keep it to yourself if keeping it in does no harm.
Short version of this lesson, get lost lady.
D: Holy shit! I never could have conceived something so diabolically effective! *kneels in defeat* Teach me.
@ abowden:
So, win/win then?
Eh. The sooner this absurdly over the top strawman(woman?) storyline fades out, the better. Even if it does end up with the over the top hyper feminist murdered and dismembered by a river somewhere, the obvious subtext.
Unlike the early story about zero tolerance for drugs, which has some bitter presence in historical fact, this story is like Fox News got worries about feminists and decided to do a comic about it. I’m not sure whether I’m alone in thinking about it, but I figure a contrary voice is probably more useful than five adulations.
I suppose my biggest critique is that, by being so hyperbolic, this storyline actually downplays the problem of letting the social justice pendulum swing too far, by being so absurd. Throw in a bit of hell and praise Jesus, and downgrade the artwork some, and this could be a Jack Chick tract.
@ Rarefoil:
It’s Saudi Arabia. How many rights do you think she will have over there?
Take the offer or sleep with the fishes. Thinking there’s going to be some well fed trout if things progress as they are.
@ Steven:
Well, I guess enough of it can solve anything, but then you’d loose the reason you were trying to solve the original problem in the first place so, you know, you might want to find another way.
Wait, draw Lilith next to Ye with black hair die!
@ Rarefoil:
I don’t think you really grasp the status of women in Arabic countries.
Ye Thuza is being kind in selecting Saudi Arabia. I would have chosen northwest Afghanistan but they probably don’t have any pamphlets for women teachers there.
I am already debating how to celebrate the end of Cambridge’s tyranny. Which will unfortunately take an estimated two or three weeks…
(It should be noted that what Cambridge did was in some ways worse to the female students than the males.)
Despite the rage I hold toward our least favorite character, I’m glad there can be a peaceful, merciful resolution to this until now singularly one-sided conflict.
Nachtschattengewächs wrote:
IF she gets a job as a teacher, the MEN in control will give her a VERY STRICT curriculum to teach. The first variance from that curriculum will be her death.
Nice. Talk about your ultimatums. Honestly, I hope the clueless vindictive one passes up on the offer and keeps pushing things. I want to see how creative Ye Thuza can become in dismantling someone.
Noblood wrote:
Obviously Mrs Cambridge is not fighting *actual* discrimination of women, like, for example, forbidding them to drive cars (Saudi Arabia), forced marriages, honor killings etc. This is something you can observe very often in western countries – people who pose as ‘feminists’ are fighting for quotas but are very reluctant to talk about things like forced marriages because that is common in immigrant social groups 😉
@ Túrelio:
How on Earth was it worse for the female students? Don’t get me wrong, it was bad for them too, because having what amounts to a political officer policing your speech sucks even if you’re not the primary target, but still. Girls got to pee at school.
As for peaceful, I don’t know who could read this and come up with ‘peaceful’. Her punishment for being too (ridiculously, hyper stridently) feminist is to be sent to a place where women are little better than second class citizens, to put it *very* nicely…or what? Go about her life in peace? Of course not. It’s Saudi Arabia or be murdered, obviously.
It is, frankly, bad writing. I miss the fully fledged and sometimes painfully real storytelling about Sandra and Larisa and what to do when there’s someone you like or what to do when you’re a good person and someone sneers at you or how do you be a good boyfriend or girlfriend when you’re just learning how? Human stories.
This story, the main character doesn’t even need a name. She may as well be ‘Obnoxious, Stupid Militant Feminist!’ She exists only to be despised, and to take satisfaction when she gets her comeuppance. I can’t say if this is an expression of overall political opinion, or if something recent or personal has really upset the author, but this story is a significant downgrade to the storytelling of S&W.
@ Arent:
Those pesky feminists. Worrying so much about quotas! Don’t they know sexism is more or less a solved problem in Western cultures? And don’t they further know that the best, most productive use of their time is to focus on problems in foreign countries where they can affect little change, and that they ignore the problems of women in immigrant comm-wait. Wait, no, they don’t ignore them. This kind of critique is one often heard about feminists-by those with only a passing, hostile familiarity at best.
That is a friendly warning. Please take it. She has done well to keep off the FBI watchlist after all lol.
Start packing and get running Dorothy, or you’ll find out where they buried Jimmy Hoffa first hand.
I found the arc so far pretty good, because I recognized many parodied topics instantly and found them nicely done.
There was the controversial topic of a radical socio-constructivist approach, and the strong rejection of other approaches by feminists. Incidentally a norwegian comedian made an interresting series about this, that is suspected to have had a great part in cutting the funding for the Nordic Gender Institute.
There was a parody of the consent-debate and I suppose the skirt-uniform was meant to point to the often heard complaint that education under the premises of gender mainstreaming rejects traditionally male values and inflates the value of traditional female ones. I am not sure where Novil stands on this one, but it got me to think.
Thoroughly discussing feminist theory and rebuttals thereof, are not really in the scope of the comic, I think. That’s better left to the comments. Otherwise we would read boring walls of text in speech bubbles.
As for the worry about fantasies of comical violence: Just ask yourself whether they would bother you as much if Mrs: Cambridge were an over-the-top racist instead of an over-the-top sexist.
I can actually imagine that in the world of Sandra and Woo Ye Thuza is actually a member of a cabal of secret organization bend on protecting the world like the SHIELD. Since this world is related to Gunnerkrig Court’s world or sharing the same universe I can see superhumans and magic users lurking around.
@ Feartheswans:
I trained my iPhone’s autocorrect to always capitalize CHUPAZI
Among other things
I actually kinda like it most of the time
Valkeiper2012 wrote:
I know you’re lying thru your teeth because:
1) As someone from a free moslem country, this is ridiculously false and misleading and
2) I knew the real rules, because I’m a Muslim too.
I know your kind, you’re one of those atheists who hate religion so much you’re willing to create lies to discredit religions. Look, today is Idl Fitr. The day we forgive each others wrongdoings and start with clean slate. But you start with lies and slander. Seriously man not cool, not cool at all.
Also, since I outed myself as a Muslim, let see how well some people will react.
Aww… I was hoping Ye Thuza would, you know, maim the man-hating teacher. Possibly with a few rounds.
My goodness… ^^; Cambridge must be very stupid if she can’t read between the lines.
…
If she tries to pull the same crap in Saudi Arabia, how big is the chance that Cambridge will be dragged out in front of a firing platoon? o_o;
@ Jo:
Resolved?
@ Amy:
I think you need to give the readers more credit.
@ Landbark:
Well, yeah. Have you ever noticed how most stories about people out to kill villains start with someone close to them being hurt before they take action?
O__O Cloud’s mom is frightening. Cool, but scary.
@ Rakeesh:
I wouldn’t say it’s a “solved problem”, but sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. At universities, male athletic programs are sometimes shut down so that spending on and/or participation in male and female programs can be “equal”, even though fewer females WANT to be on a sports team. There are sometimes quotas for female-owned businesses when the government contracts out, which results in higher taxes (since the government can’t just take the lowest bid) and is subverted by certain men who run the business but put the ownership in the name of the wife.
And who says they can effect little change in foreign countries? It might take a little effort, but if those changes were made in this part of the world, there’s no reason they can’t be made in that part of the world.
@ AckAckAck:
Not sure if I have this right, but Eid Mubarak! I might be ‘one of those atheists’ but I wish you the best, friend!
In regards to Sinfest, I am only really aware that it exists. What is its connection to this strip?
Forget Saudi Arabia, try a school in rural India. For instance, oh just off the top of my head the one where the village headman ordered the raping of a 13-year-old girl.
Bleh. No resolution can make this satisfying. Too much of a scumbag and it’s been too soon since the last scumbag(not a very satisfying resolution there either).
Sometimes the trash is too big and no amount of cleaning can quite wipe the odor.
Rakeesh wrote:
In fact, people who *pose* as feminists often actively *attack* true feminists (Often immigrants) exactly because they do *not* want to talk about certain forms of discrimination. Among other things, they do *not* want to talk about serious discrimination in immigrant communities. Note that I was not talking about people who are honest but rather about certain political parties.
Techno Gray wrote:
Good question. Sinfest is one of the greatest web comics ever. It has been in existence since 2000 and the author, Tatsuya Ishida has been pumping out high quality daily strips since the beginning. The strip has taken a strong feminist turn in the last few years and perhaps that is what the writer of this strip is reacting to in this arc.
Having read both strips pretty much from their beginnings, I can only say that this arc has badly missed its target (regardless of what that was) and is serves only to mark out the fears of men in regards to women on top. The best evidence I can offer for that assertion is to direct you to the Sinfest site and to tell you to start at the beginning. Ishida is one of the true comic geniuses on the web.
Finally, Nachtschattengewächs, one of your last comments was a good one. It felt like the start of a real discussion of gender/sexism issues.
Evidently I managed to omit this in my previous comment, but this resolution is beautiful. (Both literally and figuratively – for some reason I enjoyed the art of this strip more than that of many of the preceding strips. Hopefully it’s a trend, and continues.)
Rakeesh wrote:
What I was seeing was not the rather obvious limitations placed on males, but the ones limiting conversation, interaction between the two groups. From what I saw, the male students, as a body, were primarily physically oppressed, whereas the females primarily emotionally. I think the previous strip was a perfect example of this – Cloud simply gets bodily hauled away, and Sandra has to deal with Cambridge in person.
Also, I think it is because they weren’t the intended target that Cambridge didn’t realize how her efforts were affecting them.
Rakeesh wrote:
Considering the people involved, it was a pretty good chance there would be physical violence (again). I was simply expressing satisfaction with the author’s decision to avoid something that could cause trouble for our characters beyond just within the confines of the school.
Lume wrote:
This is exactly what I was glad they managed to avoid. It’s nice to see confirmation that violence isn’t always the best solution, especially for this problem.
AckAckAck wrote:
As the second reaction to be documented here, I don’t think your religion is likely to be held against you, or at least not by many people.
demarion wrote:
His actions sound significantly worse out of context and not-quite-correct like this. While I do not condone what he did, I know full well how uncontrolled anger motivates. From what I read, he raped the girl as a form of revenge. The only issue I had was that no one in the village stood up to him. The immediate family of the unfortunate girl were the only ones to react to the event. All else was indifference, apathy. And in the words of Elie Wiesel: “To be indifferent to… suffering is what makes the human being inhuman.”
Ritch wrote:
I know, right?
@ Raen:
I was thinking the same thing… I appreciate that Powree wants to complain about an attitude, even if it’s not representative of feminism, but this resolution sounds suspiciously like “you’re not oppressed by an absolute monarchy, so what are you complaining about?”
@ C:
In fact, history has shown that thanks to Title IX, when women and young girls are offered equal access to facilities, funds, and opportunities for their own sports…well as it turns out the thing that has historically prevented women from participating in sports is not just ‘they don’t really want to’. Feel free to look it up.
As for government contract bids, there’s a whole heap of problems with all of that. And yes, sometimes injustice happens. So your suggestion is…what, government not take a stance in favor of attempting to address millennia of systematic inequality, and just hope that we can all say ‘I’m not sexist’ and that will be enough?
As for foreign countries, your reasoning is a bit strange here. I didn’t say no change could be affected. I was suggesting that a French girl or an American woman protesting about womens’ rights in Saudi Arabia was not likely to make much of an impact on those rights in Saudi Arabia. However, that same French and American protester can make a more direct, immediate, and measurable impact in their own homes. Where they can vote and agitate representatives answerable, at least in theory, to them.
There are plenty of feminists who are simply put boiling angry over the subjugation and slavery of women in much of the Islamic world. As well as sexual slavery right here in the United States. If you’re not familiar with them, you simply notice the ones that annoy you more easily.
@ Arent:
No, initially you were simply talking about feminists. Now you’re talking about political parties. ‘Feminist’ is not a political party
@ Techno Gray:
It’s the trike hidden in the bushes. http://yacv.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/how-feminism-killed-my-favourite-comic-strip/
Admiral Halsey wrote:
Sure we have. Her name is Cloud. And that awful tyrant she was talking about just happens to have a fondness for fishing and scarves.
But seriously I’m sure if she did have a sister,or if she actually does, she would be just as badass.
Aww, we’re resolving this story so soon?
I wanted to see everyone wearing the “gender neutral” uniforms for a while!
@ Blaise Z:
Dolores Umbridge or as I like to call her Delirious Dumb-bitch. Heck if I was in Hogwart’s I probably would’ve violated all those educational directives at least ten times. Heh, by the time I’m through detention I’d have either passed out from blood loss or burned out the pain recEptors in my right hand. LEFT HANDERS UNITE!
░▒▓█│Walkman│█▓▒░ wrote:
… õдÔ
TEEEEEEEEEEEELL me you mean Ye Thuza.
Rakeesh wrote:
My original post:
“Obviously Mrs Cambridge is not fighting *actual* discrimination of women, like, for example, forbidding them to drive cars (Saudi Arabia), forced marriages, honor killings etc. This is something you can observe very often in western countries – people who pose as ‘feminists’ are fighting for quotas but are very reluctant to talk about things like forced marriages because that is common in immigrant social groups.”
-> I clearly said: “people who *pose* as ‘feminists'”. I clearly did not talk about honest feminists. This is not hard to look up and I seriously have the impression that you are trying to move the goalpost.
@ AckAckAck:
Mauritius, Africa. A little island nation about 150 miles east of Madagascar, africa.
I told it as it was told to me. If it is not true, she and her father put on a VERY good show. I believed them.
@ Arent:
‘Honest feminists’ is a distinction you’ve apparently created yourself, with the handy effect that those who don’t measure up aren’t just wrong, they’re dishonest. So your complaint about goalpost movement doesn’t exactly ring legitimate to me. You weren’t talking about political parties.
@ Keith the verbose(and more than slightly annoying):
Actually she might do somewhat well in Saudi Arabia. They are very strict and disciplined in that country. Then again… she might convince them that they need to ease up on their rules a bit.