May 6, 2013 - I think I'm gonna leave all commentary on this strip upto whatever happens in the comments. Meanwhile I'd like to redirect attention to this pretty awesome blogpost that has some discussion of the complicated issues abortion entails that I generally try to discuss with the comic. I particularly like her assertion that abortion can be likened to a supply and demand issue where all anyone talks about is the supply and completely ignores the demand.
Other links I have are an attempt to talk about the over-abundance of rape jokes by a variety of comedians and a look at how much good do sex offender registries accomplish. My general take on these issues is that comedy has reached an awkward place where people have stopped to ascertain whether they laugh at a joke for its humor or out of a reaction to its structure and we've begun to confuse whether we laugh at something because it's funny or because it's offensive and we lack any other response to things that cause offense. Take for example Borat which I hated. Tell me a joke from that film. I'd argue there isn't one, we're just generally so uncomfortable and ashamed by it that many people felt their only reaction was to laugh. The film doesn't make a statement about racism, in fact most of the reaction it garnered suggested that racism is funny rather than racism is wrong, but I should probably move onto the flaws in sex offender registries. Unfortunately the article seems to suggest that the problem with sex offender registries is that people can be rehabilitated from sex crimes, which though potentially true, doesn't account for some of the more crucial minor points the article brings up that sex offender registries make no distinction between public urination and violent assault and that the majority of sex crimes are not committed by strangers so therefore a registry informing a community that a stranger is a sex offender is unlikely to reduce sex crimes. Mostly I fear that sex offender registries are a weak response to the possibility that sentences on sex crimes are not as strong as they should be.
Anyone else notice how much these blog posts mention rape these days? The fact that there are so many rape related stories to talk about really suggests to me there's a major problem with how society treats women. Pretty soon the comic itself will explore this problem rather than just blogposts.
-D
Other links I have are an attempt to talk about the over-abundance of rape jokes by a variety of comedians and a look at how much good do sex offender registries accomplish. My general take on these issues is that comedy has reached an awkward place where people have stopped to ascertain whether they laugh at a joke for its humor or out of a reaction to its structure and we've begun to confuse whether we laugh at something because it's funny or because it's offensive and we lack any other response to things that cause offense. Take for example Borat which I hated. Tell me a joke from that film. I'd argue there isn't one, we're just generally so uncomfortable and ashamed by it that many people felt their only reaction was to laugh. The film doesn't make a statement about racism, in fact most of the reaction it garnered suggested that racism is funny rather than racism is wrong, but I should probably move onto the flaws in sex offender registries. Unfortunately the article seems to suggest that the problem with sex offender registries is that people can be rehabilitated from sex crimes, which though potentially true, doesn't account for some of the more crucial minor points the article brings up that sex offender registries make no distinction between public urination and violent assault and that the majority of sex crimes are not committed by strangers so therefore a registry informing a community that a stranger is a sex offender is unlikely to reduce sex crimes. Mostly I fear that sex offender registries are a weak response to the possibility that sentences on sex crimes are not as strong as they should be.
Anyone else notice how much these blog posts mention rape these days? The fact that there are so many rape related stories to talk about really suggests to me there's a major problem with how society treats women. Pretty soon the comic itself will explore this problem rather than just blogposts.
-D
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