With his latest Sunday Times cartoon, Zapiro has ventured where angels should fear to tread. I am saying “should” because it shows that journalist-cartoonists can be as desensitised as other South Africans about the social crises that beset us.
I am talking about his shameless use of rape as metaphor.
South Africa has been staggering under an epidemic of sexual violence against women. It is not hypothetical, it is not imagined — it is real. Flesh-and-blood people are suffering actual rapes, sometimes repeatedly, and frequently in the form of gang rapes.
This is the context in which Zapiro presents us with an image of a woman being pinned down by certain political leaders as ANC president Jacob Zuma undoes his pants in apparent preparation to rape her.
The woman is purported to represent “Justicia” — she is blindfolded and the scales of justice are lying next to her. The cartoon depicts what would be regarded as a gang rape, as more than one man is involved in committing the crime.
The primary question is: Can this image be justified in a context of rampant rape and sexual violence against women?
We should remind ourselves that journalists are as much products of their society as anybody else. They can be as prejudiced, or as blind to prejudice, or as unable or unwilling to empathise with fellow human beings as the next person. Indeed, it is accepted in journalistic circles that journalists are probably even more desensitised about human tragedy because it is their bread and butter.
We should also be aware that the Sunday Times has a dismal record when it comes to depictions of women. It is unusual to see women with agency in its pages. To get into the paper in general, women have to evoke certain stereotypes (that is, “mad woman” Manto Tshabalala-Msimang); or be reducible to their bodies (which happens in photographs on the main paper’s front and back pages, on the Business Times’s front and back pages and sometimes inside the paper as well).
In this particular newspaper a cartoon is published based on an extremely literal interpretation of “they are raping the justice system”. The sense of a lack of imagination is reinforced by the hackneyed use of “Woman as representation”, in this case as “justice”.
The use of Woman as the object of representation is enabled by the process of othering. This is the basis of the Western intellectual tradition with its hierarchical binaries: form/matter; man/woman; white/black and so forth. The second term in these dichotomies is reduced to an aspect of the essentiality of the first term.
Women as real-life subjects are obscured by Woman as object of representation: Woman as “justice” or “the British empire” or “the nation” — or even as a ship or a car that is referred to as “she”. In contrast, men are deemed subjects with agency that choose justice or to expand the empire or to drive a cabriolet.
The cartoon draws on this tradition. The technique of othering is what makes possible a cartoon showing a woman about to be raped against the background of daily rapes. Zapiro has said in the media that he tested the image with a few women before its publication. Did he test it with victims of gang rape? Thousands of women have been sexually violated in our country.
Clearly their response to the image was ultimately regarded as secondary to the “larger political point”. A woman is yet again rendered an object to illustrate a political point.
This is not only lazy thinking but also problematic. At the heart of violence, sexual and otherwise, lies the practice of othering. We see that with the attacks on foreigners and local “others” (Shangaans, Vendas); we see that with violence against women. We see that in the use of rape as weapon of war against the bodies of women who symbolise “the nation” — not “ours” but “theirs”.
The cartoon doesn’t just stick to symbolism. Its impact lies in its straddling of the reality of women’s lives and the representation of Woman as justice. This is the nub of the dis-ease that people say they feel when looking at the image. It uses the very real experiences of thousands of women to make a political comment on power-politics between male protagonists. Note, however, that it is not criticising rape. It uncritically uses sexual violence as the method with which (male) power is entrenched. It therefore reinforces the attitudes that create the conditions for sexual violence.
Another measure of whether this image is justifiable in our context is the political comment itself. Over the past several weeks we have had direct and indirect threats from the parties concerned (the ANC, Cosatu, the SACP, the ANC Youth League) regarding the continued pursuit of the prosecution of Zuma.
The threats boil down to: South African society will be turned upside down if the court case against Zuma is pursued. There is a faint hint of the “make the country ungovernable” public-insurrection phase of the 1980s.
More direct attacks were launched, particularly ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe’s evaluation of the Constitutional Court as “counter-revolutionary”. There is Justice John Hlophe’s alleged attempt at influencing the Constitutional Court on the Zuma case. Meanwhile, the Scorpions are being dismantled as part of the attempt to stop the case.
There has also been a slight backtracking by ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi. The former chastised the ANC Youth League over its pronouncements. The latter wanted to reassure “minorities” that the ruling alliance did not seek to undermine the judiciary. The ANC has declared that while the Constitutional Court is not above criticism, the party will continue to “uphold” the Constitution.
The cartoon does not reflect any of this. Even if we were to argue that these later reassurances have been flimsy and that the damage has been done, the cartoon still does not make sense. At most we can have a gun against Justicia’s head (if we were to persist with the problematic use of Woman as symbol).
Finally the cartoon falls because of its logic of victimhood. It is overstating both the victimhood of women and the victimhood of the judiciary.
In the case of the former, it capitulates to the popular media’s favoured depiction of “women as victims”, thereby reinforcing patriarchal attempts at robbing women of their agency. This, combined with its use of an objectified woman, makes the cartoon profoundly sexist.
Regarding the victimhood of the judiciary: yes, it is true that the ruling alliance has launched several attacks on the rule of law. But does the ruling alliance have the judiciary/rule of law helplessly pinned down? No. The judiciary has strongly resisted the attempts to undermine it — from reporting Hlophe to the Judicial Services Commission to finding against former premier Ebrahim Rasool’s attempt to abuse the judiciary against an opposition party.
Zapiro and the Sunday Times owe South Africans an apology.
Justice is always depicted as a woman holding scales in one hand. And it is pathetic to try and pretend rape is not a major problem. What do you want - that we sweep it under the carpet and pretend it is not happening?
Never mind the rape trial - Zuma’s 6 marriages and extra girlfriends and engaged women open him up to this kind of question anyhow. How many husbands do you think Zuma’s wives should be allowed to have in gender equality South Africa?
I do not agree that the cartoon reinforces the attitudes that create the conditions for sexual violence although I acknowledge that you make a convincing case for why you claim this is so.
Zapiro’s cartoon is satirical in that it holds up human vices and follies (attitudes) to ridicule or scorn. I humbly submit that you run the risk of succumbing to what you imply is a flaw in the basis of the western intellectual tradition of hierarchical binaries or othering; in this instance: your perspective/Zapiro’s cartoon. I’m not convinced however that the basis of the western intellectual tradition can be so neatly summarised, I’d like to think intellectualism is more dynamic. Now that’s a topic for debate.
Well articulated, puts forward an interesting, original, well researched point of view. Rape is always shocking and should never be taken lightly. That is probably why, as a woman, I cringed at the first glance of the cartoon. Afterwards I thought it had merit. Now I am not so sure any more…
Would Zapiro draw a cartoon of a German washing himself with soap made from concentration camp deaths? I doubt it. This cartoon of Zuma is done in as little taste.
Des Currie
[…]”Zapiro and the Sunday Times owe South Africans an apology.”
You’re just falling short of saying Mondli & Shapiro should cease to work at Jonnic Communications.
By the way, I still don’t understand why you’ve overlooked the Madam- in charge of this publication; she too has been running that baloney cartoon somewhere in this very newspaper.
She also needs to apologise to the general public of this beautiful nation or she should fire herself.
Or is she an endangered species?
Siphiwo Qangani with kangaroos on September 10th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Christi, I get the feeling you are looking for a bandwagon to jump on.
Not to go at it hammer and tongs, but I find your arguments here somewhat belaboured and I cannot find the logic in what you are saying with the reasons why you are saying it.
I usually enjoy your (rare) controversial entries, but this one I think you missed your mark.
“The woman is purported to represent “Justicia””
As Lyndall said – the metaphor is apt, justice has always been symbolised by a blindfolded woman.
“I am talking about his shameless use of rape as metaphor.”
The word “Rape” taken in its other dictionary definition is not metaphorical, its disturbingly apt. (go read the full quoted dictionary text on another reply – not going to re-invent the wheel here).
“The sense of a lack of imagination”
Based on my above two points, this cartoon is anything BUT unimaginative. It is stark and real and very, very cutting.
Thanks for highlighting some of our sexist blindspots in a coherent and informed analysis of the cartoon. I had initially consumed the cartoon without picking up any strong sexist undertones.
I hope those who also claim that the cartoon is racist can offer a similar discourse to explain their view point.
“South African society will be turned upside down if the court case against Zuma is pursued ” … how can you make a statement like that???
He committed a crime and should be placed before a court of law, an OBJECTIVE court of law, at that. The constant “wrist slapping” the top politicians are receiving for their acts is negatively affecting the belief South Africans have in the justice system.
Zapiro is a satirical artist , and is meant to get people talking, and he has sure got people talking. People are realizing that the court case of Zuma must go ahead to ensure equality … because he should not be able to manipulate people and get off the hook he has placed himself on!!!
why are you making it about women, its not about women, what the poor guy is saying is that Zuma, ANC and their alies are trying to have their way with the justice system. rape can be defined as having ones way with another without the other party’s consent, something I doubt the justice system would gladly do, leaving the guys with no option but to hold it dow and have their way with it. symantics
I couldn’t agree with you more. I have been wanting to raise this point outside of the political connotations as you did. But I could not make up my mind on how to achieve that.
I don’t think it is accurate to suggest that Zapiro’s cartoon is a gender issue, nor a race issue like Vavi suggested. The lady in question is lady justice. This is an age old metaphor. While you could make lady justice a black lady, this is a bit too creative and the metaphor would be lost. In short, it could then be interpreted as a portrayal of rape instead of a portrayal of the abuse of justice.
Furthermore, the rape metaphor is apt. Rape is disgusting and should not be belittled. Jacob Zuma and co’s attack on the judiciary purely because Zuma got himself on the wrong side of the bench in court is similarly disgusting and just as serious.
Zapiro is merely saying that for the sake of all ( including our women who happened to be the most abused section of society in the entire history of the world )we can no longer stand by and watch our criminal justice system being violated by evil men.Someone somewhere once said - for evil to prosper good people must stand idle.Instead of arguing about the cartoon drawing we should rather take it as a call for all of us who care about true democracy and justice to wake up - and wake up fast.
This cartoon is one of the sharpest (and brutally honest) political comments in a long time. It is also clearly a bit too close to the bone for those who sympathise with Zuma’s cause of escaping justice as you and I would have had it meted out to us in similar circumstances
Johan Scheepers on September 10th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Chrisi presents an important perspective on Zapiro and the Sunday Times.
We replace the oppressor ( Zuma and the Alliance) with a new oppressor ( the male neo liberal)
So we go around in circles. How can we break out of this not simply by “free speech” but through intellegent and challege dialogue. But the Sunday Times is not a space for dialogue.
What i missed in Christi’s analsyis is an analyis of power and the arrongant use of power.
This is so obvious in teh case of Zuma and the Alliance. But Zapiro and teh Sunday times are now powerless workers. Zapiro is not a humble artiste. He has become ( not doubt by his personal talents and creativy) a powerful person ( male!) He becomes increasingly insenstive to the people in society, his work ( and his status) comes first.
So should society restrict Zapiro, If no then how does it justify Malema’s “Kill” ” war metaphor”
You are smoking your bra. Like the majority who have been offended by the cartoon you see it far too literally and like those that accuse Zapiro of being racist are reading far too much into it.
I see four males holding down one woman, why don’t you read it that it takes four male brutes to hold down one powerful woman???? That could be as valid as the negative connotations you impute into the cartoon on Zapiro!
The fact that the unacceptably high incidence of rape is a despicable blot on our nation should not preclude anyone from using it in a hard hitting metaphor like this. The Zuma faction is hellbent on “raping” and plundering the justice system for its own ends. Just read the latest rantings of Malema and tell me the likes of him understand the meaning of “NO”!
I certainly agree with you on the representations and objectification of women in society. However I think that Zapiro is making a valid social commentary. I do not believe that Zapiro is condoning rape, nor sexual violence but I think that his cartoon underpins a very important message. South Africa is about to elect a president who has send a message to his supporters and to society in general, that is it ok to behave in this manner. I would like to believe that what Zapiro is doing is warning us of this danger and this reality. It is not Zapiro who should be vilified here, it is the millions of shameful convicts and rapists and sexists who should be shamed.
I admit that the depiction of the woman in a repressed, subjugated and vulnerable manner, juxtaposed to this conventional form of masculinity is frightening but it is a reminder of what is going on and what is about to happen in our society.
The cartoon has not the slightest thing to do with women as such. Justicia is a metaphorical figure, and that is what Zapiro had to work with.
For me the caricature is a brilliant send-up, and more than that, the most telling way to depict the travesty the Tripartite Alliance is trying to pull off. The image represents the outrage that many of surely feel.
In this case, a picture is worth more than a thousand words.
I think that Malema and Vavi should apologise first as they threaten to eliminate me as an anti Zuma person just about every time they speak.
So while Zaprio was radical and on the edge it needs to be to counter JZ & co. Malema is just JZ’s barking dog. JZ needs to be a statesman not a thug and then perhaps he won’t get such bad press.
Christi’s article to me is a heap of sociological, post-modernist claptrap. “Othering”, my backside.
If it was written in an article that JZ and his allies were raping the justice system, there would have been no outcry from feminists.
As pointed out Justitia is a metaphorical representation of Justice.
I think men who rape are absolutely despicable creatures. I think the cartoon illustrates quite graphically the horror of such a rape situation against women. The expressions of the men and the fear and anguish on Justitia’s face should make any man think deeply about this subject and what the victim/survivor must go through.
The attacks on the cartoon remind me of the attack on the cartoonist of the Danish “Motoons”.
Let’s not get too politically correct.
Christi, thank you, these are some fantastic insights.
Lyndall and Gerry, respectfully, I think you missed the point. Part of the objection raised by Christi goes to the objectification, the creation of, ‘woman’ - a subject bereft of agency. To argue that “Lady Justice is just an object as she’s always been” is to accept that objectification and further entrench it into our society. Rape, I would argue, is already a by-product of the ways in which the (lack of) autonomy and agency of women are depicted… thanks to the only too common practice of associating ‘woman’ with ‘object’ - as Lady Justice, car magazines, Stuff magazine, advertisements and music videos already do.
Those arguing that “the cartoon conveys the gravity of the threat to the judiciary by using the metaphor of rape (thus taking rape very seriously)”, both overstate the threat to the judiciary and woefully (and tragically) belittle the reality of rape in this country. Christi has already said as much.
I empathise with Zapiro’s (and so many other people’s) fears for the judiciary. Some fairly influential people have punted the most petty, ill-informed rhetoric drivel as objective fact to an large, impassioned, zealous and loyal constituency. They’ve spoken of death and killing and it is absolutely reprehensible. But that’s all it is - irresponsible, reprehensible, reproachful, disgraceful (any number of adjectives I would consider too mild to describe rape) talk. To compare it to rape, especially in the South African context, is just… blind.
Zapiro’s cartoon brilliantly brings across a different meaning as well. It not only depicts the brutality of Rape, It also depicts the consequences of a justice system that gets raped. One of the Objectives of the law is to protect the victims of rape, when the law system gets rendered inoperable through these actions, it makes those in positions to be raped that much more vulnerable. The Cartoon also exposes the underlying consequences of these so called leaders actions. Supporting the Raping of the justice system is supporting rape, and all the other crimes that the justice system is meant to correct. So If you want to talk about rights, what about the rights of those that have to fend for themselves without a functional law system. Zapiro and his editor are my Heroes to stand their ground amidst the onslaught of the mindless dung flung.
While Christi makes a significant contribution to the gendered subtexts rendered by the caricature, it is regrettable that she omits to mention if the message of the caricature would have been read differently, had it been created by a female cartoonist (or if the editor of the newspaper were female). Given this omission, the reader (of Christi’s critique) is left wondering whether or not the problem with her analysis lies with her being female, while the presumed ‘culprits’ in her scheme of things are male. In other words, how certain should the readers be that Christi’s ‘analysis’ or reading of the cartoon does not stem from confounding her unresolved discomfort in seeing masculine voices making themselves heard on the matter of female exploitation that (sometimes arguably) is considered an exclusively female domain, with her purported critique of continued masculine hegemonic discourses?
Noteworthy, one self-styled fervent fanatic of the buffoon has already gestured towards one particularly striking omission in Christi’s critique; Christi makes no mention of the (female) editor of Mail and Guardian (Ferial Haffajee) – who has also featured this caricature in the online version of this ‘paper’. Shouldn’t this omission be troubling to the reader who is confronted, by Christi, with the multi-layered subtexts of male chauvinism that ultimately saw the caricature into print? Surely, this is one aspect of analysis that would have enriched the understanding of the hierarchical underpinnings of the caricature, which Christi so vehemently persuades her readers towards.
Once more, one battles in understanding Christi’s apparently one-dimensional view of womanhood (as tantamount to helpless victimhood); As one commentator has also wondered out loud in a post above, does the fact that, notwithstanding that four self-delusionally powerful ‘men’ are pinning the lady justice, the ‘lady’ is still resisting the supposed coercion into submission not strike Christi as a powerful image of an empowered gender representation of femininity in a country where most females eke out a personal, social, economic and political livelihood/existence against the backdrop of a rapacious (oft-masculine) hegemonic tendencies? If not, then how does Christi seek to convince her readers that her analyses does not come across as a representation of the same helplessness and victimhood she purports to be opposed to?
I heartedly invite Christi to explore these questions further………
[…] Thought leader blogger Christi van der Westhuizen slams Zapiro for using rape as a metaphor and thinks that Zapiro and the Sunday Times owe South Africans an apology. […]
Are we now more sensitive to a newspapers cartoon of what could be argued to be exactly the aim/strategy of the Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest alliance, than we are to the actual daily degradation/abuse of our female citizens in this country and the failure of our justice system to offer them any reprieve? I think so. How many marchers did the ANC send to the million man march? (A lot less than they bussed in to rent a crowd for Zuma in Durbs) They could care less about the awful predicament the “majority sex” find themselves in, in this country. But let’s take it out on Zapiro, he’s not an untouchable.
Christi, you points are good and thought provoking but you should learn to say more with less your articles are too long - quality always beats quantity, with this article the quantity drowns out the quality.
I am an over 60 pale male and what i hate most about our New SA is the terrible scourge of rape, we will never never be a free society if 51% of South Africans are emprisioned by fear.
Having said that my 2nd reflection on seeing the cartoon was; ‘good it will shock society and highlight the rape crisis also’ so please reflect on this gut reaction from someone who does think and agonise about rape in SA.
This cartoon was demeaning not only to African People but also to the gains Of our National Democratic Revolution since the Sans and the Khoi-Khoins, Makana, King Senzangakhona, King Moshoueshoue, Bhambatha Kamancinza and other distinguished Africans who fought in defense of our land against the European colonists.Jonathan Shapiro does not only represent the Eurocenric hegemony implanted by his or her ancestral European-colonist marines and wanderers in Africa (since 1488),(s)he is also a prisoner of internalised hatred against the pre-democratic South African revolution and 1994 democratic breakthrough. The ill-elated Jonathan Shapiro disguises these loathsome prejudices using our hard-earned principles freedom of the press and other freedoms as a pretex. Given the ownership of the media houses which is still dominated by white capital(built through the blood of African mineworkers since 1860), people like J Shapiro will always have their cake and eat it. The question of the Editor’s discretion is neither here nor there since he owes his dependance to his bosses and their prejudices (anti-black-government)(anti-Polokwane outcome) (anti-communism) (anti-propoor economic policies) all in defense of white supremacy.
Victory is certain.
These freedoms we died for, these freedoms we shall defend, these freedoms we shall deepen.
Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words… this piece is a seriously overdone quasi-academic red herring. No wonder the poor justice system is overloaded.
Snyman, the owner of The Sunday Times is Jonnic and it is Black owned. You correctly rave on about winning freedoms like freedom of the press and then threaten to take it away fromothers, sounds like you were smocking some Marxist muti.
What is wrong with being anti- communism? The Chinese style killed a mere 70million Chinese, Stalin’s probably the same numbe rof its people and he and his successors enslaved nearly 100 million non Russians who when given the chance threw off Marxism., You should speak to these E. Europeans and ask them why they rejected paradise on Earth. Also seems strange to me why Cuban has a poor fishing industry until it was explained that the industry is severly curtailed/monitered to prevent Cuban’s fleeing their island paradise.
Not only is Christi very adept at inserting white guilt somewhere in every idea she promotes, she also manages to shift blame here from black to white: the problem is not the ANC nor Zuma, it is the cartoon!
And moreover, it is argued, the cartoon promotes rape, or at least, makes it out to be a lesser crime.
Christi, the rape of South Africa by the ANC henchmen is as vile a crime as the real thing. While you write your inane ideas down here, another old white lady had her throat cut for a little bit of cash (and the newspaper report that her sons are too shocked to talk to the police - now this do not fit into you white-guilt preconceptions, is that why you have so studiously ignored the fate of white victims over the years). These all to common crimes are part and parcel of what the ANC has unleashed on South Africans. Now I would think that is more or less equivalent to rape, would you not?
How can anyone say the cartoon is sexist against women because it shows rape? Did you critics forget that rape is not limited to men raping women but also the other way around?
@warren foster.
Foster; Forster. You too touchy about your name man. Same name, different spelling. Big deal.
“Overstate the threat to the Judiciary”, “…belittle the reality of rape in this country”. Who the hell is doing this? The threat to the judiciary is real, therefore it is a threat to the very basis of this country’s democratic future.
Collins Shorter English Dictionary: “RAPE…3. any violation or abuse: the rape of justice. (Rape from Latin rapere, to seize).”
The word rape is generally taken to mean forcing a person to submit to sexual intercourse, but it has other metaphorical applications. (Men also get raped). All this sociological twaddle about woman as agency , the other, as victim, as object etc. does nothing to advance the cause of the dignity of women imho. It’s all well and good in an academic thesis, but out here in the blogospere it has nothing to do with the cartoon, which was using rape as a metaphor to get across a political point.
Eveyone on this blog has critised rape of women in the strongest terms. Seems like you and Christi are riding your hobby-horse and missing the main point.
Christi - Why is it that a journalist such as yourself fails to grasp the point of satire? Even more so in the context of the cartoon a political journalist. Your many and at times torturous arguments here flummox your readers for several reasons:
1. You’ve chosen to enter the debate on the cartoon from a perspective of merit but fail to make a coherent argument based on journalistic principles. Your contention of the Sunday Times having a “dismal record” in its depiction of women is abysmally substantiated by some feeble references (with the exception of the back page picture). The overall effect is to diminish the very merits of your stance.
2. Your argument regarding “hierarchical binaries” and the “process of othering” is lost somewhere between a non sequitur and nonsense. Your contention that the so-called “Western intellectual tradition” form hierarchical binaries halts abruptly at black/white and male/female. I’m not sure that your form/matter binary reference is understood by anyone. It’s a shallow and thinly substantiated contention.
3. You go on to contend that a less offensive depiction would be a gun held to Justicia’s head.
Where does the line between rape and other brutal violations sit then? Is it more acceptable to depict victims of violent crime than rape (which in itself is a violent crime)? Your reader is left pondering this inconclusive parallel.
4. The fact that the five protagonists are male is as coincidental as the fact that they are black. It may very well be a convenient coincidence for Zapiro, but that does not detract from the cold fact that it is entirely coincidental. Your argument meanders into the realm of gender politics but fails to draw a succinct conclusion. Why exactly does Shapiro and the Sunday Times owe South Africans an apology?
To draw the argument that the politically satirical depiction of the rape of the judiciary as fundamentally sexist is feebly disingenuous in similar fashion to those calling it racist. Why exactly is it racist, because all the people are black? Come again?
That rape and many other crimes against women are as serious as (if not more than) the subordination of our justice system is not under debate. For that matter so is the scourge of all manner of violent crime. What I am rejecting is the misconstrued notion that the cartoon is unjustified in the face of rampant sexual violence against women. The metaphor is entirely apt, which is precisely why it has created the stir it has. It is shocking, it is even borderline violative. The choice of metaphor is also entirely deliberate, one that affords the satirist the opportunity to cut to the chase in under a second.
Your arguments smack of opportunism - of someone with an axe to grind and a subject to which you can hitch your wagon. Is this really going to advance the cause of women in South Africa?
Methinks your heart may be in the right place but your head is letting the side down.
I must admit that I was overseas when Zapiro published his controversial cartoon in the Sunday Times. The reams of reactions that have followed had me somewhat confused not knowing whether everyone was speaking of the same cartoon. Let alone if all were on the same page, literally and figuratively speaking, with such a strong range of dissensus in the commentaries.
But having read your take on the matter I at least got a gut feel and perspective on the matter. My first reaction after reading yours on how this cartoon comes across, or is traumatizing for women who have been raped, was the thought of what sort of emtions, laughter, remembering or trying to forget comes up with the many men who have been into raping and gang raping themselves.
Many of the male respondents I think have exposed their implicit patriarchal fixes as well. For exampple the defence for the cartoon that the lady portrayed being raped in the cartoon represented “Justicia”, who, in classic literature is portrayed in the feminine gender. Would a child or non-classical educated person know that?
Which brings me to the final point. Is this cartoon appropriate viewing for children? Who knows how many perverted men, let alone naughty boys, who know nothing of “Justicia” being a female being, now have posters on their walls, if not this Zapiro cartoon, eliciting all sorts of pornographic thoughts and deeds. Just think of it!
Finally, is this caroon a work of art? No, it is nothing short of pornography!
Berend Schuitema on September 12th, 2008 at 8:37 am
I think the Shapiro incident shows again the difference in white peoples perception of the world around them and the extend of traditional media influences on their minds, as well as how western world influences have conditioned their way of thinking.
This is well thought and reflects the disturbing mentality that we seen in the Sunday Times and now Zapiro.
It will be interesting to hear what the HRCSA will be saying about this cartoon.
To add insult, the M&G has decided to use a modified version of this cartoon.
Genade woman. The cartoon is about the ruling party, their day care centre and cheerleaders. I was shocked at first but then it got me thinking about how I protect my loved ones from those who plan to kill for Zuma and make the country ungovernable. Our justice system is under threat from Zuma and his group. Justicia has always been a WOMAN, what is your problem?
I am not a victim, I claim my rights and therefore no cartoon by woman or man will change this. I may be dof but how does the cartoon belittle me (I am a woman), diminish the seriousness of rape etc. If it takes Zapiro or someone else to get us talking and doing more to rid this country of corruption, rape and other forms of crime then bring on the cartoons.
Please find some other subject to push your warped feminist nonsense. This one woman you do not speak for.
Nombini Matlhobogoane on September 12th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
@barend schuitema
Pardon me, but I never realised that Zapiro meant the cartoon to be a serious work of art. How did this escape me?
Not only is it not “a work of art, but it is “pornographic”, designed to stimulate sexual excitement in us males. Somehow I don’t think this would be a best-seller at Adult World.
@claude
Well at least one part of the population appears to be thinking. Things are looking up. Would you care to enlighten us as to how the “traditional media” and western world influences have conditioned anyone’s thinking. Are you suggesting that only white people and “coconuts” are capable of appreciating satire and metaphore?
Perhaps I should be reading more traditional African newspapers and getting a more balanced perspective on the attacks on democratic institutions.
@ Christi
Marvin Caldwell-Barr said on September 10th 2008 at 9.09 pm “The cartoon has not the slightest thing to do with women as such. Justicia is a metaphorical figure, and that is what Zapiro had to work with.
For me the caricature is a brilliant send-up, and more than that, the most telling way to depict the travesty the Tripartite Alliance is trying to pull off. The image represents the outrage that many of surely feel.
In this case, a picture is worth more than a thousand words.”
That’s it in a nutshell. In focussing on the rape image you are being as ingenuous as the unholy alliance. Without the barrage of verbal diarrhoea they have subjected the country to in the last couple of months the cartoon could not have existed.
Good for you! And Charlene Smith is another woman Christi does not speak for (and she has more right than anyone to state her opinion), nor Ferial Hafferjee, nor me.
Kallie Engelbrecht on September 14th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
[…] The ethical issues around Zapiro’s cartoon are intricate and linked to race, gender and political power. The metaphor of rape is especially problematic given the prevalence of gender-based violence in South Africa, and because it insinuates a charge of rape that Zuma was cleared of not long ago. I thought the M&G’s ombudsman Franz Kruger gave one of the most considered responses in the debate. For a detailed gender critique, see Christi van der Westhuizen’s post here. […]
So we all have to wait until the country (or the world?) is rid of actual rapes before we can use rape as a metaphore in satire?
And, as pointed out by Gustav Betram, how does Zapiro’s depiction of a great injustice as rape imply that rape is not a great injustice?
Also, is the subject/agency argument really convincing? The British Empire certainly seemed to demonstrate quite a lot of ‘agency’, not the least through colonising large parts of the world, including SA..
How does it follow, on the Argument from Othering, from the premise that the Woman is sometimes used as the object of representation, that (conclusion) women are victimised?
[…] from ‘White Power’How whites won the economy(Excerpt from ‘White Power’)IPS Trade Site more posts Zapiro, Zuma and us With his latest Sunday Times cartoon, Zapiro has ventured where angels should fear to tread. I am […]
[…] I have read, many other woman commentators on Thought Leader would agree with my wife. Some, like Christi van der Westhuizen, read their own agenda into the cartoon and refuse to this day to take responsibility for her […]
Comment and expand if you must, but tell us something we don’t know. Above all, don’t indulge in narrative fallacies; otherwise you’ve not applied your mind.
Sorry, the piece was too long, and too airy-fairy for me. As a woman I think Zapiro got it spot on. I commend the Sunday Times and the M&G for the space given to the cartoon, and the follow up (or am I the only one who saw the reference to Mbeki “raping” justice? Without people like Zapiro keeping us aware of the dangers, we may became complacent and like Zim.
His: One picture. Yours: A thousand words.
You don’t even get the silver medal.
Methinks you protest too much, Christi. Felt shocked? Felt outraged? Felt violated? The cartoon did JUST what it should have. Thank you Zapiro.
Anyone who wants to draw a cartoon depicting Zuma thwarting Justice in a gender-sensitive, non-threatening way which does not even offend the politician himself, is marvelously free to do so. Viva free speech, viva.
PS: A gun at your temple is not as bad as unbuttoning your fly!?! George Bush has desensitised you to murder!?!
Christi seems hell bent on attacking Zapiro for his audacious and superlatively incisive cartoon.
But of course she is unable to effectively dispute the true and obvious accuracy of the message.
So she sees fit to go off at tangents that have noting to do with the very important issue at hand: i.e. the rape of the judicial system by prez. Zuma & Henchmen.
Not that the scandalous rape statistics are not a very pressing issue; but to skeld at Zapiro because he uses a longstanding and good metaphor is rich.
Especially so when one of the chief Henchmen, Malema practically invites use of such metaphor by his own outrageous comments about Zuma’s alleged rape victim!
Please Ms Van Der Westhuizen-Zapiro’s message is not just another “Larger Political Point”.
Your longwinded obfuscation will not detract from Zapiro’s expression of his misgiving about how a fundamental organ of our society is being perverted.
About nothing is too strong to give expression of what is happening to our justice system; the long term implications are zilch short of dreadful.
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Christi van der Westhuizen is an award-winning political journalist and the author of White Power & the Rise and Fall of the National Party (2007). She has worked at Vrye Weekblad, Beeld and ThisDay and has regular columns in The Star, Cape Times, The Mercury and Pretoria News and in Media 24's dailies. She has been interviewed for political comment on the BBC, Radio New Zealand, Radio Adelaide (Australia), SAfm, SABC3, e-tv and M-Net.
In 2005, she edited Gender Instruments in Africa: Critical Perspectives, Future Strategies while working as senior researcher in International Relations. Currently she is Inter Press Service's trade project editor for Africa and Europe. She holds an MPhil in political economy and South African politics.
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Christi
Justice is always depicted as a woman holding scales in one hand. And it is pathetic to try and pretend rape is not a major problem. What do you want - that we sweep it under the carpet and pretend it is not happening?
Never mind the rape trial - Zuma’s 6 marriages and extra girlfriends and engaged women open him up to this kind of question anyhow. How many husbands do you think Zuma’s wives should be allowed to have in gender equality South Africa?
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