On May 22nd the Leader ran a cartoon directly ridiculing local women and girls. The cartoon depicted two white males, obviously middle-aged and obviously slobs, looking at a stereotypical Frankenstein’s Monster stumbling along, arms out, jaw agape.

The speech bubble said “I think he’s dressed in wearable art.” The Port Townsend Wearable Art Show is a fundraiser for the Jefferson County Fund for Women and Girls.

There is a concept in comedy called punching up. The idea is you don’t make fun of people who have less power than you, to do so is to pick the low-hanging fruit and usually isn’t worth anyone’s time. To see a cartoon where middle-aged white men are ridiculing an event designed to help women and girls was disheartening; especially the same week the GOP made it apparent that their hatred of women knows no bounds.

The cartoon was tone-deaf, offensive and, to rub salt in the wound, it wasn’t even funny. If you’re going to mock entire groups of marginalized people at least be funny while you’re doing it. The unintended humor of running the cartoon above an op-ed about privilege was at least amusing.

There are only so many ‘get your head out of your butt and do better’ letters one community can write before they stop caring about what you have to say and turn to other sources of community information; on that note Swordfern Press does excellent reporting.

If the editor can’t see the blatant bias in this cartoon, how can I read the rest of the paper with any faith that those writing and editing it believe women are people and deserve the same rights? And if they don’t believe that, what value is the paper to me, a woman?

CHRISTINE JACOBSON
Port Townsend