Greta Thunberg sexually assaulted in cartoon

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I don't tolerate double standards.

Sex comics are either funny for all genders, or they're disgusting and inappropriate for all genders.

Age and political power doesn't matter, if they are all adults.

It's gross sexism to imply only women are hurt by sexual assault, or by degradation in the media.

A. First off there is a difference. The cartoon in question depicts what the cartoonist WANTS TO DO to the public figure. To do violence, and it sexualizes the violence. If the victim of the cartoon rape was AL Gore, or Trump, or Obama, it would be just as offensive.

You can publish pics of the Dem Donkey stomping Trump, or of the GOP elephant stomping Biden. But you cant have the Donkey, or the Elephant, sodomizing even male politicians. But even with nonsexual violence there are limits (everyone, left right and center, disowned Kathy Griffin's gory Trump picture).

But if your point was to show, not what you want to do the person, but what you think the person is doing - and that thing is being on the take, or being dominated by a foreign country, then that's different. If you wanna convey that Trump is taking orders from Putin then its okay to show him literally in bed with Putin (though even then there are limits to how graphic you can get sexually).


B. But yes. On top of that there IS a double standard. Both gender and age come into play. I would personally find it offensive to show either a child or a woman being raped in a political cartoon. Greta, being under 21, is in both of those categories. Why exactly I feel that way is hard to say. But that's my feeling.

If you thought that Bill and Hillary were both taking bribes from the Michelin Tire Company you could show Bill in bed with Michelle Tire creature, but not Hillary in bed with the Michelin Tire man.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 01 Mar 2020, 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

At my age anyone under twenty is a child.I am now an old foogie.
I think it was in bad taste,sexual assault alway is no matter what the age or sex.

Last edited by Misslizard on 01 Mar 2020, 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I agree np, and I see what you're saying. I'm speaking in generalities though, and not specifically about Greta, Trump and Putin. I didn't even see the cartoon of Greta although I did read the description.

I just find a common mindset that even when violence is involved or implied, it's deemed "worse" for females than for male or trans victims.

I'm not referring to anyone on WP. It's just a mindset I've always noticed since childhood. There is much less understanding for male victims of injurious crime, whether sexual or not.

^ Just thinking, the old assumption is that men can bear with anything, but women & children are weaker and need protection:
Could it be this assumption is at play sotto voce, rather than fully expressed?

Just hypothesising

I’m an older fogie! The drawing does sound to be in bad taste. I wasn’t disagreeing with you, but you were the first to mention “child”, so I quoted you.

Greta is almost always referred to as a child, but she is seventeen. In her home country she is of age to have consensual sex, but she won’t legally be an adult there until she turns 18. Google tells me that 18 is the general age in the US also. Canada is 18 or 19, but like your country was once 21.

But I do wonder if she wore makeup and changed her hairstyle and style of dressing, would people continue to call her child? (Personally, I think she looks just fine!)

I would say that’s the case.

I hope not!

This notion is still firmly embedded in the ethos of many cultures.

She is old enough for and adult to legally have sex with her according to age of consent laws in Canada and Sweden. Not a little child. Remember all I am still a teenager myself so I see the "she is just a child" a little differently.

Last edited by EzraS on 01 Mar 2020, 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Of course that's the implication. I'd argue that sex as depicted in that cartoon, without consent, from a grown man, would hurt males and females equally.

I'm ridiculously egalitarian. I just don't buy the insinuation that women are weaker than men. Of course some women are weaker than some men, but that's not my point. Some men are weaker than other men, too.

Assault hurts and no one should be victimised.

If so then...so what? Is there anything wrong with that assumption?

If you're talking about children and not adult women then most folks would agree that children need more protection than adults.

Men may well be just as traumatized by being being raped as women, but (a)outside of prisons men don't need to constantly worry about being raped the way women do, and (b) in the small population of men who DO need to worry about being raped (ie guys doing hard time in prison) who is doing the raping? Hint: its almost NEVER women, and it's almost NEVER children.

So there kinda ARE good reasons for a double standard.

Likewise, women are never perceived as perpetrators whether against men, women, or (unfortunately) children.

Probability of an assault scenario doesn't make it any less traumatic when it does happen.

I agree with you np. I'm just looking at the aftermath of comics and crimes, rather than their likelihood.

Trump and Putin in bed is consensual. There’s no “sexual assault” there.

Remember that Greta is supposed to have autism, a developmental disorder. That could be said to be an aggravating factor where depicting sexual assault is concerned.

Personally, I wish all this crap would stop.

Agreed again. I was talking in generalities about gender though, not about those specific people.

Men can certainly be traumatized, too.