Depiction of women in cartoon is problematic

The depiction of women as the weaker sex is one of the drivers of gender conditioning and gender inequality. This occurs on various platforms, sometimes open, such as in religions, companies and cultural or traditional institutions, and sometimes subliminal like in movies, advertisements, etc. In soccer, the winning team’s fans often mock the losers by calling them wives or women.

Sadly, The Citizen newspaper is guilty of this in the Siwela cartoon, published on September 30, which presents the SACP as a woman, perhaps a wife, leaving the ANC, depicted as a man.

It is disappointing that in the midst of a countrywide debate on gender-based violence and causal factors, The Citizen could present such a depiction of women. It is not the first time, and certainly not the only newspaper to do so.

“It’s just a cartoon, laugh a little, where’s your sense of humour?” some of my colleagues suggested. But a cartoon is more than that. It conveys a message.

We know that some people believe the SACP plays second fiddle to the ANC, and some even claim the SACP is dependent on the ANC.

Therein lies the problem. And The Citizen has just deepened it.

The conclusion of the uncritical reader is consequently that the SACP, like a married woman, often gets emotional and leaves her husband and, like women generally, the SACP has been hanging onto the ANC for so long, but she has decided to grab her bags and leave him. This is toxic! It must stop.

Siwela responds: The cartoon is intended to show a woman who is anything but weak. She is taking charge of her life and leaving a toxic relationship for good. The cartoon is a celebration of strong women ... those who put a stop to gender violence by leaving the one guilty of it.