The Sorensen Monologues
“The Late-Night TV Circus”
In the past year, we’ve seen a changing of the guard (or planned change) on The Tonight Show, NBC’s Late Night, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show. That’s six major nighttime TV shows, exactly zero of which have chosen a woman as replacement host. (Yes, I am aware of Samantha Bee getting a show on TBS. I’m talking about the heirs to longstanding franchises here.)
Most people seem to just nod their heads and accept this without realizing how utterly weird it is. Women comprise over half the population. There are lots of female comedians. Yet the entertainment industry clearly believes that America is not ready for a woman in such a role. Don’t get me started on the “not enough ladies in the pipeline” excuse — I’m reasonably certain that if a woman had Jimmy Fallon’s standup abilities, she’d still be doing open mics at the Crab Shack instead of pulling down $12 million a year like Fallon.
As a female-type person who deals in political humor, I can’t help but take this stuff personally. To me, it feels like these are impossible biases that we’ll never overcome. It makes me wonder whether this country is capable of electing a female president. My guess, I’m sorry to say, is that we’re not.
On a lighter note, this would be my first Family Circus parody, which was fun to draw. I don’t think “Jeffy,” who now draws the strip, will mind — he bought me beers once.
The Submerged State: South Florida’s climate change rebellion
Now, this is a speech crisis: being unable to talk about global warming as a Florida state official when Miami may well be underwater by the year 2200. For more on the story, check out this Slate article.
Afterword on responses to college rape comic
My recent graphic journalism piece for Fusion about my friend’s sexual assault got a large response. Here’s a post I wrote on the feedback I received.
“Conversations” we won’t see at chain restaurants
Many a wisecrack has been made about Starbucks’ “Race Together” campaign, which until Sunday had encouraged baristas to write the slogan on coffee cups and initiate philosophical conversations. There are some discussions begging to be had about low-wage work, but most multinational chain restaurants probably wouldn’t want to go there.
Graphic journalism: “The phone rang. It was my college rapist.”
Today I can finally share a big project I’ve been working on for weeks: a comic account of my friend’s sexual assault in college. 33 years after the incident, she received a phone call from her assailant.
If you haven’t checked out Graphic Culture, the comics section I edit for Fusion, please do. And follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
Special Preferences
Longtime readers might recognize this one, but it’s the first time it has appeared anywhere in color (and possibly on the internet at all). Still, it bears repeating every decade or so. I’ve been hard at work on an enormous special comic that I’ll be posting a link to here tomorrow.
“Right to be a jerk” states
For years, I’ve been meaning to do a cartoon on the ridiculous phrase that is “right to work.” Unfortunately, Scott Walker has given me an opportunity.
“Right to work” is a classic example of linguistic framing by market fundamentalists. Every time we use it, we invoke their agenda. Personally, I’ll take the “right to work for more than peanuts through collective bargaining.” Let’s call “right to work” what it really is: an attack on the right to unionize.
Punditspew: ISIS edition
The right-wing media has been having a field day over a State Department spokeswoman’s suggestion that merely killing ISIS isn’t going to solve the problem — that we also need to look at underlying causes of why some are drawn to terrorism. She was clearly suggesting that having decent jobs might prevent people from becoming terrorists. You can agree or disagree with this point, but it is dishonest and patently absurd to say that she is advocating jobs for violent jihadis.
The Screen
Who says the world isn’t flat? Sometimes I do miss the third dimension, though, with all those smells and tactile sensations.
Digital Doctor Deniers: The truth about so-called “webcam abortions”
The Arkansas House just passed a measure banning the safe practice of doctors interacting remotely with women taking RU-486. Similar uses of technology in the field of telemedicine have been around, and largely unquestioned, for decades. But in recent years, Republican lawmakers have suddenly expressed a curious concern for women’s safety when it comes to this particular usage. Pre-emptive bans are being passed in states where the technology has not even been used yet in conjunction with RU-486. It’s almost as if there’s something else going on here…
