Hey, Terrence. We haven’t spoken in a while.

Is it really so difficult to avoid this “Fat of Evil” trope?

I have an assignment for you. Find photos of Teabagger ralleys and Tea Party protestors. Lots of them, as many as you can find. I want to see how many photos of unwashed, morbidly obese teabaggers riding on mobile carts you can find, versus photos of lighter, more able-bodied teabaggers, so we can compare the numbers of both categories, and then you can tell me all about how you totally aren’t just falling back on your own prejudices, for really reals.

You and I both know that fat people arent the face of the Tea Party, but only one of us is being honest about it. And seeing as how honesty is something you pride yourself on with these political cartoons (and is, in fact, the reason I bookmarked them), I’m rather surprised by this.

Let me know what you find. 🙂

I like that the Tea Partier is wearing crocs, the ugliest excuse for footwear in existence.

Come off it, Seegz. If you’re not allowed to caricature your opponents in a political cartoon, what’s the point?

Caricaturing individuals, Zen- I’ve got no problem with that, but this isn’t what that is. He’s insinuating that obesity and the Tea Party go hand in hand. I wasn’t aware that immobile obesity was such a rampant issue within the Tea Party that it warranted being used as a defining point of their image, and actually, most of the Tea Partiers I come across are quite fit or gangly.

So maybe I’m confused as to how obesity is relevant here, and perhaps you could illuminate this angle for me.

If you’re trying to make a cartoon about how Tea Partiers often rage against “socialized” medicine while being desperately in need of medical attention themselves (while being ignorant to that fact), THEN I think the obesity angle would be relevant. Placed in this context, it makes little sense, as he’s just trying to mock Baggers in general. Now, if the artist is trying to hook the caricature to the plethora of stereotypes fat people are often associated with (greed, laziness, poverty, sometimes entitlement or ungratefulness), then it makes sense, and that’s what I’m talking about here. The cartoonist is using his own prejudices against people like me to shame a group that is physically diverse, if not mentally.

Political cartoonists often use obesity as shorthand for things like corruption and greed. When a political cartoonist uses morbid obesity in his cartoon, it’s most often to illustrate those points, and that’s a problem because obese people are not inherently greedy or lazy. I’m certainly not.

When a cartoonist, especially one who is as clever as Nowicki, falls back not only on stereotypes, but ones ones that don’t even make sense in the context of his cartoon, it really puts him in a bad light. It not only betrays my belief that he’s better than that, but it also illustrates his prejudices.

It’s hard to admit it as a fan of his work, but I would feel very uncomfortable with the idea of meeting Mr. Nowicki, since I now know what he’d think of me just because of my body.

Welcome to America, where obesity is genetic but homosexuality is a choice.

Seriously though, Mr. Seegz, I understand where you’re coming from.