Cartoon: Why We Need Don’t Say Gay Laws

Posted on December 16, 2023 by Ampersand

This cartoon was drawn by the wonderful Nadine Scholtes. The unicorns and rainbows were Nadine’s idea, and I love them.

From the Associated Press:

Top officials at a Florida school district ordered the removal of all books and material containing LGBTQ characters and themes from classrooms and campus libraries, saying that was needed to conform to a state law backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”

Charlotte County Schools Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board’s attorney, Michael McKinley, were responding to questions from the district’s librarians at a July meeting asking whether the bill, officially the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, required the removal of any books that simply had a gay character but no explicit sex scenes.

(After a lot of outcry, they allowed a handful of books with lgbtq characters into high school libraries.)

PEN America maintains an index of school book bans. They found that, in one year, 1,648 different books were banned. The largest category of banned books – 674 books, or 41 percent – were books that “explicitly address LGBTQ+ themes or have protagonists or prominent secondary characters who are LGBTQ+ (this includes a specific subset of titles for transgender characters or stories—145 titles, or 9 percent).”

As far back as the 1980s, I remember noticing that conservatives treat straightness as incredibly fragile; the slightest little contact with homosexuality, or even the idea of homosexuality, would turn any child queer faster than you could say “Liberace!” Or that’s how they acted, anyway.

In the present day, the idea that queerness is contagious is pushed especially hard by transphobes. Hugh Ryan writes:

Conservatives have been pushing two related theories to explain this uptick. First, there’s the “social contagion” theory, which holds that in a world drowning in representations of heterosexuality and cisgenderness, meeting a single trans person, reading a book with a bisexual character in it, or encountering nonbinary pronouns on TikTok can totally destabilize the identity of an otherwise “normal” child. It’s amazing how fragile heterosexuality and cisness are in this formulation—almost like they’re socially manufactured identities, backed by huge amounts of ideological infrastructure, peer pressure, media recruitment, and social policing. Well, I guess conservatives aren’t wrong about everything.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon ahs four panels, plus a tiny “kicker” panel below the bottom of the cartoon.

PANEL 1

Two teenagers are standing in a library, and talking directly to the reader. Billy, the boy, is wearing a football uniform and carrying a football. The girl, Sally, is wearing a cheerleader outfit. Billy has his arm around Sally’s shoulders, and Sally is affectionately holding the arm.

BILLY: Hi! I’m Billy Allamerican, and this is my girlfriend Sally.

SALLY: We’re both extremely typical heterosexual high schoolers!

PANEL 2

A person wearing a rainbow-colored sweatshirt, matching their rainbox colored hair, and wearing a big peace sign pendant, and a pinback which says “THEY THEM,” comes in, talking to Billy and Sally. They’re holding up a book with a sparkling cover with the title BE GAY. Billy looks surprised, and Sally looks puzzled.

BILLY: Oh look, it’s Ms Woke, our school librarian!

WOKE: Hi, Kids! Have you read this gay book?

SALLY: What’s “Gay”?

PANEL 3

This panel has a large caption at the top, which says “LITERALLY ONE DAY LATER” in pink lettering.

The panel shows Billy and Sally, standing out on a field. There are smiling unicorns with rainbow manes and tails rearing up on either side of them, and a rainbow behind them. Everything is sparkling.

Billy is now dressed and posed as a stereotypical flaming gay man, wearing a pink shirt and tan capris. Sally is wearing black boots with big buckles and dark shorts and shirt, and is holding an electric razor and shaving one side of her head. Even though it’s been barely a day and her legs were totally hairless in panel one, we can see hair growing on her legs. 

BILLY: Now that we’re gay, Sally, I’ve quit the football team to become a communist florist!

SALLY: That’s so cool, Billy! I’m going to shave my head and become a witch!

The panel border between panels 3 and 4 is a thought balloon.

PANEL 4

The right panel border of panel 3 is a thought balloon border, which leads to the head of the first speaker in panel 4 (indicating that panel 3 was in his imagination). There are two guys here; they’re sitting at a bar, with beers in mugs.

The first man is a gray-haired man with a beard and mustache, wearing a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a red necktie. He’s holding up one finger as if he’s making a point. We’ll call him NECKTIE.

The second man is bald and a little chubby, with a beard and mustache, and wearing a red plaid shirt. We’ll call him PLAID.

NECKTIE: And THAT’S why we need “Don’t Say Gay” laws!

PLAID: Makes sense.

TINY KICKER PANEL UNDER THE BOTTOM OF THE CARTOON

Necktie and Sally (with a crew-cut and wearing dark makeup) are talking; Necktie is in a panic, while Sally is cheerful.

NECKTIE: Why would anyone be straight if we let them know there are other options?

SALLY: Exactly!

Why We Need Don’t Say Gay Laws | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues | 2 Comments  

Cartoon: Our Loss, Your Gain

Posted on December 10, 2023 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by Becky Hawkins and I.

The book Diets Don’t Fail, by Jascha Fishburn, says (in its jacket copy):

A diet has never failed anyone; however, many people fail diets, again and again every day.

This attitude is extremely common among diet advocates, although they don’t always say it so baldly. It’s also pretty common among health care professionals.

Dieticians in Stone and Werner (2012) research expressed feelings of frustrations with their fat clients; “and this situation repeats itself, this frustration of people coming and not losing any weight. This frustration of knowing that I did my best, and I kept my end of the deal, and now it’s your turn [the patient’s]”

The evidence is overwhelming that for the vast majority of people, deliberate weight loss – especially the huge weight loss required to turn a fat person into a non-fat person – is not sustainable. All diet plans (including “lifestyle change” plans) seem to work for a while, but in the long run nearly everyone gains the weight back, and often wind up weighing more than before their diet began.

Legitimate research has consistently found this result since before most of us were born. A 2015 British study found that fat people had a less than 1 in 100 chance of becoming “normal” weight: “In simple obesity (body mass index = 30.0–34.9 kg/m2), the annual probability of attaining normal weight was 1 in 210 for men and 1 in 124 for women, increasing to 1 in 1290 for men and 1 in 677 for women” who were fatter.

But people simply refuse to believe what studies have found for decades. In many cases, this is because of ideology or just the difficulty of unlearning what we’ve been told all our lives. But for diet companies, there’s the additional barrier that they make money out of believing the lie and convincing others of the lie.

It’s been improving – compared to a decade ago, more healthcare professionals and mainstream journalists seem willing to admit that dieting fails – but it’s a long, slow slog.

In the original script for this, the weight loss program was called “Slenderiffic,” which was the first thing I thought of. But when Becky was drawing the box in panel two she asked if we could use something at least a little shorter, to better fit on the box.

We bounced ideas back and forth. I suggested a whole bunch of shorter possible names, including “Willoow.” Becky suggested “Willow,” and then I suggested making it “Willo-We,” and Becky thought of the crowning touch of a macron over the O.

As Becky pointed out, “Willō-We” feels much more contemporary; “Slenderiffic” sounds like it’s making fun of a weight loss snake oil from the 1960s.

And because we had that process, that back and forth, the brand name “Willō-We”™ is now my favorite thing in this cartoon. I’ve come to realize that I really, REALLY love doing collaborations. Becky’s especially great to work with, because we seriously share a wavelength, but I enjoy working with all the other Leftycartoons folks as well.

When Frank Young first came on and colored some of my cartoons, I told him to imitate my coloring style (extremely limited palette, often non-naturalistic colors). But over time, he evolved back to using something closer to his natural style, and I’ve come to really love the way it looks (and accept that it’s okay that it doesn’t look as if I’d done it).

For your enjoyment and edification, Becky’s reference selfie for panel two:

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This four-panel cartoon shows a conversation between a casually-dressed woman – tank top, casual pants, sneakers, ponytail – and a woman who either is a doctor or is trying to be mistaken for one, with a white lab coat with a name plate, and slim pants and high heels. We’ll call them SUSAN and FAUXDOC.

PANEL 1

Susan is smiling happily, and pulling the waistband of her pants forward to show a gap – i.e., that she’s lost weight. Fauxdoc is grinning even bigger as she talks to Ponytail.

SUSAN: Wow! I’ve lost twenty pounds!

FAUXDOC: Congratulations, Susan! And all thanks to the Willōw-We™ Lifestyle Change™ Program System!

PANEL 2

A close-up of Fauxdoc shows her grinning as she holds up a box with “Willōw-We™ Lifestyle Change™ Program System” written on it in large letters.

FAUXDOC: Because you couldn’t have done it without us, right?

PANEL 3

Susan’s smile has dimmed a bit, but she’s still smiling. Fauxdoc has produced a huge professional-looking camera and is preparing to take Susan’s photo.

SUSAN: Um… I guess?

FAUXDOC: I’m taking your picture! Everyone will see how Willōw-We™ made you lose weight!

FAUXDOC: All credit to Willōw-We™!

FAUXDOC: Do the waistband thing again.

PANEL 4

Time has passed, and Susan has definitely gained weight. Susan looks sad and a little bewildered; Fauxdoc is glaring at Susan and pointing at her accusingly.

CAPTION: SIX MONTHS LATER

SUSAN: The weight came back…

FAUXDOC: DAMMIT, SUSAN! You failed and it’s all YOUR fault!

Our Loss, Your Gain | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | Leave a comment  

Cartoon: Women Need To Be More Warm And Approachable

Posted on November 4, 2023 by Ampersand

I saw this exchange on Twitter. For context, “David” is an anti-feminist with 7,000 followers, and Andrew Tate is a famous misogynist:

David’s sentiment is common among incels and anti-feminists (two groups with significant overlap) – if young women would only spend more time ministering to the emotional needs of male strangers, there’d be fewer incels and shootings and we’d be living in a better world.

It’s a view that makes sense if you don’t care about fairness to women. Making the mental health of bitter romance-starved men somehow the responsibility of women means being indifferent to the well-being of women.

In the replies to that tweet, “Nacritis_writes” wrote “What happens is you end up with stalkers and people tell you it’s your fault for being warm and welcoming.” I read that and this cartoon popped fully formed into my mind. (Nacritis is thanked in the sidebar – thanks, Nacritis!)

I wish the only people who held these anti-feminist views were Twitter writers with 7000 followers. But you can find similar views stated by people with more prominence – most obviously, Jordon Peterson, an anti-woke activist/guru with millions of followers. From a New York Times profile:

Violent attacks are what happens when men do not have partners, Mr. Peterson says, and society needs to work to make sure those men are married.

“He was angry at God because women were rejecting him,” Mr. Peterson says of the Toronto killer. “The cure for that is enforced monogamy. That’s actually why monogamy emerges.”

Mr. Peterson does not pause when he says this. Enforced monogamy is, to him, simply a rational solution. Otherwise women will all only go for the most high-status men, he explains, and that couldn’t make either gender happy in the end.

Peterson is extreme – although I suspect his extremity is less in his views, and more in what he’s willing to say out loud.

One of my favorite things in this cartoon, odd as it may sound, is the bench in panel 2. I was browsing google images looking for details that would say “college quad” to readers, and came across a photo of a quad with those concrete benches, and it was just the perfect combination of “good specific detail” and “not beyond my drawing abilities.”

I like the way panel two breaks the pattern of the rest of the cartoon – the only panel with no background, the only panel with a vertical shape, and the only panel in which an element in the panel breaks the panel borders. I also like how her eyeline leads back to the foreground dude in panel one.

And of course, Frank Young did his usual bang-up job with the colors.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has five panels.

PANEL ONE

We’re looking at a few students standing on a grassy area, with paths and trees, between large academic buildings. In the foreground, a good-looking student with neatly combed brown hair and a purple polo shirt is reading something on his phone. In the background, two more students – a woman with orange curly hair (I’ll call her Claire), and a man with a small beard and his hair in a ponytail (I’ll call him Ponytail)- are looking at the foreground student. Claire looks concerned, Ponytail is in cheerful lecture mode.

CLAIRE: That guy’s in my sociology class… He’s bitter and angry at women. Why are some guys like that?

PONYTAIL It’s because too few women are warm and approachable.

PANEL TWO

A close-up of Claire shows her looking back towards the man she pointed out and smiling.

CLAIRE: Hmmm… Excuse me a minute.

PANEL THREE

Claire has walked up to the guy in the purple polo shirt; we can now see he’s sitting on a public bench. He’s pleased and very surprised that she came up to him. She waves and smiles as she speaks.

CLAIRE: Hi, I’m Claire. We’re in Sociology together.

PANEL FOUR

A caption at the top of panel four says A FEW WEEKS LATER.

Panels four and five both show Claire and Ponytail sitting together at a round table in a cafe of some sort; there are framed photos on the wall, and large windows behind them, showing an area with a big tree. Claire has a coffee mug in front of her, and Ponytail is looking at a newspaper he’s reading.

In panel four, Claire is talking a bit angrily on her cell phone, waving her other arm a bit.

CLAIRE: Look, I don’t owe you being your girlfriend because I was nice to you! Just leave me alone!

PANEL FIVE

Ponytail hasn’t moved at all, speaking without looking up from his paper, Claire has laid her head on the table in a despairing sort of way.

CLAIRE: Great. Now I have a stalker.

PONYTAIL: It’s your own fault for being warm and approachable.

CHICKEN FAT

“Chicken fat” means easily-overlooked and meaningless details in a cartoon the cartoonist put in, which maybe you (and they) find amusing.

Panel one: Not really a gag, but Ponytail’s t-shirt has a traffic light design, which I rather like and think would make a good shirt.

Panel four: In the background, there’s a photo of Wilma Flintstone on the wall.

The headline of Ponytail’s newspaper says “Background Detail Monthly.”

Panel five: The photo on the wall in the background has changed to being Pearl from “Steven Universe.”

The headline on the paper now says “I think therefore I nsomnia.”

The coffee mug on the table, in panel four, had cartoon lighting on it; it now has a cartoon rainstorm on it.

Outside the window, Michael and Janet from the TV show “The Good Place” are looking in.

There’s also a squirrel.

Women Need To Be More Warm And Approachable | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, misogyny, Sexism | 4 Comments  

Cartoon: The GOP Tax Policy Cycle!

Posted on October 24, 2023 by Ampersand

Bobby Kogen, at the Center for American Progress, writes:

Long-term projections show that federal debt as a percentage of the U.S. economy is on a path to grow indefinitely… House Republican leaders have used this fact to call for spending cuts, but it does not address the true cause of rising debt: Tax cuts initially enacted during Republican trifectas in the past 25 years slashed taxes disproportionately for the wealthy and profitable corporations, severely reducing federal revenues. In fact, relative to earlier projections, spending is down, not up. But revenues are down significantly more. If not for the Bush tax cuts and their extensions—as well as the Trump tax cuts—revenues would be on track to keep pace with spending indefinitely, and the debt ratio (debt as a percentage of the economy) would be declining.

It’s good that CAP and others have pulled together the data, but what they’re proving is very intuitive: Cutting revenues leads to increased debt.

Which is an unfortunate reality of our current political system, but also, a perfect opportunity for another “cycle” cartoon! I really love doing the cycle cartoons -When they work, they’re elegant and fun, and a nice change from my usual non-cyclic layouts.

The visual simplicity of this cartoon was a perfect opportunity for me to play around with a more illustrative style. In other words, I crosshatched the heck out of this one. 

I don’t normally do this much cross-hatching because it’s time-consuming, but it’s also so much fun! We’ll see how it looks to me in a year, but right now, I’m very happy with how this cartoon looks. (Future Barry who is preparing the reprint book that includes this cartoon: Use this space to say if the cartoon still looks good to you.)

I actually completely colored the figures, and then I took the coloring away, because I think it looks better (and starker) as just black and white illustrations with some red spotting.

I even like looking at the cross-hatching without the lines:

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon is laid out in a circle, with each panel having an arrow leading the reader to the next panel. So in principle, any of these four panels could be panel one. But for purposes of this transcript, I’ll start out with the topmost panel.

Each panel shows the same powerful-looking middle-aged man, wearing a suit with a red striped tie.

In the middle of the cartoon is the title, printed in large friendly letters. The title i: THE GOP TAX POLICY CYCLE.

PANEL 1

The man – who I’ll just call GOP – is looking at a piece of paper he’s holding and jumping up with a horrified expression on his face.

GOP: HORRORS! The U.S. is running a DEFICIT!

PANEL 2

The man steeples his fingers in front of him and has a big smirk, as he closes his eyes. He looks very content.

GOP: We HAVE to make BIG cuts to social welfare programs!

PANEL 3

The man is now dancing in place, one foot kicked off the ground, arms raised, and has a big grin.

GOP: Then we’ll give rich people and corporations HUGE tax cuts!

PANEL 4

The man is now leaning against the side of the cartoon with one hand. The other hand holds a piece of paper, which he’s glaring at.

MAN: Mysteriously, those tax cuts were followed by less tax revenue, which means…

(Panel 4 is followed by an arrow leading back to panel 1.)

PANEL 1

The man – who I’ll just call GOP – is looking at a piece of paper he’s holding and jumping up with a horrified expression on his face.

GOP: HORRORS! The U.S. is running a DEFICIT!

The GOP Tax Policy Cycle | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc., Economics and the like | 64 Comments  

Cartoon: Service Animal Blues

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Ampersand

Another collaboration with Nadine Scholtes, who has quickly become a fixture. I asked Nadine if there were any topics that she’d particularly like to do a cartoon about, and she surprised me by saying “something about service dogs. Like people keep distracting them.”

That’s a little out of the usual for my cartoons – it’s an issue, to be sure, but is it a political issue?

But then the punchline to this cartoon came to me, all at once – the bewildered editor, the paw-printed paper – and it made me laugh aloud. And so I wrote this cartoon and emailed it to Nadine.

The train setting is Nadine’s – I think my script just listed several places where a person might doze off in public – and so was the choice of a bi-colored Australian Shepherd for our main character.

This cartoon oversimplifies the issue a bit, because the gag works better if the dog’s owner isn’t involved with any of the action in this cartoon. But after reading the accounts of a bunch of people with service animals, it seems that the rule isn’t “never ever talk to or touch a service animal,” so much as “never touch or talk without the owner’s permission.” Some owners are happy to let people pet.

On the other hand, moments after writing that, I came across a different person saying that being asked “can I pet your dog?” all the time “gets really fucking annoying really fast.” So maybe it’s more like “never pet without permission, and use your best judgement for whether or not the animal’s owner would mind being asked, and life is always risky so what can you do?”

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels.

PANEL 1

We’re looking at three characters on a train.

The first character is a attractive man in his 20s or 30s, wearing jeans and a button-up shirt with rolled-up sleeves. There’s a suitcase on the floor next to him. 

He’s smiling and leaning down to talk to the second character, a very handsome dog – specifically, a black and white bi-colored Australian Shepherd. The dog is wearing a red harness which includes a sign on the front saying “service dog.” The dog is looking straight ahead with a serious expression.

The third character is the dog’s human, sitting (we know she belongs to the dog because she’s got the loop of the dog’s leash around one wrist). She’s dressed in desaturated red pants with a short of puffy fringe on the cuffs, a pink front-button blouse, and is holding a purse in her lap. Most importantly, she’s asleep; her head is leaning against a wall, and she’s drooling a bit.

MAN: Aww, who’s a good dog?

DOG (thought): Dude! C’mon! I’m at work!

PANEL 2

A close-up of the dog, who is leaning its head to one side, away from the man’s hand. The dog has an annoyed expression.

DOG (thought): I’ve got responsibilities here. Don’t distract me!

DOG (thought): Do I come up and pat your head at your job?

PANEL 3

The man’s hand is now firmly petting the dog on the top of its head. The dog closes its eyes and endures.

DOG (thought): You’re lucky I’m a professional, or I’d so growl at you right now.

DOG (thought): But I will be writing a very sternly worded letter to the editor!

PANEL 4

The setting has switched to a newspaper office. Two people – a 30 or 40ish bald man struggling to hold a bunch of papers, and a 50 or 60sh woman in a brown business outfit – are standing in front of an partly open door with a sign that says “editor.” The woman is holding a letter open in front of her, with the torn-open envelope in the same hand, and is looking at it with bewilderment.

MAN: What’s that?

WOMAN: It’s… A piece of paper covered in paw prints?

Service Animal Blues | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Disabled Rights & Issues | 7 Comments  

Cartoon: Reality vs Imagination, Trans Kids Edition

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Ampersand

Recently, the journalist Jesse Singal – who has a well-earned reputation for being anti-trans – made an error that he thought was understandable, but to many people – me included – seemed ridiculous. He came across an interview with a trans girl and her mother, during which the mom said:

“So the pediatrician at the time talked to Cam for maybe 10 minutes and then said, Well, I think Cam knows what she needs and let’s get her an appointment with an endocrinologist to move forward with treatment.”

Singal – who has written multiple articles and blogs implying that there is an epidemic of young people being pushed too fast into transitioning without examination, although he’s never documented an actual example – then tweeted:

“Pediatrician with no specific training in gender/developmental issues approves hormones after a *10-minutes* assessment.””

Virtually any trans person – and for that matter, anyone who knows trans people and has listened to their stories – would hear that quote and assume that there was more to it than that ten minutes. And they’d be right. Indeed, the patient herself, understandably annoyed, responded to Singal:

“A substantial amount of time passed between coming out to my mom and that doctor’s visit. I actually had been seeing a therapist for years, and the doctor had those notes indicating my experience with dysphoria.”

“During those *months of waiting* I met two separate psychologists and spoke to them about dysphoria. There aren’t details in the interview about that because it was traumatic, but if Singal wanted to ACTUALLY hear about my experiences he could have asked me…”

“I wasn’t “approved for hormones” as Singal claims. I was referred to THRIVE for an *informational session and evaluation* at their endocrinology clinic.  A majority of patients at these clinics don’t receive HRT.”

So why didn’t Singal – who considers himself an expert on all things trans – double check with anyone before running with an obviously implausible “ten minutes” narrative?

Singal lives and works in a bubble of anti-trans misinformation, which has given him a warped misunderstanding of how the transitioning process works – so warped that, despite years of writing on this subject, he can’t even recognize an obviously implausible story, if the story aligns with his misconceptions.

This cartoon wasn’t inspired by Singal alone. There’s nothing special about Singal’s mistake; so many anti-trans people share his misinformation bubble they’re gonna have to build new high-rise housing.

This one was a challenge to write. I wanted to have nine panels of how gender affirming care works in reality. Nine panels is simultaneously a lot of panels – necessary because I wanted to emphasize that a lot goes into this – and also not nearly enough room to give more than a gloss on a process that for most people is long and complicated, and really isn’t the same for everybody. I ended up rewriting those nine panels a whole lot of times.

The other difficulty with those first nine panels is trying to avoid nine panels of the same character talking at the reader. Panel five is my favorite; I’ve heard multiple people who came out as kids talk about how amazing it felt to finally be supported in having the right hair and clothing, and I always find it touching.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon contains ten panels; the left half of the cartoon is a three-by-three grid, containing nine panels, while the right half is a single large panel.

A big caption above the left half of the cartoon says, in large friendly lettering:

HOW TRANSITIONING HAPPENS FOR KIDS

PANEL 1

A young man is speaking directly to the reader. He has hair that’s carefully combed on top and buzz-cut on the sides, a short beard, and is wearing a reddish tank top and a black leather wrist band. He’s smiling and friendly. Let’s call him “Bob,” because why not.

BOB: The process isn’t always the same, but here’s how it went for me.

PANEL 2

In the foreground, we can see a child with hair in a ponytail. The kid is sitting across a table from two people (presumably Bob’s parents), who both look stunned.

BOB (in a caption): When I was ten, I finally told mom and dad I’m a boy. They were, um… surprised.

PANEL 3

Bob is again speaking directly to the reader, smiling, hands on hips.

BOB: But eventually they got me an appointment with a trans-friendly therapist.

PANEL 4

Bob raises one hand in a classic “cartoon explaining hands” motion.

BOB: After months of sessions with the therapist, my parents agreed to the next step…

PANEL 5

A shot of kid Bob, in a short boy’s haircut, wearing an Elmo t-shirt, jeans shorts, and red high-top sneakers, grinning and glowing with pride, with his chest puffed out.

BOB (in a caption): A new name, new clothes and a new haircut!

PANEL 6

A hand is sticking into the panel, holding up a letter. The letter says “Dear Doc, YUP! HE TRANS! yrs, Therapist”

BOB (in a caption): Armed with letters from two therapists, we contacted a gender clinic…

PANEL 7

Bob – narrator Bob now, not kid Bob – is sort of emerging from a calendar, leaning his head on one arm. He looks a bit sad.

BOB: But there was a waiting list… I lived as myself over a year before I got in.

PANEL 8

A hand is holding a prescription bottle, although it looks a bit more complicated than most pill bottles do, with an oversize cap, and we can see it has a big stopper. (This is because it contains injectable liquid, not pills.) We can see that the bottle is labeled “Leuprolide.”

PANEL 9

We’re now seeing Bob from head to toe, as if the camera is backing away. He’s continuing to talk, but each successive word balloon has slightly smaller lettering, as if it’s fading into the distance.

BOB: That was only the start! It was years before I began hormones.

BOB: So next I…

BOB: And then…

PANEL 10

This is a huge panel, taking up the entire right half of the cartoon. A small girl, with her hair in pigtails and holding a teddy in one hand, is in what’s obviously a medical office of some kind, standing in front of the counter and talking to the person behind the counter.  Her eyes are wide.

The woman behind the counter is leaning forward, almost over the counter, and looks rather predatory. She’s wearing blue scrubs over a black shirt.

A big caption at the bottom of the panel says “HOW THEY IMAGINE IT HAPPENS.”

LITTLE GIRL: My teacher says I’m a tomboy.

WOMAN BEHIND COUNTER: That means you’re a boy! We’ll start you on hormones right now!

Reality vs Imagination, Trans Kids Edition | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 45 Comments  

Diets Don’t Work Therefore You Must Diet

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Ampersand

This cartoon, drawn by Becky Hawkins, is a straightforward adaptation of a Michael Hobbes tweet (with Michael’s kind permission).

Michael, for those who don’t know, is a popular podcaster, whose three podcasts (past and present) are You’re Wrong About (a history podcast), If Books Could Kill (about “The airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds”), and Maintenance Phase, a really fun fat acceptance podcast that focuses on debunking anti-fat nonsense. He also writes a great Twitter feed that drives a certain brand of centrist absolutely batshit.

I pretty much imagined panel two as just the doctor talking at the reader. Becky, understandably, thought that would be a bit boring to draw and so decided to do a collage instead. The guiding principle of this collage isn’t “what possible causes of weight gain do Barry and Becky think are the most important” so much as it is “what possible causes of weight gain can Barry and Becky even think of a visual icon for.”

For instance, I personally have doubts about if “food deserts” actually have any connection to weight gain (although they’re still bad for other reasons). But a lot of credentialed experts think there might be something there, so it’s in character for our doctor character to say that, and most importantly, we were able to think of a visual gag for it. 

I also had fun thinking about what makes a caricature of Freud read as Freud. So away went a sofa and a notepad, and in came a cigar and a triangle beard.

The pamphlet in panel three is 100% Becky, but I really enjoy it.

My favorite art in this cartoon is probably panel four, just because that domestic scene Becky drew is so wholesome and cute. I suspect it’s inspired by Becky’s own life; I know that Becky and her extremely cute partner Naomi really love cooking together.

Becky writes:

This is the first cartoon I’ve drawn entirely in Clip Studio Paint! It’s a big step for me. I don’t like learning new computer programs, but this one has too many comics-specific time-saving art-improving features for me to continue sleeping on it. How much do I dislike learning new computer programs? I once tried a free 90-day Clip Studio Paint trial, couldn’t figure out how to log into the program, and let the entire 90 days run out without opening the dang thing. I finally took an 8-week Zoom class where local cartoonist Jonathan Hill talked a bunch of students through all the basic features of Clip Studio Paint verrry slowly. It was exactly what I needed. I’m excited for one of my ongoing comics gigs to be all-digital!

Barry offered this script to me because he knows I’m a fan of Michael Hobbes. I actually did fanart when he was on You’re Wrong About:

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels.

Panel 1

A doctor (surgical scrubs, white lab coat, standing in a standard doctor’s examination room and holding a manila folder filled with papers) talks directly to us. He is neatly groomed and very likable and trustworthy looking, with a very friendly expression.

DOCTOR: The way public health experts think about weight is changing! Here’s some things we now all accept:

PANEL 2

Although the doctor’s monologue continues, we don’t see him in this panel; instead we see a collage. There’s a desert with a road sign saying “Next Food 1200 Miles”; a DNA helix; a prescription pill bottle with “side effects may include weight gain” on the label; Sigmund Freud, reading a notepad and holding a cigar; and a cupcake.

DOCTOR: People are fat for a wide variety of reasons.

PANEL 3

The doctor is holding a pamphlet out to us (which due to foreshortening takes up most of the panel). The pamphlet cover says “BMI: How do YOU compare to a small group of white male Europeans 200 years ago?”

DOCTOR: BMI is an imperfect measure of health.

PANEL 4

A couple of happy-looking fat people are cooking; in the foreground, a woman chops onions, while in the background we can see a man flipping the stir-fry in a frying pan like a pancake. In the background, we can see the Doctor on a tablet screen on a shelf.

DOCTOR: Health markers like blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol can be improved without weight loss.

PANEL 5

A close-up of the tablet, with the Doctor talking on the screen, now with a concerned expression.

DOCTOR: The vast majority of diets fail because people regain weight. Losing and regaining over and over can harm your health.

DOCTOR: And most importantly…

PANEL 6

In a contrast to how calm the Doctor has been up to now, he’s now screaming in panic and waving his hands like Kermit the Frog.

DOCTOR: EVERY FAT PERSON MUST LOSE WEIGHT! LOSE IT NOW! NOOOOOW!

Diets Don’t Work Therefore You Must Diet | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | Leave a comment  

Cartoon: Self-Made Billionaire

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Ampersand

This feels like a very old-fashioned lefty cartoon to me; it’s super-didactic, reliant on labels, has no real punchline, and it’s less about telling a joke then it is about trying to illustrate a basic principal of lefty economics. Other than the drawing style, it could be a pro-union cartoon from the 1920s. Not my usual approach, and honestly I wouldn’t want to do cartoons this didactic all the time, but an occasional trip outside my usual ballpark can be nice.

The principle being illustrated, of course is that there’s no such thing as a self-made rich person. Rich people may work hard (some of them work incredibly hard, others hardly work at all), but their  work wouldn’t be nearly as profitable – or might be entirely impossible – without the systems and infrastructure around them.

This is even more true when we’re talking about the ultra rich. Even if Elon Musk is smart, well-connected to reality and a hard worker (and if he is any of that is debatable), it would be impossible for him to have been productive enough to earn (“earn” as in “deserve”) 244 billion dollars, which is his net worth as I write this. (Or it’s what Google thinks his net worth is, at least.)

At least Musk didn’t inherit a fortune, like Donald Trump did. And yet, Trump has repeatedly painted himself as a self-made man (give or take a million dollars):

“It has not been easy for me,” Trump, as a presidential candidate, said at a town hall in New Hampshire in October 2015. “I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars. I came into Manhattan, and I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with interest. But I came into Manhattan and I started buying properties, and I did great.”

According to the Times’ reporting, Fred Trump loaned his son at least $140 million in today’s dollars. Most of it was never repaid.

Man, I feel like spent forever drawing (very very simplistic) dollar bills. I really need to learn how to make specialty brushes that do things like piles of dollar bills.

But the most challenging thing was definitely that “publicly funded infrastructure” panel. I really tried to think of an alterative to illustrating “infrastructure” other than cars on a bridge, but nothing came to mind, and eventually I had to give up and draw this. As I’ve mentioned to y’all perhaps too often, I struggle drawing cars. But this one came out okay. I think drawing the cars so tiny may have helped; it’s harder to freak out over getting any details right when the drawings are this small.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels. There’s an enormous main panel, the size of the whole cartoon, and then there are five small “inset” panels floating at different angles on top of the main panel.

MAIN PANEL

The main panel shows a smiling, self-satisfied looking white man, wearing casual-but-nice clothes – a long sleeved short shirt tucked into brown pants, with a light blue suit jacket worn on top. He’s holding the lapels of his jacket as he speaks. The last three words of his dialog are printed in much larger lettering, acting as the title of the comic strip.

He is standing thigh-deep in an enormous pile of green dollar bills (presumably of high denominations, although my drawing isn’t detailed enough to show that). Each of the small panels has dollars pouring out of the panel and falling to join the big money pile at the bottom of the cartoon.

MAN: I’m proud to be a SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE!

INSET PANEL 1

CAPTION: Government Subsidies

A very traditionally-drawn Uncle Sam, grinning, is holding a bucket upside down, and money is pouring out of the bucket.

INSET PANEL 2

CAPTION: Inherited Wealth

A baby in a onesie is napping blissfully on a big pile of brown bags with a “$” printed on each bag.

INSET PANEL 3

CAPTION: Tax Loopholes

A sort of organic-looking hole tunnels into an abstract surface. Money is shooting out of the hole and falling out of the panel, towards the big money pile.

I originally tried drawing this panel as a more literal loophole, made of thread, but somehow that seemed to illustrate the concept less well than a totally abstract approach.

INSET PANEL 4

CAPTION: Publicly Funded Infrastructure

A highway overpass is passing over a lower highway overpass. Cars and trucks are driving on both levels of overpasses, including a large truck with its rear doors open; money is flowing out of the rear doors towards the big money pile.

INSET PANEL 5

This is the final inset panel of the cartoon.

CAPTION: Exploited Workers.

Two workers – one wearing a blue vest over a white shirt, and an orange cap, the other wearing a polo shirt and carrying a large cardboard box, look irritated. Money is flying out of their pockets to join the big money pile.

Self-Made Billionaire | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Economics and the like | 8 Comments  

Cartoon: So Where Are You From?

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by Nadine Scholtes and I.

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This, or something very like this, is an annoying experience a lot of Asian-Americans seem to have. In a TV interview, Grace Kao, a sociology professor at Yale, explained:

The first question is, you know, where are you from? And for someone like me, I’m chinese-american. Of course the expectation is I say China, Hong Kong, Taiwan or something, but if I say San Francisco, you know, the next question will be, no, really, where are you really from?

And so I — you know, I have to somehow get to Asia because the person asking me the question will not be satisfied until I get to Asia. The other question that will come up is where did you learn to speak English so well?

Now these things seem like they’re minor and just sort of from a place of curiosity, but what they point to is someone like me could never really actually be American, I must be from somewhere else and that I have to sort of help the person who was asking me these questions place me. That sort of establishes us as foreign.

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Nadine did her usual terrific job with expressions. And I really like that dress pattern she drew (that’s cartoonistese for, “I’m planning to swipe that dress pattern she drew”).

I’m also amused by the drawing of me Nadine did for the kicker gag, because Nadine (who lives in Luxembourg) has never met me, and I’m not sure that she’s ever seen a photo of me – I suspect she got her (accurate!) impression of what I look like from the kicker panels me and Becky have drawn me in over the years. Having me holding a drink with a slice of lime on the edge was entirely Nadine’s idea.

(Well, accurate except that my beard is much grayer now. As Ruth in The Pirates Of Penzance said, “it gradually got so.”)

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. Each of the panels shows the same two youngish (20s or maybe 30s) women chatting at an outdoor party (there are lights strung in the air, and people milling about in the background). Both women are holding drinks. The sky is dark blue with stars faintly showing, indicating early evening.

The first woman is white. She’s wearing a red blouse, glasses, and has fashionably-cut straight hair, a bit long than shoulder length, with bangs. She’s holding a martini glass. Let’s call her “Glasses.”

The second woman looks like she has south Asian heritage. Her hair, also straight and fashionably cut, is parted on one side and ends an inch above her shoulders. She’s wearing a purple dress with a pattern of off-white flecks, and is carrying a brown saddlebag style purse over one shoulder. She’s drinking something out of a plain glass. Let’s call her “Dress.”

PANEL 1

Both women smile as they chat.

GLASSES: So where are you from?

DRESS: New York.

PANEL 2

Glasses, still smiling and maybe laughing a little, waves one hand in a dismissive manner. Dress is looking away, in a “can I get out of this conversation politely” sort of way.

GLASSES: No, where are you really from?

DRESS: Brooklyn. Look, just because I’m Asian doesn’t mean I’m not from America.

PANEL 3

An awkward moment. Both women take a sip from their drinks; Glasses looks away a bit, muttering.

GLASSES (small): Oh, right. Sorry…

PANEL 4

Smiling big again, Glasses rallies and asks Dress another question. Dress facepalms.

GLASSES: So where’d you learn to speak English so well?

TINY KICKER PANEL UNDER THE CARTOON

Barry the cartoonist, looking awkward and holding a drink with a slice of lime on the edge of the glass, is being talked at by Glasses, who has an aggrieved expression.

GLASSES: Why is she offended? It was a compliment.

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So Where Are You From? | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Race, racism and related issues | 3 Comments  

Cartoon: Shoving It Down Our Throats

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Ampersand

Welcome to new collaborator R. E. Ryan! 

R. E. Ryan is a history and comics enthusiast from Portland, Oregon who makes both fiction and nonfiction comics. (Oddly, although he and I live in the same city, we’ve never met outside of email. For all I know he’s my next door neighbor.)

I’m very happy with how this comic looks; if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see more from R.E. sometime. (He says he’s willing, if and when his schedule opens up…)

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It’s a common trope, on the right, to complain that “trans activists are shoving their gender ideology down everyone’s throats!” (That the phrase is ugly and implies violence is presumably part of the appeal). And then if you talk to them further it turns out that they’re complaining about something entirely inoffensive, like someone having preferred pronouns or wearing a t-shirt or a trans actor doing a promotion for Bud Light. In effect, many of them are claiming that trans people are “forcing” their ideology onto them merely by existing.

The irony is that many of those transphobes (#NotAllTransphobes) are evangelical Christians – surely the most aggressive group in America for attempting to force their ideology onto other people. 

I’ll be an atheist until God appears before me and pries my atheism out of my cold dead metaphor. But I’m not offended by proselytizing Christians doing any of the things shown in this cartoon (except the fliers do create a lot of litter). But the gall of any ideology that acts like that complaining about other people pushing beliefs is impressive.

I’ve often asked transphobes angry at incredibly inoffensive things – a city hall rewriting a form to be inclusive, an all-gender bathroom being made available, a trans actor having a small part in the Barbie movie – “how does this hurt you?” Generally they fumble around for a bit because, really, they’ve got nothing. 

(It’s legally unimportant, but still telling, that in 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, in which the Supreme Court ruled that a website designer could refuse to design a website for a same-sex wedding, no same-sex couple had asked. They had to make up a conflict since no real one had happened.) 

They say “trans activists are shoving their ideology down my throat” because they’re desperate to think of themselves as victims, when by any reasonable accounting they’re the aggressors.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. The storyline focuses on two women; one with curly brown hair falling down her back, rectangular glasses, and a purple t-shirt which says “Jesus Saves” in large letters. I’ll call her “Curly.” The other woman has straight brown hair, cross-shaped earrings, and is wearing an orange t-shirt which also says “Jesus Saves.” I’ll call her “Straight.”

PANEL 1

Straight and Curly are in a parking lot. Curly is cheerfully putting a yellow flier under a car’s windshield wiper, while Straight is holding a small pile of yellow fliers in her hands. We can read the top of a flier over Straight’s shoulder; it has a large heading which says “Jesus is the Answer.” 

STRAIGHT: We’re gonna need more fliers!

PANEL 2

On a city sidewalk, a man wearing a hoodie walks stiffly past Curly and Straight, purposely not engaging with them. Straight is wearing a signboard, decorated with flames painted coming up from the bottom, which says “Only JESUS can save you from the Lake of Fire.” She’s holding a flier towards the man walking away from her. Curly is talking to Straight, looking excited and happy, and holding up her smartphone with the screen facing Straight.

STRAIGHT: Excuse me, have you accepted Jesus Christ into your heart?

CURLY: Hey, look what just went up!

PANEL 3

A close-up of the smartphone screen (we can also see a bit of Curly’s hand holding it). The screen shows a photo of a large billboard, with a central image of Jesus with a halo, and the words “JESUS is coming soon! Are YOU ready?”

STRAIGHT: Wow! Our new billboard looks AMAZING!

PANEL 4

Curly and Straight (straight is still wearing her signboard) are standing on the sidewalk, watching a pedestrian walk by. Curly leans to the side to whisper something to Straight.

The pedestrian has pink/purple hair shaved on one side, and is wearing a t-shirt that says “Trans Pride” over an image of a heart in trans flag colors.

CURLY: You know what I hate about trans people? The way they shove their ideology down everybody’s throats!

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Shoving It Down Our Throats | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 7 Comments