Serena Williams Cartoon, Unflattering Yes, But Racist?

[anotheoldgit]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6151635/Australian-newspaper-Herald-Sun-eviscerated-racist-cartoon-Serena-Williams.html

Cartoons are not meant to be flattering, the cartoonist takes the most prominent features of their subject and exaggerates them and has always done so.

[The_Rim_Greaper]

shes certainly been dipped in the ugly pond thats for sure

[murraymints]

osaka DOES have yellow highlighted hair though see Talbot's link at 10.27...

mind and post a pic of your new Hair Auntie !

[beso]

Black people should stand up and fight for the right to be caricatured like anyone else.

[andy-hughes]

I do feel that some people are missing the point of a cartoon - and the reasons for its enduring popularity over hundreds of years.

A cartoon can often - but not always - include a caricature of the subject in which any and all phsysical features are exagerated for comic effect.

This is done to underline the message, which is typically humourous, but with a defnite undercurrent of bite, often puncturing an incident of foolish behaviour.


The great and the good who are subjects of cartoons, learn to take them in this spirit in which they are offered, and on that basis, i doubt that Ms. Williams is dialling her lawyer as I write!

[AuntLydia]

Plenty of white female tennis players get caricatures. I bet Billy Jean Kind didn't take to twitter over this one

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/sport-billie_jean_king-world_no-world_number_one-tennis_players-sports_personality-gbrn307_low.jpg

[vulcan42]

Did anyone depicted as a spitting image puppet ever complain? I seem to remember they actually enjoyed being picked to be caricatured, how times have changed. Serena should consider herself lucky that Gerald Scarfe didn't draw the cartoon.

[AuntLydia]

Honestly, Twitter is well named. Full of Sycophantic Twits every ready to get on the 'outraged' bandwagon . I bet a good few of the 'disgusted' brigade had a sneaky little laugh before reading the comments.

[Ken4155]

Who knows what was in the mind of the cartoonist when he drew this. However, i must agree with those who think that Naomi Osaka's flesh tone is depicted as considerably lighter than Serena Williams' and her pony tail is much, much lighter than in reality. Though I can see why some may find it racist, i don't.

[kvalidir]

I'd have preferred the other girl's skin tone to be darker to avoid conversations like this (she does have highlighted hair) but no it's not at least intended to be racist, although it's not funny so not worth drawing in the first place.

[anotheoldgit]

-Talbot-

That link you supplied was brilliant, certainly puts to bed any racial accusations regarding her 'blonde' hair.

[AuntLydia]

kval if you want to see something really 'funny' watch how she treated the officials at the match. She was acting like a spoilt brat. The attitude she took against someone just doing their job was disgraceful. If serena wants to dish it out then she should be prepared to take one on the chin.

[vulcan42]

A cartoon doesn't have to be funny, only relevant, which this certainly is.

[Gromit]

Not racist, but not funny either.

Not a very good caricature either. If I had just seen a cropped picture of just her face, I would not have known it was supposed to be Williams.

[kvalidir]

I don't do Tennis Aunt Lydia, my man is an enormous tennis fan and I've been bored to death with it and absolutely Tennis widowed, but I did see her performing like a toddler and chucking her weight about in what was an utterly disgraceful way. I still don't think the cartoon was funny though :/

[andy-hughes]

As I have advised, I don't believe cartoons of this type are meant to be 'funny' per se, because they are satirical.


Humour makes you laugh - satire makes you think, that's the difference.

[SparklyKid]

Extremely funny and, funnier still, her $17'000 fine when her coach admitted sideline coaching.

[anotheoldgit]

vulcan42
/// Serena should consider herself lucky that Gerald Scarfe didn't draw the cartoon. ///

To be fair to Ms Williams, I don't think that she made any comment or accusations of racism, it was others such as J.K. Rowling and Kathy Griffin who branded him a 'racist piece of s***' and said: 'Just change your name to KKK cartoons.'

[Arksided]

Is she black... wow I hadn't noticed until she kicked up a fuss.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - // To be fair to Ms Williams, I don't think that she made any comment or accusations of racism, it was others such as J.K. Rowling and Kathy Griffin who branded him a 'racist piece of s***' and said: 'Just change your name to KKK cartoons.' //

I am sure that as a black woman who has reached the pinnacle of her profession, Ms Williams has learned to put up with far more during her life than a cartoon pointing out that she behaved badly for a few minutes at a tournament.

[anotheoldgit]

I know that my eyesight is not what it once was, but with the aid of spectacles and a magnify glass, I do not know how some can observe Naomi Osaka's carton figure so closely to be able to see that her hair is yellow toned and her skin is much whiter than Serena William's skin.