Caporegime
I can only say not many people have ever seen Spitting Image
Although Spitting Image's house style put ridiculously engorged lips on most people.
Racist! Really?
- Thread starter koolpc
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Although Spitting Image's house style put ridiculously engorged lips on most people.
Don
Also, I don't know where the "diminutive" description comes from, a tennis net is 3' high, if the cartoon is to scale it makes Osaka about 6' tall.
This is a toy cow, those are cows in the distance Dougal.
This is a toy cow, those are cows in the distance Dougal.
Man of Honour
While that's a very good point, it is true that Osaka is shown as being smaller than she is in reality. She's quite muscular, as a top end tennis player has to be. The height is accurate, but the build isn't.
However, this is a caricature cartoon and not an exercise in photorealistic drawing. In terms of fame, wealth, power, status and clout in general, Osaka is tiny compared to Serena Williams. So in that sense the depiction is accurate.
Also, Osaka (and the umpire, but the people complaining don't give a damn about him because to them he's the wrong sex and race and therefore not a person) are very much not the focus of the cartoon and are therefore depicted as background to the cartoon.
Whilst these are all possible (though quite convoluted) explanations of why the opponent looks nothing like Osaka, personally i think the far simpler explanation is that he simply was drawing a sort of generic umpire and female tennis player. It looks far more like Sharipova/Kornakova who understandably might be among famous female tennis players who pop into your head if you are just drawing a random female tennis player.
I mean, he has basically drawn Sharipova
As i have stated earlier, as well, i don't think he did this with any sort of racist intent (consciously or subconsciously) but the unfortunate upshot of it is the perception of him whitewashing the other characters in the scenario he is depicting.
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Caporegime
If you totally ignore the fact he drew her with a brown colour and the umpire in pink. Yeah, whitewashing o_O. I'll agree it's not a detailed, or particularly accurate, portrait but saying he's drawn her white requires you to ignore the colours he used.
Permabanned
Are all the images doctored in a different way? People seem to be seeing different colours.
So he drew her as more tanned than the umpire. So what? That really doesn't matter to how people perceive it or look at it. Only us saddos on here have taken it into paint to colour swatch it
It has been perceived as a caucasian woman with straight blonde hair by so many people, because that is exactly what it looks like.
If you knew nothing about the scenario/that match, hadn't done an in depth colour analysis on the exact colours used, and someone asked you if that opponent was a depiction of Osaka , or a picture of (for example) Sharipova, who would you say it was? Come on now, be honest
Caporegime
So... it's obvious he wasn't drawing her as white.
If you knew nothing about the scenario/that match, hadn't done an in depth colour analysis on the exact colours used, and someone asked you if that opponent was a depiction of Osaka , or a picture of (for example) Sharipova, who would you say it was? Come on now, be honest
No, I wouldn't. But that's true of the overwhelming majority of satirical cartoons. You can recognise the people because you know who they are beforehand. Satire isn't photo-realistic and it isn't trying to be. The figure is recognisably Osaka. That's all it needed to be to achieve the point of the cartoon.
Man of Honour
And that right there is a large part of the problem - facts don't matter to far too many people, who form their perceptions based on their own prejudices or the agendas of the people who tell them what to perceive. I'd bet good money that many people objecting to the non-existent "whitewashing" have't even seen the cartoon.
You wouldn't what?
Well we will just have to disagree because i think it very much isn't.
For consistency, the cartoonist could have done a better job of Osaka.
Something like this?
https://kotaku.com/the-realest-comic-about-growing-up-asian-american-and-1724281672
Something like this?
https://kotaku.com/the-realest-comic-about-growing-up-asian-american-and-1724281672
Quite possibly. But there are extreme types in all camps.
Personally i don't think it is all that bad (there are far worse, properly racist artists/artworks about) and wasn't intentionally racist, but i can understand how it has been perceived and can understand how it may offend some.
Personally if i was Serena, i would be more annoyed at how fat the artist had made me look
Caporegime
I wouldn't know who that was out of context. But it's not asking you to recognise her out of context, it's asking you to recognise in context. In context that's obviously Osaka. A totally minimalist depiction, sure, but still a depiction.
Soldato
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Search Youtube for Dave Chappelle on conan o'brien, then go to 3:40.
Man of Honour
What other tennis player was on that pitch at that time and playing against Serena Williams (and thus in a position to potentially let her win)?
If he'd drawn her as an Ent from Middle-earth(*), the drawing would still be recognisably her because of the context. But given that he'd drawn her as a woman (correct) dressed as a tennis player (correct) with skin darker than the umpire (correct) and lighter than Serena Williams (correct), wearing a cap with a large brim on it (correct) and with a blonde ponytail hanging from the back of it (correct), then it's definitely recognisable as her. Particularly for a quickly sketched out background figure that's supposed to not stand out in a caricature cartoon that's very obviously not supposed to be a purely visually accurate depiction.
* I have no idea why that was the first thing that popped into my head. It's been nearly 40 years since I read The Lord of the Rings. The posts about her height, maybe.
I disagree. In or out of context, it still doesn't resemble her in any way in my eyes. He has made no attempt to make the umpire look similar either so personally, it looks clear he has just drawn a sort of generic umpire/player.
Ultimately, if you can't see why people have perceived it that way and thought that it looks like he has drawn a generic caucasian white woman instead of Osaka, then we will be going around in circles until we die.
We just disagree. But that is fine.
Soldato
@Jono8
Maybe I missed it, but have you actually explained why you think it's so important that her depiction isn't 100% accurate?
Maybe I missed it, but have you actually explained why you think it's so important that her depiction isn't 100% accurate?
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Man of Honour
But I do understand why some people have perceived it that way, despite it being provably untrue. We're all prone to doing as we're told if we're told often enough and that even extends to what we think. That's part of human nature and part of why it's important to look at evidence, try to be objective and try to consider intent.
Edit: Also, of course, some of the people are just pretending to perceive it that way because doing so is a useful political tool for them, either to promote the irrational prejudice and discrimination they advocate or to increase their media profile/job security by pandering to advocates of that irrational prejudice and discrimination.