Cartoon Scandals So Hot Right Now
As the Crimson's cartoon woes drift downriver, Dartmouth's are just rounding the bend. But this time the comic isn't plagiarized -- it's insensitive.
It started with Nietzsche. Drew Lerman '10 drew a comic for Monday's paper depicting the philosopher coaching a frat boy on how to take advantage of a drunk girl. A few readers concluded that the cartoon advocates rape and proceeded to burn copies of The Dartmouth outside the paper's offices. Here's Caroline Kerr '05 in a Tuesday op-ed:
Where does The Dartmouth draw the line? Would a picture of a black student being lynched from Baker Tower make it into the comics? How about a group of students from Hillel being marched off to a gas chamber under a giant swastika?
A staff editorial in the same edition responded that the comic, while racy, "does not fall under the category of hate speech" and shouldn't be censored. The university's Student Assembly issued a strongly-worded statement Tuesday night questioning The Dartmouth's journalistic integrity. (Full text after the jump).
Misunderstood social commentary? Masculist hate crime? We're gonna safely go with neither. The joke isn't funny enough to be excusable, and the misinterpretation -- that Nietzsche advocates rape -- is too absurd to be offensive. We're not sure where this lies on the overreact-o-meter either, but there are two things we never underestimate: 1) a college cartoonist's ability to botch a joke, and 2) a campus's inability to spot one.
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