Today's edition of Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" doesn't pull any punches. It features a woman checking in at a clinic for her mandatory sonogram, in advance of an abortion. Another woman, behind the desk, hands the patient a clipboard and says, "[Y]ou'll need to fill out this form. Please take a seat in the Shaming Room.... A middle-aged, male state legislator will be with you in a moment."
The comic, clearly a response to recent Republican measures in Virginia, Texas, and elsewhere, is expected to be part of a week-long series. As it turns out, however, you may not find it in your local newspaper.
A national syndicate will offer replacement "Doonesbury" comic strips to newspapers that don't want to run a series that uses graphic imagery to lampoon a Texas law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, executives said Friday.
A handful of newspapers say they would not run this week's series, while several others said the strips would move from the comics to opinion pages or Web sites only.
The series will apparently be harder hitting as the week progresses, and will feature a physician who will read a script from Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), welcoming the patient to a "compulsory transvaginal exam" against her wishes, as well as a middle-aged legislator who calls her a "slut."
The device used for the exam is described as a "10-inch shaming wand."
Portland's Oregonian is one of the papers that objected, and in a note to readers, the editors said Trudeau "went over the line of good taste and humor."
Editors and publishers clearly have their own decisions to make in these areas, but here's a radical thought: perhaps those offended by phrases such as "compulsory transvaginal exam" should be more concerned with the legislative proposals themselves, and less concerned with Trudeau satirizing the measures.
For his part, the "Doonesbury" creator chatted with the Washington Post about the controversy, and was asked his background on these issues. "Roe v. Wade was decided while I was still in school," Trudeau said. "Planned Parenthood was embraced by both parties. Contraception was on its way to being used by 99 percent of American women. I thought reproductive rights was a settled issue. Who knew we had turned into a nation of sluts?"
Leave a Comment:
The Louisville Courier-Journal has printed Doonesbury in the Opinion section for years including the current week-long series. Please conservatives, home school your children with only the reading materials you deem appropriate in your accelerating narrow world view and leave the intelligent satire to the rest of us.
I don't get this. Taking action against Limbaugh's disgusting and baseless rants is considered "censorship" and "a violation of his right of free speech", yet the same media considers a comic strip that highlights the absurdity of REAL LEGISLATION is worth censoring for ... being HONEST?
Well, all the papers wanting to suppress this have done a wonderful job of making sure that people like me, who don't usually read the funny section, see it. And Bravo Gary Trudeau! Don't let anyone make you stand down.
Folk, please name your local paper, and put a link here to them. (Chop off the http : // part, so that your link doesn't get erased.) We want to know who the cowards are.
Tampa Bay Times(St. Petersburg Times) carried it. Since they originated Politifact, I am not surprised. I pay for all the news, and do not want someone to censor what I can or cannot read. Hats off to a great paper.
Thank you for sharing this. Trudeau at his biting, spot on best. So glad the vaginal u/s story refuses to fade away. It's so important that people understand this unprecendented government intrusion into women's healthcare.
I wonder if governor McDonnell knows that the website bobmcdonnellvp2012.com takes you to bobmcdonnellvaginalprobe.com??
The fictional Doonesbury strip, used by the Rachel Maddow show to make a point, may have some of the Maddowblog readers saying this to the Doonesbury writer had he wrote about his strip in this blog:
"...if she used your made up story as a basis for agenda, which could very well coincide with today's reality (i wont dispute that) - but it puts her work and reporting ethic in a new thesis."
That quote is taken verbatim from a Maddowblog reader replying to me when I attempted to point out that I co-wrote a short story, "Prima Gravida," which appeared in the October 1982 issue of Ms Magazine, that dealt with a possible anti-choice future...that's beginning to happen. That reader wasn't alone. (You can see the whole thread in the June 9, 2011 Maddowblog entry "Personhood' movement somehow excludes you.")
I have to wonder if that reader, and others, still believe if Rachel's work and reporting ethics are at risk. That kind of censorship through ignorance (as in "ignore it because it's thirty years old and fiction") isn't coming from the right.
If you're at all interested in the entire text of "Prima Gravida," download it from here in zip file format:
http://www.mediafire.com/?tn5ifuv5vqb97x9">http://www.mediafire.com/?tn5ifuv5vqb97x9
The fictional Doonesbury strip, used by the Rachel Maddow show to make a point, may have some of the Maddowblog readers saying this to the Doonesbury writer had he written about his strip in this blog:
"...if she used your made up story as a basis for agenda, which could very well coincide with today's reality (i wont dispute that) - but it puts her work and reporting ethic in a new thesis."
That quote is taken verbatim from a Maddowblog reader replying to me when I attempted to point out that I co-wrote a short story, "Prima Gravida," which appeared in the October 1982 issue of Ms Magazine, that dealt with a possible anti-choice future...that's beginning to happen. That reader wasn't alone. (You can see the whole thread in the June 9, 2011 Maddowblog entry "Personhood' movement somehow excludes you.")
I have to wonder if that reader, and others, still believe if Rachel's work and reporting ethics are at risk. That kind of censorship through ignorance (as in "ignore it because it's thirty years old and fiction") isn't coming from the right.
If you're at all interested in the entire text of "Prima Gravida," download it from here in zip file format:
http://www.mediafire.com/?tn5ifuv5vqb97x9">http://www.mediafire.com/?tn5ifuv5vqb97x9
I apologize for the doubled comment above. The editing tools worked very badly (or not at all) after I posted it. Hence the doubled post and the doubled URL.
the shaming room is exactly what this is all about.
"the shaming room is exactly what this is all about..."
...and government control by those who want to "help" women know their reproductive place, depicted by a fictional comic strip. It's forcible rape. It's an important step, among many, to a future that I, and my co-author, hoped would STAY only fictional thirty years ago.
Most of the press has been politically partisan and politically cowardly throughout our history. Most of the time the press is self censoring for economic reasons rather than political reasons. It really is unreasonable to expect institutions that make their money of Branjolena's latest trip abroad, to actually show moral courage about an issue that has the potential to change the nation. Its not like the press showed moral courage in the 50's with their opposition to McCarthyism or Segregation, or in the 60's with Vietnam, the 70's with Watergate, etc, etc, etc. we are fortunate that there is at least a very tiny portion of the media that does their job wekk,
By far the best video on the whole womenes health care and reproductive rights I have seen. LMAO.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/jansing-and-co/46706450/#46706450
That woman should be in the US Senate. She wants to Share the Love.
Saving women again...gawd what would we do without the Republican Party...oh, make our own descisions without them all up in our ueterises.
I see the uproar as evidence that Gary is doing his job. If he didn't get censored once in a while I'd be concerned that he was losing his edge.
Zombie Logic Press Webcomics did this issue two weeks ago with their strip Single Zombie Female. But that's a feminist webcomic that's way ahead of the curve. http://zombielogicblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/single-zombie-female-on-transvaginal.html
Hi, it seems to me that RELIGIOUS FREEDOM could go a LONG way towards saving
women from the “shaming wand”… Please go to www.churchofSQRLS.com and search for (towards the way bottm) “shaming wand”. Then also please see
http://www.churchofsqrls.com/sonograms/ for specific and concrete examples on
just HOW to use use religious freedom to exempt yourselves from the “shaming
wand”… As an entirely practical matter! Planned Parenthood web sites won’t tell
me their email addresses, so I don’t know how to get the Good Word about
Scienfoology “Out There”… Please help! Or at least, spread the Good Word! –
SQRLSy_1@ChurchofSQRLS.com