Hello Substack Subscribers, it‘s been a little while.
I went to NYC for the Let Women Speak event on Monday. I was a little scared to go, but I needed to show support for women‘s rights, and there were a lot of people I wanted to meet there.
I had packed an apple in my backpack and decided to eat it, casually, while I kept a wary eye on the TRAs pushing against the barrier. This is a trick I learned from George Costanza. A journalist asked me if I was scared for my personal safety and I admitted that I was, as we were basically trapped between a tall wrought iron fence and a wall of screaming, pushing lunatics. Eventually they pushed hard enough to break the barrier apart and the police scrambled to put it back together.
Women made speeches, I didn‘t hear a single thing any of them said over the noise of the crowd.
Eventually the NYPD said they would not be able to protect us any longer, and we were told to leave in groups of 5. We ended up leaving all together in a line, with the police between us and the crowd. You can see them spitting and lunging at women as we made our way out. There is footage of all this and more online if you haven‘t seen it already.
I went home to process, sitting alone in my room and drawing. I looked for some reference photos from the event. Studying their faces, I ended up feeling weirdly empathetic for some of the TRAs who had been behaving the worst. Maybe it was short-acting Stockholm Syndrome.
I had convinced myself that I was safe during the event by reminding myself that these crazed looking activists are actually the same sad and exploited young people that I genuinely want to HELP. They don‘t REEEEALLY want to rip us apart with their bare hands, even though they are acting like a pack of aggressive zombies. They wouldn‘t REEEEALLY kill us, if they managed to get past the police, I told myself. I remembered that I was like them for a while. I mean, not like THAT. I didn‘t rage at women in the street. But I had been indoctrinated into the same extreme body-mod cult for a while, and my kid is now.
I saw the sad, angry eyes of an effeminate young man who maybe had been treated badly his entire life, until the love-bombing gender cult came along and made him feel glamorous for the first time.
I learned that another one of them had become a model at age 10, and that about explains it all. I’m sure you’re all aware that the fashion industry is gross and exploitative. Now we are seeing the fashion industry and gender industry team up on young people.
After a while of feeling really sad for them, I remembered all the spitting and swearing and shouting at women, and thought, why am I empathizing so much with the aggressors in this situation, what is wrong with me, am I nuts? I decided it was okay and perhaps even necessary to carry on with my mean cartoons.
I tweeted one of my mean cartoons, and somebody chimed in to tell me I wasn‘t being kind or helpful. Yeah. I know. Women are supposed to be kind and helpful at all times, even to the people who scream, spit, lunge at and insult us for hours.
Sometimes my job is to be funny though, and when kindness gets in the way of a good joke, I really think we need to make a careful assessment of what‘s going to do the most good in the long run. Endlessly placating overgrown toddlers? Or holding up a mirror when their massive tantrums put women in actual danger? And I don‘t just mean those of us who were in the street that day. I mean women in prison, being locked up in cells with convicted serial killers and rapists. This is what the TRAS advocate for, and so…
My unkind cartoons are now available for collecting and trading by signing up for my Sticker Club. I will release one Terrible TRA Toddler each month, so you‘ll get one of those plus two other stickers. Here are this month‘s stickers. Genderbread Person, Drew Hairymore, and Mini Zine. (See below)
Your membership dues entitle you to these wonderful free gifts. Collect them all, trade with your friends, pin them to your wall, or hoard them in a drawer forever. Or stick them up around town, (although I‘d really only recommend doing that with the mini zine).
*If you‘re already a paying subscriber to this substack, just send me a message if you‘d like to get some stickers in the mail.
*If anyone is wondering why I don‘t offer everything for free, it‘s because I need money.
*I just realized my keyboard is set to German so enjoy the incorrect punctuation marks throughout.
This is a very thoughtful, thought-provoking and beautifully candid piece. As you probably know, I recently wrote that this is making me sad, too.
https://everythingisbiology.substack.com/p/beauty-pageants-rarely-make-me-sad
Of course, we will all keep advocating for common sense and kindness. Your thoughtfulness is an inspiration. Sincerely, Frederick
Heck yeah I’d take a sticker as a paying subscriber. Let me figure out how to sign up. I just think there’s no one like you. No one showing this scene, this perspective, with clear legitimacy. Remember, I first saw your work and immediately shrugged, and went, “Now who’s this TRA!?” Totally surprised. I know only of Lordy doing elaborate, sincere portraits, but I just really like your (not at all) “mean” drawings, so knock off that self-deprecation, eh? ~said as a friend! Art will make us whole.