There are so many social and political paradigms that people may not realize are a part of themselves. From birth, you grow up being surrounded by stereotypes and often having them influence the way you interpret those stereotypes. Political cartoons are a way of allowing many different perspectives to be held on a single image, or the small caption included with it. More often than not, political cartoons are controversial, stirring up debates over what it is implying and whether it is accurate.
In the example above, it shows a group of girls lying on the couch, saying ‘Why do I get this vague notion that something is always expected of us?’. Firstly, when she is saying ‘us’, she is alluding to girls in general. This cartoon highlights the stereotypes of what girls are ‘meant’ to do, which is not sitting on the couch and eating chips – which is typically seen as more of a boy’s activity. It could also be implying that whatever they are seeing on the tv is showing girls who are sexualized to promote advertisement, making the girls on the couch feel as though they are not living up to that expectation. The whole reason why a viewer/reader understands what she means by ‘expected of us’, is because we are all aware of the stereotypes that girls have, being graceful and tidy, not lying on couches eating chips. However, because of the day and age of media, we understand how this political cartoon was made to highlight the stereotypes that we sometimes forget are glued in the back of our minds. At the same time, I as a viewer, am able to make an opinion based on the cartoon, how I feel that there shouldn’t be a stereotype surrounding girls and that lying on couches is how I prefer to spend my free time anyways.
