I remember Cracked magazine from my childhood, and it wasn’t like this.
This current of white-hot rage has to come as a surprise to some of you, because we tend to think “sexism” is being dismissive toward women, or paying them lower salaries — we don’t think of it as frenzied “burn the witch!” hatred. Yet occasionally something like this Limbaugh thing will come along to prick that balloon, and out it pours. Like it’s always waiting there, a millimeter below the surface.
Why? Well, you see …
The article then goes on to outline ways that men and boys are trained to “hate women”.
The article is not without flaws, by any means. But it’s a far cry from the Cracked Magazine of my childhood. (Unless I’m misremembering. In which case I’m sure J-Bro will set me straight.) And it’s really surprising to find this in a humour magazine.
Thanks, T!
Being British, I don’t know much about Cracked and have never really come across it before. But this fantastic piece did the rounds on facebook recently – for a seemingly lighthearted and trivial piece, there is some really insightful and sophisticated political philosophy in there:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-rich-people-need-to-stop-saying/
I thought the same thing when someone passed the link along! Crazy times bring out allies, too!
I was surprised and quite pleased to see it as well. But each of those “top 5″ lists are written by different people; I would be surprised if the majority of the writers subscribe to this viewpoint. Still, it’s nice to see these ideas reaching a demographic that would never seek them out on their own.
I think of Cracked as a magazine that shines a light on BS whereever it appears.
They’ve had some really good (read: feminist) contributors lately. Again, the articles aren’t perfect, but try some of these:
http://www.cracked.com/article/194_7-popular-chick-flicks-that-secretly-hate-women/
http://www.cracked.com/article_16587_hollywoods-5-saddest-attempts-at-feminism.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_18804_the-6-wrong-questions-men-love-to-ask-about-women.html
Here’s one response to some of the blunders in the Cracked article: http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/misogyny-isnt-caused-by-male-horniness
An excellent article, Rebecca, and right on every point.
I tend to avoid Cracked these days. It’s often very funny which is why I often find myself drawn back but I keep noticing that on subjects I have prior knowledge of it seems to get stuff straightforwardly wrong a lot of the time.
Yes it is just a comedy site but I worry that people read a ‘fact’ on Cracked and then remember the ‘fact’ but not where they got the information.