Outside Charlie Hebdo

[brer cat]

2. This is a very thoughtful piece,

showing a genuine attempt by the author to understand the satire.

She focuses on the cartoon of the pregnant Boko Haram "welfare queens," one that I found particularly ugly and hateful. I particularly identified with this:

The reality of those girls being forced into sexual slavery is alluded to through the pregnancy, but it’s sidestepped and displaced into the significantly different resonance that pregnancy carries in discussions of welfare and indigence. Any identification with anybody here is uncomfortable and unsatisfying – to “get the joke”, to see how smart it is, everybody must be kept at emotional arms’ length.

I cannot view that cartoon at an emotional arms' length or accept the views of some that *this* is in any way an acceptable subject for mockery. Those who consider this "smart" are ignoring the fact that it is based on the most vile spoils of war, and that cannot be displaced.

Thank you for sharing, ismnotwasm.