Cartoonist: NY Times Rejected #YesAllWomen Cartoon

Michael Kupperman says paper deemed cartoon “too sensitive”

Artist Michael Kupperman says The New York Times rejected a cartoon he and writer David Rees wanted to include in Sunday’s paper because its subject matter — how some men responded to the #YesAllWomen” hashtag — was “too sensitive.”

Women began the hashtag to illustrate gender bias and sexual abuse after the UCSB shooting, in which the gunman expressed a hatred of women. But some men took issue with it, by insisting not all men were to blame, or even venting hostility.

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Kupperman and Rees’s regular cartoon feature for the Times, “See Something, Say Something,” took aim at the men’s responses. But Kupperman said in a blog post and on Twitter that when the Times saw Rees script, the paper “refused to consider printing” the cartoon.

“Some of you may have noticed that David Rees and I have been producing a comic for the New York Times Week in Review section called ‘See Something, Say Something’ every other Sunday… but we’re not in today’s paper,” Kupperman wrote. “That’s because they objected to David’s script this week and refused to consider printing it… the subject matter (male rage, online bullying & the hashtag #yesallwomen) was ‘too sensitive.’

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The Times did not reply to a request for comment. But the paper did run a cartoon Sunday with a theme similar to the one by Kupperman and Rees. “The Strip,” by Brian McFadden, presented a mock publication called “Entitled Manchildren Magazine.” It featured letters from men complaining about being “stuck in the ‘friend zone’” and reviews from a restaurant critic who insists on bringing his guns into restaurants.

Kupperman said he disagrees “very strongly” with the Times decision, and posted his cartoon as he wanted it to have appeared. See it for yourself:

See Something, Say Something 11

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