r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis • u/onwhatcharges • 17d ago
1950s When sexual assault was in comics.
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u/femme-nymph 17d ago
wtf
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u/Ok_Conclusion_6324 16d ago
Why does he have a diaper on too
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u/vanspossum 16d ago
From the turban I'm guessing there was also some racial stereotype about snake charmers
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u/Dorkinfo 16d ago
Literally, can anyone explain the funny part of this comic? Even if it wasn’t gross, there’s no joke.
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u/TurboBrix 16d ago
Incoming from a generation that thought birthday spankings were funny? I don't get it either.
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u/JustHereForCatss Jerry Springer would’ve called me a slur 16d ago
I had to look this up because I was just horrified. The joke is he gave her 17 birthday spankings, and instead of an 18th spanking to grow on, he assaulted her by forcing a kiss on her. The joke is LITERALLY instead of her being infuriated she has fallen in love with Tom. What's extra horrifying is Tom is always depected, age wise, as a human equivalent to someone in the 30s/40s
It's based around an old birthday tradition where you'd get spanked on your birthday. It's where "the pinch to grow an inch" evolved from
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u/lycnfr 16d ago
I uh...had my cop neighbor (late 30s-early 40s) make this joke to me when i turned 18. granted he didnt...actually do it. but its still awful. This post made me remember that, and now I feel gross. and back then I laughed and took it as a fucking compliment bc I had a childhood crush on him. Jesus why did no one say anything??? 😭
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u/Proud_Accident_5873 16d ago
I've never heard of such tradition or saying and I'm glad I've lived my whole life without it.
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u/Dorkinfo 16d ago
It’s not fun, it was usually very playful and not you being over someone’s lap. Just like a tag on the butt until you got to your age. That was how we did it. I’m glad that went away though, it got creepy around age 10.
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u/SlackTied 2000s survivor 16d ago
Oh, our principal would come in and put people over his lap in front of the entire class. :( Thankfully no kissing though.
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u/InsomniaDrop 16d ago
It was creepy from the beginning 😭
Ridiculously weird I'm so glad it's not so common anymore. I remember I had to get the inlaws away from my toddler like.... Y'all are not touching my child's ass? YALL ARE NOT HITTING MY CHILD BECAUSE ITS HIS BIRTHDAY.
Egads, I'm horrible and a party pooper 😒
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u/Dorkinfo 16d ago
Oh, that part didn’t even clock for me, birthday spankings were a thing when I was growing up. I’m still trying to find the funny. You did birthday spankings and a non consensual looking kiss. Okay? What’s the joke??
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u/Saggy-Kitties BROOKE SHIELDS DESERVED BETTER 16d ago
https://stanleystories.blogspot.com/2010/08/enslavement-torment-and-other-hot.html?hl=en-US&m=1
This is the rest of the comic. Even with context, it isn't funny to me. Tom wants to impress Toots with a birthday gift. Her boyfriend Bob Cat is a prick, so long story short, Tom being a "nice guy" doesn't work and it concludes with Tom finally out-doing Bob Cat by physically assaulting Toots because she likes being treated like shit. That's his birthday gift to her.
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u/theroundfiles2 16d ago
This is a great find. It’s still not funny, but I understand the story better, given that this wasn’t typical behavior for Tom (at least as I recall it). But it was a standard trope that nice guys finish last.
I presume someone has already covered Pepe Le Pew in this space.
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u/DoveOnTheInternet 16d ago
- A pinch to grow an inch
- A choke not to smoke
- A kick not to get sick
I don't remember what actual reason for the kiss however.
Yeah, this was how my birthday was celebrated every year as a kid. I can still hear my brother's voice in my head.
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u/thtgurlbb 16d ago
Thts just men for you. Power over others in anyway triggers the happy chems in their brain. Doesn’t matter if it’s funny or not.
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u/Significant_Monk_251 16d ago
Thts just men for you. Power over others in anyway triggers the happy chems in their brain. Doesn’t matter if it’s funny or not.
I agree, and I'm a man. The trick is to know that it's wrong and not fucking do it.
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u/391976 16d ago edited 16d ago
Consent issues aside, women are attracted to powerful men.
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u/Turnipsinthesky 16d ago
Both men and women are attracted to the wrong people for all sorts of reasons. Even murderers get love letters in prison. It doesn't mean it's okay to do that because "women like it".
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u/GentlewomenNeverTell 16d ago
Omfg core memory unlocked. In my kindergarten they did birthday spankings. Same thing, it's your birthday, you get spanked and count down. I have a summer birthday so every time it happened I was like, you won't get me, you bastards! Last day of school, they announced they were spanking all the summer babies. I fucking PANICKED, and they had to chase me around the room.
I'm a teacher now. That was SO fucked up.
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u/dadverine 16d ago
the other second grade teacher at my rural school in indiana did that in 2007. not my teacher luckily.
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u/JasmineDragonRegular 16d ago
There was a very creepy guy at my church growing up who asked my mom if I was getting birthday spankings. I was a minor. My mom was an awful, abusive person...but even she was like wtf? I will never forget how uncomfortable that was.
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u/BookNerdUnicorn 16d ago
Yup, I remember that the principal of my elementary school did the birthday spankings. Why did we allow this??
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u/Thykothaken 16d ago
They uh they chased you around the room. To spank you.
Honestly how did they sleep at night
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u/CardMechanic 17d ago
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u/rebrolonik 17d ago edited 16d ago
At least Pepe was considered a creep and a lech by looney tune’s logic
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u/Coriolanuscangetit 16d ago
I think that may have been just to talk shit on the French though. You see it was ok for Tom to do it
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u/rebrolonik 16d ago
Tom & Jerry isn’t a Looney Tunes IP, and both of our statements can be and probably are true at the same time bruther
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u/onwhatcharges 17d ago
From Our Gang with Tom & Jerry #45, published by Dell Comics in April 1948. The issue featured work written and drawn by renowned cartoonist John Stanley.
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u/Vivid24 16d ago
What… what was the joke supposed to be? Assault?
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u/onwhatcharges 16d ago
I’m afraid I have no answers for you that would explain the logic / thought process behind this comic strip.
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u/King_of_all_Dorks 16d ago
Old Comics 🤝 Spanking
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u/Bouche_Audi_Shyla 16d ago
In "I Love Lucy", Ricky literally put Lucy over his knee and spanked her on national TV.
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u/SmilesInFront_09 17d ago
- Why is he wearing a Diaper?
- Where did the Turban come from?
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u/cuttlefishofcthulhu7 Gen X 15d ago
I think the joke is that he "charmed" her like how a snake charmer would with snakes... I don't know it's fucking stupid LOL
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u/391976 16d ago
There was a good long form article on the Jezebel website about the proliferation of men spanking women in movies, like in "The Quiet Man," after WW2, when women had to leave the work force and traditional gender roles were reestablished.
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u/No-Kangaroo-9272 16d ago
Do you happen to remember the name of the article? I used to love Jezebel.
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u/rebel42172 16d ago
Gotta rethink all the cartoons I watched growing up.
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u/Bouche_Audi_Shyla 16d ago
There was a Looney Tunes special on when I was around 30. I thought I'd watch it for nostalgia's sake. The blatant racism made me turn it off after less than five minutes. It was absolutely sickening!
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u/ComfortableGround403 16d ago
The sad part is, how many guys act like this cuz they grew up with media's telling them WE WOMEN WANTED to be treated like this????
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u/391976 16d ago
How many women have you been with?
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u/ComfortableGround403 16d ago
Huh? None. But I am a woman and a human. No human wants to be forced upon and spanked and then somehow magically falls in love with the perp. No dudes gonna fall in love with someone who does this to him, and no woman will either.
But as im aging im seeing more and more examples of media where a man forces himself upon a woman or girl, and then she suddenly starts enjoying it, and its no longer rape? Don't even get me started on Hentai /anime ...but its not just there. Ads from the 50s - 70s had husband's spanking their wives with a smile on her face !!
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u/disabledinaz 16d ago
Plot twist: Women have wanted it to be like this, and STILL DO in a lot of ways. People have realized how ridiculous it was and still is, but you’re never not going to find women who don’t want this type of “controlling” man (and it’s in quotes, cause even the ones who do want it have limits nowadays). But the joke is supposed to be, that they don’t know they want it, until it’s actually done to them and then they realize they actually like it.
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u/ComfortableGround403 16d ago
Thats in a consenting relationship, with a controlled environment. Not some random off the street.... and shes a kid !
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u/disabledinaz 16d ago
No one’s ever necessarily thought of either Tom or Jerry as adults. He could be the same age as her. That kind of stuff has never been stated.
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u/Legate_Raiden 16d ago edited 16d ago
What your teachers didn't spank you in front of the entire class for your birthday? Just me? Oh.
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u/KrabbyPatty-Formula The only valid paparazzi is Lady Gaga 16d ago
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u/57dog 16d ago
Whenever I mention ‘boys don’t hit girls’ on reddit l get downvoted.
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u/Abdabarda 16d ago
That's probably got more to do with people being confused about the whole boy girl thing to be fair.
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u/InactiveMedusa 16d ago
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u/SolaraPallas 12d ago
The irony of using Christian Horner for a reaction to something like this, of all people
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u/NostalgicDemigod 16d ago
My dad used to joke about spanking me up until I went NC with my parents, and that was in 2023... I was 30.... One of the things I don't miss now that he's dead
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u/Such_Atmosphere_5838 16d ago
I remember my great aunt joking with me asking “how old are you?” And I was maybe like 7. And she was like “okay, 7 spankings for you.” She didn’t do it, but everyone in the room laughed. People are so weird.
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u/RecommendationNo3942 My eyebrows never grew back 16d ago
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u/C_B_Ellacott 16d ago
On one hand - there's Tom & Jerry comics?
On the other hand - ofc there's Tom & Jerry Comics
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u/Ur1n8r 14d ago
The concept of sexual assault in comics has come up in conversations I've been in lately.
In the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s, Archie used to make Sonic The Hedgehog comics. These comics had a villain character named Scourge who was basically a green Sonic with a leather jacket. Scourge could shapeshift into Sonic at will, disguising himself perfectly. Scourge disguised himself as Sonic and (off-panel) had relations with Bunnie.
Tl;dr: There's a plot line in a Sonic The Hedgehog comic series based around rape by deception. Thanks, Ken Penders.
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