{"id":26223,"date":"2021-08-26T07:52:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T14:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26223"},"modified":"2021-08-26T07:57:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T14:57:57","slug":"cartoon-maternity-leave-vs-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26223","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: Maternity Leave: The Enemy of Freedom! And Lions!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Another collaboration with Kevin Moore<\/a>! You can see more cartoons by Kevin and I here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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If you like these cartoons, why not support them on Patreon<\/a>? It’s because of lots of patrons pledging $1 or $2 that I get paid – and then I can pay Kevin in turn. And I think Kevin supports my patreon, too? And come to think of it, I support his. It’s like a virtuous cycle of small amounts of money moving around in circles.<\/p>\n

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We’ve been seeing more Kevin around here lately because I love Kevin’s style; it’s expressive, grotesque and a little old-school in a way that reminds me of the better “Mad Magazine” artists.<\/p>\n

Normally, on these collaborations, I do the lettering and draw the word balloons. Kevin chose to do all that himself, this time. I don’t think most readers will notice – good lettering should <\/em>mostly go\u00a0unnoticed – but to my eye the lettering looks hugely <\/em>different on this one.<\/p>\n

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This cartoon is about maternity leave, which should be the easiest, least controversial issue in the world – of course <\/em>people should have maternity leave. \u00a0We need maternity leave just to make the world a bit fairer to people having children.<\/p>\n

But it’s also really good for everyone<\/em>. Because all of us, even childless folk like me, need there to be children so there can be a next generation to grow up and support my Patreon.<\/p>\n

(And also keeping society running generally. I suppose that matters too.)<\/p>\n

But this cartoon is also about the sky-is-falling overreactions we always see for anything that regulates business or benefits workers, no matter how sensible. Soccer players have learned to play the refs by faking agonizing injuries if a player from the other team so much as gently bumps them. Corporations have learned a similar strategy. Absolutely everything is, in the rhetoric of corporations and their apologists, an existential threat to business.<\/p>\n

(Geez, if capitalistic businesses are that<\/em> frail and tenuous, maybe we need a more robust alternative?)<\/p>\n

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON<\/strong><\/p>\n

This cartoon has four panels. All four are set in a mall; we can see a hot dog place, and in the background is a mall kiosk with a sign that says “Kitsch Empire.” There are three characters: A male executive in a suit and necktie, and two pregnant workers, both dressed in food court uniforms (but different uniforms, so presumably they work for different food outlets). One of the workers has a nametag, and the other has a ridiculous tall chef’s hat striped in the same tacky colors as the sign for the hot dog place.<\/p>\n

PANEL 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The executive has his back to the workers, but is turning back to bark at them.<\/p>\n

NECKTIE: Maternity leave? Why do you people hate liberty?<\/p>\n

SILLY HAT: What?<\/p>\n

PANEL 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Necktie now has a hurt expression on his face. Nametag replies with a skeptical expression.<\/p>\n

NECKTIE: When you force a corporation to give maternity leave, you take away its freedom!<\/p>\n

NAMETAG: But what about our freedom to…<\/p>\n

PANEL 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

A close up of Necktie, who is now wailing like an infant, crying and balling his fists.<\/p>\n

NECKTIE (yelling): Would you clip the soaring eagle’s wings? Would you gag the might lion’s roar?<\/p>\n

PANEL 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Necktie, still sobbing, has dropped to his knees and is hugging Nametag around her legs. Nametag pulls back, taken aback. Silly hat holds up a hand to whisper a comment to Nametag.<\/p>\n

NECKTIE: SOB! Just let business be free! Waaaaah!<\/em><\/p>\n

SILLY HAT: And they call us<\/em> needy.<\/p>\n

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This cartoon on Patreon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another collaboration with Kevin Moore! You can see more cartoons by Kevin and I here. If you like these cartoons, why not support them on Patreon? It’s because of lots of patrons pledging $1 or $2 that I get paid … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-feminism-sexism-etc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26223"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26227,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26223\/revisions\/26227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}