New Toon: Your Yucky Body!
A repair manual

This cartoon has been a long time coming. Sometimes when I just can't take another goddamn nanosecond of reading blog entries about crazy Republican racists, listening to radio reports about hurricane disaster victims or suicide bombings in Iraq, reading intelligent analyses of policy and history or watching cable news clips of our deranged incompetent nasty little "president"... I take a deep breath, put down my latest copy of The Nation and pick up a nice, pleasant, fluffy happy copy of Glamour.

I'm entirely serious, folks. I really am a women's magazine junkie, and I don't mean for for Bust and Bitch (though I subscribe to and highly recommend both). No, I'm talking about Vogue and Marie Claire and most especially Lucky. I could care less about celebrity intrigue, but I love to sew, I'm fascinated by fashion and therefore there is a big pile of InStyle magazine back issues under my coffee table.

But just because I enjoy clipping out photos of beautiful dresses doesn't mean I've had a lobotomy. Sure these publications make cursory nods, especially lately, towards self-acceptance and love, with headlines like "clothes for ANY size and age!" and they even occasional feature "plus-size" cover models, like Queen Latifah. But they all have the same basic underlying message--"buy our advertisers' products and follow this intensive diet and exercise program or no one will ever love you."

So that was the more general inspiration for this cartoon. The specific inspiration was this New York Times article about cosmetic foot surgery (getting toes reshaped and/or amputated in order to fit better into pointy-toed high-heeled shoes) and this freaky department-store mannequin (found via Feministing). (Another great blog that relates to this subject is Big Fat Blog, not to be confused with Big Fat Blog).

Loyal readers need not fear that I've given up cartooning about Torture and Dick Cheney and War and Evil and all that. I just really needed to get this cartoon off my chest. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go stare in the mirror and catalog the flaws... of the Bush Administration, who else?

P.S. Buy my book! Join my weekly mailing list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net! And why not comment on my blog--don't let the transphobic racist troll who keeps posting messed-up comments on posts like this one or this one have all the fun.

P.P.S. Check out this awesome diagram posted at Feministing. Ouch!