OPINION: The Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has slammed her “sexualised” caricature which was published in the Herald Sun. In the cartoon, she is illustrated walking naked down a catwalk. Unfortunately, it’s not the first time the paper has been accused of sexualising women in politics.
The cartoon in question, illustrated by Mark Knight, was published in the Herald Sun on Tuesday October 24, and portrays Victoria’s second-ever female premier walking naked down the runway of a Fashion Week show, intended as a satirical comment on the *checks notes* cancellation of the Victorian 2026 Commonwealth Games?
Allan criticised the News Corp publication, labelling it an inappropriate depiction and likening it to sexism from the 1950s.
“All women deserve to be able to open the paper, look at images that are there for public consumption and not see sexualised imagery being used to represent them,” stated the premier. Honestly, she’s asking for the bare minimum.
The cartoonist has denied the claims of sexualisation and defended his cartoon as nothing more than “political comment.”
“I felt that some of the information that was coming out left the premier a little bit exposed and my cartoonist brain kicked into gear and it was Fashion Week,” Knight says, explaining why he drew the parallel of the old Emperor’s New Clothes tale.
Knight is familiar with controversy, and has been criticised many times for what some have considered to be inappropriate sexualisation and representation of women in the public eye.
However, this is hardly the first time that the Herald Sun or a publication in the News Corp family has landed in hot water for an outrageous cartoon.
1. Serena Williams
In 2018, a cartoon of tennis superstar Serena Williams illustrated by Knight for Herald Sun made international news.
It depicted Williams having a tantrum after her loss to Naomi Osaka, and was criticised for heavily exaggerated lips in a style similar of racist American cartoons from the early 20th century.
The cartoon was slammed worldwide, however the Australian Press Council found that though it caused offence it did not breach the standards of practice.
2. Indigenous father and son
Cartoonist for The Australian, the late Bill Leak, had one of his cartoons investigated by the Human Rights Commission for its portrayal of an Indigenous father and son.
The cartoon caused national outrage for its depiction of crude stereotypes, and was described as “ugly, insulting and embarrassing” by Indigenous groups for portraying them as irresponsible drunks.
At the time, Leak straight-up denied any chance that the cartoon was racist, saying: “How could anyone interpret it as racist? A lot of people obviously did. But I can only say what I was thinking when I drew it.”
Naturally, The Australian defended this cartoon, and five years later brought it back from the dead to point out how “spot on” Leak’s observation was.
3. Julia Gillard
It’s no understatement to say that Australia’s first and only female Prime Minister Julia Gillard faced considerable sexism during her time as the nation’s leader.
Knight’s caricatures of Gillard are more evidence of his history of taking women in the public eye and questionably depicting them in his satirical cartoons. These cartoons have a habit of coming across as the type of thing that would not be illustrated were the gender of the subject different.
These two cartoons particularly ask the question: would they have been illustrated if the leader was male?
Knight defended his most recent comic of Jacinta Allan by saying that “it’s not just female politicians that I would draw like this, I try to practise equal opportunity in my cartoons for mockery.”
However in the case of these Gillard examples, in my opinion it really does just look like the only satirical edge is founded on the gender of the target.
4. Anti-LGBTQIA+
Another piece of cartoon satire by Bill Leak in The Australian was published around the time of the Same-Sex Marriage plebiscite, in which the cartoonist likened the LGBTQIA+ community to Nazis. Which honestly just shows an incredibly poor understanding of history if anything.
5. Senator Meg Lees
Here’s a piece of ‘satire’ produced by Knight in 1999, which depicted Senator Meg Lees sleeping with the then Prime Minister John Howard, implying that women in power must be sleeping their way up the ladder.
Get it? GST, like as in, the letter G, from G spot? No? Guess you had to be there.
6. Kamala Harris
This next example comes from Bill Leak’s son, Johannes Leak, who took over his late father’s position as cartoonist for The Australian. Johannes got in hot water for his depiction of American Vice-President Kamala Harris in 2020.
This cartoon also got international attention, and brought criticism against how on earth Australian media outlets could still get away with publishing what many people felt was racist rhetoric.
Here’s your little reminder of how ludicrously racist Australian commercial media are. This is in the country’s only national daily newspaper: pic.twitter.com/7oN7bjRWLO
— I’m @Ketanjoshi.co on Bluesky (@KetanJ0) August 13, 2020
The Australian Press Council ruled that this cartoon did breach the standards of practise. Stating that though “there was no intention to cause offence, distress or prejudice, the Council considers the prejudice to women and particularly women of colour which the cartoon contributes to is substantial and that it offended a wide range of people, in particular women.”
Thankfully, whenever outlets like Herald Sun face a criticism for its cartoons maybe potentially being a teensy bit offensive, it responds with rational arguments, because big men don’t get emotional.
Just kidding. It complains about how political correctness has gone too far, and claim that comedy doesn’t exist anymore on the headline of its tabloid.
Ironically, out of all of the caricatures contained in the image above none of them gained any notable societal complaint, except for the one about Serena Williams.
They are correct in saying that this is a “Satire Free Zone” however, because not a single one of them is even close to funny.
