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Editorial cartooning

Gary McCoy attacks Fluke. Again. Outraged by the outrage

1 minute 30 comments

A recent Gary McCoy editorial cartoon featuring Georgetown Law School graduate Sandra Fluke has sparked outrage among readers. And in characteristic Gary style, he’s confused at the outrage.

Here’s the cartoon in question:
Sandra Fluke cartoon by Gary McCoy

Daryl Cagle asked him to respond to critics of the cartoon. Gary writes:

Why is it that a group of people so adept at filling out welfare claim forms while simultaneously watching Family Guy, and able to ignite an American flag using only a pair of reading glasses and two, foot-long strands of underarm hair, are so lost when it comes to understanding a simple cartoon? My recent Sandra Fluke cartoon seems to have infuriated many of the same crowd who popped blood vessels over my last Fluke cartoon, and are just now hanging their Anger Management Class diplomas on their bedroom walls.

And for those whose definition of a misogynist is anyone who criticizes an extremely ideological feminist who complains before the nation that despite attending Georgetown University on a $40,000 scholarship, she can’t afford nine-dollar-a-month birth control, I can only say, shave your armpits for crying out loud! You’re blocking my view.

As he mentioned, there was a bit of an uproar with a previous McCoy cartoon about Fluke back in March.

Sandra Fluke cartoon by Gary McCoy

Regarding this cartoon, Gary responded on Daryl Cagle’s blog:

On top of it, many who wrote me said the statement in the cartoon isn’t even something that Miss Fluke has said. So there you have it, a woman not labeled Sandra Fluke, who doesn’t look like Sandra Fluke, saying something that Sandra Fluke has apparently not said. Yet, I’m hit with everything from being labeled a misogynist, to personal threats for calling Sandra Fluke a “slut”. This sort of knee-jerk reactionism makes the Rockettes look like a Tennessee Waltz dance act.

I called BS on Gary who essentially tried to say it wasn’t Fluke he was depicting. Now the latest cartoon makes no bones that it’s Fluke. Same woman, same Georgetown outfit – speaking at the Democratic National Convention.

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Comments 30

  1. Fixation with armpit hair is never a good sign. Often this condition progresses to talking to empty chairs.

  2. So, Gary McCoy is under attack by hordes of angry welfare queens who don’t shave. Is that his personal fantasy or a preview of some new conservative talking-points?
    The real surprise here is that he doesn’t like Family Guy!

  3. The Formula: Build a (tired) straw man, poke at it, confuse being outspoken with willful ignorance, confuse being controversial with being wrong.

  4. I miss Bella Abzug. So does Gary, it seems.

  5. typical neocons… say, write and draw OVERTLY sexist and targeted maerial and then pretend to be the stupidest most naive mother fuckers in the world “what, who’s Sandra Fluke, what’s a Gerogetown”….

    “For a good time call… the 30 year law student for sex testing” – there really are SO many 30 year law students who spoke at the DNC…

    Typical neocon thought, he’ll bitch and whine about how unfair his criticism is becasue he GOT CAUGHT…

  6. Flag burning, armpit hair having – he forgot to mention lattes!

  7. So… this second cartoon and subsequent response pretty much clarifies that McCoy was being a cowardly little liar with the first strip, pretending that he wasn’t viciously smearing Fluke?

    He just… happened to draw the exact same person and this time it is her. Good lord, Gary, man up.

  8. These comics are just misogynistic. McCoy clearly has a problem with strong women sharing what they believe in, belittling them for being proud, outspoken feminists – something he obviously has no idea what it is. And even if Sandra Fluke can afford her own birthcontrol – a lot of other women can’t. He clearly never thought about that.

  9. So this is Gary McCoy’s takeaway moment? Good luck in November :-/

  10. Not arguing the misogyny; just a really startling example of what cowards right-wing pundits can be. If you want to take a position, man up and defend it. Gary clearly peed himself after the first comic and scrambled to claim (laughably) that his comic wasn’t attacking Fluke. He was lying.

    Finding the cartoon’s content itself to be disgusting is just a matter of opinions. The less arguable issue is how much McCoy disgraced himself professionally. There’s dangerously little space available for cartoonists who actually stand by their own work; perhaps he should get out of the way for one of them.

  11. McCoy is a misogynist, and his response to critics is just old-fashioned trolling. that said, i will never shave my armpit hair.

  12. How about you, Gary? Do you shave your pits? How’s your weight? I bet you look like Mr. America.

    Provoking rage is easy. Where are the editorial cartoons that actually provoke thought?

  13. It’s been well-established that the McCoys are creeps, but the real issue here is that neocons, while they go through the motions of “telling jokes” and “laughing”, actually lack any discernible sense of humor, so they try to compensate by being mean-spirited jerks. To them it’s the same thing.

  14. Also, why IS birth control expensive? Shouldn’t the major formulations be off patent by now, and available as $5/month generics at Walmart and other big drug store chains the way 200 other popular drugs are?

  15. Birth Control = Less babies to become future soldiers fighting for corporate profits.

  16. McCoy either must have called Rush Limbaugh for permission to regurgitate ideas (“Gee, Rush, tell me what to scrawl today”) or is waiting to be sued for slur infringement.

    I’m thinking that Eno Camino of The Duplex is a self-portrait (and not, in any way a caricature) and the strip is autobiographical.

  17. That’s a good question, Bill. Birth control pills treat very painful ovarian cysts, so they’re a must-buy for my wife. The ones that work are about 80 bucks a pack. Loestrin has a coupon so that if you do have insurance, you can get it down to $24.

    Insurance will, however, cover Viagra. Gee, I can’t imagine why women are upset about all of this.

  18. You know, I can’t get mad at this. I wasn’t a fan of his first Fluke cartoon, but it’s clear to me Gary McCoy’s just trolling everyone now. In my opinion there are plenty of amazing right leaning cartoonists out there whether it be Eric Allie or Nate Beeler, but unfortunately they aren’t the ones getting this free publicity. Every week it seems Daryl Cagle questions whether a cartoon by the McCoys is fair or foul and promotes their cartoon specifically on his blog and facebook as a result. Liberal readers fume and the McCoys get exposure. Also when asked about it, they completely throw it back in their faces. The tail is wagging the dog here.

  19. The only thing more hilarious than this new toon is the revelation that some cartoonists only have a sense of humor when its in the service of their own beliefs. But when those who don’t share those beliefs are being forced to fund them and a cartoonists dares to mock that—uh, oh, watch out–that’s just meany mean. Now if you excuse me I have to finish my cartoon of George Bush (can’t decide which one yet) raping Lady Justice. Pulitzer man, I can smell it already.

  20. @Philip Taterczynski. Eno Camino is Glenn’s creation, not Gary’s.

    @Gerry Mooney. These guys are creeps? Well-established creepiness in what sense? Innuendo? I thought they were the darlings of the NCS. Who’s won more NCS awards than the McCoy brothers?

  21. Gary’s certainly got the right to his own political opinions. People aren’t begrudging him for his conservative viewpoint here, they’re criticizing the execution of the cartoon, which is absolutely fair game when you’re looking at a political cartoonist’s work.

    The likeness of Sandra Fluke has no basis in reality, and her speech (again!) is a mangled paraphrase of Rush Limbaugh’s deliberate misinterpretation of her testimony. It fails as a political cartoon because there’s no fact-checking and the only reference used for drawing Fluke was McCoy’s own earlier cartoon that didn’t seem to use any reference, either. Gary’s capable of much better, much more insightful work than this, otherwise we probably wouldn’t be talking about it.

  22. The only thing this week funnier than Gary’s toon was watching the Dems squirm while voting God out of their platform.

  23. hate to point out the OBVIOUS but…….they GIVE AWAY FOR FREE……birth control in literally a MULTITUDE of forms at the health department in pretty much every city in America……

  24. Oh my God, a cartoonist actually drew a person in an unflatteriing way!!!!!!!!
    Oh the humanity!!!!!!!!
    How dare he!

    He clearly went over the line! Dang neo-con rightwingnutter Bushie. You’d never see a progressive cartoonist do any toon that was offensive or over the line. Take Rall for example…..well maybe not.

    Even among cartoonist it’s amazing how little tolerance is to be had for anyone who’s opinion differs from theirs.

  25. I see a lot of people defending his right to express himself, I don’t see many who actually like the cartoon! So, kudos to McCoy for standing on principle rather than either making a point or being clever, the two things that ought to be in every editorial cartoonist’s job description.

    Andrew makes a good point that McCoy is merely regurgitating Limbaugh’s talking points rather than expressing his own viewpoint.

    In a more general sense, the current neocon mindset pretty much forecloses any creative possibilities and can only react with bile, not insight.

  26. Actually, I think this toon may have backfired. In as much a folks feel this is an over the top example of Sandra Fluke, it also illustrates the right wing’s over-the-top hysteria regarding women’s health issues.

  27. Don’t know McCoy and couldn’t comment on where his opinions originate and neither can anyone else except McCoy. However she does want birth control/contreception provided to women for free, she is also pro-choice, her own statements verify both. So the cartoons are correct and I did like them.
    As for copying something Rush may have said,if simply having the same thoughts or opinion as someone else is the standard for decrying someone’s originality then we might as well get rid of all political cartoons.
    Regarding the “neocon mindset”, reacting with bile, not insight,it’s all in the eye of the beholder. McCoy’s cartoons are positively angelic when compared to how conservatives are treated.

  28. I thought the Georgetown problem was that the students wanted birth control to not be excluded from the health insurance Georgetown offered to students. Insurance usually requires some sort of copay for prescriptions…I don’t recall an expectation of free birth control.

    Also BC encompasses a lot of things. Many women can’t take hormonal BC and have to try other forms such as IUDs, which are much more expensive and require doctor fees, adding to the cost. Mentioned many times during the controversy, BC is not always used just to prevent pregnancy.

    The controversy re: Fluke and the cartoons really seem to be about inflaming ire over a ridiculous argument based on faulty premise..

  29. This wouldn’t be nearly as controversial if it had been a liberal cartoonist insulting some conservative hero.

  30. Thank you Mark Juhl for some common sense. And it’s very revealing the way all these folks are coming to Fluke’s defense because she’s been vicously attacked by vicously attacking Mr. McCoy. This cartoon is no different than a thousand others except that the subject matter crosses the worldview of many of those who disagree.

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