2009-09-28
Explanation
This comic takes place in a classroom where a female professor is lecturing about the nature of technology. She explains: "So, technology isn't just things you can hold. It's concepts that are useful to humans. Ways of thinking. Modes of analysis." A male student raises his hand and asks: "So, like, from my perspective, sexism is a technology?" The professor responds: "That's not a technology, that's a personal bias."
The student then declares "BAM! Shielded from your argument by sexism!" -- treating sexism as if it were literally a technological tool he can deploy as a defense mechanism. The professor wearily responds: "If I had a dollar for every time that's happened to me..." In the final panel, the student delivers the ultimate punchline: "Don't you mean 75 cents?" -- a reference to the gender wage gap statistic that women earn roughly 75 cents for every dollar men earn.
The comic is a layered joke about sexism in academic settings. The student first co-opts the professor's own intellectual framework to justify sexism, then uses sexism as a shield against her correction, and finally caps it off with a wage gap joke that proves her point entirely. Each panel escalates the irony, as the student keeps demonstrating the very bias the professor is trying to address. The professor's exhaustion suggests this is a depressingly common experience.
The votey panel shows the student looking distressed, saying "I swear Kelly said it wasn't sexist!" -- adding a final layer suggesting he genuinely does not understand why his behavior is problematic and is appealing to a female friend's authority to validate himself.