Gender Representation in Simba and Yanga’s Joking Cartoons in Tanzania
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Date
2019-08-20
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Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, Taylor & Francis
Abstract
Simba and Yanga are popular soccer teams in Tanzania and are known as long-time joking partners. Several cartoons have emerged in relation to their joking relationship. This paper examines how gender is represented in the joking cartoons between these two soccer teams in Tanzania. The focus of this paper is on the cartoons that display male and female characters. The guiding questions are: How is gender represented in these joking cartoons? What are the themes conveyed by that representation? What is the broader role of such gender depiction in the entire Tanzanian society? The data for this study were collected from blogs and websites. By using Social Identity Theory, this study found that some cartoons seem to disadvantage women by depicting them as incapable of fighting for success in life as they are portrayed as failures. The study also revealed that the themes conveyed by gender representation in these cartoons are sports (victory and defeat), marriage, love and sex, religion, leisure and entertainment, reproduction and decision-making. Despite the fact that these cartoons are about jokes in sports, they demonstrate a traditional stereotypical representation of women as unsuccessful and compliant and men as successful and decisive.
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Keywords
sports cartoons, joking relationship, gender representation, Simba and Yanga, Tanzania