*Herald Sun Cartoonist Mark Knight says he’s astonished by worldwide criticism of his sketch of tennis champion Serena Williams.
“Don’t bring gender into it when it’s all about behavior,” Knight tweeted after social media users argued that his sketch was racist and sexist. He has since deleted his social media accounts due to countless death threats over his caricature.
The Australian newspaper that initially published the cartoon that depicted the tennis superstar with an exaggerated face and body throwing a tantrum, has doubled down on its defense of the cartoonist by re-printng Knight’s illustration on the front page of Wednesday’s edition with the headline “Welcome to PC World”.
A subheading reads: “If the self-appointed censors of Mark Knight get their way on his Serena Williams cartoon, our new politically correct life will be very dull indeed.”
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Nicki Minaj Slams ‘Racist’ Artist Mark Knight for Serena Williams Cartoon
From Bill Leak, Michael Leunig and now Mark Knight… Why does this keep happening? https://t.co/q9EmfGJ8xH
— ten daily (@tendailyau) September 11, 2018
An op-ed by The Herald Sun‘s publisher Michael Miller defended Knight’s cartoon, blaming political correctness for the public’s rejection of the image.
“Criticism of Mark Knight’s Serena Williams cartoon shows the world has gone too PC & misunderstands the role of news media cartoons and satire,” he wrote. “Poor behaviour in any sport needs to be called out.”
In an op-ed for the New York Times on Monday, tennis legend Martina Navratilova also called out Serena’s behavior on the court.
“We cannot measure ourselves by what we think we should also be able to get away with. In fact, this is the sort of behavior that no one should be engaging in on the court,” she wrote.
In related news, umpires are considering boycotting all of Serena’s future matches.
So far, the tennis champ has not commented on the cartoon controversy.
Mark Knight reveals why he shut down his Twitter account: https://t.co/lNSp6xZUkK pic.twitter.com/Ei3FJhluEm
— Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) September 11, 2018
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