Achewood is one of the most important and critically-acclaimed internet comics of all times. He treats many important societal issues through anthropomorphic toys, including stuffed teddy bears. Specifically, in the ones that correspond to January 8th and 11th of 2006, the author Chris Onstad explores the social construction of masculinity and sexual relations. These interesting comics reveal masculinity as having to do with aggression sublimated by society, both through its norms and the market.
The first comic shows this through the invitation to “The Badass Games”. Different male characters receive a small letter that tells them to assist to a display and competition of masculinity. Nevertheless, the interesting part of this text is at the beginning, when it reads that men, “given the right provocations, his innate skills will emerge and he will be capable of tremendous feats” (Onstad). This implies that male characters are usually inhibited in terms of their skills, as only through provocations does he actually allow these to emerge. The second comic reveals how the market is a way to express these repressed masculine feelings. First, they establish the already-existing fake testicles that some people use to adorn their automobiles. As an extension of this, they invent a representation of a penis to put under the car. Finally, in the last frame, they reveal the actual importance of this, as it is a way to represent copulation through automobiles. The assessor suggests that the prospective entrepreneur should create female parts as well in order to simulate the possibility of sexual intercourse. He treats the fact that people would desire their cars to have sexual intercourse as an obvious fact, a need that people have. This may sound ridiculous, but when one interprets it as a way for males to express these inner drives, it makes more sense, serving as a social critique.
Works Cited
Onstad, Chris. “June 08, 2006”. Achewood. 08 Jun. 2006. Web. 06 Apr. 2016. <http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06082006>.
