I don’t like to think Iceland is racist. I don’t like to think of Iceland as  sexist either. Who would be proud to be a part of a country with pointless prejudice based on skin tone or genitalia?

Rather tragically, thanks to a cartoon in Morgunbladid Iceland is under the spotlight for being both. What’s with Scandinavians and notorious newspaper caricatures?

Earlier this week, one of Iceland’s oldest and most revered cartoonists, Sigmund, penned a cartoon of Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama which has caused controversy, particularly on the website Context.org that focuses on sociological imagery and theory.

Sigmund, who has been publishing one cartoon a day in Morgunbladid for decades (honestly, since before I was born, I have never known Morgunbladid without his cartoons.) drew a picture of Barrack Obama, dressed as a cannibal, equipped with big gold earrings and a grass skirt carrying logs for a fire.

Nestled on top of the fire was a giant pot, and in the giant pot? Hillary Clinton completely naked with a considerable perky bosom. To add a portion of mania, Hillary smiles menacingly as Obama apparently states “Sorry, my people like to have you well done.”

I have this bizarre sense of loyal nostalgia for Sigmund who has after all been a benign constant in my life, much like a family photograph you see every day but don’t really think about till it falls over or someone smudges it. Even so, I have to admit Sigmund’s  cartoon of Hillary and Obama crosses  the line.

There’s this instinct to protect him to explain that what he really means by the cartoon is that Obama is eating Clinton up in the elections, not some racial misogynistic attack on a successful woman or innovative black man. But the fact of the matter is the gross stereotyping of the scenario, the  barbarian and a dumb blonde spiel, well it doesn’t just leave a bad taste in your mouth, the unimaginativeness of it just detracts from the point of the piece and the humor which is that Obama is kicking Hillary’s butt.

To be fair it isn’t the first time this has happened. Sigmund has been mercilessly ripping apart politicians for as long as he has been drawing cartoons. It’s a political satirist’s perogative, a way to keep politicians in check, to make sure they aren’t getting away with anything they shouldn’t be. It’s a way to make sure the <people> still have a voice and of course a sense of humor.

Some might even argue that the ability to draw something so controversial is living proof that Iceland is a place with a great deal of free speech, but similarly just cause you have the freedom to say something offensive doesn’t mean its in good taste to do so.

With recent racial controversies in the press, including the children’s book Ten Little Negro Boys which was recently republished and the foundation of the  Association against Poles in Iceland spreading the gospel of Eastern European resentment things aren’t looking too openhearted in Iceland but on the other hand I’ve never felt that was Iceland’s bag. That thanks to our nomadic travelling habits coupled with our obsession and love for new cultures and trends, we embrace people and places far away

It’s both surprising and unsurprising that the cartoon was published. I’m sure some people laughed at it, Hillary looks comically barmy but it seems so 1970’s. Surely we’re passed portraying powerful women as naked ditzes and black people as savages. It just reeks of fat old white guys in suits trying to keep change from taking place.