Rebekka Jynge: Marthe Refstad
Photos
Quotes
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Marthe Refstad : Have you read your old Bobcat comics since you grew up? Because in our day and age, they seem so inappropriate and murky that we feel almost sick reading them. It's unpleasant to realize you created a character who gained popularity at the expense of women.
Aksel : Okay, I get it. You're saying art should be pleasant?
Marthe Refstad : Do you think it's art? I brought along some of your early comics. Bobcat is one thing, but then there's Dick Wolf Dick, Pedo the Parrot...
Aksel : Right, I don't really think this is the right medium to explain comic book humor.
Marthe Refstad : Have you ever considered that some of your readers may have been victims of incest or rape?
Aksel : Do we stop creating because some people might feel bad? Artists get killed for drawing things others find offensive. They're shot.
Journalist : Are you comparing Muhammad caricatures with drawings of women with big tits? Or with incest? What's your point?
Aksel : Well, yes and no.
Marthe Refstad : It's a bit of a cop-out to claim freedom of speech when people criticize you. We're discussing your work right now, so nobody's censoring you. As a woman, I'm upset. I'm offended, though we're not supposed to say that.
Aksel : You have a choice. You don't have to feel offended.
Marthe Refstad : It's not a choice.
Aksel : This is very generational. One author cannot be held solely responsible. I think art has to be messy and free. It has to be a bit dangerous to be fun. I want art to be a form of therapy where I can express and work through all my unacceptable thoughts, all my darkest impulses.
Marthe Refstad : But you're using your male privilege to mock people weaker than you. It's hardly art, or even humor. Sorry, it's not smart enough to be satire.
Aksel : But this isn't about me. Like, when I create something, it's not just me talking.
Marthe Refstad : I know that much.
Aksel : Do you? Let's say I draw this interview as a cartoon. The comic version of me might call you a whore. It doesn't mean I think that. It could be a parody of a certain type of insecure male...
Marthe Refstad : You used the word "whore"?
Aksel : Yes, I said "whore". You're not interested in what I mean.
Marthe Refstad : Can't you see that's crass sexualization?
Journalist : I think we're on a slippery slope here.
Aksel : All you post-feminists are so fucking self-righteous!
Journalist : Thank you, Marthe Refstad and Aksel Willmann.
Marthe Refstad : The term is "sex worker" now, by the way.
