Midterm political cartoon stirs conflicting feelings

Nick Anderson from the Washington Post drew up a political cartoon depicting women's victories in the midterm elections. The image depicts a group of women all wearing pink soaring toward the U.S. Capitol, about to whiz by a lone man carrying a briefcase and looking frazzled. The group of women is labeled "pink wave."

This cartoon brings up complicated feelings for me. I think it is important that women's midterm election victories are recognized. I also think it is important that Anderson's cartoon shows a diverse group of women, representative of the group of women who won seats in the Senate and House elections. The cartoon depicts white women, black women, elderly women, young women and a woman wearing her hijab (presumably Ilhan Omar).

The idea of the "pink wave" is a bit concerning to me, as I feel that it reinforces traditional and binary gender norms where women are always associated with the color pink. In some ways, I feel that this concept of the "pink wave" could be used as a tactic to lump female representatives into one category, somehow discrediting their individual fights to win these spots. I also think this cartoon can be used to other women or soften them in comparison to their male counterparts. Overall, I think the message of the cartoon is important, but I struggle with the presentation of women as a "pink wave."