[Vision2020] Comic strip out of bounds

[Don Coombs]

It might be relevant that "For Better or For Worse" is in a 20 or 30-year
rerun cycle which suggests that when that particular strip first ran no
one, not even Keely, objected to the deep and awful implications of young
boys looking in a bedroom window.

Or it might be relevant that I (maybe because I'm so much older than Keely)
find a certain charm in some of the "For Better or For Worse" strips.

I can name seven or eight strips run in the local papers that are far more
banal -- and just plain stupid -- than "For Better or For Worse."

For starters: In the Sunday Trib, "The Born Loser." When I read that, I
find out I have self-defined myself as a born loser. Of course I can just
NOT read it (and I often do not), but why shouldn't the newspaper print
comics with some redeeming value -- like being entertaining?

"The Born Loser" is a strip with 8 or 10 panels when the only point,
usually stupid, could easily be presented in one.

I leave it to others (or perhaps no one) to defend "Prince Valiant."

Don Coombs

On Sun, Jul 24, 2016 at 7:41 AM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

> Courtesy of today's (July 24, 2016) Spokesman-Review with thanks to fellow
> Intolerista, Keely Mix.
>
> --------------------------------
>
> *Comic strip out of bounds*
>
> I generally think highly of The Spokesman-Review, but I am astonished that
> your features editor would print the perverse and misogynistic “For Better
> or For Worse” cartoon featuring two young boys peeping into their friend’s
> sister’s bedroom window.
>
> In a world where simply being female puts girls at phenomenal risk of
> sexual assault, surely there is nothing cute or heartwarming about the
> violation of a young girl’s intimate moments by two “innocent” boys.
>
> In a world full of male violence, it’s sobering that anybody would enjoy a
> chuckle over this. Not only does it reinforce the dreadful way society
> raises and teaches boys and young men, but it makes the violation of a
> girl’s privacy a funny thing over which we can all share a laugh before we
> head to the office. Normalizing misogyny is actually not at all comic,
> however.
>
> I find “For Better or For Worse” to be painfully trite and generally
> pointless, but this panel reinforces dangerous ideas about boys, girls,
> women and men and the sexual violence regularly visited on those who once
> were little girls playing, dressing or sleeping in their own bedrooms.
>
> The S-R can and must do better.
>
> Keely Emerine-Mix
> Moscow
>
> --------------------------------
>
> Agreed.
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>
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