<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div>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.<br><br></div>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.<br><br></div>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."<br><br></div>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?<br><br></div>"The Born Loser" is a strip with 8 or 10 panels when the only point, usually stupid, could easily be presented in one.<br><br></div>I leave it to others (or perhaps no one) to defend "Prince Valiant."<br><br></div>Don Coombs<br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jul 24, 2016 at 7:41 AM, Tom Hansen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com" target="_blank">thansen@moscow.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div>Courtesy of today's (July 24, 2016) Spokesman-Review with thanks to fellow Intolerista, Keely Mix.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><div><b>Comic strip out of bounds</b></div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>The S-R can and must do better.</div><div><br></div><div>Keely Emerine-Mix</div><div>Moscow</div></div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div>Agreed.<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)" target="_blank"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></font></span></div></div></div><br>=======================================================<br>
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