The Comics

From Menletter December 2002

By Tim Baehr

I've been a fan of the newspaper's daily comics almost since I could read, starting with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, then the Detroit Free Press, the Ann Arbor Daily News, and now the Boston Globe. Over the years, I've noticed more and more how men are depicted. I have no idea how much influence the comics have on boys and their perception of men and manhood. But there are enough differences that I thought it would be useful to describe them and rate them on male-friendliness (1 = most friendly, 3 = neutral, 5 = least friendly).

Here's a sampling from the Globe.

Doonsbury

These boomers and their kids have worn well over the years. Mike Doonsbury is a middle-aged ex-dot-commer in a second marriage to a much younger woman. Much of the humor is political or social, usually with no particular emphasis on men or women's issues. On the other hand, the strip isn't actively hostile to men. Rating: 2.

Dilbert

The characters in Dilbert are cynical and of various degrees of cluelessness. The pointy-haired boss is everyone's nemesis; his obtuseness is probably exceeded only in real-life bosses. Dilbert has a decent work ethic and a sense that his work matters; he is often thwarted by the pointy-haired boss. Wally is simply cynical, doing the least work possible and knowing that anything more is simply futile. Of the female characters, Alice is most like Dilbert, but with a pro-feminist mean streak (often justified by circumstances). Rating: 3.

Fox Trot

The Fox family consists of a dad, Roger, a mom, and three kids (a teenage boy and girl, and a preteen boy). Roger is portrayed as a nebbishy presence in the family, inveigling his wife and kids into playing chess with him (he always wins, and the family members vie to see how fast they can lose). He seems to have no useful relationship with his sons and daughter, and his wife is the brains of the family. I detect a nasty edge of hostility in the humor. Almost everyone in the strip is held up to ridicule at one time or another. Rating: 5.

Garfield

Garfield is a lazy, selfish cat who torments a dog named Odie. His master is Jon Arbuckle, a bachelor loser who can't get a date, can't get his pets to behave, can't pick out decent things to wear, and so on. His shortcomings as a man are played for laughs. Rating: 5.

Adam @ Home

Adam is a stay-at-home dad with a home business. He's the primary caretaker of two school-age kids and a toddler. He often sits for other kids. Adam is addicted to coffee and gets most of his exercise chasing the FedEx truck. He and his wife clearly love each other in spite of the fact that he's a stereotypical slob and indifferent housekeeper. He's a pretty effective dad. Rating: 4.

For Better or for Worse

This strip is mostly about Ellie, the mom, and her family. The dad, John, is a dentist, and the son, Michael, is a writer and new father. This is a slice-of-life strip, quite realistic in reporting family events. John has a fascination with electric trains and an old car he has bought. (For a while, he was driving a snazzy sportscar as a mark of his midlife passage.) He helped finance a gas station/garage for Gordo, a classmate of Mike's, and remains actively interested in Gordo's success. A few years ago another of Mike's friends came out as gay, and the strip handled the entire episode with a rare blend of sensitivity and humor. Rating: 1.5.

Get Fuzzy

Rob is the owner and companion of a vicious snaggletooth cat named Bucky and a sweet, dumb dog named Satchel. The animals talk in this strip, and the humans all understand them. The humor turns mostly on the interplay among the animals and between the animals and Rob and a few of his friends. Rob, an advertising copywriter, clearly loves his pets and is very nurturing underneath his sarcasm. There's not much opportunity in the strip to explore men's issues, but Rob is clearly portrayed in a positive way. Rating: 2

Non Sequitur

Danae's a hip little Asian girl who manipulates her adoptive (presumably single-parent) dad and is currently running an on-line advice column from her computer. Dad is pretty indulgent with her but sometimes has to put his foot down. The interactions between them are portrayed with humor that puts neither of them in a bad light. The strip also portrays skirmishes in the gender wars with "What she said/What he heard" and vice-versa. Rating: 2.

Rose is Rose

Rose and Jim Gumbo have a little boy, Pasquale, whom they adore. They also adore each other, even though Jim would prefer Rose to have a little more meat on her bones. Jim wears a baseball cap, is passionately in love with Rose, and clearly loves Pasquale. Pasquale looks up to him and believes almost everything he says. Jim sometimes teases Pasquale, but with a fatherly gentleness. Although this strip is mostly about Rose, Jim gets a fair amount of ink. Rating: 1.

Zits

This is a strip about teenage angst. Jeremy, 15, has two parents who have him mostly figured out, but who often mystifies them. Dad is an orthodontist who has installed the braces of most of Jeremy's friends. He does the family laundry. He's not afraid to put his foot down with Jeremy, but sometimes his foot ends up in his mouth. Mom is not portrayed as smarter or wiser than the guys. The stuff that happens in this strip is broadly portrayed but rings true (we occasionally clip an episode to post on our 16-year-old son's bedroom door). Rating: 1

Stone Soup

This is mostly about two sisters, their mother, and their kids. One of the sisters has a young son and is in a second marriage to a man who's also been married before. The story line has gone through the courtship and the blending of the two families (dad has a teenage nephew living with them). The other sister is dating a police officer who's a little skittish about taking on her daughters. The men in this strip are realistically portrayed as thoughtful, loving men. Humor centered on them is never nasty; their shortcomings never make them out as clueless assholes. Rating: 1

Curtis

Curtis is the 11-year-old star of an urban black family. Greg, the dad, works at the bureau of motor vehicles but takes the bus to work. He's an overweight smoker with a bad back and a bit of a temper. But he loves his family deeply and gives the impression that he would gladly sacrifice anything for their happiness. He's savvy about Black history and often reminds his sons about important figures in the civil rights movement, the arts, and so on. Rating: 1

Jump Start

Joe and Marcy are a mixed couple (he's Black, she's Caucasian). Joe's a cop and Mercy's a nurse. They have a school-age daughter and a toddler son. Joe loves his SUV and his family. The men in this strip are regular guys, but the humor sometimes plays on male stereotypes. Rating: 3.

Arlo and Janis

I have to admit that this is my favorite by far. Arlo and Janis are probably late Boomers doing the gender dance with wit and humor. Arlo has a lot of the Trickster in him, sometimes much to the consternation of Janis ("It must be really weird to be a man!"). But she has a bit of trickster, too -- teasing Arlo about his obsession with sailboats, for instance. Most of the time they have an easy-going, loving relationship. Gene, the teenage son, makes only cameo appearances at this point, but interactions between him and Arlo seem genuine and not stereotyped. Rating: 1.

Bottom line: I doubt that the strips are having any profound effect on how society views and treats men. But I get a lot of entertainment, and sometimes even inspiration, out of the good ones. The bad ones, especially Garfield and Fox Trot, are sharp reminders of how easy it is to put down men in a world where "humor" about women or minorities would lead to impassioned protests.