Wednesday, November 18, 2009

9 Chickweed Lane: When I sang for the boys, I chose visceral.

Not to be a university prig or wannabe dictator who hates freedom or anything, but suggesting that a woman's most useful contribution to any war effort is to display her body as a masturbatory aid, as both this 9 Chickweed Lane series and a recent Luann series have done, actually is kind of sexist.

This isn't to say that there's anything wrong with depicting how things used be back in the good old days, or even that there's anything wrong with doing so uncritically. But to forcefully deny that there's anything even remotely objectionable about the way things used be is just kind of ridiculous.

Further, it's not even a terribly accurate or universal depiction of the way things used to be, as women made plenty of significant contributions to the WWII effort that did not involve objectifying themselves, any of which McEldowney could have chosen to acknowledge. But he didn't. Mostly, I presume, because he enjoys drawing hot chicks.

And there's nothing wrong with that, just as there's nothing wrong with a woman displaying herself as a masturbatory aid if that's what she wants to do. He and his characters should just cut it out with their self-righteous self-justifications.

2 comments:

  1. While I agree, I think this storyline is about to head into her joining the OSS to spy on zee Germans. Which makes is a little more palatable.

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  2. This is funny because all this time, I thought that Brooke McEldowney WAS a woman.

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