[ SECRET POST #7021 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #7021 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


All spoiler warning/content warning stuff today!









01. [SPOILERS for Star Trek: Academy]




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02. [SPOILERS for season 2 of The Night Manager]




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03. [WARNING for discussion of JKR/transphobia/etc]

[Calvin and Hobbes]



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04. [WARNING for discussion of pedophilia, CSA]




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05. [WARNING for discussion of CSAM, racism, etc]




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06. [WARNING for discussion of gender dysphoria, blood/gore]

[Blue Eye Samurai]



















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1001.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Despite this probably being a troll, I'll bite, because those are my two favorite writers ever. Bill Watterson: yes, when I grew older, I came to see a streak of cynicism running through C&H. But I also still saw the single best depiction of childhood wonder that has ever been made. Terry Pratchett: everything I've ever seen from him and his fans suggest that they're a pretty mellow and humble bunch. I've absolutely seen criticisms of his writing along with praise. He himself acknowledged when he made mistakes, and over the course of his long career there were things that showed his viewpoint had changed.

If you're serious about comparing them to JKR, OP, I think I've finally lost all hope for the existence of media literacy.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know about cynicism but there was a C&H strip where Calvin yammered a lot of sexist nonsense to Susie about how women supposedly don't care about music or cars or anything but fashion and Susie didn't even argue with him, and Calvin's dad invariably pushes Calvin's mom into camping trips she despises as much as Calvin, so she's a grown woman who has no say in where she vacations?

[erinptah]

...There are a lot of strips where Calvin, a 6-year-old boy, expresses sexist opinions about girls. This is a completely normal character trait for 6-year-old boys.

IIRC we never see the parents' conversation in the lead-up to a camping trip, we just get Calvin's POV of "this has already been decided." The mom is never being forced into it over her protests like Calvin is, she just accurately observes when things go wrong. Which they always do, because "simple vacation that goes over-the-top wrong" is a very normal comedy premise.

NAYRT

[(Anonymous)]

When the camping trips go wrong Calvin's mom does often end up making comments like "I told you we should have gone to (other place) instead!" or muttering "Every year I say we should go somewhere else, but does he ever listen, nooo..." which implies they argue about where to go every year and the dad always wins. But the trips going wrong and the dad being stupid about it makes it pretty clear that the writing is on the mom's side and it's not good that she never gets a real say.

[(Anonymous)]

I've been reading Calvin and Hobbes since I was literally able to read at all and I knew the whole time that anything sexist that Calvin (or his dad) did is clearly depicted as not good role modeling. Susie not responding to Calvin is pretty rare but it's usually shown as her ignoring him because she's letting his stupidity speak for itself, and making a facial expression that says as much. I didn't pick up on the sexist implications of Dad's camping trips exactly, but he's obviously depicted as the jerk in that entire situation, I don't get where that would be an endorsement of not letting your wife have a say -- unfortunately it's common in real life for wives to just sigh and put up with their husbands' decisions about stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

This sounds like cherrypicking to me.

And I'm not sure what you're expecting from a comic that started in the mid-80s and ended mid-90s. Are you judging that it must be flawed and not deserving of its reputation because it doesn't perfectly align with your values in 2026?

Do you not understand that just because something exists in fiction, it's not an automatic endorsement of that idea?

[(Anonymous)]

OP here.
I first read that strip when it was new and was bothered by the sexist stuff at the time. Feminism did exist in the 90's.
Also, in one of the strips, Calvin is all "can't we go to a hotel instead" and Calvin's mom goes "yeah" and Calvin's dad immediately shuts the idea down.
It's really awkward writing about characters that don't have names BTW