[ SECRET POST #2538 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2538 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 079 secrets from Secret Submission Post #363.
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)]

Personally, I dislike Cathy for being sexist because we're encouraged to laugh at her. Oh, she likes chocolate; that is a personal flaw and should be mocked. Oh, she's self-conscious about how she looks in a bathing suit; she's right to be nervous because she's not perfect, and both the unperfectness and the nervousness should be mocked. I mean, yeah, a lot of women experience these things, but mentioning them and just going "lol punchline" is aggravating.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, this. It's another example of a female humorist getting all her laughs by putting herself down--because of course we don't do that enough.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, perfectly said. I get tired of "have a sense of humor, you should just laugh at yourself" messages.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I read a quote from the author where she said she tried to give Cathy a meaningful,interesting friendship with another woman and the publisher made her kill off the character and go back to those jokes.

[erinptah]

...But she does have meaningful, interesting friendships. With both Andrea and Charlene.

Come to think of it, most of the men in the comic are there primarily to serve as the love interest for one of these women. And the exceptions are usually relatives (Cathy's dad, Andrea's son). Which is a refreshing inversion of the gender dynamic you usually see. Even the characters' dogs are female.

I'm skeptical that any characters were ever "killed off". It was never the kind of comic where people died, for any reason :/

[(Anonymous)]

I was paraphrasing a quote I think I read, I don't actually know anything about this comic

[writerserenyty]

This; she isn't a character that happens to be stereotypical, but those elements are the joke.

[erinptah]

I always read her insecurities as something we were supposed to sympathize with, not laugh at. Like, the humor comes from thinking "oh, wow, I've totally been there," not "lol, what an idiot."

If there's a target of mockery, it's the ridiculous standards Cathy feels pressured to live up to. When a saleswoman lists fifty styles of shoe for Cathy to choose from, the punch line is that the fashion industry's idea of What Women Want is OTT and kind of overwhelming for real-world human beings, not "gosh, Cathy's such an idiot, being unable to pick a favorite from fifty mostly-identical shoe styles."

[dancing_clown]

Yeah, I was trying to figure out how to say essentially this, and now I don't have to.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

It goes both ways. For instance, there's one strip where Cathy realizes that everyone who's ever called her beautiful has been trying to sell her something. You could read that as mocking Cathy for not being conventionally attractive, or you could read it as mocking the myths that have built up around "beauty." (I'd go with the latter, since all the major characters in the strip are average-looking or even ugly--it's certainly not pushing the narrow pop-cultural vision of "beauty" as something everyone needs to try for.)

Re: OP

[erinptah]

Don't remember that exact strip, but it sounds like it also fits right in with others that highlight how "the way women feel about their own appearances" has been so aggressively co-opted by marketers and salespeople.

And I would lay down money that Cathy's mother has called her beautiful at some point within the series. There's no way she hasn't! Plus, whether or not Cathy's friends/boyfriends have said those exact words, they never act like her appearance is mockworthy, either.

[(Anonymous)]

I think my favorite Cathy strip was the one where she had spent all spring trying on every swimsuit in a store, hidden away her favorite, and then when summer came and the store was packed with frazzled women shuffling the racks looking for a suit they liked, Cathy strutted in and grabbed her hidden one. With a loud announcement that "Oh! This one's perfect, I don't even need to try it on!" or something similar, she walked directly to the cashier and paid, leaving a stunned group of shoppers behind her.

[erinptah]

That's fantastic.

Man, I didn't realize how protective I am of Cathy until this thread, but seriously, Cathy is a wonderful character and deserves nobody's hate.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed. I loved Cathy, stereotypes and all.

[diet_poison]

I never got the impression that you were supposed to be mocking her. o_O