On 13 September 2022, Iranian police arrested twenty-two-year-old Masha Amini for not wearing her hijab in the prescribed manner. The police beat her severely; three days later she died from cerebral trauma. In response, under the banner of “Women, Life, Freedom,” Iranians protested Amini’s death, Iran’s systematic oppression of women, and the regime’s very existence. … Continue reading “What a Breath of Fresh Air!”: Doonesbury on Iran and the Veil.
Tag: feminism
“The Bittersweet Ambiguities of Youth”: Garry Trudeau on Love and Romace on the Comics Page.
I’m still working on the next instalment of my series about Garry Trudeau’s coverage of Jimmy Carter’s presidency: in the meantime, let’s look at a bit of Doonesbury-related ephemera. In February 1973,* New York magazine ran a special issue: “Couples: The Art of Staying Together." Alongside “Videotaping Your Marriage to Make It Better” and Gail Sheehy’s … Continue reading “The Bittersweet Ambiguities of Youth”: Garry Trudeau on Love and Romace on the Comics Page.
“Just Some Silly Dame”: Boopsie Takes a Stand.
In a previous post, I discussed how the 1971 arrival of Nicole as a semi-regular cast member signaled an important shift in Garry Trudeau’s approach to writing about women. Before Nicole joined the cast, women in Doonesbury were either sexpots who existed solely to fulfill adolescent sexual fantasies or pathetic figures to be ridiculed because … Continue reading “Just Some Silly Dame”: Boopsie Takes a Stand.
This Week in Doonesbury: #MeToo Runs for Office.
On Sunday, March 4, Garry Trudeau began a storyline that brings together three themes that have been central to Doonesbury for many years: feminism and the political empowerment of women; the challenges facing American soldiers and veterans; and electoral politics. Melissa Wheeler, a former army helicopter mechanic, asks Joanie Caucus for help with her political … Continue reading This Week in Doonesbury: #MeToo Runs for Office.
This Week in Doonesbury: A Missed Opportunity.
On 14 January, Garry Trudeau addressed the single most important social, cultural, and political issue of our time: the movement by women to raise awareness of, and fight back against, systematic sexual abuse by men in a number of fields, including politics, the entertainment industry, the news media, sports, and the tech world. In recent … Continue reading This Week in Doonesbury: A Missed Opportunity.
A Screaming Herd of Females: Women and Misogyny in the Early Doonesbury Strips.
Until I got to graduate school, I had learned more about modern feminism from reading Doonesbury than from anywhere else. This may be an exaggeration, but there’s a truth behind it: the social and political dimensions of post-World War Two feminism are a central thematic element in GBT’s work, and he has long made it … Continue reading A Screaming Herd of Females: Women and Misogyny in the Early Doonesbury Strips.
Reading Doonesbury 