Some newspapers are going to pull the Doonesbury comic strips for next week because it deals with the transvaginal ultrasound issue and the whole Republican assault on women’s access to health services. Strip creator Garry Trudeau is no stranger to controversy over his strip but says that to not address the issue would have constituted ‘comedy malpractice’.
It turns out that my local Plain Dealer will run the strips. Good for them. I suspect that after the wide ridicule they received for pulling this innocuous Non Sequitur strip back in January, they were a little gun-shy.
The newspapers will often say that they pull strips because young children read them as well as adults and some parents object to their children being exposed to adult matters. My children read the comic pages every day from the time they were very young and they simply did not bother with those that dealt with issues that were of no interest to them or went over their heads. They started reading and enjoying Doonesbury only later, as they became more politically aware. Though I haven’t seen them as yet, I highly doubt that any child is going to be traumatized by these strips. If they read them, they will likely just be bewildered.
What I am sure about is that because of this fuss, more people than usual will be reading Doonesbury, as could have been predicted from the Streisand Effect. Those who wish to can see the strips here as they appear each day starting tomorrow.
I can’t say that I’ve ever really read doonesbury but this who situation is going to make me read them for the next week any way. I’m doing my part for the Streisand Effect 😛
Ps YAY lagomorphs!
Doonesbury is my favorite comic, and probably one of the big catalysts to my own activism in politics and religion (or non-religion, as the case is). As a kid, the strips did go over my head, and my parents are more of the “Flower Power failed and what could be more powerful than flowers” disenchanted hippie types, so just hand waved me on to Garfield or Peanuts. So in those days before Google, I was left with reading the rest of the paper, too. Soon, I was rewarded with the ability to get Trudeau’s jokes. Shortly thereafter, my soul was crushed irreparably as I discovered how insane a sizable portion of humanity was. Trudeau killed my inner being and ripped my innocence through my funny bone like a Roman spear tearing through the flesh of the now extinct tofu (the tofu you buy in stores is fake! Some sort of bean mush).
Meanwhile, in the home city of the largest academic institution in Ohio, the august Columbus Dispatch has chosen NOT to run Doonesbury this coming week.Cowards.
It would be difficult to explain to a child why so many people seem to feel that it’s acceptable to treat women unequally and unfairly.
Just a mention, the first episode has appeared in the Dominion Post in NZ. Will let you know if things change in this part of the world.
Here in the heart of the Midwest, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (in our household, called the Post-Disgrace) decided not to run the strips because “we decided the current “Doonesbury” storyline, which features a woman visiting an abortion clinic, includes graphic language and imagery unsuitable for a section that is popular with young readers.”
They are, however, running them in the comics section online on the paper’s website. Because kids never go on teh intarwebs, you know.
ohioobserver: You beat me to it. And let me say that I fully endorse your assessment: cowards.
Hrmph, just checked, and our local paper is yanking them. Booo.
Indeed, and actually I’m sure the vast majority of the newspaper staffs who have chosen to pull them don’t actually give a shit. Some may be quietly glad for the Streisand Effect. They just don’t want to deal with angry pearl-clutchers complaining to them.
Of course they may have to deal with angry liberals complaining to them. I might just go take my angry liberal ass and complain right now! 😀
Can’t have a newspaper provoking thought and/or debate on topical issues of the day, can we?