Elly / Anne Comparisons
As predicted, we have a new-run to help complete this sequence with today's For Better or For Worse. The new-run will make sure that we understand the focus is not on John Patterson hiring a beautiful girl because of his unfair hiring practices, but the focus is on John Patterson, potential cheater. We know from Lynn Johnston’s interview with Maclean’s magazine her thought when Rod hired his Cheryl Ladd woman and his other beautiful women on his staff, was Rod was cheating, along with the rest of Lynn Lake, Manitoba.
However, it might not have been clear to those persons who originally read the strip back in 1980, this is what Lynn was saying. Back in those days, men’s hiring practices were a hot topic with the Women's Liberation movement. So you might have drawn the conclusion that the story was really about John hiring a beautiful woman who ended up being qualified for the job, despite her beauty. Lynn wants to correct that misperception.
Enter Anne Nichols. We already know her husband is cheating on her from her history/future. So, when she argues for John hiring a beautiful girl and says, “Marriage is all about trust”, the message is pretty clear. It’s not about trust. It’s about being suspicious, when everything you know says you should be suspicious. In the final panel, even though Anne has displayed her trust of her husband, she then makes a joke about what would happen if her husband was fooling around. This tells us that maybe Anne isn’t that trusting after all. She talks the talk, but she isn’t walking the walk. And we know from what comes up, she shouldn’t.
This is pretty clever on Lynn’s part. She doesn’t want to say that John Patterson is a cheater, but she does want the reader to get her subtext that Rod Johnston was. Anne Nichols fulfills this function pretty well by comparison. We know her husband is cheating, and so Lynn can put across the subtle message that maybe John is too.
This is the 1000th post of the Howard Bunt Blug, and to celebrate, I will be camping out with Boy Scouts the next 2 nights and not updating the blog. I should be back late Sunday. Hopefully, Lynn Johnston won't do anything spectacular while I am gone.
However, it might not have been clear to those persons who originally read the strip back in 1980, this is what Lynn was saying. Back in those days, men’s hiring practices were a hot topic with the Women's Liberation movement. So you might have drawn the conclusion that the story was really about John hiring a beautiful woman who ended up being qualified for the job, despite her beauty. Lynn wants to correct that misperception.
Enter Anne Nichols. We already know her husband is cheating on her from her history/future. So, when she argues for John hiring a beautiful girl and says, “Marriage is all about trust”, the message is pretty clear. It’s not about trust. It’s about being suspicious, when everything you know says you should be suspicious. In the final panel, even though Anne has displayed her trust of her husband, she then makes a joke about what would happen if her husband was fooling around. This tells us that maybe Anne isn’t that trusting after all. She talks the talk, but she isn’t walking the walk. And we know from what comes up, she shouldn’t.
This is pretty clever on Lynn’s part. She doesn’t want to say that John Patterson is a cheater, but she does want the reader to get her subtext that Rod Johnston was. Anne Nichols fulfills this function pretty well by comparison. We know her husband is cheating, and so Lynn can put across the subtle message that maybe John is too.
This is the 1000th post of the Howard Bunt Blug, and to celebrate, I will be camping out with Boy Scouts the next 2 nights and not updating the blog. I should be back late Sunday. Hopefully, Lynn Johnston won't do anything spectacular while I am gone.
posted by howard at 9:49 PM
7 Comments:
howard,
This is pretty clever on Lynn’s part. She doesn’t want to say that John Patterson is a cheater, but she does want the reader to get her subtext that Rod Johnston was. Anne Nichols fulfills this function pretty well by comparison. We know her husband is cheating, and so Lynn can put across the subtle message that maybe John is too.
Where it all falls apart, of course, is that most of Lynn's fan base have only the vaguest memory of Steve's infidelity. Since Lynn was trying to not face her anxieties back then, she put Annie's plot on the back burner so she couldn't serve as a reminder to the augdience that she suspected Rod of infidelity. This tells me that we need new-runs that show us that her trust in Steve is misplaced.
Also, I hope the camp-out helps take this mess of your mind. Thinking about Foob, what with its dim underlying view of humanity, too much can get people down.
Hopefully, Lynn Johnston won't do anything spectacular while I am gone.
I think you're safe. Have fun camping.
Congrats on 1000 posts! I had meant to have April note when she reached that mark, but then I forgot. :)
Hmm, so now not only is Anne "not walking the walk" on trust, we also know that later she won't live up to what she's saying. She won't kick her husband out for cheating. Sounds like LJ is clarifying something else, too: Anne as gutless, or a fool.
Before, well, maybe Anne had her principles that you work to salvage your marriage no matter what (I don't recall enough detail to say whether that was implied or, indeed, whether any particular reason for her staying with Steve was implied). I just remember that Anne wanted to save her marriage, period. Now we're *definitely* not supposed to think that was out of deeply held principles. I'm left to conclude that we're now expected to think that Anne stayed with Steve not for any positive reason, but for a negative one - out of fear of what her life would be like after a divorce.
Have fun camping. Sounds much healthier than watching comic characters get trashed.
CanuckDownSouth,
I'm left to conclude that we're now expected to think that Anne stayed with Steve not for any positive reason, but for a negative one - out of fear of what her life would be like after a divorce.
Her biography specifically indicates that she feared not living up to the standards by which she was raised. That fear of what the folks back home would think is what kept her married. That, and threats she had no intention of carrying out. It also made her glad that Connie, who played at rejecting said beliefs, had a miserable life. Isn't it great that Elly's friends are as nasty as she is?
Congrats on your 1000th post enjoy your camping trip!
After reading today's strip the first thing that popped into my mind was "women are doormats" at least in Milborogh. Even in the later years, I'm reminded of "Doormat Dee", the women were usually the silent put upon ones. Elly seems to be the only one who was semi-successful in neutering her husband. It's almost as if the Milborogh definition of feminisim is marry some dolt bear his children make limp attempts throughout life at any kind of social life and then spend your later years congratulating yourself about how "tough" you were.
I feel that with Anne Lynn is trying to say women can talk tough but when it comes down to it they can't leave because they can't let go of the security of a man. Imagine what it would have been like if Lynn had kept Anne in the strip. She could have shown Anne and Steve in couples councelling and if it didn't work out write a divorce story where a strong woman imerges. But Lynn couldn't have done that because that's not what happened to her and therefore can't happen to anyone else. When I look at the women of Foob none of them are truly happy just like Lynn.
Found this strip too annoying to comment on it. So I went out to dinner. Ordered prime rib. Somehow managed to restrain myself from talking to everyone I met thereafter about OMG! how great prime rib is!!! (Though it was pretty great.) Came home and thought I would add my voice to those who are disappointed to see Anne is being set up as someone who can't live up to her own ideals...just like every other woman in this strip.
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