Vasectomy or Baby? Celibacy is Looking Good
Elly’s response to Anne’s suggestion yesterday that she have another baby if she is bored is a surprising one. She mentions it to John Patterson, who balks at the idea, and then lays a threat on him that unless he gets a vasectomy, he is going to be making a baby. The joke is then that John has to decide if he wants no baby more than he wants a vasectomy. Men usually pale at the idea of anyone taking a knife to that part of their body. I remember a time some years back, when it was a pretty common joke for a woman to make that suggestion and then laugh when the man turned pale. Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse is along those lines. When the strip came out, Lynn Johnston would simply have been repeating a popular joke from the pop culture of the time.
Given that April pops into the Patterson's life later, it’s obvious that John decided that he preferred to not have a vasectomy. With history in mind, this strip raises the issue of whether or not April was planned by Elly, or if this falls into the category of “Patterson women who get pregnant and play dumb”, which we had with the birth of Michael and Meredith. Although women are often portrayed as powerless in this comic strip, when it comes to sex, they wield sexual power like they are swinging a mighty club. Pregnancy threats and withholding sex are a household staple in this strip. Elly did it on a regular basis and when Deanna came into the strip, she followed right along in Elly’s footsteps. It would be nice to see physical affection used in a positive way to help build the relationship, but that is a rare occasion in this strip. Instead it is almost always used as a weapon.
The other choice of John’s in this strip is simply go celibate with his wife. The joke is that no real man can do that; but John should give it some consideration. After all, he wouldn’t have to live in fear that every time he did it, he just fathered a baby. And when you get right down to it, would sex with someone as passive and selfish as Elly Patterson be anything but horrifyingly awful? If John put on his train engineer outfit and wanted to play “Choo-choo in the tunnel”, I doubt Elly would go along with it. Celibacy is looking good, when Elly is your choice.
Given that April pops into the Patterson's life later, it’s obvious that John decided that he preferred to not have a vasectomy. With history in mind, this strip raises the issue of whether or not April was planned by Elly, or if this falls into the category of “Patterson women who get pregnant and play dumb”, which we had with the birth of Michael and Meredith. Although women are often portrayed as powerless in this comic strip, when it comes to sex, they wield sexual power like they are swinging a mighty club. Pregnancy threats and withholding sex are a household staple in this strip. Elly did it on a regular basis and when Deanna came into the strip, she followed right along in Elly’s footsteps. It would be nice to see physical affection used in a positive way to help build the relationship, but that is a rare occasion in this strip. Instead it is almost always used as a weapon.
The other choice of John’s in this strip is simply go celibate with his wife. The joke is that no real man can do that; but John should give it some consideration. After all, he wouldn’t have to live in fear that every time he did it, he just fathered a baby. And when you get right down to it, would sex with someone as passive and selfish as Elly Patterson be anything but horrifyingly awful? If John put on his train engineer outfit and wanted to play “Choo-choo in the tunnel”, I doubt Elly would go along with it. Celibacy is looking good, when Elly is your choice.
posted by howard at 9:26 PM
7 Comments:
Vasectomies aren't nearly the pop culture joke now that they used to be. They've been steadily increasing in recent years, as men have gotten more educated about them and less tense about their sexuality, and there has been a huge upsurge just in the past year because of the economy, in the U.S. at least.
If John really doesn't want more kids he really does need to man up and get a vasectomy. Though if not getting a vasectomy excuses him from having sex with Elly, I can see the upside to fertility.
howard,
The other choice of John’s in this strip is simply go celibate with his wife. The joke is that no real man can do that; but John should give it some consideration. After all, he wouldn’t have to live in fear that every time he did it, he just fathered a baby. And when you get right down to it, would sex with someone as passive and selfish as Elly Patterson be anything but horrifyingly awful?
I saw the downside of that as soon as I saw the words 'John' and 'choice' in the opening sentence; after all, he can, by definition, do no right. If he chooses to not have sex because he fears being oopsed, he's an evil bonehead dork who doesn't want to be intimate. Part of me also thinks that if he had bit the bullet and went for the vasectomy, he'd be an extra-selfish guy who killed their future family.
Other than that, I agree that sex with Elly would probably be a foretaste of the torments of Hell.
Clio,
Vasectomies aren't nearly the pop culture joke now that they used to be. -
Agreed. This strip is just another along the lines, where a modern day person might wonder why Lynn Johnston is making a joke about the subject.
If John really doesn't want more kids he really does need to man up and get a vasectomy. -
Especially since it is clear that his wife has no intention to respect his choice not to have any more children.
DreadedCandiru2,
I saw the downside of that as soon as I saw the words 'John' and 'choice' in the opening sentence; after all, he can, by definition, do no right. -
That seems like an extreme statement, but when I look over the strips from the past year, I am hard-pressed to find a strip that contradicts it.
If he chooses to not have sex because he fears being oopsed, he's an evil bonehead dork who doesn't want to be intimate.-
Here is the strip that never appears in For Better or For Worse. Even when John and Ted went out on the town, the choice not to have sex was never in the hands of the male. The new-runs made it clear that no woman was even remotely interested in Ted. Then when Elly and Connie went out, the story made it clear that Elly could get sex any time she wanted.
Other than that, I agree that sex with Elly would probably be a foretaste of the torments of Hell.-
I remember seeing a quote from some celebrity once that was along the lines of “There’s nothing better than great sex and there’s nothing worse than bad sex.” I’m sure that eventually John Patterson would get to the point where Elly would refuse him (for the umpteenth time) and he would think, “Well, that’s a relief.”
Especially since it is clear that his wife has no intention to respect his choice not to have any more children.
That's a good reason to divorce, really. Except he already has a child with Elly, and a stepchild whom he has adopted and whose biological father is never mentioned. (Things make so much more sense that way, imo.) If he divorced Elly, he'd have a good shot at getting custody of Lizzy, but probably not of Mike. And since he's accepted responsibility for Mike, he's going to stick it out...
Clio,
If he divorced Elly, he'd have a good shot at getting custody of Lizzy, but probably not of Mike. And since he's accepted responsibility for Mike, he's going to stick it out...-
John Patterson, even moreso than his real-life counterpart, shows a dedicated commitment to his marriage vows. He has found himself married to a woman, who thinks it is funny to lay that kind of threat on him. And yet, in the course of the strip, I can't think of a time where he complained when Elly does things like this. When is there a time when John Patterson ever gets mad at Elly for something she's done? In many respects he's the perfect man for Elly, because he shows for 30 years he can take every little thing she dishes out.
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