Dummy
Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse is the one originally published March 6, 1981. It is the one which follows chronologically the one printed yesterday. Here we see Elly Patterson being beaten down by her kids for a toy. Mike seems to have the routine down. You beg and beg until Elly says, “We’ll see” which means “Yes” and then you stop begging. Little Lizzie doesn’t have the pattern yet. Once again Elly Patterson demonstrates bad parenting techniques.
The part I find the most interesting about the strip is Mike’s use of the word “Dummy” to insult Lizzie. If you check out these strips, you will see that is a very popular word for Mike to use to describe Lizzie. While “dummy” is not considered to be a very bad word, it is still not a very nice thing to say. And yet nobody ever says to Mike, “Be nice to your sister.”
The part I find the most interesting about the strip is Mike’s use of the word “Dummy” to insult Lizzie. If you check out these strips, you will see that is a very popular word for Mike to use to describe Lizzie. While “dummy” is not considered to be a very bad word, it is still not a very nice thing to say. And yet nobody ever says to Mike, “Be nice to your sister.”
posted by howard at 10:11 PM
4 Comments:
Here we see Elly Patterson being beaten down by her kids for a toy. Mike seems to have the routine down. You beg and beg until Elly says, “We’ll see” which means “Yes” and then you stop begging. Little Lizzie doesn’t have the pattern yet. Once again Elly Patterson demonstrates bad parenting techniques.
She also demonstrates that she needs to nail herself to her cross; she can't very well whine about how put-upon she is if she's not put-upon.
While “dummy” is not considered to be a very bad word, it is still not a very nice thing to say. And yet nobody ever says to Mike, “Be nice to your sister.”
That's because, despite all the hand wringing John and Elly do about it, Lynn seems to think that siblings fighting like scorpions is the way of the world; the parents may want to present a false image of harmony but brothers and sisters simply cannot get along.
That's because, despite all the hand wringing John and Elly do about it, Lynn seems to think that siblings fighting like scorpions is the way of the world; the parents may want to present a false image of harmony but brothers and sisters simply cannot get along.
That’s definitely true. When the kids are much older, it explains the philosophy of all those comic strips Lynn did with John or Elly looking at a situation where Mike or Elizabeth or April are getting along and making some remark about how it’s so unusual to see that sort of thing happen. In my reality, my kids fight some of the time, but a lot of the time they enjoy each other’s company. For whatever reason (martyrdom, mental illness), Lynn never seemed to get that. Scenes where young Michael and Elizabeth are playing together are few and far between. Although, technically in today’s strip, Mike and Elizabeth are united against their mother in order to get a toy.
"Dumb" is apparently not so bad in Elly's/Lynn's eyes, but dropping the yod in "stupid" gets you punished.
"Stoopid" or "st00pid" are some of Lynn's favourites. My kids are especially sensitive to those kinds of insults. These days, they will say, "Your face!" to someone as an insult, with no other words than that.
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