No Class or No Self-Esteem?

In today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse, Connie Poirier is rehashing how she feels about herself in dealing with Phil in Montreal. We know ultimately Phil is going to return to Milborough and start wooing Connie again, as we can tell from this strip from 1982. So, in spite of Connie’s behavior in the “Connie in Montreal” strips, Elly is going to have to end up saying that Phil has no problem with what happened, which is what will happen if Lynn decides to reprint the next strip following this one chronologically.

The one correction I see in the strip is Panel 2, where "upon" is changed to be more clearly "up on." The most startling thing about the colour version is Connie's hair colour. The hair style still matches her Montreal poodle cut from last month, but the hair is back to blonde. On the other hand, when I look at the black-and-white version of the Montreal poodle cut, it is shaded. In the black-and-white version of today's strip, it is not. Judging from that, blonde is correct.

The way the strip plays out is reasonable. Connie is playing the role of a person who is making self-deprecating remarks in the hope that Elly will contradict her, preferably with words from her brother. I have known many people who do this. As for her statements, let’s examine them:

1. Elly, I’m still embarrassed about the way I chased your brother.

Analysis: If Connie were embarrassed by that, she wouldn’t be bringing it up. Nevertheless, Connie’s point of embarrassment is her chasing. In other words, a proper woman does not chase a man. Men must do all the chasing. I would say this is very old-fashioned. However, I remember having a conversation with my 18-year-old nephew on the subject and from his perspective of his generation, this has not changed. Men of his generation still do the chasing. The indirect meaning we have here is that women do not offer themselves up to men, which is the way you would interpret Connie going to Montreal without her son, showing up at Phil’s club and expecting him to do something. Considering that the new-runs have painted a picture of Connie and Phil being much more intimate than they were back in 1981, this no longer makes much sense.

2. He must think I’m an idiot for showing up on his doorstep like that.

Analysis: This one is just plain confusing, even back in 1981. She showed up at the Jazzy Club where he was playing, not at his doorstep with him present. If she is talking about not calling Phil in advance to let him know she was coming, then I am in agreement only that she is a poor planner and not an idiot.

3. He must think I have no class.

Analysis: Showing up at someone’s club unannounced is not usually considered to be classless. If you take the indirect message again, i.e. offering herself up to Phil so he can take advantage of her if he wants to, then maybe she can get that no class meaning. However, I would call it no self-esteem. Now, if the "'Allo?" girl told Connie that she was Phil's girlfriend, and then Connie went ahead and threw herself at Phil at the Jazzy Club anyway -- that would be classless. As to whether women who do this are any more or less classless than men who do this, that’s a different story. Judging from the old Becky McGuire roadside story, Lynn Johnston clearly lays the blame on the woman in these situations.

After all this, the most surprising part of the strip is seeing Elly make tea instead of coffee. Tea? What is wrong with her? The best part is seeing Elly go from laundry to tea all while saying nothing. It’s as if she can’t have this kind of conversation without a beverage in her hand.