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January 22, 2007
We’re All Cathy
At our February 14 meeting we welcome a woman cartoonist – Trina Robbins - as our guest
speaker. And it’s about time! Today everyone agrees women are strong and invincible but
they’re still questioning whether women are funny. To that I say – they are to me! Women
writers have made me laugh all my life. Can men create convincing female characters? Of
course! But only a woman writer knows why another woman needs a seventh pair of black
shoes.
If you want to know who I am – who I really, really am at the deepest level – all you have to do
is read the cartoons on my refrigerator door. I always display as prominently as possible
anything in print that makes me say, “I agree!” “That’s me,” or “Hahaha!” Analyzing these torn-
out ‘toons – it’s obvious the collector is 1. A woman. 2. Her favorite subject is the differences
between men and women. 3. The femi-nutsy who created AllMenAreMonkeys.com.
Maybe we’re all the sum totals of the comic opinions and sensibilities stated on our
Frigidaires. Is it shallow to subscribe to the New Yorker just for the cartoons? I do. Their
cartoonists regularly crank out hilarious guy-gal yukkers. Cartoonist Mike Peters has hit the
acrylic nail on the head many times IMHO.
There are subjects only a woman would suggest. For instance the first Mary Tyler Moore
Show I wrote included this line from Rhoda (reading from her teenage diary) “Today my
mother told me a wonderful was going to happen … once a month.” That’s why I love Cathy. I
am Cathy and Cathy is me. She’s my kind of girl. If all men are monkeys, then all women are
Cathy. I would wager my collection of yellowing Cathys is second to none. Cathy is my best
girlfriend. We agree on absolutely everything: mothers, shopping, fashion, dieting, and men
and their technology.
But Cathy isn’t my only heroine. I love Pickles, Luann’s mom and Six Chicks. When I was
raising a teenage son, I was the mother in Zits. Therefore, I still save all relevant Zitses to
show to my son (along with the latest newspaper articles on ways your Ipod could
unintentionally kill you, make you sterile or go cross-eyed). Now I’m the mom in Nest Heads.
In closing, I’ll thank the fabulous fictitious females of the fourth estate who influenced me and
formed who I am today: Little Lulu, Millie the Model, Mopsy, Fritzi Ritz, Betty, Veronica,
Nancy, Blondie, Daisy Mae, Olive Oyl, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, and always feminine
Minnie Mouse.
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