Letters to the Editor
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As to why it was censored:
It's because American newspaper editors are gutless hand wringing dipshit morons who are pathologically afraid of 'offending' anyone.
Just look at the fact that we have a complete failure in the White House and the American media has yet to say 'boo' about this.
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At first I thought this strip was about Islam, but it's not.
It's about us.
I remember the song about the "itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny yellow polka dot bikini" from the 60's. Many people here are too young to remember how and why the bikini originally got its name. Do a bit of research. You might be surprised.
All that stuff that happened in the 60's -- the sexual revolution, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the protests against the Vietnam War, changed us forever, or should have. However, always some people have wanted to take us backwards.
Look how Steve wants that bikini back on Lola. Look how she resists. Poor Lola with her spiritual searching, silly though that might seem, is trying to move forward toward something. Steve thinks he can tell her what to wear. He thinks he is smarter, less prone to superstition, a free postmodern man, who sadly does not understand his slavish devotion to his own cultural contructs. He just assumes that Lola will do what he says.
Strangely, Lola assumes it is her own choice what she will wear. Maybe she doesn't want to don revealing clothing because she is sick and tired of being thought to be a clueless slut whose function is to be decoratively pleasing to men. Burkas and burkinis may seem like jokes to us, but let us not forget that in certain parts of the world wearing them protects women from persistent male attention, rape, and even stoning. That she chooses to experiment with religions dominated or perverted by patriarchal values means only that she avoids one type of tyranny to embrace another.
Notice that Steve is so certain that Lola will bend to his will that he walks away making certain that the boy understands what is what where women are concerned. He wants her in that bikini to get the sexual revolution to be what HE wanted it to be. It never occurs to him that she may have other ideas.
Lola has a right to wear what she chooses whether it be the bikini, the burkini, or a G-string and silver spangles twirling upon her nipples. It's her damn body and she gets to clothe it any damn way she wants. It is not Lola who has missed the revolution.
If you don't believe this strip and some of Breathed's others are about the power of the Patriarchy then maybe you should read this thread entitled: "Casual hookups cause 'grey rape'" here
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/
If you will read the letters, you will see plenty of people who want to tell women what to wear, what to consume, and where they might safely go all for the purpose of avoiding rape. Because, after all, if a woman gets raped because of making these free choices, it is at least partly her fault, isn't it?
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This tame, rather sweet comic freaked out the WaPo?
What a gormless lot.
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WOW...SO BRAVE
Big Deal! Breathed cops out to Islamic crazies by putting in a shill for Burkinis on a website. Yeah, NOW they will be nice to you!
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Controversial or not...
...it's pretty lame. I won't waste any more space on it.
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The media can help defeat the Mujahideen
If the Left leaning press and artist class, with its huge cultural influence around the world, spent half as much energy taking on the sexist, fascist, genocidal Mujahideen (Islamist warrior movement) as it has spent going after the evil neo-cons, the war against terror would probably be over by now.
Parker
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Maybe Toon isn't about Fashion, Modesty, Religion or Women
"And THAT,little dude, is how we're gonna straighten out the middle east.". Perhaps the message? Like Fatima didn't bend to Steve's will, the middle east isn't going bend to the will of the USA. Hell I don't know, but I doubt it was worth any censorship
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Ironic
In the US, all are free to wear what they want, but in Iran fashion police patrol the streets.
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Separated at birth?
Opus and Garry Owen? Nah. Despite his weekly disclaimer, Opus is generally relevant and amusing. Garry is only predictable. If he spent a fraction of the time he appears to have to comment on every Salon thread under the sun, he could wow us all with his own brilliant comic commentary. For one week, Gary, give it a rest. You're becoming the Camille Paglia of Letters to the Editor. Not a pretty sight.
Kid Geezer
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Sparky the penguin is back at Tom Tomorrow
I am gruntled.
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Show and Tell
I don't think America is trying to force to change their culture. We are trying to tell some people in the Islamic world that women can go to school, lead in government, and sit in any coffee shop they choose. The cartoonist has made a poor attempt to frame the argument to fit his preconceived notion that "America is a big bully." The idea that this cartoonist is trying to defend the oppression of women in Islam by dumming-down the argument is simplistic and foolish. Would the same cartoon have been used in the 1960's to defend the "cultural differences" of segregation in southern states?
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censorship
The truth is that muslims have intimidated US media with their "religion of peace" making even the Pope apologize! What a bunch of wimps we have in the media, this IS AMERICA, we have the right to speak freely about any subject. To come to America to impose their backward and barbaric customs and to impose their principles on us takes the cake, come on are we that wimpish?
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The really important thing about this cartoon
Why, when Lola Granola came back, did she attach herself to Steve Dallas!?! She was Opus' fiance way back in the 1980s and had almost no contact with Steve. And yes, I know "Bloom County" too well; I still have all the collections.
A bit more seriously, Breathed has, in the past, been open about his difficulties creating compelling female characters. Every now and again he'll bring in a new one and place her front and center, but soon they drift into the background and then out of the strip altogether. Even within this new incarnation, a young girl named Pickles came in with great fanfare, hung around for a few months and then disappeared. Of them all, Lola Granola's probably the one that works the best comedically, so it is good to seen Breathed keeping at it.
Still, Steve Dallas must have spent the 90's in the "For Better and For Worse" universe, for he has aged while everyone else, including Lola, has not.