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Doodles by Steve Sack and Craig Macintosh
The Doozies by Tom Gammill
About Doonesbury
G.B. Trudeau’s Doonesbury is currently in its thirty-ninth year, tracking its eighth presidential administration. Trudeau maintains his studio in New York and his Web presence at www.doonesbury.com.
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Comments (34) Jump to Comments Form
RinaFarina said, about 18 hours ago
I was actually expecting to get the cartoon for Feb. 8, but here I am making the first comment for Feb. 9. So anyway, I will re-post my comment from yesterday (it was the last one, so I expect no one saw it):
@piratePTG, you are saying? that men shouldn’t fight in wars? so then if the sexes are to be equal, neither should women.
not sure what else your post could possibly mean.
or that the men are too young? so they shouldn’t be fighting till they are older?
@joe, you say “there is no cure for war-zone-related PTSD”. excuse me, but how do you know? how can you be sure? Shouldn’t you better say, “At the present time, there is no known cure….”?
Just because no one has found one yet, doesn’t mean none exists.
@pbarnrob, what did ike say? These posts often confuse me, because I’m not that familiar with recent American history.
Fairportfan2 said, about 18 hours ago
From “yesterday”:
Joe-Allen “Joe” Doty said
If she meets the man who tormented her, she might do some things which should never happen.
Speak for yourself.
I’d say her former assailant comes under the Texas “Needed Killin’” law.
EDIT: No - i am not one of those who believes every rapist should be castrated and then executed.
I am one who believes that anyone who preys on his/her fellow soldiers, resulting in dissension and suspicion in the ranks, in a situation where everyone is pretty much needing to depend on everyone else to keep them as safe and sound as possible should come under the same rubric as deserters in the heat.
Joe-Allen "Joe" Doty
said,
about 17 hours ago
Getting rid of her tormentor will not stop the trauma she suffered.
Castration does NOT stop a person from committing rape.
Haven’t you ever heard of “rape by instrumentation?”
The guy who caused Melissa to have the traumatic experience should have been tried in a court-martial and put in Leavenworth for the next 20 years or more (if he were a real person, of course).
rayannina said, about 17 hours ago
Well … can’t we do that AND castrate the rapists? It doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive, does it?
Joe-Allen "Joe" Doty
said,
about 17 hours ago
So, what I wrote is a question of semantics? I didn’t claim that there would never be a cure for PTSD.
I wrote in the PRESENT TENSE, ” there is NO cure for war-zone related PTSD.” “Is NO” does not equal “will never be.”
I have met a few men who were Vietnam Veterans and they thought they would never experience PTSD when they returned to the States and got released from active duty.
A decade or more later, something happened to trigger a war-zone related flashback and they reacted to it as though they were back in Nam and under attack.
Joe-Allen "Joe" Doty
said,
about 17 hours ago
Why is the stout-looking woman talking to Melissa thinking she looks sexier in a war zone when her uniform looks just like the ones the chunky men wear?
Melissa is positive that she doesn’t like being looked at like a sex object.
Kiba65 said, about 17 hours ago
On comments today,,,”Whew”..
Fer Lefer said, about 17 hours ago
Ahhhh… did I lost something here? It’s 01:06 AM, and there is too much turbulence in the forum…
…and I prefer a seven, by the way…
Ravenswing said, about 16 hours ago
There was a big case in NC ten years or so back, where a judge gave three convicted rapists their choice: either to be castrated or spend a long time behind bars.
Now like most everyone else, I was jumping up and down and yelling “Cut it off!” until I read an Ellen Goodman editorial in which she said she’d had similar sentiments, until she stopped and thought about it: would the victim feel particularly safe knowing that there were three violent criminals, walking the streets, having been castrated and quite possibly blaming her for it?
FriscoLou said, about 15 hours ago
Just think how we can mutilate women who commit violence against fetuses. They’re even more innocent.
…just suggesting alternatives to your brutal and barbaric impulses.
Joe-Allen "Joe" Doty
said,
about 15 hours ago
Rape isn’t about sex; it’s about control.
People can be raped even when the rapist has been totally emasculated previously.
dirtmusic said, about 15 hours ago
It’s just a cartoon folks - stop trying to be so wise.
cdward said, about 13 hours ago
Though just a cartoon, it is a serious subject that needs discussion (as can be attested by looking at the comments).
My opinion? Addressing violence with violence only breeds more violence. We have a long history to show it despite our most base impulses to get revenge. Court martial (and imprison) those who abuse fellow soldiers sexually. In general, imprison those who commit rape and other forms of sexual abuse - for a very long time.
emory458 said, about 12 hours ago
Just a reminder - it;s te old men with more experience sending the youg in-experienced men off to war - why dont we change that around? Might find peaceful solutions a little quicker then….
Potrzebie said, about 11 hours ago
Ok going back to the strip. I am also guilty of fantasizing of fellow female GI’s. I did see some guy divorce his wife and hook up with a five over there. I wonder how that plumper soldier is going to capitalize off of her status?
Oh, and guys, have you ever heard of exposure threapy? I have heard that some combat vets have felt better after that.
royman said, about 11 hours ago
Joe Doty’s right, rape isn’t about sex but about domination, and rapists who have been castrated still can, and do, rape. The demand for castration as a punishment for rape is a useless knee-jerk, emotional reaction and displays a total ignorance of human biology.
@ emory458 - Heh, heh! As the old saying goes, if the fat old men who declare the wars had to fight them, we’d have world peace overnight.
catters613 said, about 10 hours ago
Joe-Allen said
“Why is the stout-looking woman talking to Melissa thinking she looks sexier in a war zone when her uniform looks just like the ones the chunky men wear?”
Are you saying the uniform makes her look like a “chunky” man? In panel four GT shows that the uniform doe’s not hide her breasts. Even if the uniform hid that fact the soldiers she’s serving with know she’s a woman.
Melissa’s friend knows soldiers in war zones are lonely and missing intimate relationships. She says “Back home, we’re fives, sixes.” She knows the arbitrary rating system used by some people may change the number they rate someone depending on the situation, like the “dark bar at closing time” scenario.
If Melissa’s friend were a real person I would want her to know there are men who find chunky women attractive in any situation and she may even find one who would honestly rate her a nine.
montessoriteacher said, about 10 hours ago
If you are so worried about violence against innocent fetuses wear a condom, get a vasectomy or keep it in your pants and you won’t have to worry about it all… if you are against abortions, don’t have one. You take care of your family and I’ll take care of mine. Worrying about other people’s private parts is way too much government control!
Nemesys said, about 10 hours ago
“If Melissa’s friend were a real person I would want her to know there are men who find chunky women attractive in any situation and she may even find one who would honestly rate her a nine.”
If you have never been a “chunky woman” going through adolescence, you’ll never be able to appreciate how much like heaven it must seem for her to be found desirable by entire platoons of he-men.
High school for “chunky” women can be pure hell. Your long-time friends desert you because you’re not “cool” enough any more, your peers either avoid you entirely or say cruel things to you behind your back or directly to your face in groups to get a laugh, you’re assigned cruel nicknames, and all during a time when you’re most sensitive and vulnerable.
Both women here do share something in common. They both do want to be found attractive, but on their own terms and on their own time. That seems fair enough.
notinksanymore said, about 9 hours ago
Many states offer the voluntary castration for a lighter sentence trade. It actually helps many offenders who take the option. Castration reduces the amount of testosterone the body produces, and lower testosterone often leads to a reduction in aggression. However, most offenders will go to prison for longer before taking physical castration. We also have to be careful with the label of “rapist” or even “sex offender.” A drunk man who relieves himself in an alley is technically a sex offender. And many states have their statutes written in such a way that an 18 year old who has consensual sex with his 17 year old girlfriend can be put in jail for rape. The parents have the right to press charges, even if the girl doesn’t want to. I am very thankful that the La. legislature considered that and put safeguards in the statutory provisions.
Susan001 said, about 9 hours ago
I apologize for seeming insensitive, but does Mel’s friend even like men?
She looks very butch to me; in fact, yesterday I first thought she was a man.
bradwilliams
said,
about 9 hours ago
Such serious debate. Let me just add, the Army has a talent on selecting uniforms that completely counter the female form. Even so, six months in the desert allows the mind to work wonders.
Jim said, about 9 hours ago
The woman with Melissa reminds me of a sergeant in my platoon in Germany .
catters613 said, about 8 hours ago
Nemesys, what you said is so true.
I wasn’t a “chunky woman” in high school but I am now. Some people can be rude no matter what age you are. It doesn’t happen often but I have had some nasty comments directed at me since I left high school.My oldest daughter was a “chunky woman” In high school and still is. It was heartbreaking for me to know she had to deal with mean people. I made a point of letting her know there are lots of people who are kindhearted and don’t judge others physical appearance with rudeness and mean jokes. Fortunately she has become a very confident and happy young woman. It may have helped for her to know her step-father thinks I’m attractive and loves me just the way I am.
I know its just a cartoon. But GT doe’s deal with some very sensitive, thought provoking subjects. Its interesting to read the comments and know what other people have to say.
jrmerm said, about 8 hours ago
It must be horrible to be desired by the opposite sex
nighthawks
said,
about 8 hours ago
well, war IS hell….
Nairebis said, about 6 hours ago
Castration for rape is unfair simply because we can’t be sure that all rapists are guilty. Women can and do falsely accuse. Better to be put away for a few years because of a false accusation than be permanently disfigured because of a crazy accuser.
BigDog00 said, about 6 hours ago
I like your certainty, Mel. Hang tough.
ed-in-toledo said, about 6 hours ago
@catters613 Your first post is spot on. I was going to write much the same thing until I read your post.
——-
On the flip side of the castration issue… suppose a woman were to rape a man (not that most men would complain) what would be the equivalent punishment for the woman? Looking at it in those terms, castration is “cruel and unusual punishment” because a man would not be given “equal protection” under the law.
Joe-Allen "Joe" Doty
said,
about 5 hours ago
There is NOTHING SEXY about a BDU (battle dress uniform) which one normally wears in a war zone.
(Some people do have a sexual fetish about people wearing uniforms and some of them are in the military, too.)
Unlike civilian women’s clothing, the uniforms which the women are wearing in the above strip look just like the ones the men wear.
Obese servicemen wearing those BDUs would have their chest areas looking like the woman talking to Melissa.
One of my maternal uncles was in the USAF and he was very obese. He was an NCO when he retired. He died several years ago.
His youngest brother, Bob, retired as a USAF major; but, he was never overweight in his life. Bob is 26 months older than me.
Melissa going to hang tough? I doubt it.
jtpozenel said, about 4 hours ago
dirtmusic said:
It’s just a cartoon folks - stop trying to be so wise.
————————————————————————
My question is, how did a sane person get his comments on this website?
Fairportfan2 said, about 4 hours ago
Joe-Allen “Joe” Doty said
Getting rid of her tormentor will not stop the trauma she suffered.
Castration does NOT stop a person from committing rape.
It doesn’t even stop a person from having normal sex - merely from fathering children.
Note i said i am not one of those who favour it.
And i didn’t remotely mean to imply that Dealing With her assailant will give Melissa peace/closure … though it might.
No, i said that anyone who assaults his fellow soldiers in a combat zone should be treated similarly to one who deserts in the face of the enemy, because both have the potential to harm the entire unit, and, by extension, the mission.
And, yes, i know that there is no “treatment” for PTSD - though my ‘Nam service was not directly in combat (Navy shore establishment at Cam Ranh Bay), i still am dealing with its effects forty years later.
And i’m watching it to some extent in my Iraq veteran son-in-law, who did see combat.
Joe-Allen "Joe" Doty
said,
about 3 hours ago
There was a ‘Nam Navy Vet who lived where I used to live.
He didn’t tell me where his ship was located off shore; but, he was one of the people who told me about experiencing war-zone related PTSD more than 10 years after he left Vietnam.
He said that he and a buddy had shore leave and went to a Vietnamese restaurant to eat. They followed the rule of when going to such a place to sit at a table near the back wall of the eating area.
While they were there, a VC knew that Americans were in the place and shot at the building. He said that they were carrying rifles with them at the time. They ducked under the tables and pointed their weapons toward the street.
He experienced the PTSD flashback when he and the same buddy were in a restaurant and they were no longer in service. They still chose to go to the rear of a restaurant dining room due to what happened in ‘Nam and they sort of did that without thinking.
A car backfired out in the street while they were eating. He said that they immediately ducked under the tables and then raised up enough to put their hands and arms at the level of the table top and it was like they were aiming rifles toward the noise they heard.
When I had an account with classmates.com, some people thought that I made up the story about being under attack at Chu Lai during my last 14 days there.
I mentioned that in spite of all of the damage, only an officer in officer country got a piece of shrapnel in his leg and there was no other reported injuries.
Well, a guy who had been a Navy Corpsman posted that he was at Chu Lai at that time and he took the shrapnel out of the officer’s leg.
I know about Cam Ranh Bay because I sent the last night in Vienam there.
Jalitha said, about 1 hour ago
Rape is about domination, as some have said.
Castration, or an orchidectomy (removing the working part of the testicle, while leaving the area looking intact) might be an answer if the violent impulses were always and solely the effect of too much testosterone.
But they aren’t.
Too little can also cause someone to be violent, since the body is likely to substitute adrenaline for the missing testosterone.
And there are people who are violent simply because it’s the way they learned to approach the world. It works for them, and so they continue to do what they have always done.
In my experience, changing expectations works better than anything else to help people control their behavior. We’re pretty much social animals. We do what we think is expected of us; what we think will win the admiration of our peers.
Until no one expects to ever be able to dominate another, until it’s unthinkable to force your will on others, until we really see each other as equally important, we’ll have rape. :(