Man, is Mark angry! So angry he turned into a goose to fly out to his friend's house and accuse him of using their friendship to commit insurance fraud! I mean, I've never been that mad.
Let's start with this Saturday's Marmaduke:
It's a long-established Marmaduke convention that "poodle" means "female". In reality, a breed cannot be all of one sex, but in the Marmaduke World of Wackiness, common sense doesn't apply!
So imagine my surprise when I saw a male poodle in Marmaduke this morning (I don't know how Marmaduke's owner knows its sex, but apparently he does). This calls into question the slippage between biological sex and the performance of gender, because this poodle, while being referred to as "he", is performing what would be culturally interpreted in Marmaduke World as feminine. Yes, a transgender dog.
But there are a few serious questions that this edition of Marmaduke raises:
- How did a dog buy into a human construction like gender?
- Why is a Great Dane going to a "barber" when it doesn't need to?
- Does that poodle have a moustache? Does that count as genderfuck?
And last Monday's Apartment 3-G:
Yay! My character's back in Apartment 3-G! Blaze Powers to the rescue!
He and I have a lot in common. Check out that outfit! I dress up like a cowboy every time I hit New York. Plus Alan's reaction in panel two to being touched by another man... well, I get that a lot.
Today's Beetle Bailey:
Meanwhile, Miss Buxley can't keep Beetle's attention even for several minutes. Do I have to paint a picture, Miss Buxley?
1 comment:
re: the Marmaduke cartoon:
I love the look of anxious dismay on Marmaduke's doggy face. Perhaps the sight of an effeminate male dog brings up uncomfortable feelings--like envy, or attraction--which he'll now try to bury like so many bones in the backyard.
Marmaduke's owner interprets the dog's reaction as a kind of gender anxiety. Perhaps he's projecting a bit.
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