Stone Soup is usually pretty normal in their family relations. However, we've started a plot where Val, the redhead is having upheaval because of confusion about the direction her relationship with her longtime boyfriend Phil is headed. They were both happily plunked in "not getting married" but now the waters have been muddied.
What drives me crazy is her reaction. She doesn't know what her feelings are about marriage, which is fine. But she reverts to the classic "he must ask me" stance that is not in keeping with the tone of the rest of the strip.
Val, all you have to say is something like, "Let's have a chat about where we are now with the whole marrying thing." And boom! You and your partner can come to a conclusion together.
I'm with you. I'm feeling particularly sour about gender roles/this-is-what-you're-allowed-to-do-in-male-female relationships lately. At Christmas dinner, one of my friends told this story where she basically intimated that her male neighbor, who is married, must be cheating because she saw him hanging out with a female while his wife was out of town. I tried to explain that married people can have friends of the opposite gender (or at least I do), but she didn't want to hear it. She'd made up her mind (by the way, she's not married). The conversation has bothered me for days. Now this comic strip makes me feel even angrier. Val doesn't have to get married if she doesn't want to, and if she does, she can certainly talk to Phil about it. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteYeah! And I'm totally with you about married people having opposite gender friends.
ReplyDeleteHow odd that the tone has abruptly changed. I wonder what is behind this.
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