In a series of strips that ran from October 22 to November 11, 1980, Cathy is sexually assaulted by her boss, Mr. Pinkley. Strangely, this story arc is rarely anthologized or discussed, although it stands as a fascinating example of Cathy exploring topical, relevant, and extremely important issues from a female perspective and doing so within the context of the daily comics page. As the story begins, Cathy’s car is in the shop and her ex-boyfriend refuses to give her a ride home. On October 23, 1980, Mr. Pinkley, overhearing her pre-dicament, offers Cathy a ride and brings her back home to her apart-ment, arguing that, as a gentleman, he must “show a lady to her door.” Cathy realizes that there is “no point in arguing with your whole upbringing,” when Mr. Pinkley reveals he is, in fact, no gentle-man and asks whether Cathy will invite him in for a drink. While critics are quick to disparage the draftsmanship of Cathy, it is very clear from the details in the final panel of the strip that Cathy is decidedly uncomfortable and Mr. Pinkley is assuming a dominant, lecherous posture (see figure 1.6). In the fourth panel the two figures stand outside her doorway, and Mr. Pinkley leans in, one arm spread wide, touching the door, while his legs are crossed in a casual stance.
His lopsided smirk and lifted eyebrows indicate his lascivious inten-tions. While Cathy stands close to Mr. Pinkley, as she is also framed in the doorway, her expression in one of absolute distress. Her qua-vering frown conveys her anxiety. These small details clearly com-municate the anxiety of the situation.
In the October 24, 1980, strip, Cathy stands outside her own door, and questions whether inviting her boss in is a good idea, stating,
“I appreciate the ride home, Mr. Pinkley, but you’re my boss.” Mr.
Pinkley, his face expressing concern, questions, “You can’t invite your boss in for a drink? All my other business associates have me in for a drink now and then. I’d be hurt if you thought so little of our profes-sional relationship that you couldn’t have me in for a drink, Cathy.”
And thus Mr. Pinkley challenges Cathy to ask him in for an “inno-cent” drink, contrasting her behavior with that of other, undoubtedly
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male, colleagues. If she wants to be treated like her male counter-parts in the working world, shouldn’t she, too, have a drink with her boss, especially after he indicates that he is “hurt” that she doubts their “professional relationship”? Cathy relents, entering her apart-ment with an “Oh, okay. Come on in, Mr. Pinkley.” At this point Mr.
Pinkley has transformed from the wounded colleague to the libidi-nous creep, his wide smirk returning as he leans into her apartment, asking her to call him “Earl.”
On October 25, 1980, Mr. Pinkley is seen racing around Cathy’s apartment with a wide smile, loosening his tie as he exclaims, “I’ve never seen a single woman’s apartment before, Cathy. So this is what it’s really like! So this is how you live. So this is where it all happens.
Ha Hah! Let’s drink a toast to the emancipated woman!” The use of anaphora, repeating the word “So,” emphasizes the mundane nature of Cathy’s ordinary domicile, which Mr. Pinkley seems to think revelatory as he careens through the panels and her apartment. The final panel depicts Cathy emerging from the kitchen and disrupting Mr. Pinkley’s fantasy, asking, “Do you want Diet Pepsi or Fresca?”
Mr. Pinkley’s smile falls into a small frown as Cathy punctures his fantasy, which contrasts widely with his explanation from the pre-vious day that this was a purely professional interaction. These are extremely pedestrian beverage choices. There are no martinis, no wine, simply soda.
The dramatic storyline is interrupted by a curiously banal Sunday comic on October 26, in which Cathy attempts to order a sandwich at a restaurant and is overwhelmed by customization options, but the thread continues on October 27 as Cathy prepares a Diet Pepsi for her boss. On October 28, Cathy sits on the couch facing Mr. Pinkley’s
FIGURE 1.6. Cathy Guisewite. Cathy. October 23, 1980.
chair (see figure 1.7). In the first panel as she wonders, “Maybe Mr.
Pinkley always looks like that when he’s drinking,” but the second panel shows that Mr. Pinkley has moved to the couch and is seated very close to Cathy, as her thought balloon tries to explain away her discomfort, “Maybe he just moved to the couch because the chair is uncomfortable. . . . Maybe his hand just happened to brush my arm when he sat down.” In the third panel, Mr. Pinkley swoops in for a kiss. In this panel both faces are obscured; the audience cannot see Cathy’s reaction to this violation as only their backs are visible.
Motion lines indicate that Mr. Pinkley has moved his arm around Cathy’s shoulder, and his larger body dominates the pair, covering hers. The back of Mr. Pinkley’s head, with a small smattering of hair surrounding his bald spot, eclipses Cathy’s as he kisses her. We do not see their lips or faces, only the back of his head and her stringy hair. Her face has been subsumed by his. The background, once filled with Cathy’s thoughts, is noticeably empty, except for the single word, “KISS!” hanging in the air, not encompassed by a balloon. The final panel presents a tight shot of Cathy and Mr. Pinkley sitting on the couch in the aftermath of the kiss, Mr. Pinkley smiling widely with his arm around her, seemingly at ease and in a good humor, while Cathy’s wide but downturned mouth and worried eyebrows indicate disgust and shame, a thought balloon rationalizing, “Maybe he was reaching for a pretzel and his mouth just hit my face by acci-dent.” Despite Cathy’s loquacious inner monologue represented in her thought balloons, this is a comic in which no words are verbal-ized by the characters, only thoughts emanating from Cathy, and the only actual noise coming from the kiss. Cathy says nothing, nor does Mr. Pinkley. The entire encounter plays out quietly and devastat-ingly, with Cathy making excuses for her boss and trying to rational-ize his behavior.
In the strip from October 29, (see figure 1.8), Cathy stands up and confronts her boss, “Mr. Pinkley, you kissed me! You said you came here to talk business!” Pinkley responds by leaping off the couch, arms outstretched, shouting, “Yahoo! Let’s get down to business!!”
In the third frame, Cathy punches Mr. Pinkley in the nose, with the loud and humorous textual onomatopoeia “BONK!” hanging in the air, undermining the drama and turning an act of self-defense into an amusing moment. In the final panel, Mr. Pinkley is laid out on the ground in front of Cathy, as she asks, “So . . . What did you think of my work on the Baker project?” This daily strip represents yet another remarkable moment for the series; when Cathy tries to call
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out her superior on his claims of furthering a work conversation, Mr.
Pinkley engages in wordplay, calling on the double meaning of get-ting down to “business.” A physical retaliation in this scene seems the only response, after which Cathy, rising above her passed-out boss, finally, and sadly, returns the conversation to work. This strip is sig-nificant for its physical humor. Cathy is not an action strip and usu-ally doesn’t rely on slapstick shenanigans. However, on this day and in this encounter, an attempted assault is met with a fist, as it almost appears that Mr. Pinkley runs into Cathy’s punch. Sexual assault rep-resents an incredibly frightening and dramatic moment, but here it is played for laughs. While some might criticize this choice, it is notable that Cathy emerges as the survivor, the victor in the scene, while her boss is vanquished and unconscious on the ground as she literally rises above his attack.
On subsequent days, Cathy tries to rouse Mr. Pinkley and is delighted when the doorbell rings, thinking help has arrived, only to be shocked to realize it is only trick-or-treaters. Cathy telephones Mrs. Pinkley and explains that she has punched her husband and he is unconscious, but Mrs. Pinkley does not hear Cathy, instead
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FIGURE 1.7. Cathy Guisewite. Cathy. October 28, 1980.
FIGURE 1.8. Cathy Guisewite. Cathy. October 29, 1980.
tinuing a monologue about redecorating, suggesting a willful resis-tance and lack of support from a female who stands to gain more by supporting her husband and the patriarchal system than by helping another woman. Once again, the storyline is interrupted by a super-ficial Sunday strip in which Cathy gives Irving a tour of her office, but the story arc returns on November 3, when Cathy worries she’ll be fired for punching her boss, but also wonders whether “he’ll respect me for rejecting his advances! Maybe I finally knocked some sense into him! Maybe he’ll rediscover love with Mrs. Pinkley and I’ll be made president of the company.” But in the final panel Cathy doubts this fanciful monologue, stating, “Maybe chocolate fudge brownies don’t make your face break out.” This sequence outlines the best possible scenario, which Cathy knows will not happen, and recalls Cathy’s frequent obsession with fattening snack foods and her appearance, all within the context of a sexual assault.
Mr. Pinkley finally awakens on November 4 and is immediately frantic that he is late for work. Clearly his concern is for his profes-sional life, and he registers no dismay or shame at his situation or his actions. When Cathy confronts him, angrily calling out to a rap-idly departing Pinkley, “Shouldn’t you say something besides, ‘I’m late for work’?,” Mr. Pinkley responds, “Of course . . . What was I thinking? You’re late for work.” And, in that moment, Mr. Pinkley upends Cathy’s previous position as a strong female fighting back against assault and reasserts himself as the dominant male power, the superior figure in the professional relationship with the power to fire her and to silence her for his attack. Cathy is once again his inferior in work and in life.
Initially it is Mr. Pinkley who controls the narrative surrounding the attack, for when Cathy arrives back at work on November 5, 1980, she is met with whispers from her coworkers. Again, she attempts to confront Pinkley, not about his misconduct, but this time about the office gossip, asking, “Mr. Pinkley, did you say something to the peo-ple in our office?,” to which he replies, “Oh, I may have mentioned to Charlene that I spent the night at your place.” Cathy must wait until November 6 to respond, arguing, “Mr. Pinkley, first you talked your way into my apartment. . . . Then you put the moves on me. . . . Now you’re punishing me for rejecting you by spreading stories around the office that aren’t true. I won’t take this, Mr. Pinkley.” Her boss ignores Cathy’s outrage, wondering, “Say, Cathy, did I leave my sportcoat at your place?” As Cathy replies in the affirmative, a female figure is seen lurking in the background, before running off to
announce another juicy piece of gossip to the staff, as Cathy laments,
“The hotline always listens to the wrong parts of the speech.” Thus, while Cathy tries to confront Mr. Pinkley about his behavior, particu-larly his efforts to spread false, malicious, and damaging gossip, her boss is nonplussed and her coworkers, instead of supporting Cathy, continue to slander their colleague.
Cathy turns to her feminist friend Andrea for guidance and sup-port on November 7, but after explaining the predicament to Andrea, Cathy’s mother arrives, at which point she clams up, saying “noth-ing” is new. Is Cathy ashamed of what happened? Or does she view her mother as a part of another generation unable to process such a situation? The answer is unclear, but the issue is never revisited with her family. On November 8, Cathy’s mother has disappeared (see figure 1.9), and Andrea counsels her friend, arguing, “Cathy, do you realize that sexual harassment is power play of the worst kind. . . . Do you think it’s right that millions of women suffer because they’re too afraid for their jobs to take a stand against it??” Cathy agrees with her friend, but when Andrea asks, “Then what are you going to do about Mr. Pinkley??” Cathy responds, “I’ll show him! I’ll quit my job!!” In the final panel Andrea throws up her arms and runs around screaming, “AAAA! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!” but Cathy is flum-moxed, reflecting, “I do better on the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions.” Here is an example when one hopes that the reader is able to, as Soper notes of Doonesbury, “spot the lessons that need to be learned.” Cathy, per-haps mirroring the panic and confusion of many women in such a situation, wants to leave her job, but Andrea acts as the voice of rea-son, arguing that Cathy must make a stand.
After a brief digression for yet another unrelated Sunday comic in which Cathy tries to take the perfect autumn picture of Irving, the harassment story arc comes to a close on November 10 and 11,
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FIGURE 1.9. Cathy Guisewite. Cathy. November 8, 1980.
1980. In the November 10 strip, Andrea is once again pictured in the confines of Cathy’s apartment, sitting on the very same couch where the attack occurred, advising her friend, “Quitting your job because of sexual harassment is the worst thing you could do, Cathy! Don’t you read any of these women’s magazines you get??” When Cathy responds in the affirmative, Andrea demands, “Well, what is the one thing that every one of these magazines tells you do do??!” Cathy hands Andrea a magazine and retorts, “Go buy a sweater dress.” It would seem that either Cathy and Andrea are reading very different women’s magazines (one might imagine Ms. versus Cosmopolitan), or that these publications are not, in fact, offering concrete, practi-cal advice for women faced with real-world issues such as harass-ment, but rather fashion tips and style advice. Regardless, Cathy’s comment suggests that, by and large, society is silent on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace and does not issue any sort of useful information for women when faced with an assault from a coworker or boss, preferring to focus on less contentious topics such as sartorial choices.
In the conclusion to the storyline on November 11, Cathy and Andrea are depicted having a conversation in a restaurant, as evi-denced by the two women seated side-by-side at a table covered with a checkered cloth, eating bowls of what appears to be salad (see fig-ure 1.10). Cathy, now smiling, gestfig-ures with her hands and asserts,
“I told Charlene exactly what happened with Mr. Pinkley and she spread the news around the office like wildfire. I don’t think we’ll ever have that kind of problem again! I really learned a lot from all of this, Andrea.” Andrea suggests, “Life is easier if you tackle your problems head on,” but Cathy explains, “Life is easier if you have the receptionist on your side.” The first three panels of the strip focus on various shots of the two women sitting side-by-side facing the reader.
This positionality feels forced for the focalizer’s pleasure in viewing the women straight-on, as a real-world situation would dictate the pair face one another. The arrangement is awkward, as is the con-versation. The final panel closes in on a tight shot of Cathy alone, her fork raised and her face, eyes, and eyebrows raised in a quavering smile, indicating that though she’s pleased with the outcome, she is also uneasy. Cathy’s hard-won lesson forces her to go through back-channels to subvert her boss’s narrative, and the ultimate outcome is not a reckoning for her attacker, but rather a murmured sharing
of her counter account through the gossip network. She has learned not to be decisive and confront sexual assault directly, but rather, to outwardly pretend that nothing has happened, not challenging her boss and reporting the abuse to the authorities or the higher admin-istration in her workplace. Instead, Cathy’s found that her best way forward is to rely on the women behind the scenes to share her story, and hopefully, protect themselves.
However, the result of Cathy’s behind-the-scenes campaign rep-resents an interesting shift; for the bulk of the story arc, Mr. Pinkley was in control of the situation and the narrative by virtue of his power and position, but ultimately Cathy is able to reach out to a sisterhood and reclaim control of the story and its perception with the help of receptionist Charlene. Once Charlene disrupts Pinkley’s narrative, Cathy feels confident the problem has been resolved and praises her coworker for saving her from humiliation. But has anything really changed? Again, Cathy chooses to go through an informal “whisper network” rather than filing a grievance through established channels of the organization, and Mr. Pinkley suffers no consequences for his action. This is, of course, in addition to the intimidation and fear Cathy would have to suffer, both for her position and her person, if she chose to keep working with Pinkley.
Yet, strangely enough, on the next day, November 12, the storyline is forgotten and in the daily strip Cathy details her new diet, com-pletely forgetting about the assault. The storyline is dropped. There are no repercussions for Mr. Pinkley, and he remains her boss for the remainder of the run of the strip, except when Cathy is laid off.
He even appears as one of the beaming characters featured on the masthead of the final strip in 2010. In a 2010 interview, Tom Heintjes asked Guisewite about the story arc, and she responded:
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FIGURE 1.10. Cathy Guisewite. Cathy. November 11, 1980.
Yeah, at that time, that was a specific thing of wanting to have Cathy go through what I was starting to hear about in the workplace. It’s hard to believe now, but everything was new about the concept of women in the workplace. Many women were treated poorly, and sexual harassment was a big new topic. In that case, I was simply writing about what I was hearing, what was going on, not some-thing that was happening to me specifically. (“Cathy”)
This story arc is an important one in the history of the strip. While Cathy is largely remembered for Cathy’s focus on food, romance, and fashion, it also presented topical issues, and did so in a messy, complicated way. In this example of martyria, Cathy bears witness to
This story arc is an important one in the history of the strip. While Cathy is largely remembered for Cathy’s focus on food, romance, and fashion, it also presented topical issues, and did so in a messy, complicated way. In this example of martyria, Cathy bears witness to