What, then, should readers take away from the many days and many years of Cathy? While it is important to look closely at the many story arcs that developed over the years (many of which have been forgot-ten or are rarely discussed), it is also useful to study the strip’s begin-ning and ending. The comic strip first appeared on November 22, 1976, with a phone call, for the very first strip featured Cathy wait-ing, impatiently, for Irving to phone her (see figure 1.2). In the first panel, Cathy stands, arms folded, next to a simple side table, frown-ing. Her thought balloon indicates her thoughts: “Cathy, he’s hurt you too many times! Next time he calls, just bite your tongue and give him your answer!!” In the next frame the phone rings and qua-vering movement lines surrounding her as well as the wobbly lines comprising the body indicate Cathy’s overall instability once the long-awaited call has finally happened. Although she’s been wait-ing and preparwait-ing for it, the call has still managed to rattle her. In the final panel, Cathy grips the phone to her head with a wavering smile, her small tongue sticking out. A speech balloon indicates her answer, “Yeth!” In a bit of comical wordplay, Cathy has, in fact, bit-ten her tongue, but her playful smile and the jubilant tilt of her eyes
indicate that rather than remembering the ills and hurt he’s done to her as outlined in her pep-talk monologue of the previous panel, she chooses to quite literally bite her tongue and repress the past, and instead her response is an enthusiastic, though garbled, affirmation of “Yeth!”
It is, perhaps, fitting that many years later the final strip ends with another reference to Cathy’s relationship status and to another tele-phone, for the concluding strip of Cathy, published October 3, 2010, features Cathy’s revelation that, having finally married the caller from her first appearance, Irving, she is pregnant with a girl (see fig-ure 1.3). The strip differs from the first in that it is a Sunday, and thus is in color and enjoys a full nine panels and three rows, rather than the smaller daily format. The first two panels introduce the epony-mous title (as was traditional for the Sunday strips), encased in a purple heart, but they also present the full cast of important charac-ters from the run of the strip, all with heart symbols hovering above their heads in fluffy thought balloons. Cathy’s dog Electra holds a banner reading, “thank you,” while a box of tissues is positioned just to Cathy’s side, indicating love for the audience as well as the sad-ness of the final goodbye. In the third panel (and the first of the sec-ond row), Cathy and Irving are depicted entering into the home of Cathy’s parents, where Anne rushes to her daughter, quickly eclips-ing Cathy’s truncated statement, “Mom, I . . . I . . .” with a diatribe that continues for five panels:
Whatever it is, sweetie, Dad and I are here for you! Unless we’re suffocating! Then we’ll stand over there! Or Dad could stand there and I could stand here! Or we could hop around trading places! Or
<INSERT FIGURE 1.2>
FIGURE 1.2. Cathy Guisewite. Cathy. November 22, 1976.
. . . What am I saying?? You don’t need us to fix anything! You’re an incredible woman from an incredible time for women! Your genera-tion opened doors, demanded chances, raised expectagenera-tions, trans-formed society and exceeded the dreams of every generation before you! You have to know anything’s possible!
During this dialogue, Bill Andrews gently ushers Irving off to the side and out of the panel, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh panels show only Cathy and her mother. The central relationship of mother and daughter occupies the bulk of the strip in word and image, with Anne stressing both her support and her pride in her daughter and in all women of her generation, recalling the earliest discussions of Women’s Lib as presented in the strip and recognizing the long jour-ney that Cathy, as symbolic of a generation of women following the advent of Women’s Liberation, has experienced. Anne shouts her approval and joy in her daughter and the accomplishments of her generation, while indicating that despite her desire to support her child, she realizes her daughter doesn’t need her. The eighth panel, placed in the third row and almost centered, features Cathy alone, her face and torso visible and surrounded by an actual frame, which borders the bottom of her face and her stomach, emphasiz-ing the upcomemphasiz-ing revelation of the next generation of women. Cathy states, “I do know anything’s possible, Mom.” In the ninth and final frame Cathy, patting her stomach, declares, “There’s going to be another girl in the world.” In this definitive panel, all four of the pri-mary characters are featured, with the baby encased in Cathy’s stom-ach thinking trademark statement, “aack,” written in pink letters and emerging from yet another swirling thought balloon drifting away from Cathy’s abdomen.
At this point Anne has fallen to her knees, her arms and face lifted skyward in joy and supplication, as she exclaims, “I’m going to be a Grandma??!” in a speech balloon surrounded by hearts. Off to the side, their figures appropriately framed by the couch they both fre-quent regularly as supporting characters with relatively little to do, the two men converse. Bill pats Irving, encouraging him to “Buckle up, son,” while Irving holds his phone to his father-in-law, asking,
“Want to see the ultrasound on my Iphone?” A simple, awkward side table, reminiscent of the table from that first strip in 1976, divides the panel and the men and women, but this time the phone is held not by Cathy, waiting for a call from a man, but by the man himself,
demon-<INSERT FIGURE 1.3>
strating that now, the woman is not waiting but moving ahead, while the man documents the proof of her creative power.
Cathy, as evidenced by her position in the doorway, has finally crossed the threshold and arrived, fulfilled in her relationship and ready to take on the role of mother, which Anne bequeathed to her daughter. The strip comes to a close with the finality of Cathy’s “hap-pily ever after,” as demonstrated by her marriage and new baby.
Notably, it is not independence or a new promotion that signals a happy end, or even a reference to balancing work and family, but rather wedlock and motherhood coming full circle with the love of new parents and grandparents. Does this conclusion signal what the many critics argue—that Cathy bolsters stereotypes for women, positing that happiness resides in domestic bliss rather than profes-sional success? The choice to end the strip with Cathy finally mar-ried and on the verge of motherhood is significant, but the power of Anne’s speech regarding the accomplishments of women should not be diminished.
As Guisewite has suggested, Cathy was a product of the times, an ordinary woman experiencing an extraordinary historical moment;
she was a comforting, reassuring character living through a period of tremendous change, rather than an aspirational figure to emulate.
Cathy represents a friend one might share dating nightmares with, a confidante who will keep secrets. It is through the many strips over many years and days that one can read a narrative of this one (fic-tionalized) woman’s experience of the Women’s Liberation move-ment and the years that followed. And once more, it is notable that
FIGURE 1.3. Cathy Guisewite. Cathy. October 3, 2010.
Cathy’s experience of feminism reflects that of the white, educated, middle-class woman and does not engage with intersectional identi-ties or concerns.
In her book When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, writer Gail Collins explained of the 1970s and 1980s:
American women were about to experience an extraordinary period of change that would undo virtually every assumption about the natural limitations of their sex. It was going to be a profound jour-ney of many parts—terrifying and exhilarating, silly and profound, a path to half-realized dreams, unexpected disappointments, and unimaginable opportunities. (182)
Furthermore, according to Collins, one can “look back on a decade as fraught with change as the 1970s, and you can pick your own vision. Best of times or worse of times. Women who wanted to work often found it easier to get a job than men did, but the jobs they found still tended to pay much less” (259). In The Feminist Promise:
1792 to the Present, Christine Stansell notes of the Women’s Libera-tion movement of the 1970s, “Feminism is an argument, not received truth; it is an entrée into a fuller engagement with America and the world, not an exit visa out of a male-dominated society into utopia.
It cannot end all the afflictions that women suffer, nor find a rem-edy for all the problems that arise between women and men” (xix).
Through its daily frames, Cathy provides a window into one wom-an’s struggle to make sense of this moment and this movement in her daily life. In Reflections: A Fifteenth Anniversary Collection, Guise-wite maintains:
A lot of us found ourselves floundering between two ideals—the
“liberated woman” and the “traditional woman”—with absolutely no idea how to integrate the two. These were exhilarating, but try-ing, times for middle America. So much of what is taken for granted today was brand new to many of us then, and the role models were all such extremes. You could either be a “women’s libber” or be “just like your mother.” There was a support group for everything but the middle ground; those lost souls who, like me, were in complete agreement with both sides of the argument at once. (45)
Cathy offers a vision of the “support group,” defined as she is by her challenge to make sense of herself and this new realm of possibility, navigating traditional notions of normative gendered behavior and roles. She exists in this liminal, in-between space, buffeting between what she interprets as two, divided ends of a single spectrum. These opposing poles of “women’s libber” and “just like your mother” are represented as characters in the strip, although this, too, is a simplifi-cation that requires additional exploration. Anne embodies the tradi-tional female role of wife and mother, while Andrea symbolizes the new, “liberated” woman, although even these strict binaries begin to break down upon more rigorous inspection.