Monday, July 25, 2005

It seems like ages since I posted about comic strips -- one of the windows into the soul of culture -- but Chip flagged a strip that's worth a second look. Last week (and apparently into this week), For Better or For Worse has been dealing with the case of Anthony and Therese, a career woman and work-at-home dad. Here are links to the pertinent strips:

Friday
Saturday
Monday

Chip wondered if the strips were dissing the at-home father, and I feel pretty comfortable saying that they're harmless in that respect, and show a dad who seems fairly happy with the whole kid thing. Plus, it's the first at-home dad I've ever seen on the mainstream comics page. (A couple of years ago, I held out hope that Mike Patterson -- one of the actual main characters in FWOFW -- would go the at-home dad route after he lost his job, but no dice.)

It's on the flip side of the arrangement that the diss creeps in. Anthony and Therese obviously have a marriage on the rocks, and her career focus is the reason. That's fair enough, I suppose, for a strip that now goes from drama as often as laughs, but there's still something unfortunate about seeing the mom-at-work/dad-at-home dynamic held up as a marriage killer.

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