Here's an old strip from 2001. I received an irate letter over this strip. One letter from one disgruntled reader is not a big deal but it never fails to surprise me what people find offensive.
The offense here has to do with the subtitle, "Spot the Working Mother". The unhappy reader felt this strip implied that women who do not work outside the home do not "work". She was not happy with me. She let me know that women who don't work outside the home happen to work very hard, thank you very much. They pitch in at school with baking and school trips and functions that women who work outside the home aren't able to do. And they yada, yada this and they yada, yada that. I was belittling all women who didn't work outside the home. All. Of. Them.
And she will never read my strip again.
Wow. Is that what I said? Is that what I did?
Sigh.
I didn't write back to her. Sometimes it's best not to answer some letters. If she felt I was dissing stay-at-home moms in the above strip, I'm not so sure I could have written an eloquently-phrased letter that would have changed her mind.
And there's one other thing . . . I've come to realize that when people over-react to something (and I believe this woman's letter was an over-reaction ) it's because they're really reacting to something else that is happening or has happened in their lives.
It's not impossible that this woman just had an argument with her husband or children about him/them not helping out more at home because she doesn't work. Or maybe she was roped into helping out with one more school function than she could actually manage because she doesn't work.
I could see how her perception of the above strip would be influenced in either case.
So, even though I get exasperated by the demands of "political correctness", I know I just have to stand back and take a deep breath and move on.
"You can please some of the people some of the time . . ."
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