Comic strip out of bounds

I generally think highly of The Spokesman-Review, but I am astonished that your features editor would print the perverse and misogynistic “For Better or For Worse” cartoon featuring two young boys peeping into their friend’s sister’s bedroom window.

In a world where simply being female puts girls at phenomenal risk of sexual assault, surely there is nothing cute or heartwarming about the violation of a young girl’s intimate moments by two “innocent” boys.

In a world full of male violence, it’s sobering that anybody would enjoy a chuckle over this. Not only does it reinforce the dreadful way society raises and teaches boys and young men, but it makes the violation of a girl’s privacy a funny thing over which we can all share a laugh before we head to the office. Normalizing misogyny is actually not at all comic, however.

I find “For Better or For Worse” to be painfully trite and generally pointless, but this panel reinforces dangerous ideas about boys, girls, women and men and the sexual violence regularly visited on those who once were little girls playing, dressing or sleeping in their own bedrooms.

The S-R can and must do better.

Keely Emerine-Mix

Moscow