From The Comics Journal 94, October 1984

On Beetle Bailey strips being dropped

[Mort] Walker himself said that the reason the strip was dropped for one day from the Sentinel, and the reason why the character of Miss Buxley has been receiving so much criticism is because of the influx of career women into high-level jobs on newspapers. "There are a lot of young women getting jobs on newspapers, and it's partly due to them that the editors are under pressure," Walker said. "There's what they call a 'heightened awareness' among women that I haven't achieved yet." Walker said he would employ his daughter as a barometer of current social tastes. "I'm going to have my daughter check out the strips before I send them in," he said. "She's a career woman in New York City, and she tells me she knows people of such heightened awareness." The 60-year-old Walker added that he resented having others tell him what was fit and proper for the public reading. "I don't know how people appoint themselves arbiters of taste," he said.

...

Walker's Ideas: Walker put forth some of his own ideas regarding Miss Buxley in his book ["Miss Buxley: Sexism in 'Beetle Bailey'?"]. 'A few readers suggested that my portrayal of the General condones a rape mentality," the book says. "I can't see how they can make that big a jump from an affectionate, appreciative attitude to a criminal activity. Would they consider giving a child a pat on the head as encouragement to child molestation? Does monogamy encourage polygamy? I think it's a big tempest in a teapot. They've taken a simple little comic strip designed to entertain readers and have read too much into it. I introduced Miss Buxley over 11 years ago. She was intended to be a one-time performer but people liked her and demanded more...In all this time I didn't receive a single complaint. Then last year (1981) the trouble started. It's probably symptomatic of the times. Women are making the great thrust for new status and they see threats behind every tree."

[I do not have the physical capacity to roll my eyes as far as these comments warrant]

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Trudeau's complaint: It turns out that Miss Buxley has been a real catalyst of outrage lately. Partly due to her depiction, and the attendant attitudes, Garry Trudeau quit the National Cartoonists Society. Trudeau is best known as the creator of Doonesbury, which will return to newspapers nationwide on Sept. 30 (see story elsewhere in "Newswatch"). Every April, the NCS holds a Reuben Award dinner, where they honor various practitioners of their craft. Accompanying the dinner is The Cartoonist, an NCS-published magazine. The theme of both the magazine and the dinner was a "salute" to women cartoonists. In The Cartoonist were two drawings that particularly raised Trudeau's ire. There was a picture of a nude Miss Buxley, and a picture of a nude "Fat Broad" character, from Johnny Hart's B.C. In response to the pictures in that magazine, Trudeau wrote a letter to the NCS on April 26th. "I'm sure that Mort thought that his drawing of Miss Buxley was all in good fun, but simply because a large part of his audience applauds his leering portrayal of Buxley doesn't make it any less reprehensible," the letter said. "I don't mean to single Mort or Johnny out-I happen to enjoy their company-but I no longer feel I can remain a member of an organization which consistently condones this kind of puerile, patronizing attitude towards 'gals.' While publishing drawings of naked female cartoon characters may be the Society's idea of a 'salute' to women, it certainly isn't mine..." "With that letter, Trudeau resigned. The day after Trudeau's letter, the vice-president and editorial director of Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Doonesbury, wrote a letter to the NCS. Lee Salem said that their attitude was not "so much belittling as it was anachronistic," he said. "This particular meeting (of the NCS) was to honor women in cartooning, and that seemed to be an inappropriate way of doing it." Walker said he now feels contrite about his contribution to The Cartoonist, saying, "maybe it was an oversight in taste."