Ray Billingsley describes
himself as “trying to influence his young readers in positive
ways,” but I’m struggling to see how. By egregiously abusing the quotation
mark
to connote disapproval of such modern-day terms as “rap” and “knack,”
Billingsley perpetuates the misleadingly non-misleading use of
quotation marks on handpainted store signs (“Special Sale!”) that
should have died away with the invention of the italic and bold font
styles. But more to the point, Curtis is one scary future-wife-beating
misogynist:
Curtis’s visage in the last panel is downright “I’ll whoop yo’
ass bi@tch”
frightening. Now I know tomorrow’s episode will feature some kind of
ego-deflating comeback that will put Curtis back in his place, but
I’ve seen him do this to Michelle enough times to know that this
mad-eyed control freak is a repeat batterer. Makes you wonder if
Michelle is
the one with her head on straight for constantly spurning Curtis, while
plain ole Chutney’s crush on Curtis just shows that she’s got bad
taste in men…
Update: As per the usual
upshot in this supposedly family-values-oriented comic strip, Michelle
ended up giving Curtis a black eye. Childhood violence sure is funny,
isn’t i?
