PMS Cartoon Insensitive and Sexist

I have been meaning to write for a few months now to complain about the offensive brand of humor relied upon by one of your cartoonists, Sebastian Conley. Imagine my surprise when I opened The Crimson (April 30) and was greeted with a "political cartoon" by Mr. Conley that actually contained a premenstrual-syndrome joke. Until now, I had been hesitant to write and complain about Mr. Conley, knowing how kindly this community is to feminists who complain about sexist jokes (Q: How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: That's not funny.)

But this last cartoon has helped me to crystallize my complaints about Mr. Conley. I would like to combine my complaint about his ridiculous and blatant sexism with a complaint about the extraordinary stupidity, banality and general unfunninness of his jokes.

Now, unfunniness alone does not offend me, nor do poor drawing skills. In the past, I have been known to read both Dim Wits and Jody without a word of complaint. But when a generally poor quality of cartoon is combined with one infantile poke at women after another, then I begin to feel that something should be said.

The first of the offensive jokes in "Seth Lives" to leap to mind is the series where Seth enrolled in a drawing class against his will, only to be pleasantly surprised when a buxom model walked in and began performing a strip tease for the class. The series' climax consisted of a really ugly fat man coming in the next day...instead of the pretty naked woman from the day before!! It should be said that anyone who has ever taken a drawing class--one that wasn't hijacked from a beer commercial--would know that a model never comes in fully clothed only to sensually remove each article of clothing. This is the sort of scenario a 12-year-old (boy) masturbates to. I shouldn't be expected to witness something like that first thing in the morning.

Then there was Seth's infamous trip to Yale. You know how Mr. Conley signalled Yale's inferiority? The girls at Yale are really really ugly!! So ugly they look like men!! Boy, that wacky Seth! This cartoon clearly implied that women are not students at a school but rather that they are there to provide some kind of scenery for the real students, the men. Suffice it to say that ugly women jokes, naked women jokes and PMS jokes are not really the level of humor I want to be regaled with each and every day.

With all due respect to the first amendment and all that stuff, could you please consider axing this annoying cartoon? I am not just asking this as retribution for Mr. Conley's offensive attitudes but also for the poor execution with which he presents those attitudes. Thank you. I feel much better now. It must have been about with PMS.

Lisi Schoenbach '93