Cancelling Calvin

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Everyone’s favorite comic strip, Calvin & Hobbes, ended on December 31, 1995. That was over a quarter of a century ago. I was thumbing through an old collection of those strips the other day, and it occurred to me how, in this day and age, the strip would get nuked for being so un-woke. At the risk of this being misused, consider this:

  • The family is a heteronormative, intact group of a husband, wife, and child;
  • There isn’t a single character in the entire series that isn’t white (with the notable exception of Hobbes, who is orange, black, and white);
  • There are no disabled (differently-abled?) characters;
  • There are no nonbinary-gendered characters;
  • Calvin’s father works, and his mother stays at home;
  • In the few instances that Calvin plays with Susie, she prefers to do things like have tea parties and dress their stuffed animals;
  • The only organization referenced in the strip (G.R.O.S.S.) is specifically misogynistic;
  • Almost all of Calvin’s fantasies contain toxic masculinity, as they are infused with violence.

I thought of all those without even trying; you could probably add plenty more. Let’s just be glad the comic managed to survive back in its days! And here, incidentally, is when they made their final escape: