Loosely translated, “to sally forth” means “to head out”:
from www.merriamwebster.com:
Main Entry: 1 sal·ly
1 : an action of rushing or bursting forth; especially : a sortie of troops from a defensive position to attack the enemy
Main Entry: 1forth
**1 : onward in time, place, or order **
(both are archaic terms)
Aha. Now I’m on the trolley.
Sorry, Beeblebrox, I didn’t read Lamia’s post closely enough*. I thought she was just pointing out that women suffer from these kinds of stereotypes as well. I didn’t mean to imply that Incubus was in the wrong, just that these commercials are just as offensive to me, as a woman.
*I obvously need a visit from the reading comprehension fairy today, especially considering her post was only two lines, sheesh.
You seem to have missed Lamia’s point. To wit: Incubus complains of the anti-male stereotype in his example without even realizing that it also includes a stereotype of the feminine gender role. The offensiveness of the ads are not restricted to the male as bumbling fool stereotype but that they reinforce restrictive gender stereotypes for both genders.
All I see in incubus’ post is a comment about the portrayal of men in commercials, albiet by comparison to women. He is not supporting the female stereotype, but rather decrying the male stereotype. Surely such a statement does not of itself imply sexism, does it?
Sorry, beagle, I don’t want this thing to derail, but Homebrew addressed me directly, so I feel I must reply.
I don’t believe I missed her point at all. Perhaps you did. I just don’t see how this:
follows from this:
Right there he says that the sexism Lamia implied is unnacceptable, yet she accuses him of condoning it.
Ditto to what MLC said about the alternatives. Lamia is using the excluded middle argument and insulting Incubus in doing so.
Erm, that was perhaps phrased badly. Please replace “Ditto to what MLC” said with “Amen to what MLC said”
I read a few weeks worth of the strip and can now give it my semi professional critique…
It sucks some serious ass. The whole “men are dumb” schtick is old and lame and should just be put down.
Sam Waterson… we need you man.
For instance, my wife absolutely will not go to the doctor unless I insist she go. I guess she thinks it’s a sign of weakness.
It’s not based in any gender-specific reality at all. It’s just the latest fashion; sometimes you can make fun of women, sometimes men. The current fashion is Idiot Man-Husband vs. Mature But Strident Martinet. In any number of shows/comics/movies, the man is a man-child, easily distracted by sex and toys, incapable of exercising responsibility, but generally friendly. The woman is comparably responsible and mature, but lacks joy. At the end of the show, the man learns a lesson about responsibility and the woman learns a lesson about being relaxed and balanced. This was played out on every episode of “home Improvement,” and is played out today in most episodes of “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Fifty years ago it was the exact opposite; the woman was a ditz, the man a wise figure of respect. Gracie Allen, for instance, was uberditz. Lucy Ricardo was about two blows to the head from being mentally retarded.
Right on. These days it seems that lots of men make their first trip to the doctor’s office in several years so they can get a prescription for Viagra. Which is a good thing, a doc who is on the ball will encourage the patient to stay for a complete checkup.
Regarding the OP: that wasn’t a very good strip to use as an example. That particular man is the typical Dilbert-inspired dimwitted boss.
I love to rag on Sally Forth for a number of reasons. First, even though it’s more feminine than the Lifetime channel, it was originally created and drawn by a man. A man who happened to be quite a shitty artist. Later, he hired some other dude to draw it for him, and while that guy is slightly better, he still kind of sucks, too. Creator Greg Howard quit five years ago, and the strip is now written by someone else.
It’s the transvestite orphan stepchild of the funny pages.
And while we’re at it, would you like to see my Cathy impression?
Panel 1:
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Panels 2-8:
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Panel 9:
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Panel 10:
Stress. Chocolate. Wide hips. HAHAHAHAHA!
Whenever I go into classmates.com for other schools (looking for friends) I always use the name **Sally Forth ** .
Heh.
And here I thought this thread was about me. 
Time to go to my other alter-alter ego: Melanie Asshat
Sofa, I think you’re short an “Ack!” or two.
Wow, I never knew I’d be the element of such a heated discussion!
What I was trying to say is that if they reversed the roles, they probably couldn’t get away with it because people seem to get more incensed when women are victims of sexism than when men are, when I see sexism bad for *both[\i] sexes.
Say they had a commercial for an automotive product like wiper blades or transmission fluid and the wife uses the ‘other’ brand while the husband uses the ‘advertised’ brand, only to have the wife’s car break down and her admit that he knew more about it than she did. It would never get on the air. Why should we have to reinforce stereotypes to sell a product?
And WHAT IS SO SEXY ABOUT MR CLEAN? You see the way that woman was looking at him? I think he’s scary. Whether I was a man or a woman I would find an animated bald muscular man with bushy eyebrows and a mop hovering over me terribly intimidating 
Bwahaha! Please tell me you meant Bill Watterson?! The idea of a comic strip by ADA Jack McCoy is just too painful to contemplate. But Sam Waterston does look like a comic strip with those beady eyes and huge eyebrows.
Thanks for the laugh as I leave work. I needed that. Not as funny as flatulance but funny nonetheless.
Yeah- you NEVER saw Ralph Kramden, Maynard G. Krebs or Chester A. Riley doing anything silly. Men were DIGNIFIED in TV sitcoms of the 50s.
I mean, Alice Kramden was ALWAYS getting into trouble because she didn’t follow the sensible advice of her logical hubby Ralph.
I think you’re missing the bigger picture. ALL comic strips suck during the week. The weekend editions are the only editions that comic authors actually TRY to make funny. The rest of the time is either stupid moral lessons or inane mini-plots. This isn’t just Sally Forth, it’s tons of strips(including my favorite syndicated strip, Dilbert).
Somehow web comics don’t seem to suffer from this, probably because their readership doesn’t spike like mad on the weekends versus weekdays. A skirmish in the war of the sexes is fill-in material so the author doesn’t have to stress their creative juices during the week and end up with a mediocre weekend strip.
Pathetic, but there you have it.
Enjoy,
Steven
OMG so did I.
For real.
Anyway, I agree that this week’s strip has been offensive, (noticed that Wed when I read the paper during lunch) but I’m one of those anti-male-bashing chicks anyway.
however, I’d take it with a grain of salt.
That strip sucks all the time, not just this week.
Feynn (aka Superdad) is staying home today, minding the house and the kids… one of them has the flu, the heir and the spare are trying to murder each other, the princess has been whining and crying about everything and our dog (Sam) won’t shut the fuck up.
I think you can forgive me for my stress induced errors…