She writes on the impending retirement of Cathy Guiswite and notes that while Ms. Guiswite might be a bit of a feminist trailblazer, the character, a desperate woman obsessing about a husband and her thighs is not:
If “Cathy” has any feminist value, it can be subsumed under the maxim: “If you can’t be a good example, you can at least be a horrible warning.”
I would further note that Ms. Guiswite’s actual “feminist trailblazer” cred is pretty thin.
She is not the first female syndicated mass market cartoonist, that would have been Dale Messick, the creator of Brenda Starr.
Though to give Ms. Guiswite her due, she certainly was a trailblazer in coffee mugs, t-shirts, and other commercial knock-offs.