Doonesbury


"Self Dating"

Back in July the news media reported on a study that showed masturbation lowered the risk of prostate cancer.

Doonesbury cartoonist G.B. Trudeau incorporated that tidbit of information in last week's Sunday cartoon.

It seems that 20 years after the AIDS epidemic began a lot of newspaper editors still have a problem printing the word masturbation. I read Doonesbury online and enjoyed the comic strip as it was intended. I was disappointed a few hours later when I noticed that the Windsor Star had run a different strip, apparently supplied by Trudeau in anticipation of the taboo generated by the "m-word."

Trudeau says he doesn't intend to make a habit of providing alternatives to controversy, but in this case it was necessary in order to publish the strip at all. The irony in all of this is that the strip was largely about the lingering needs of some to speak of sex in euphemism. At least Trudeau has given us a new expression to replace "self abuse."

See the AP wire story as posted by CBS news and Trudeau's own faq on the matter.


Posted: Sun - September 14, 2003 at 05:59 PM          

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