Jamie Loftus's multi-part podcast defense and historical analysis of the comic strip "Cathy" [Something Interesting #74]

Someone on a thread somewhere several days ago was talking about the comic strip Cathy and mentioned how it was unfairly maligned. Someone else then brought up a podcast series from 2021 called The Aack Cast by the (always weird and funny) comedian Jamie Loftus that does a deep-dive analysis on this very subject. And you know what? I'm only half-way through it but I can totally understand why Cathy resonated with its fans from my Mom's era despite the strip being treated like a cruel punchline of its own the whole time by both misogynists and feminists, especially in relation to its stauts as an off-beat cultural artifact of American feminism from the 1970s to 2000s.

I think the whole thing should be listened to (it's divided into eight "Ackts" but some of them span 2-episode blocks (Ackts 2, 4, and 6 specifically)) so I'm posting all of the episodes here along with some other contextual Wikipedia entries and articles, plus some videos about those "lost" animated specials at the very end.

A picture of Cathy creator Cathy Guiswaite in 1982

(taken from this Reddit thread - I don't know who owns the copyright, unfortunately...)

Further Context & Content

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvtCqsvAfLQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN2e208UnEA