Judged on Looks
Janet Kuypers
11/13/19, written on
Sadie Hawkins Day
I’ve vaguely heard of this holiday before,
maybe in high school, where the premise
was that women asked men to dances —
because, you know, this was a ludicrous
idea, the men were the ones who were
supposed to be asking the women out.
And back in high school, I went so far as
to ask a male friend of mine to go to Prom;
we were just friends, I wasn’t going to
have a “boyfriend” date, and I thought
this friend would be the most fun to hang
with in this ritualistic high school “holiday.”
But I just read that the origins of this holiday
were from Al Capp’s comic strip Li’l Abner,
where Sadie Hawkins was actually homely
and no one wanted to be near her —
so her father had all the single men run
out of town, and the only one she “caught”
would be forced to marry her. Now, this
popular section of a comic strip incited
future Sadie Hawkins dances, where women
were the ones who could ask men to dance.
And yes, looking back, it may seem ludicrous,
and we women may feel we have power now,
but in the same breath, it’s also funny
that a silly story in a comic strip may
have helped to incite change for women.
All because a comic book woman was ugly
and wasn’t married by the time she was 35.
Sorry that we’re still so judged on looks,
woman, so let’s just keep working past sexism,
in that uphill battle in this patriarchal society —
even when an old comic strip’s a stepping stone.
| 
