Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed for January 06, 2016

Kathy, Nancy, Mary Worth, Miss Buxley, …..

Hmmm…maybe she’s Cathy. ?

Even SOCKS turned out to be male.

Well, now we have Marigold Heavenly Nostrils in Phoebe and Her Unicorn, but you have to admit this lady has a point.

Did she say “Animal Toons” so I would go with Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck at a minimum…

Anonymous submission to Ann Landers: Accept the fact that the woman will always have the last word in any argument. Anything said after that is the beginning of a new argument.

You’re new to this strip, aren’t you, Miss?

But Bugs wasn’t above a bit of cross-dressing.

Has everyone forgotten Jessica Rabbit?

I think you could say Rosebud wasn’t put in purely as a love interest. The affair with Hodge-Podge notwithstanding.

Kanga on Whinnie the Pooh. A mom with no love interest.

The leading lady of early cartoons was Betty Boop. She isn’t shown any more because her material was between “mature subject matter” and “offensive”. The guys were just background unlike Olive Oyl, Popeye, and Bluto.

And the last panel answers the rest of the strip quite clearly.

Minnie Mouse, since 1928.

Rosebud in this cartoon [she was even pregnant], and Daisy the dog in Blondie [she’s been around forever]

Tweety’s sex is undetermined as well as the Roadrunner

Typical “pick-and-choose, can’t lose” argument.No rebuttal can win, either; doesn’t matter….

Lady & the Tramp, he was the love interest.

Dot, Betty Boop (started life as a dog)

No one mentioned Olive Oyl.

Her argument was “principal” animal ’toon stars—the ones who get top billing, like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse—were always male.

Betty Boop was drawn as a dog early on before Max Fleischer “humanized” her, so I guess she wouldn’t count.

Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Petunia Pig, Olive Oyl, and others were the “love interests” or female counterparts to their males, but ChukLtl did mention “Lady and the Tramp,” and she was the leading character.

Or how about Amalthea from "The Last Unicorn?Mrs. Brisby from “The Secret of NIMH?”Duchess from “The Aristocats?”Miss Bianca from “The Rescuers” and “The Rescuers Down Under?”

Little Orphan Annie? Cathy? Brenda Starr? Still true that male characters seem to dominate. Perhaps they are safer comic targets to avoid sexism protests.

Reminds me of that recurring bit on the Man Show titled “You Can’t Win!” where Jimmy would get into an argument with his (now former) wife that he simply could not win.

“Little Orphan Annie? Cathy? Brenda Starr?”… Women, yes. Toons, no.The point of the strip is “Animal Toon stars are always male”. The exceptions have to be female AND animals.