Xpost from GD: Beetle Bailey's tribute to a classic photo (not to the Bomb)

[UTUSN]

On Edit: O.K., I'll be back when I find a legal URL (later: O.K., found one). & sorry my homemade enlargement is blurry (any fixes?).

[Brickbat]

1. Ick.

I can't stand Beetle Bailey, and I can't stand that photo.

<-- hater

[UTUSN]

2. Yeah, I knew there would be sentiments along those lines. I just know that when

we ever are OUT of the current Shrub wars, I will be feeling like kissing some people.

Not clear to me: You ate the 1945 picture?!1 I can understand the revulsion to the Bomb and to Beetle Bailey's / military chauvinist etc. attitudes that are OF THEIR TIME, but the picture of the sailor/nurse? Surely, the JOY that the damned WAR was OVER is a stand-alone!1


Oh, and the reason I tried it in the Lounge was from the artistic side of things, one artist/genre/form paying tribute to another one. Since there was NO discussion going on about it in GD, not even the flaming (not that I want THAT) or politics of it.

[Brickbat]

3. Come on over and plant one on me when these wars are over, babe!

As a photo, the sailor/nurse photo is amazing. It's perfectly composed, and captures a moment in a way very few news photos do. I don't disparage that at all.

But when I see it, her body language weirds me out, and his privilege (Eisenstaedt said the man was kissing every "female" he could get his hands on, young or old, pretty or plain, etc.) annoys me. I understand elation, but even the end of the war doesn't mean it's OK to just wander around grabbing people and kissing them just because you're a sailor.

And Miss Honey's body language in that last panel of Beetle Bailey is just horrid. Kick him in the groin, Miss Honey!

Sorry to rain on it. I usually do love artistic tributes and appearances of cartoon characters in other cartoons. I react to that V-J photo, though, whenever I see it.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. I love that photo. And I would be so happy if I had been there

when they declared the war over, that I would have been kissing everyone in sight too. And I am female. Not offended. I could use a huge hug and kiss occasionally, it would be nice.

[UTUSN]

5. It's a date!1 The 1000 pp contract of disclaimers is being FedExed!1

I fully understand your points about the unwillingness, the dude's claim to prerogatives, AND the years of criticism that the Beetle Bailey strip has reaped.

Here's what I posted to the similar criticism in GD:

Now, her body language (no reciprocal hug) plus the contrast between her perfect uniform (perfect, covering EVERYTHING, fastidious) vs the ruffian sailor's rolled up sleeves and pushed back cap (violations of uniform) --all indicate the difference between the two. Tipper looked the same way in Al's "kiss" in 2000.

As I say, the lady who prevailed over several others in claiming to be the original nurse in the pic seemed to bask in having become the inspiration for an iconic image, and just about the whole generation of that time found expression of their own feelings in that picture.

Surely, the simple JOY of the war's being over, APART from everything else, can stand on its own.

Not to mention the special angle of one artist in one genre paying tribute to another one in a different one.

I speak for ruffian sailors who never resorted to force, but were nevertheless ruffians.

[Brickbat]

6. Regarding the joy of the war being over, absolutely, the photo is an excellent SYMBOL of that.

It stands on its own as an encapsulation of that time and the feeling on that day. But I hate how a guy kissing whoever he wants and a woman closing her eyes and going along with it "because he fought for his country" (Edith Shain's words) is what becomes the symbol of joy.

Having dated a ruffian sailor back in the day, I look forward to your FedEx with great pleasure!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. My favorite homage to the VJ kiss...

(from The Watchmen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vCyqT5Oq3Y