0 OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, March 20, 1984 The Michigan Dail The Cathy behind the Cathy -Guisewite's comic strip 'Cathy' - the story of an aspiring career woman-appears daily in over 400 newspapers nationwide. Daily editor Cheryl Baacke and Daily reporter Georgea Kovanis spoke with Guisewite, who is a 1972 University graduate, about her life and the comic strip during a women 's career conference in Detroit last week. Daily: How much of your personality is really Cathy? Guisewite: I probably am a com- bination of all the characters. There's a part of me that's a little stronger like Andrea... I can certainly see things from everybody's point of view. Cathy tends to be my emotional reactions to things. Andrea's the voice I hear when I'm giving my speech in the living room Dialogue about what I'm going to say to my date and Cathy is the words that actually come out of my mouth when he gets there. Daily: How do you deal with your problems? Is chocolate and food really the best way? Guisewite: The only time now that I really overeat that much is when I'm really up against a writing deadline for the strip. And I just give myself per- mission to go for it. I figure anything that will get the strip done is worth it. It's definitely not the best thing to turn to but it's what I have done. I did it a lot more when I was in college. I ate my way through the University. I worked at Drake's which was the worst job I. could possible have. Whenever I made a hot cinnamon role or a hot pecan role for somebody, I would make two. Anytime there was an order, I would make two and eat one myself. Daily: Do you get any kind of per- sonal benefit out of doing this strip? Do you feel like it gets out a lot of what you have inside you? Guisewhite: I'm not ordinarily very outgoing and I think I turned to writing in the first place because, like lots of writers who aren't vocal, I can express a lot of the things in the strip. Anytime I have a real crisis about something or just a confusion about something, the best way for me to work it out or try to get some perspective on it, is to do a strip, even if they're not due. (The strip) really forces me to try and look at a situation in a different way and try to find some sense of humor about it. Daily: Why do you think 'Cathy' has such broad-based appeal and why do you think people identify with someone who's constantly struggling to get things right? Guisewite: I think people like the strip because it's just a relief to see someone else struggling with the same types of problems and isn't succeeding every second. It makes you feel good to see somebody else who's trying and maybe doing worse than you are but is still hopeful that tomorrow she's going to get organized, get on top of everything, cooperate, and lose weight-ten, pounds by that night. Cathy always has that blind hope about things, and that's positive. Daily: One of the most popular sayings that Cathy has is that she has "the worst 'of both worlds." What do you consider the worst of both worlds? Guisewite: I think a lot of people find themselves spending half their time trying to get their relationships going right and the other half of their time trying to get their careers going right. And when you just feel like there are problems in both of them, then you just get to the point where you're never solving them-that's where you are. Daily: Do you think women, and men too, get too worked up about their ap- pearances, how they look, and what image they project to people? Guisewite: I think they get too worked up about it, but I don't know the alternative-except for having such in- as well-are trying to find some balan- ce between how much of your life you give your job and how much of your life you give your relationships. And that's a very hard thing to work out. I feel I've been able to do as much as I have so far because the comic strip is all I do. I have to remember to feed the dog, but otherwise, every waking moment of my day, this is what I do. I love it. I don't have any other hobbies. This is what I do for entertainment. But most people want a little more normal life than what CATHY Uy Cathy Guisewite "' T f 5 r SI - 1 } i 4 :_ . i 7 1i " c Y 80i 14)C 3QGarr CT NT NOW HAtNE PIAH1 GR. M SA P IN IAC1 1tR~.~PI IN 'NE AIlD t -n ,a.. --{-T JUIE MA" . _ O A XDFIGHT. - ft':'4' '-N PET FRIES I CHEESE- CAryC K:' K-, - ~BtlR6fR !l CcE ErC c e © 1984 Universal Press Syndicate. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Guisewite's comic strip deals with both the work and personal relationships 1' comic strip wouldn't have written about five years degree, the English major that ago because it just wasn't happening, everyone today says is almost wore thless. Were people saying "What arte Daily: Where do you think 'Cathy' you going to do with a liberal arts, might be five years down the road? degree?" Guisewite: Boy, I don't have a clue to Guisewite: I was traumatized about that. I'm not even sure where she'll be what I was going to do until my last tomorrow afternoon. I know that I'll semester in college when I took an a still be doing this as long as news- vertising workshop at the University and papers run it. I love it. that just seemed so perfect for me. I. loved the class. Once I took that class Daily: It seems that 10 years ago, my last semester, I knew that wa6 feminists would have said Cathy is not exactly what I wanted to do. In fact,:I accurately representing the feminist got a job as a result of that class. But movement. Do you get mail like that up until that class, which gave me a from people today? focus, I didn't have a clue. And I Guisewite: Every now and then I do. changed majors every 10 minutes. I' I get letters saying Cathy is too remember at one point thinking, "I' vulnerable, she loses too much. That I become a biologist," me who'd flunked have a chance to be presenting a more every science class I've ever taken. positive role model. Another comment Daily: Was it difficult to adjust to a I sometimes get is that with all the life of deadlines, the comic strip space I have in the newspapers, now, I deadlines? have a great opportunity to really at- Guisewite: I do remember in college, tack more women's political issues. I promising God at term paper time if I just have found that doesn't work. I'm could get through this last blue book I better at writing about relationships would never enter a career that in- which I think affects everything in the volved writing or deadlines of any kind. women's movement, and job relation- My biggest coup, I think was doing a ships, mother relationships. And I also written final on Ulysses which is a think that I like to deal with a woman massive work. And I had never ac- before she leaves the front door in the tually read the book. You know, I glan- morning and I figure that if you can't ced at the Cliff notes. The entire class get into your dress-for-success outfit was on this book. I had missed a lot of that day, you're not going to be able to the classes, and had just never gotten go out and take on any real stand in the around to reading this book and I world. remember writing 25 pages on this book. I think that that was great Daily: Do you think 'Cathy' would training for this. And while at the time, have been as successful 10 years ago as I thought, "how hideous to have to fun- it is today? ction that way, on demand,"-I ac- Guisewite: The strip started seven- tually sort of thrive on it. That's when I and-a-half years ago and I think things really wake up--when the deadline gets have changed a lot since it started. Sin-, pressing, and when somebody's saying, ce the beginning there has always been you have to get this done right now. If Ix, a real core of people who liked Cathy waited until I was inspired, it would be - and identified with that vulnerability. years before you saw another strip. But I think that women today are a little bit more open to laughing a little. Dialogue is an occasional feature Daily: When you graduated from the University, you had the liberal arts of the Opinion Page. of an aspiring career woman. credible personal confidence that you just don't care how you look. Most of the time, part of my mind is saying, "Oh, my God, everything would've gone better tonight if I'd worn the bet- ter jeans." Not even a dress, just "Oh, no, I've worn the wrong pair of faded jeans." Daily: What do you think is the biggest problem facing aspiring career women like Cathy? Guisewite: It's a lot of things. I think the idea women coming right out of college get is that all doors everywhere are completely open for you and that problems have really been solved and it's going to be a breeze. And in fact, I think in most businesses there still are real power struggles going on as far as men really accepting women in serious business situations. I think another main problem is that women-and men I lead-at least Cathy in the strip does. Daily: Do you think Cathy's attitudes and concerns are changing? Guisewite: I think they have changed a lot as mine have changed. In the seven years that I have done this strip, I've gotten a much different perspec- tive on myself as a woman and other women have gotten a different perspec- tive on me. Over the years, I've gotten a much broader sense of what women are really doing and striving for. I think that's reflected in the strip a little. Last year, every woman I know started getting pregnant. Women, who'd sworn to me they'd be my single friends, childless forever, suddenly they were dropping like flies, getting married and getting pregnant and while one part of me was thrilled for them, another part of me was saying, "Wait a minute, you're my friend." That's something I i -- i Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan La i, Vol. XCIV-No. 134 420 Maynard St. Arin Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board A vote can be worth a thousand words Ban A SIF I5W orqr iL.. J 0 * 0 I ~ AtW 0 ANN ARBOR offered a wide variety of activities for the idle student last Saturday. One could revel in St. Patrick's Day festivities, heckle the Nazis in front of city hall, or participate in the Michigan Democratic caucus. A lot of students drank green beer 'and a pretty large number jeered and. peered at the Nazis, but depressingly few managed to vote. Though it's hard to gauge precisely, probably no more than 10 percent of the student population cast ballots. This failure to vote can be attributed to aspects of the caucus itself, such as in- conveniently located polling places, confusion over registration - and the fact that a few students, at least, are Republican. But the truth is that students have a disturbing lack of engagement with the political process. A resignation to inevitable results ("What's one vote going to change?") and ineffective representation ("Nobody in government thinks the way I do") discourage voters in any election, and surely persuaded many to stay at the bar on Saturday. Next week, University students will be able to vote literally much closer to home as MSA holds its annual elections. Let's hope some of that resignation is over- come. Last year only 5,000 students managed to vote, and that turnout was a big improvement over previous years. The problem doesn't lie in the inconvenience of voting - booths are set up in most dorms, the Fishbowl, and the UGLi. And there can be little con- fusion over registration - all one has to do is present a valid ID. The problem lies in a mentality that one vote doesn't matter and that elected representatives don't matter. One vote can mean a lot. Going stric- tly by percentages, it might not be that decisive, but it is easy to turn one vote into many simply by convincing others to vote the same way. Throw a party in honor of a favorite candidate and turn one voice into ten or twenty. The point is: get involved. Those who don't vote because they feel that MSA is not representative of their views or the views of the campus as a whole should be reminded that representation isn't handed to anyone on a silver platter, it must be earned through participation in the electoral process. The more students that get involved in student government, the better that government will be at representing the concerns of those enrolled at this University, and the more effective it will be at getting the administration and faculty to listen to those concerns. That's worth a vote. k , 0 ,, , LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Student voices need to be heard To the Daily: I attended the March 14 teach- in on the proposed student code for non-academic conduct at the Union ballroom. We in the audience used the entire question and answer period to tell Prof. Colburn, who is one of the code's authors, that we opposed the proposed code. The professor told us that he felt we were splintered and factionalized. Let me respond that although we each have our own views on the code, we are all opposed to the ad- ministration's propositions. I have spoken with hundreds of students about the proposed code and the vast majority oppose it. In fact, I have only met three or four people who have said that they favor it. We don't want to be treated like second-class citizens. We don't want any code that will freedom and responsibility. What we want is a true voice in how this university is run. Unfortunately, the ad- ministration says that it cannot and willtnot give us any of those things that we desire. We as students must join together not only to oppose the student code, but also to work for our rights as students to have a voice in this university. - David Buchen March 17 by Berke Breathed BLOOM COUNTY. OKAY-..ON17-Me caws OW, (~ Ywg 7 JUMP R4RIK ,G . -yW1G. E .,CAMFR tM- _ YO~r4 A/P~i~dfl . I . .. .. ....... .:.. . ...... . . . . .......: .... w::x::::..::"}t-. . .:::::n:": Unsigned editorials appearing "tO1!I1tA.P O OH 51EVEvUII AFR: 7nQ'T fl COW, F O fl ANDT V// / 7 V - AIMK ylt OOnK A I' --HYMIf! PARK I