Contributed by Krissy N.
Many people like to hypothesize that perhaps Peppermint Patty and Marcy are lesbians, despite a blatant lack of evidence. Peppermint Patty is not gay. This much is obvious from her treatment of Charlie Brown. She likes him. She expresses her crush through her aggressiveness, by being overly chummy and encouraging him to do things he would normally avoid. She is forcing a relationship between them. Notice that Charlie Brown never contacts her intentionally; they run into each other at school or afterward, on the baseball team, or while shopping. Their relationship is based on knowing the same people and attending the same school.
Why Patty chooses to be aggressive toward Charlie is a matter of observation. Aside from Patty, the other girls include Sally and Lucy. Sally is Charlie’s sister, he has no choice about his relationship with her, they live in the same house. Lucy is the only girl Charlie approaches willingly, seeking her “advice” often. In these sessions she abuses and ridicules him. From observing this type of behavior, one may conclude that Charlie Brown is a masochist. Patty figures that the only way to have any sort of relationship is to abuse the poor boy. But she can’t be like Lucy because of her love for Charlie; she wouldn’t intentionally hurt him.
Marcy has no strong evidence to prove that she is not gay, but there are some interesting things I can say in support. Marcy is very passive. We have never seen her take great action, or even say much beyond offering a few helpful points to Patty or covering for her in class. Marcy reminds me a bit of Charlie Brown in her passiveness. She never places herself into any given situation, more that she is flung into it. Her actions are often dictated by others. She doesn’t have any strong ambitions or goals, neither does Charlie outside of his desire to succeed at least once. Both of them are very polite, honest, and nice to other people (especially adults). The two don’t force their opinions onto anyone, neither of them have an outgoing or aggressive “will” to speak of (Even Linus has a strong will, though no actual personality flaws. Instead, he is a dynamic personality, with an old and knowledgeable soul). Because of these similar traits I always wished to see the pair together.
Their similarities make one think about their relationship to Patty. Charlie Brown is the object of Patty’s affections, so what does that make Marcy? The Peanuts gang is partly defined by its relationships: Patty likes Charlie, Lucy likes Schroeder, Sally likes Linus, Charlie Brown likes the cute little redhead girl. Marcy is an anomaly in this social circle as a figure not involved in any type of crush as the other characters are. So it is not entirely unlikely that Marcy likes Patty. Having some of the same personality traits as Charlie Brown makes her a likely candidate as a significant other for Patty. In contrast to Charlie, Marcy chooses to be near Patty, showing more control over her circumstances than he ever could. Seeing what kind of person Patty chooses to adore, Marcy emulates that behavior, trying to draw the attention toward herself. Of course that is merely not enough. Marcy makes herself helpful so that Patty acknowledges her existence, depending on Marcy to help her out of tough situations. She wedges herself into Patty’s life the way Patty attempts to place herself into Charlie Brown’s day. Marcy uses Patty’s actions as the basis for her own.
Though Marcy might act passive to gain Patty’s favor, I do not believe that it is merely a facade. Part of the behavior is native to her personality. She spends a lot of time with Patty, it is nearly impossible for any person to maintain a passive facade that long. Patty is very overbearing and egotistical, if there existed anything with Marcy’s personality to disagree, the two egos would have clashed and the pair of girls would always be fighting. Marcy’s lack of a personality saves her persona from being crushed by the monster that is Peppermint Patty. Marcy’s innate passiveness ultimately prevents her from revealing her true feelings. Admitting now one feels about someone else takes courage, especially for introverts such a Marcy, who must live in the perfect and most likely repressed society that is the world of Peanuts.
September 4, 2009 at 11:31 am |
One monkeywrench that is not mentioned in the above (otherwise fine) over-analysis is that Marcie often showed romantic interest in Charlie Brown, too. Of course, it’s possible that Marcie is bi-sexual and interested in both Charlie Brown AND Peppermint Patty.
My only other quibble with the article is that there was also a “Patty” character distinct from “Peppermint Patty,” and nobody ever called PP just “Patty.” On the one hand, this is a pretty pedantic point to make because Patty wasn’t anything more than crowd filler and a hanger-on to Violet, so nobody would ever mistake that Patty for Peppermint Patty anyway. On the other hand, this IS the J.Cart.Overanal. and I would feel remiss if I DIDN’T make the overly pedantic point =8^) (like, er, how the character’s name is properly spelled “Marcie”).
September 4, 2009 at 3:36 pm |
Interesting that Peppermint Patty’s fixation on Charlie Brown came about the time the little red-headed girl was fading out (I think she actually moved away — it’s somewhere in the late 60s-early 70s complete reprints).
It’s as if Schulz was looking for a different way to articulate unrequited love. And the whole idea of Charlie Brown finding himself on the receiving end of not-quite-focused affection is pretty funny.
For the record, Peppermint Patty does call “Chuck” on the phone, leaving him confused or pretending to be the operator. And while she does like him, she can and will get really fed up with him. A running Sunday motif has the two of them sitting on opposite sides of a tree. Patty offer an observation or a question; Charlie Brown’s reply will strike her as nonsensical.
She’s not overtly romantic like Lucy, eternally leaning on Schroeder’s piano, or Sally, proclaiming to one and all that Linus is her “Sweet Baboo.” In fact, she’s resistant to the concept of “feminine wiles.” In the latest reprint book (73-74), Lucy tries to talk Patty into getting their ears pieced together. Patty’s initial reply is that she’s “secure in her femininity.” In the end, Lucy bails and Patty ends up with one pierced ear. Adding insult to injury, she learns that Marcie had her ears pierced long ago.
Most of the time Patty plays it pretty much as described — taking advantage of opportunities to hang with Charlie Brown, but not about to throw a game for him. But early on in the “relationship,” there were two summer camp stories that raised the issue front and center. In one, Patty had to stay home while Marcie went to the same camp as Charlie Brown. Their separate phone calls to her drove her crazy (Charlie Brown innocently tells Patty how cute Marcie looks in a swimsuit; Marcie yanks Patty’s chain with a goofy smile). In the other, Patty makes it to summer camp — but so does the little red-headed girl. Charlie Brown gets in trouble because two girls were reportedly fighting over him; it turns out that Patty confronted the little red-headed girl and simply broke down crying, knowing she could never compete.
After that, Patty sort of settled down in her relations to Charlie Brown. She’s a pushy, eccentric friend and baseball rival — who, without warning, suddenly whacks him with emphatically female feelings.
September 19, 2009 at 5:22 pm |
Besides Marcie’s oddly submissive relationship with Peppermint Patty, the reason a lesbian rumor might have developed is that Patty was such a tomboy. [To reduce keystrokes, I'm going to call her "Patty" throughout this comment, not referring to the blond character known only as Patty.] Most of the other girls in the strip wore skirts or dresses. Patty dressed more boyishly. She was better at sports than Charlie Brown, even captained one of the rival baseball teams. Peppermint Patty’s choice of calling him “Chuck” when no one else does seems a little masculine. Sounds like the nickname a coach or gym teacher would call a boy if he wasn’t calling them all by their last names. The kind of short, sharp nickname that’s more appropriate carved into a bowling ball, like Bill, Bob or Dick instead of Billy or Robbie or Ricky.
The more girly girls like Lucy, Violet, Sally and Frieda have curls or pony-tails, whereas Peppermint Patty and Marcie have shorter, almost bobbed hairstyles.
Keep in mind the strip started in the 50s. I can’t remember when Peppermint Patty came on the scene, but gender roles have loosened since then. My mom complained about local public school rules in the 60s demanding that girls wear skirts and not pants — no exception just because you’re walking through snow in Michigan (uphill both ways, but never mind that part).
People are just making the leap from PP’s tomboy qualities to lesbian. More important is the way Marcie interacts with her, always addressing Peppermint Patty as “sir”, a remnant of one or both of those characters being introduced in strips about summer camp.
Are there any satisfied, mutual loves or crushes in Peanuts? PP likes Chuck. Chuck likes the Little Red-Haired Girl. Lucy likes Schroeder. Sally likes Linus. All unrequited or rejected.
September 22, 2009 at 3:21 pm |
Linus seemed to have a thing with Truffles, a huge-eyed girl who lived on a farm. But he couldn’t find his way back without Snoopy, who preferred to go alone and get all the fresh-baked cookies.