[...]From the archives: Thoughts on Peppermint Patty and Marcie « The Journal of Cartoon Overanalyzations[...]…

Also, Im sure charles schulz never intended on maing them lesbians, though i douct if he were alive today he would have cared. seeing as billie jean king was a close friend of his and is where the idea of marcie originated from.

i see it as this: sally likes linu, lucy likes schroeder, chuck likes the red haired girl. and then we see marcie and patty often displaying some type of feelings for chuck but they never really focus on it like they do with the other characters mentioned. chuck likes the red haired girl but she dosent notice him. ( i think he and the heather would be great together )
LEaves patty and marcie on the side which is the reason i think they were meant for each other.

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.

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.