Cameron Wilson

Introduction

Joaquín Lavador, also known as “Quino,” was an Argentine comic strip artist. Quino was raised in Mendoza, Argentina as part of a traditional and conservative family. Although he always loved to draw, he began making humorous drawings when he was fourteen (Braceli qtd in Busquets n.pag.). Mafalda , a comic strip by Quino, is about a girl, Mafalda, the protagonist who questions the reasoning of everything her parents and the world do. Mafalda strips were published in “Primera Plana,” “El Mundo,” and “Siete Días Ilustrados,” Argentine publications, and ran from 1964 to 1973 (Walger).

During the time of Mafalda 's publications , oppressive governments, which can be defined as groups that come to power without a democratic election, helped create a political and social environment where restrictive norms grew. After the democratic election of Arturo Illia in 1963, there were three military governments that overthrew each other until 1973. The first, that of General Juan Carlos Onganía, was in power from 1966 to 1970. At the beginning of his leadership, he began with an act of censorship on July 2, and in the same month he tried to have more control over universities. In other words, citizens saw a leader who tried to limit their voices and instill fear, which has an effect on political expression and helps build a restrictive environment. This type of government is the first step to restriction and social damage because it is one of the most powerful institutions in society. As Silva (2004), who translates the work of Fukuyama (1994), writes: “Informal norms may often reflect the ability of one group to dominate another through its greater wealth, power, cultural ability, intellectual prowess, or outright violence and coercion” (11). In the Argentine case, the political censorship of the Onganía military government was likely a factor that helped instill an environment where harmful norms flourished. Citizens of a society may follow such norms, even if they are harmful (Fukuyama 11). In other words, norms are part of the fabric of society. Thus, government is the first step in the development of harmful norms.

Harmful norms exist alongside beneficial norms in a society, but both spread their influence across generations. These social expectations exist in all societies, and are necessary for various social functions (Silva 11). Silva distinguishes the two types of norms as “the product of rational choice” and “socially inherited and a-rational in origin” (5-6). In this essay, a harmful or damaging norm or expectation is defined as a social rule that impedes the natural progress of a human without having a productive purpose. Although harmful expectations may hinder the ability to achieve personal goals, there are some norms that do not harm society, but rather help strengthen humanity. For example, the norm that is about a mother’s natural caring is something that comes from human nature and the biological process of having a baby. It is not to say that the father does not care for his son or daughter, but the mother has a special connection in the first moment of her child’s life. So, that norm has a productive and natural purpose. On the contrary, expectations that say the mother should not work and she is the person in the kitchen do not serve productive purposes, but rather limit a person's personal goals. One has to unravel the fabric of society to separate productive norms from harmful ones.

The hypocrisy of an older generation is the result of being afraid to go against harmful expectations woven into the fabric of society. Quino saw a clear sense of hypocrisy in governments and adults. In an interview with Rodolfo Braceli recorded in 10 Years with Mafalda , Quino says, “Why don’t the adults do what they teach?” (Quino qtd in Busquets 4). According to Quino, the adults, or the older generation, are the ones who keep harmful norms alive, what Cosse (2014) calls “generational orders” (n.pag.), without realizing it because they are part of the invisible fabric of society. Mafalda, the protagonist, serves as the source of “opposition” (Cosse, 2014 n.pag) from her parents. The author writes: “[The biological and intellectual incongruity of Mafalda] underscored the contradictions of the adults and bridged the gap between the cute image of the child characters and the irony of their reflections” (Cosse, 2014 n.pág.). Mafalda’s humor and perspective undermine and capture the harmful norms of the dark to bring to light the limitations of the older generation’s thinking. Ultimately, Quino uses Mafalda’s absurd comments to break the harmful cycle of harmful norms and expectations that span generations to inspire a sense of hope and freedom in the younger generation.

The analysis model

This article adds an in-depth critique that analyzes the absurd humor incorporated in Mafalda , using the categories of Ortiz Correa, Jiménez Rendón, and Viana Ruiz. Their publication serves as a model for studying the Mafalda comic strips . Correa et al. focus on each vignette of the comic strip studied. First, the typography is analyzed because it plays a subliminal role in the comic strips. In addition to the typography, their work criticizes the graphic vectors, including the positioning of the characters and the size of the speech bubbles. The article reviews the sounds produced in the strip, the silence, and the size of the letters incorporated to show the tone of the characters' voices.

Additionally, the authors comment on semantics, which deals with the meanings of the embedded words. This essay uses Correa et al.'s categories to analyze two Mafalda comic strips in depth .

The lenses of humor

The humorous perspective in Quino’s comic strips is a fundamental feature to be studied because it is a strategy used to criticize the harmful norms of Argentine society. Absurdity is frequently used, which can be closely linked to incongruity when talking about humor in Quino’s comic strips. Although her study focuses on humor and cognitive abilities of children, Eleni Loizou explains incongruity as follows: “...an incongruous event is an event which is different from what we are used to and violates our conceptual patterns (43-44). Absurdity can be defined similarly: an event that happens despite social expectations. Although humor often has a harmless characteristic, it can serve as a back that weakens the control and damage of an oppressive power. Sonia Sierra Infante, who analyzes the use of humor in the 15M movement in Spain, writes: “The author establishes laughter as the antithesis of fear, which is always paralyzing and conservative” (616). Quino wanted to express his opinions through comic strips under oppressive governments because he was fighting terror and harmful norms in society. In a way, there is an absurd sense of using humor itself as a sword because it means using an abstract tool to fight against an oppressive government and harmful norms, which even an army could not overthrow. Such a ridiculous strategy should be better understood.

In addition to overthrowing powerful entities, absurd humor unravels harmful expectations from the fabric of society, drawing the attention of an audience or reader. One can escape into the literary world, and more specifically comic strips, to see the true threads that run invisibly in the fabric of society. According to Cosse (2014), in the Argentine context in the 1960s, humor entered new sectors such as absurdity and irony, which appeared in the Mafalda strips . The main idea of ​​Mafalda is ironic: “The contradiction between intellectual maturity and biological age was at the center of the humorous construction of Mafalda--of the character and the strip” (Cosse, 2016, 1554). She is a child, who perceives herself as innocent, while holding views so advanced that adults do not easily understand them (Cosse). This madness also makes it possible to clearly see the harmful expectations entangled in the fabric of Argentine society.

Mafalda's analysis

In one of the Mafalda comic strips , the protagonist builds a space suit, using various materials from around the house (Quino n.pag.). In this strip, Quino creates an absurd environment to combat the normality of a harmful environment and to highlight the harmful threads in the fabric of Argentine society. The idea introduced in this strip that a little girl could build a homemade space suit that actually works is absurd and outside of society's expectations. Mafalda makes the space suit innovatively, with a siphon, a box, and a belt to fly like an astronaut, which represents that members of the younger generation had no harmful boundaries to creativity at that time because they were not living under the harmful norms like the older generation.

In terms of semantics, the contrast between the phrases incorporated at the beginning and end of the strip, “a new, technologically advanced generation” and “a discredited old generation,” highlights the innovativeness of the younger generation compared to the ignorance of the older generation. In the first panel, Mafalda wants to highlight the best that the younger generation has added to society, including advanced ideas. In the last panel, Quino wants to portray the older generation as an obstacle that limits the progress of the younger generation, just as the father physically hinders Mafalda’s path in the aforementioned strip. At the end of the strip, Mafalda steps over her father, which represents the ability of the younger generation to move forward despite the ignorance of the older generation. In other words, Quino is breaking the harmful cycle of harmful normality with absurd humor.

The typography that complements the spacesuit emphasizes Mafalda’s creativity in constructing it, representing the innovation of the younger generation. In one of the strip’s panels, the typography for the sound “FSSSSH!” shows the siphon exploding and Mafalda’s creativity coming to life. In the other balloons, the typography for the dialogue is in the common font of the Mafalda strips, showing that it was nothing extraordinary for Mafalda. The father’s discomfort is seen after the siphon explodes, representing the fixed currents of thought of the older generation and the stagnation in response to the changes to the fabric of society initiated by the youth.

In addition to absurd humor, Quino uses the metaphor of a flowerpot to break the detrimental cycle of harmful norms. At the beginning of the strip, the father is taking care of his plant. Maria Cecilia Zoppi talks about the father and how he “leads a very routine life” (25). In another Mafalda strip , the father also takes care of a rubber tree, a plant typical of many Argentine homes. This plant does not grow quickly and can live in a pot, that is, in the same place, for a long time (Zoppi). That is, the father’s interest in plants may represent the tendency to live life in a metaphorical pot, growing very slowly because it is under harmful norms, wrapped in a social pot. For example, the feeling that one needs to go to a desk job and follow everyone else’s path affects the joy of many people. Yes, the father continues to live, but he is restricted to the role and the harmful norm or metaphorical pot that society has given him.

In another Mafalda comic strip , the protagonist insults her mother for not attending all levels of education. Quino incorporates absurd comments from Mafalda to her mother (Quino n.pag.) to show the impediment of harmful norms on many Argentine women during this part of history. Historically, while the woman only belonged to the home, the father was out in the world, mainly spending time at his job to keep the family's economic situation stable (Cosse, 2008 133). In literal terms, the woman was physically limited to a space in the house and the father to the office. In Argentina, domesticity was an element that helped determine the social position to which a family belonged in society (Cosse, 2008 135). Cosse (2008) writes: “...compliance with the mandates of domesticity... would have functioned as a mechanism and requirement for social mobility” (135). One can imagine that there was a lot of pressure to have a typical family in order to maintain a good reputation. In countries like the United States and France in the 1960s and 1970s, there were evolutions in gender roles, including “the valorization of women’s professional achievement” (Cosse 134). In other words, women were beginning to have opportunities to follow their dreams. Although Argentine society was also beginning to rethink the role of women and their ability to choose their life paths, there was still resistance and a “timidity of these transformations” (Cosse 138). In some ways, members of the older generation imposed their own obstacles because they lived under the harmful norms that were hidden in the fabric of society.

By analyzing the typography of the comic strip already mentioned in the previous paragraph, it is understood that the complete education of women is a tool that breaks normality and weaves beneficial threads into the fabric of society. Although the typography (Quino n.pag.) is in the same font in all the panels, there is a difference between Mafalda’s dialogue directed to her mother and the monologue to herself. In some panels (Quino n.pag.), Mafalda presents a great sense of empathy, and there is also a comment to her mother that begins pleasantly, explaining the reason why she wants to go to kindergarten. The absurdity is glimpsed when Mafalda calls her “a frustrated and mediocre woman.” A girl is not expected to say something so unpleasant to her mother. According to Mafalda, a woman who lives under harmful norms is not reaching her potential. Mafalda, despite the harmful norms, wants to go to college eventually to break the harmful cycle of harmful expectations and achieve what she can achieve. That is to say, the protagonist of Quino's work, Mafalda, is the mechanism that cuts the harmful threads that are entangled in the Argentine social fabric.

The language and semantics embedded in the dialogue of the strip serve as lenses that allow us to see the hidden norms and expectations of a society. In one of the panels, after talking about her educational future, reaching all educational levels, Mafalda uses the phrase “and all that.” That is, according to her, everything that came before (the idea that a girl would go to kindergarten, high school, and college) should be normal. The phrase “all that” assumes that readers already believe that a girl needs to study at all educational levels because it is essential for personal maturity. In the graphic vectors and images of this strip, you can see the sadness of Raquel, the mother, looking at the floor with her hands holding her head. You can see some knitting tools that represent the mother’s domesticity and her role of knitting clothes. Importantly, the lack of sound from the mother shows the absence of a female voice in Argentine society. The absurd thing is that the mother does not have a voice even with her own daughter. The metaphorical pot of harmful expectations that surround and limit Mafalda's mother shows the damage imposed on Argentine women.

Conclusions

In conclusion, norms and expectations are present in all societies because they have social functions (Silva). The fact that motherly affection is known in many societies is not harmful because it is natural and beneficial. Harmful comes when norms limit or weaken a person's strength, hope, and ability. The pressure that a harmful expectation imposes on men to get a desk job may weaken their will to realize their dream. Harmful norms are woven into the fabric of society with beneficial norms. The challenge is how should one identify and distinguish them in a society because they hide in normality.

Quino uses absurd humor to unravel the fabric of Argentine society to highlight the limitations and harm of harmful expectations. Mafalda's comments help to break the normality of the harmful cycle of harmful norms that span generations. Although a restrictive environment may be established by an oppressive government and then the resulting harmful norms may be experienced by the older generation, the humor of an author like Quino, and the will of the younger generation are two tools that help to distinguish and unravel the harmful from the beneficial.