Peanuts by Charles Schulz for July 10, 1951

He changed his tune.

Sparky always was an egalitarian. Right from the beginning he had a coeducational baseballteam with no fuss about it. Sometimes nonchalance is the best attitude.

In later years, Snoopy joins the team. The team becomes interspecies.

Unfortunately, in 1950, when Charles Schulz launched Peanuts, the newspapers would not let him have minority characters. in 1967, Sparky figured that society changed enough so that he could add more diverse characters. He had Franklin move into the neighborhood. No fanfare in the strip. The other kids accepted him just like any other new kid.

In the real world, Sparky got much love mail from people thanking him, as well as hate mail from racists too. Some newspapers in the red states dropped Peanuts.

By 1980, Peanuts reflected the makeup of America religiously, racially, and linguistically.

In the early years, the focus of the baseballgames was totally on the team with Charlie Brown, but by about 1970, Sparky created so many characters that he put the overflown on another coeducation integrated team with Peppermint Patty as the manager. A girl is the manager of the opposing team. No comments or fanfare about this. It is treated as the most natural thing in the world.

I respectfully disagree. If you have been reading the strips sequentially up to this point, have you not noticed all the gender roles? How Charlie Brown was told to stand on the outside of the sidewalk, for example?

I am a woman and I like gender roles… They are the correct thing… I make my brother walk on the outside of the sidewalk too, because that’s how it should be… My little brother is also taught to protect his sisters, and we to make sure that the men aren’t needing anything “homey”

The outside sidewalk story is just being a gentleman.

Pretty soon, you’ll be glad for every second that she’s away

Patty and her namesake, Peppermint Patty, are the only girls in the strip who are athletically inclined. I suspect strongly that this was not a coincidence, since both characters were based on the same woman: Schulz’ cousin, Patricia Swanson.