Here Comes Sadie Hawkins Day: 5 Facts About the Man Who Invented the Most Sexist Holiday Ever

By Richard Connelly Tue., Feb. 28 2012 at 6:01 AM

Women can speak their mind, for one day.

Tomorrow is of course Leap Year Day, a one-day extension of the year needed because the Earth can't seem to get its shit together when it comes to orbiting the sun.

It's also Sadie Hawkins Day. If you don't know what that is, it's allegedly the one day when a female can ask a man to marry her.

Oh my: Got the vapors yet? Hold on to the smelling salts: It's also celebrated by Sadie Hawkins Dances, where girls ask boys to be their dates.

You might not be surprised to learn that these "traditions" stem from the mind of Al Capp. At least you might not be surprised if you know who Al Capp was: the author of the largely forgotten comid strip Li'l Abner.

Among the things we know about the creator of this holiday:

5. He hated hippies
Capp was a contrary iconoclast -- in the staid 1950s he was liberal, leading, for instance, the push for the professional cartoonist society to admit women. By the 1960s he had became a rock-ribbed conservative and Vietnam war hawk.

Li'l Abner soon included a character named "Joanie Phoanie," obviously based on Joan Baez. She tried to sue but failed, fortunately enough for satirists everywhere, no matter their political stripe.

4. Pleaded guilty to "attempted adultery"
Capp regularly toured college campuses. And he regularly, apparently, hit on female students during those tours.

When famous investigative columnist Jack Anderson quizzed the married Capp about it, he reportedly said, "You know how these college babes are."

In the early '70s, Capp pleaded guilty in Wisconsin to "attempted adultery" when a married woman said he propositioned her in a hotel room. He paid a $600 fine.

3. He appeared, disastrously, in the John & Yoko "Bed-In" movie
John & Yoko's famous Bed-In was, of course, filmed. Capp visited, and things started out okay enough -- "I'm a dreadful Neanderthal fascist. How do you do?" Capp joked -- but quickly devolved, with Capp eventually saying of Yoko: "Good God, you've gotta live with that?"

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BluPct03

Wow am I ever safe from that ever happening to me. I am sigle and I am going to stay that way for the rest of my life.

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Nativesunlandscapes

Al Capp visited my parent's Alma Mater, Iniversity of Wyoming, Laramie and chose my Mom as campus beauty queen. I wonder if he proposed adultery to her?

jones2371

What a total waste of 5 minutes of my life.

Gwdzierlenga

Actually, in the comic strip, Sadie Hawkins day was in November. The superstition that women could propose to men on Leap Day arose independently and had nothing to do with Capp. Otherwise, interesting info.

Meg Laporte

Generally, aging makes 1 more reactionary. Comix r no exception...

eudemonist

The reversal of traditional gender roles is sexist? How do you reckon?

Capp on Phoanie: "Joanie Phoanie is a repulsive, egomaniacal, un-American, non-taxpaying horror," said Capp. "I see no resemblance to Joan Baez whatsoever, but if Miss Baez wants to prove it, let her."

Max Allan Collins

LI'L ABNER was a brilliant comic strip, and a liberal one for most of its run. It is not forgotten among comic art fans, many of whom consider it the greatest of all comic strips, and easily the funniest. A misanthrope who lost a leg at an early age, Capp suffered a decline both artistically and mentally during his last decade or two. Great artists like Capp and Lennon find themselves predictably at odds when each defines a different generation.