Late Home... Again
A nice little one-off comic strip by Paula Meadows from Janus 20
Julie must be out of her mind, coming in from badminton practice at 1.24 am. She promised her parents she’d be home by nine o’clock at the very latest. They’re terrified someone might take advantage of their daughter, who never stops flaunting her lovely body. Tempers frayed, they’ve stayed up waiting for her once again.
‘YOU’RE FOUR AND A HALF HOURS LATE, JULIE!’ her father roars. ‘WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?’ — ‘She’s been out with a boy, I’m sure!’ her mother wails despairingly, ‘Where else could she have been?’ Both completely disbelieve her pathetic cover-story.
Even at 17 Julie is not too old for really strict old-fashioned discipline. Her father is determined to make her bottom sting like fury this time for her lies, her cheek and her disobedience. Right now he’s a very angry man. ‘You’re going to wish you’d never been born, young lady!’ he yells at her — a phrase she has heard before.
He gives his naughty daughter a terrific spanking, which is truly well deserved. Punishments of this nature rarely occur these days but Julie is no stranger to her father’s lap. He whacks her backside black and blue with a ping-pong bat, and only stops when Julie is crying like a baby. ‘Next time it’ll be the cane!’ he tells her. But Julie’s mother is afraid of waking the neighbours.
Yes, we cannot have young women running wild on our streets at all hours of the evening and into the early hours of the following morning, often provocatively wearing very little in the way of clothing, as is the case at present. A 9pm curfew for all unchaperoned (by a responsible male of at least 50 years) young women between the ages of 16-25 should be instituted, similar to that featured in the story 'A Glimpse into 1994' (elsewhere on this blog). Policed by the concerned volunteer gentlemen of the 'citizens' patrol', who also have responsibility for enforcing the stringent 'modesty in female dress' regulations, they would have full powers to deal with transgressors summarily, in their own homes if convenient, and by means of corporal punishment as they see fit.
ReplyDeleteOne of Paula Meadow's best pieces of artwork for Janus. Poor Julie: this Julie is a precursor to her namesake who enjoyed/suffered a recurring strip in Janus later on. It's an on-the-nose (or rather, bottom) case of discipline, but there's an erotic dimension too. Julie 'never stops flaunting her lovely body' and she 'is no stranger to her father's lap.'
ReplyDelete