Calvin and Hobbes has always struck me as very clever and thought provoking, even though Calvin is often naive. He and his dad have this relationship where Calvin will ask a question and Dad will reply with a made up answer that Calvin usually accepts as true. I find this to be fairly relevant to our recent topics of discussion, because Calvin immediately accepts his father’s explanation over his mother’s, even though his mother’s is likely more correct. Many of the women of science we have discussed lately have had this problem. They discover something or study something and their answers are taken as faulty because they are not attributed to a male. They might be seen as “off their rocker” because a woman could not possibly understand such a difficult concept, right? This comic is most likely not trying to bring up these issues, because a child is probably going to relate with one parent over the other, but some comparisons can be made.
Another observation: Calvin has a lot of science based questions like the one in this cartoon and he often goes to his father for clarity. His father either makes up an answer that sounds pretty acceptable or tells Calvin to go read a book to find his answer. Calvin usually rejects the idea of reading and either continues on without his answer because he wants a quick and easy explanation from his father. You could say this is similar to how people are today; people typically want to search on the internet for the simplest answer, when a simple answer may not be enough for a proper understanding. If someone wanted to learn about a scientific concept, it would be best if they read about it in a book or asked a reputable source. Many sources on the internet are not to be taken seriously, but they are nevertheless seen as accurate enough.
