Why?
Originally published 17 October 2001

This strip was part of a larger storyline, and even if you've never read it I think it's clear from the context what is going on. Stephan (the only Ozy and Millie character who's ever shown a real interest in the opposite sex) has just been told by a girl he likes that she actually has a crush on Jeremy the jock. She seems to think of Stephan, who could not be farther from jock-ness, as a genderless entity, which in a way is a taste of his own medicine, because there's been a running gag throughout the storyline about how Stephan doesn't really see Millie as a girl.

I think a lot of "tomboys"--certainly the ones I was friends with as a kid--run into Millie's dilemma. I can relate a little better to the two boys' problems. It was a matter of tremendous annoyance to me in school that very nice girls who considered me a "good friend" would then turn around and date the kind of big, dumb, loud guys who used to stuff me in trash cans for being bad at volleyball. Ozy's problem is one that's more relevant to my adult life--if two people in the room are loudly feeling sorry for themselves, you really do have to get used to the idea of not being noticed by them.

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