The Terrifying Message of Sandra And Woo

There's a web comic out there I read called Sandra And Woo.  It's a story of a twelve year old girl (named Sandra) who lives with her father.  She winds up with a pet raccoon named "Woo" (which in itself is rather bizarre) and soon after realizes that animals can talk.  That is, they can talk to her, nobody else has found out yet as far as I'm aware.

For the most part the strip is interesting.  There are some cool little plot threads happening with a lot of the side characters that Sandra and/or Woo intersect with, and there aren't any characters who are simply cardboard cut-outs of "bad guys."

It's not perfect, of course.  The fact that Sandra has a friend named "Cloud" (whose parents are avid Final Fantasy fans) who trains to be a master sword fighter makes the whole thing start to feel like at any moment Sandra is going to discover a mystical gem that will give her "Raccoon Princess Power" or something.

However, the most recent story line has bothered me for some time now.  I realized that underneath a quaint story about a raccoon trying to be the first to climb a sheer cliff face, there's a much, much darker message.

Namely, if you aren't getting pregnant and having babies, you're wasting your life.

The whole problem revolves around the "Raccoon Goddess" whose name is "Seeoahtlahmakaskay."

Yeah, I can't pronounce it either without choking on my tongue.

Anyway, when the character attempting to climb the cliff (named Butterfly) reaches the pinnacle, Seeoahtlahmakaskay is there to greet her.

Now, am I the only one who thinks it's rather cruel to tell someone, when they've achieved something no other person (or raccoon) has accomplished before, that "oh hey, I had to make your parents hook up to have you, they totally weren't into each other, so technically this victory of yours is really my victory."

I mean, that's just cold.

Add on to that effect that the comic has established that raccoons don't mate for life.  So not only did the Raccoon Goddess have to "work her tail off" to get her father to hook up with her mother, but it was more than likely just a "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" encounter.

Later, when Butterfly is feeling a hint of disappointment that she's accomplished everything she wanted to in life.  Look at what Seeoahtlah- look at what her "Goddess" seems to recommend.

So, yeah, you've done your life's work, time to sit down and crank out some kids.  This is considering that Butterfly was just told by her "Goddess" in a previous strip that a climbing technique she invented has saved many raccoon lives.  But hey, you do one thing in life, then it's off to having kids, right?  That's how life works?

Oh, and look at the "Goddess" and her reaction when Butterfly decides to do something else.

Look at that disappointed face.

But it only gets worse from there.

Once again, the Goddess has made it all about her.  Obviously a normal celebration for something incredible one of their number did is insufficient, so let's take a close look at what she does.  A divine being has just used her divine powers to slip an entire mob of her followers some celestial "ecstacy" at their party.  All that's missing is some flashing lights and a dubstep soundtrack and the massive group "date rape" would be complete.  Because it doesn't matter what else the raccoon populace might have going on in their lives, their Goddess wants babies, dammit!

This is the most recent strip.  The Raccoon Goddess is essentially telling Butterfly she's mistaken in what she's doing, from simply pointing out that she's "going the wrong way" to the fact that "what you want to do is wrong, you need a man in your life to make you happy.  And have babies."  The fact that Butterfly has to apologize for how she chooses to spend her life, even if it's doing something that might inspire other creatures or find a new, life-saving climbing technique, is simply...what's the word I'm looking for?

Abhorrent.  There's the word.

I mean, these are characters with very human emotions and personalities.  Some are jerks, some are kind.  Some have dreams and goals for their lives, others simply take life as it comes.  Some (such as Woo and his girlfriend whose name I can't remember there on the log in the last comic) even fall in love and are willing to risk their lives for each other.

Now imagine if whoever your faith revolves around descended to Earth, looked around, and declared "what are all you women doing?  Why aren't you cranking out more kids?  Chop chop, those eggs aren't going to fertilize themselves!  What's that?  No, you can't be happy with your life as it is right now, you don't have a man creating a new life inside you as we speak!  Do I have to force you all to be horny so this can turn into one giant orgy?"

I don't know about you, but I find the idea of some divine being doing that to people completely disturbing.

Plus, look at panel four.  "...think of all the kind and handsome males..."  Remember, it's very rare for a raccoon to mate for life, so when Seeoahtlahmakaskay says "all" she probably intends for Butterfly to hook up with all of them.  "I'm sorry, but I feel that your privates should be a revolving door for any guy who's good looking and is willing to pick up the check after dinner."

Now, to be fair, considering how often these creatures are killed, accidentally or on purpose, I can understand why their Goddess would be concerned with the raccoon population.  If the raccoons were portrayed as being animals on that level, that would be one thing.  However, we've already seen that these creatures are distinctive and unique.  They have different dreams and goals in life.  Sure, maybe some just want to chill in the woods, eat some berries, and mate with others, but Woo enjoys living with a family of humans and trying his hands (paws) at new things.

Maybe I'm just overthinking it, but so far this story line might be enough to make me stop reading the comic entirely.  I might give it one more week to see if they drop the whole "Seeoahtlahmakaskay is this close to telling Butterfly she's stupid and her dreams are stupid and she needs to be a mother to get any satisfaction from life" plot and move on.