The actions of Gamy Trudeau's liberated feminist, are important because she represents a link between "girl" and "woman" in the evolution of female cartoon characters, says Kathleen Turner, a mass media specialist at Notre Dame.

"Comic strips," she says, "encapsulate the important images of women at various times in our society's history."

For example, the first strip about a woman, "Polly and Her Pals," featured a "tall, attractive young lady with a mind of her own." She became a prototype. Even her "French doll" look, cast the mold for future generations of comic women: "high forehead, up tilted nose and enormous eyes that produced the illusion that these were just helpless babies to be rescued from the hard practical world."

Other stereotypes emerged later — the zany house-wife "Blondie," the nurturing grandmother "Mary Worth" and the career vs. marriage conflict "Brenda Starr."

The mold is being broken, however, by strips such as "Cathy" who has a feminist roommate, a chauvinist boyfriend and a traditional mother.

And Joanie? "To say that Joanie is a feminist is not to say her problems are solved," notes Turner.