Peppermint Patty is probably one of the most complex characters in the whole 50 year story where Charlie Brown always like struggles to articulate his feelings. Peppermint Patty almost seems to seems to be conflicted over and perhaps because Schultz felt constrained in expressing some of these things. But she's conflicted and even expressing how it is that she feels. And so so even her expressions of love oftentimes come out as much as expressions of just deep internal frustration, which I think for a lot of folks in the LGBTQ plus community are very relatable.
Cartoonist Charles Schulz wrote and drew Peanuts every day for half a century. In his new book Charlie Brown's America, Historian Blake Scott Ball uses the strip (and the fan mail archive at the Schulz museum) to illuminate the Wishy-Washy politics of Cold War America.