The fun thing about watching the end of Platinum End is [HUGE SPOILER] but also having THAT God in mind when reading this comic, in which case sex is the last thing you need to worry about, Beckers
😮 Oh woah. So many areas of their brains are gonna be affected — their Medulla oblongatas are gonna accelerate their heart rate and breathing, their oxytocin and dopamine receptors are gonna be filled to the brim, their prefrontal cortexes are gonna —
Wait, why am I telling you all this when we can VISIT their brains AND bodies?!?!
Oh this will CERTAINLY be a rejuvenating AND educational experience!!!
You spray olive oil on a pyrex pie tin, load it up with fresh or frozen brussels sprouts, spray or brush the olive oil over top as well, sprinkle all your favorite seasonings all over them, and bake them in a toaster oven (or regular oven) at 450 degrees for a half hour or more (until they’re blackened on the outside)…
And they taste just like toasted marshmallows! DEE-VINE!!
I really dom’t understand what’ different about every time I’ve ever cooked brussels sprouts, because when I boil them and then douse them in butter they just taste lile delicious tender savory snacks, but trying to bake them, especially when people suggest lemon or vinaigrette, just makes them come out little tough, unchewable balls that taste how piss smells.
I dunno about that. Dina reading the Bible is probably as likely to confuse the issue as it is to give her any actual insight. I imagine it could be at least equally funny in different ways.
Reading the Bible is a surprisingly poor way of understanding Christianity in general or any specific subgroup in particular.
That might seem even stranger with a group like fundamentalists who claim to take it literally.
As an atheist, reading the Bible is definitely useful for understanding many cultural references in a Christian-dominated country like the US, but it seems to me that most Christians in this country either haven’t read it themselves, or they have developed ways to interpret the stuff in the Bible to mean entirely different things from what it actually says anyway.
And even then you can get most of the cultural references without actually reading the Bible – from other references or summaries or whatever. Often reading such things might give a better understanding of the cultural references than reading the text itself would. Our cultural understanding of the “Bible story” is sort of blurred amalgamation of different Biblical accounts and other materials. The Gospel stories, for example, get jammed together into single narrative with bits of each. Our understanding of Hell comes more from Dante and Milton than anything actually in the Bible.
That always strikes me as so crazy. How can somebody think they have the Literal Word Of Literal God, there in their hands, but then not even read the book? Some fundies don’t even read it in translation! It’s nuts.
is it weird that my mind immediately gravitated towards the “wooden spoon” line
like, i already knew toedad was a spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child kinda guy, and we outright saw him slap her during the kidnapping, but… something about becky naming what was probably his specific implement of choice kinda makes it all the more real. the way she still expects that kind of violence, of pain for pain’s sake, any time, from anyone she considers parental or authoritative… fuck, i’ve been there. and come to think of it, it kinda adds a whole new layer that one scene where she was sneaking into leslie’s house to get stuff– even though she rationally knows that leslie would never do something like that, the association between failing a parental figure and pain is really fucking hard to shake. it’s a major part of my communication issues to this day.
granted, my parents were mostly hands-on when it came to corporal punishment (something about the tangibility probably made it more satisfying for them), so i’m not sure why the mention of the spoon was what triggered it in my brain…
Thank you for alerting me to the idea that a wooden spoon can be an instrument of parent-inflicted punishment. To me a wooden spoon is just the prize for coming in last place, and parental displeasure is more habitually meted out with a slipper/chancla/other foot related device.
No not weird at all- that IMMEDIATELY set off giant alarm bells for me. And for anyone else in the comments- a wooden spoon is p much directly analogous to a *belt* in terms of ‘kind of a direct nod to corporeal punishment’.
Oof, yeah. I hadn’t fully remembered Ross slapping her (and worse still, her complete non-surprise when he did so,) but yeah that is… almost certainly not a hypothetical expectation of violence.
Poor Becky. I really hope she’s eventually given the space and support to come to terms with just how fucked up her upbringing was.
Actually, if there is a young child and wooden spoon association for me, it’s fighting siblings for the right to lick them off after some types of baking activities went on. I think that’s likely a more pleasant memory…
…that’s a new set of horrors for me, actually. Hadn’t heard of it before.
(I should note that my parents were never fundie/evangelical types, so I’m not as familiar with the particular kinds of abuse committed in those bubbles. My parents did actually stop eventually, and I’m pretty sure it was less a religious thing and more an “our parents did this and we turned out fine” thing.)
I’m not sure if I’d be into S&M at all, but it does seem pretty kinky when boundaries are respected. I think Becky and Dina are a very healthy couple and I could definitely see them getting into the kink lifestyle, at some point waaay down the line. (not necessarily S&M of course)
Look if religious far right politicians can have various different mistresses to commit adultry with and be pro murderous war all the time because they sold all they’re moral value out for a buck and still be convinced they’re getting into heaven, then I think one or two acts of pre-wedlock sec is nothing but a droop in the bucket.
Hum, yeah, it’s good Dina was so careful with Becky. It’s funny, even in non-assaultive situations, mid-action and pre-action and post-action, quick-switch freakouts, and buyers remorse, and mind-changing, and cold feet, and sudden turnoffs, and sudden feelings of cold or nausea or dread or disinterest, and sudden dissociation or distancing from the body … aversive reactions can happen any time, even in the most consensual of settings. I’ve had that sick-to-your stomach feeling many times, with respect to a sexual situation. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it was noncon.
I think it’s amazing and wonderful that young folks today are being taught about enthusiastic consent. That stuff wasn’t part of the sex ed curriculum until after I was out of school altogether. I wish it had been taught earlier.
We got the mechanics (and I’m so glad we did!) and the basic information about condoms, but that’s about it. The same-sex prophylaxis we taught ourselves and each other, using the information from the local clinics’ street outreach. (The local CDC and Planned Parenthood clinics were such godsends for young folks and folks without health insurance!)
But teaching about enthusiastic consent — that it’s more complex than just “no means no” — that wasn’t taught when I was growing up.
Really sad all the attacks on teachers these days just for teaching kids about their right to control their own bodies. It’s such vital knowledge and I’m so glad that college-age kids today do learn it.
I’m not sure they learn it in school. Plenty of Kids These Days get all their Sex Ed from the internet. If they’re lucky, they find scarletteen. If they aren’t, their sex ed is watching porn.
That’s right, if we don’t teach our kids about sex, they’ll learn it from Willis. :0
I was a Japanese teacher, but I used to have a hair trigger on delivering sex Ed mini lessons. Someone draws a dick on my whiteboard? Bang.
I used to have lines like ‘almost all the sex that happens is for the enjoyment of art least one participant,’ so I’d talk about anatomy but also some broad strokes on pleasure – shaft head balls on a penis, clitoral structure, nerve density, the prostate. Cervix vagina vulva.
I’m ace which may have helped me be totally divorced from my own sexual experience while talking to 14yos (never omg never give them personal sexual information ever). I’d also never use ‘you’ for the duration. And usually included a line about ‘there are physical and emotional risks in sex, so it’s generally advised that people your age hold off on it until you’ve got some actual communication skills and emotional development under your belts’
It is kind of strange to me, though, that much of this comic tends to put a bright line in between “sex” and “not having sex”. As if all college romances automatically go direct to sexual intercourse unless one or both partner is consciously choosing to remain abstinent. There’s so much in-between there. Back when I was young and active, especially in college, there would often be many nights of cuddling, kissing, and often doing plenty of exciting and sexy stuff together, without doing “the deed” (by any definition). People who are involved together can be sexual in plenty of ways without “having sex”.
Dina and Becky kind of showed that earlier in the day, when they were experimenting with what kinds of visual displays might turn Dina on. That’s plenty sexy. But I almost wish it hadn’t gone straight to “having sex” from there. Sometimes you want to just drive for a nice long stretch together at 45 mph, rather than go from 0 to 60.
We’ve seen some allusions to it – Jacob asking Raidah if she was interested in fooling around being the first one that comes to mind – but there is definitely a lot of emphasis on sex specifically. That said, the people for whom it comes up most frequently – Becky, Joe, and Joyce in particular – all have very specific hangups around sex as well, with Joe likely to exaggerate any romantic encounter to ‘sex’ and Becky and Joyce feeling guilt for having any sexual urges at all. (Ethan definitely had some hangups before the casual dating, but we also have no reason to believe he always had sex 100% of the time with those.) We’ve seen Dorothy and Walky on one or the other’s bed without any implication they’ve had sex, for example. And for the group of characters whose relationships were in any way meant to be secret – most of the other pairings, with Sal/Jason, Danny/AG, Ruth/Jennifer, and not-secret-but-they-considered-it-shameful Amber/Walky – it makes sense that the focus was on their sexual attraction and how it was a bad idea, or that they generally kept hookups to sex and go because they didn’t want to get found together. (Particularly the case for Danny and AG there.) Dina and Becky have been together for months, but Becky’s shame and lust mean she was unlikely to push further – even now, she’s still got hangups after having sex, and that shame applied to ANYTHING remotely non-chaste. That could well be a different story for, say, Marcie and Malaya, or Ruth and Jason, who all seem to have healthier attitudes towards sex and are therefore probably more comfortable with a range of activities. So there are probably some that just don’t come up, whereas the characters who are going to be talking about sex a lot are the ones who’d be most fixated on Sex In Particular but also maybe aren’t comfortable with casual intimacy. Since a lot of that comes from Willis’s upbringing and sexual hangups, it makes sense.
Also, because Willis knows he can sell Slipshines. That is also a factor. Naked times probably sell more.
They did not officially get together or anything to my knowledge, but mostly because Malaya has been working out gender stuff. We haven’t seen them interact much since the timeskip so it could always be revisited later or readdressed as Marcie mostly had sexual attraction, Malaya mostly saw her as a cool friend and seemed uncertain if further was really of interest to her when it was pointed out to her.
There was a lot of Marcie/Malaya smooching in the first July ’21 Patreon bonus strip when Marcie saw Malaya in a binder and nongender specific clothes.
Which couples, in particular? Walky/Dorothy had a full comic strip devoted to Walky being unsure if he could touch Dorothy’s breasts some time before they ever slept together, and Danny and AG started with “heavy petting,” Dan’s words, the night they tried to put the stop sign back up, unless Danny lied to Joe when he got back to his room.
Couples have been intimate without having capital s Sex in this comic plenty of times. It just can’t be shown if it escalates beyond cuddling because this comic is meant to be pg-13ish, nothing more intimate than heavy makeouts and after sex glow. Which is why we have the slipshines for the plot relevant sex scenes, but those take a lot of effort to make and people are paying money to see them, and it wouldn’t really make sense to do one just for some grinding or fingering. Basically due to not wanting to alienate people who don’t want to see heavy sexual content, but still having it as a rare exclusive side option, onscreen sexuality is go big or go home.
Is anyone as surprised as I am to be seeing Dina making so much eye contact and showing so much emotion on her face today? She must have been practicing!
It’s here where people talks about Slipshine? I’m still processing it.
It’s so awesome to see Willis drawing full page. It’s very different from daily strip. I wish Willis got more 4 or six hands to make DoA huge like slipshine.
Apropos of nothing, I’m reminded of that one comment back in the day (when the NSFW side-bar was showing the Jason/Sal Slipshine, I believe) and due to that commenter apparently never having come across the “NSFW” acronym before and the fact that Sal’s long hair wasn’t visible in the banner, they thought it was Walky fucking Jason in the thumbnail and that NSFW stood for No Sex For Walky.
So many bad memories about the wooden spoon… Maybe it’s for that motivation I never use it for cooking. I’m sad for Becky to have the same bad experience with that unfortunate tools.
I really hope that the next time Dina expresses interest it is by saying “The Velustiraptor hungers” instead of “I am experiencing pants euphoria again.” I’m not against her traditional way of speaking, but I particularly love the idea of couples developing sexy in-jokes.
It’s a reference from “The Good Place”. (Great show. Worth watching.) But you have a valid point. Frozen yogurt was in the Good Place.
Yogurt, as described in The Good Place: “There’s something so human about taking something and ruining it a little so you can have more of it.” (Which may also be applicable to today’s comic.)
So yeah, Becky was being physically abused too, that shouldn’t actually be surprising to me.
My guess is that where the Browns taught Joyce to be perfectly obedient, Ross just beat Becky into compliance, and Becky had to find ways around him. Becky wants to cut her hair, so she very accidentally spills glue onto it, and you can’t beat your kid for something that’s not their fault if you’re a Good Parent, after all.
And from there, I think that’s how Becky developed her persona of a loud wacky goofball who is supposed to be everyone’s favourite cool badass friend, and then she latches onto the people who are most endeared by her because they love her unconditionally and so she never has to worry about disobeying them. Becky needed to be perfect for her dad, and perfection was following a strict guideline of rules that, if broken, led to being punished, but with Joyce and Dorothy she has absolutely no filter because they have repeatedly expressed that they love her no matter what, while Dina is someone who nudges Becky into positive directions because Becky had all those fears and anxieties that if they were sexually incompatible (which Becky eventually decided was entirely her fault) Dina would leave her and she’d be alone forever.
I think Becky’s at a point where the only way she feels safe around somebody is if she can convince herself they unconditionally love her and that whatever she does or say will never have any reprisal, because her entire life until now has been nothing but conditional love where she didn’t just have to act as Ross’s perfect godly daughter, she had to pretend she was and express herself in ways where she couldn’t get beaten.
If I had to guess for the dramatic fallout, I think this is gonna make Becky double down on trying to convert Joyce back.
When Dina first proposed the idea of having sex, Becky refused on the grounds that she’d already changed too much in such a short time. Losing her virginity is the last nail in the coffin for Becky’s old life, where she was a good Christian girl with alive parents and a life laid out in advance with a community of people who didn’t all instinctively hate her guts.
All that’s left is Joyce, who is supposed to remain Becky’s besty in Christ and be the funny weirdo it’s hilarious to do things that make her to do Joyce Faces. If Becky accepts that Joyce is an atheist, then everything really has changed and it’s never coming back. Her parents are dead, her community threw her away, Becky has changed in a way she can’t immediately square with her all-loving God, and Joyce has changed from who Becky thinks she needs to be (ie: a permanent fixture that Becky can endlessly rely on for stability and comfort) and will keep changing until, eventually, Joyce is just gone forever too.
… Dina, I am going to give you a wooden spoon, and then I want you to follow my instructions VERY carefully. It will be the punishment Becky expects, but I guarantee you she will love it. 😉
Okay, I’m no psychologist, and I’m fortunate enough not to have experienced corporal punshment myself, but I’m pretty sure people who were actually beaten with a wooden spoon aren’t going to be into that.
There’s this kinda rampant backlash to the idea that BDSM is all about coping with childhood trauma. You’re a dom because you had an abusive mother and want control. You’re a sub because you had an abusive father and want to be abused again. It’s a stereotype, and so kinksters who don’t come from that background rebel against it.
But, y’know, it can still happen. We’re shaped by those experiences, so like it or not, they worm their way into every facet of our lives. My ideal romantic partner, I eventually realized, is someone I can look at every day and think “I’m safe,” because my entire life has been defined by chaotic emotional turbulence and every adult around me had a relationship that Al Bundy would deem excessive. I want boring, predictable, samey routine, because I’ve never been allowed to have it my entire life so it’s the most intimately romantic thing I can possibly conceive of.
(Sal leaning up against Danny in the snow and saying that she was looking for comfort this whole time spoke to me, in case that slipped anyone by)
Becky (who the entire universe pegged as a bottom a million years before two weeks ago, where she got massively turned on at Dina saying she liked having Becky all to herself where she could poke and prod wherever she wanted to see what excites her) grew up in a controlling and abusive environment that she has now escaped. That environment, however, was her status quo, and like it or not we become so intimately tied to our status quo that we yearn for it in some regard. Exploring kink in this circumstance would be for a way for Becky to process those feelings she had instilled into her, that love is being controlled and dictated by the whims of another person, in a way that exists for her to feel emotional and physical gratification that begins and ends at her command, which is the important part: Becky is completely in control of handing herself to Dina to be controlled. If Dina smacks Becky’s ass around with the exact same model of wooden spoon her dad used, it only lasts until Becky goes “nah I’m good.”
Kink as an expression of healing from trauma, taking the abuse you suffered and filtering it into an experience that you control that exists for your pleasure, is perfectly valid and we need to avoid saying things that stigmatize the idea that being abused is some kind of permanent poison on your character.
I’ve “heard of some people” that are “definitely not me” that thought they were totally vanilla well into adulthood until they randomly came across material related to a specific fetish and had a reaction like “haha, people get turned on by this? Wait, I’M turned on by this!? What the hell?” I’m no expert on the subject by any means, but I feel like there could be a large population of people who are just inherently predisposed to certain kinks but never came across anything that makes them realize it. If that’s the case, what you said about the prevalence of trauma survivors on both sides of the dom/sub kink community makes me think that trauma probably doesn’t cause the kink, but might provide experiences that alerts people to their latent predisposition towards it…?
What, like maybe it’s not a result OF the trauma, but the traumatic events/behaviors might sometimes be in close enough proximity to LEAD to the buttons being pressed? I could see that.
Yes, that’s a much clearer way of saying what I was trying to get across, thank you! In my case, the exposure to the button-pressing material was relatively benign, so I’m basically just happy to have learned something about myself. But, I could definitely see how those sorts of discoveries through traumatic means could lead to mixed feelings about exploring the related kink and could make people uncomfortable with anything that links the kink with the trauma.
Spencer, I am so sorry that you went through all that. D-:
I am so glad and hopeful to hear that you are seeking out healthier relationships in adulthood. That takes real insight and strength of character to do.
(Possible TMI) But I was abused as a child (I literally learned how to tell my left from my right by a scar my mom gave me on my wrist with a match) and I’m into light to moderate BDSM. I don’t think the two interconnect at all. I’m not kinky because I was abused, and I don’t consider consensual spankings to be the same as the abuse I suffered.
That is awful, Tilt. How horrible! I am so sorry you went through such abuse!
D-8 :-0 🙁
SO SO GLAD that you are able to find your safe space to explore your sexuality without getting bogged down in trauma from the abuse you suffered. You are amazing. Grateful to hear that you are safe and well in adulthood.
Spencer gave a very excellent and erudite post about the use of kink and BDSM as healing/therapy. Now, I must hasten to add that I do NOT recommend using BDSM as a REPLACEMENT for proper therapy and mental health professionals, but it CAN help, in some circumstances. I have a friend who’s a submissive, and she told me how she was actually raped when she was in college by someone she trusted, and it really messed her up mentally. You wouldn’t think that somebody who’d been through what she had would wind up developing a submission fetish, but for her, the crucial difference was the knowledge that, once again, she was in a helpless state, but this time, it was because SHE wanted it to happen. And she knew too that she could stop things at anytime with her safeword. After her traumatic experience, the knowledge that she could once again confront the circumstances on her own terms was extremely empowering and therapeutic. The fact that she was also getting sexual gratification from it was a bonus. 😉
Man, imagine not having been taught that your body doesn’t actually belong to you. Imagine being able to express your sexuality without shame and fear. Imagine not immediately knowing what the wooden spoon thing is about.
Even without sensory issues, it can still be a punishment when done as such – lower scale, but still a way of exerting control and showing power over you.
I do believe some time ago that Rose by Any Other Name introduced to the forum the concept of “multiple virginities”?
I hope she comes back here soon so we can explore that in depth.
Also, if provided my data is reliable, I can bet that one of them would include doing it on cannabis! 😂
Also, albeit it doesn’t involve a partner, from what I’ve heard, sex in lucid dreams is supposed to be EXTRAORDINARY! 😍
So much to learn… looks like this educational experience will stretch well beyond the Slipshine itself, much the same way that our solar system stretches well beyond the eight planets!!! 🤩
So many folks here went through such pain. I’m glad the comic and its community help to give voice to that experience. That we are all strong and came out on the other side mostly safely, and are recovering from that pain.
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The fun thing about watching the end of Platinum End is [HUGE SPOILER] but also having THAT God in mind when reading this comic, in which case sex is the last thing you need to worry about, Beckers
Slipshine: just put your gaddang note in the comic
… Yeah, THERE’S an image. Lol
Hey Regs! Good to see you here!
Have enough spoons to enjoy the slipshine? I sure hope I do!
IT’S FINALLY HERE!!!!! 🤩🤩🤩😭😭😭😍😍😍🥲🥲🥲
Woah! Dina and Becky in a PORNO!!!
😮 Oh woah. So many areas of their brains are gonna be affected — their Medulla oblongatas are gonna accelerate their heart rate and breathing, their oxytocin and dopamine receptors are gonna be filled to the brim, their prefrontal cortexes are gonna —
Wait, why am I telling you all this when we can VISIT their brains AND bodies?!?!
Oh this will CERTAINLY be a rejuvenating AND educational experience!!!
SEAT BELTS EVERYONE!!!
HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS!!!
😆😆😆
*plays Magic School Bus theme on Hacked Muzak*
🤩🤩 WA HA HA HOOOOO!!!! 😛😛
Oh fuck of course they were.
And David is pulling another Chocofix out of his No-Particular-Sunday basket.
It took me a minute to get what you meant by “Marvel Style”. Looked around for Nick Fury asking them to join the Smut Initiative.
Face front, true believer!
Ahhhh, I love Dina. She is the best.
Y’know, the bible would probably be way better if God punished those who’d sinned by making them eat brussel sprouts or something.
Can I prepare them any way I want? Because then I’d just sin more for free brussel sprouts.
Those get a bad rap because people boil or steam them, which turns them into slime.
Put them in a plastic bag with some olive oil and lemon pepper, shake until coated, then roast them until browned and crispy. They are fantastic.
It’s not a punishment if you get to prepare them however you want. God will prepare them the way you, personally, like them prepared the least.
Apparently, they have a new breed of them, that actually taste good. Less bitter.
Betcha it still makes your pee smell funky.
They taste like MARSHMALLOWS!
You spray olive oil on a pyrex pie tin, load it up with fresh or frozen brussels sprouts, spray or brush the olive oil over top as well, sprinkle all your favorite seasonings all over them, and bake them in a toaster oven (or regular oven) at 450 degrees for a half hour or more (until they’re blackened on the outside)…
And they taste just like toasted marshmallows! DEE-VINE!!
Oh, yeah, that’s my recipe! Sorry, I saw I just repeated you by accident! Yum yum yum! :-9
I cut them in half and sautée in butter.
Cooked with cubed bacon is nice, but most things are if you’re so ways inclined.
I really dom’t understand what’ different about every time I’ve ever cooked brussels sprouts, because when I boil them and then douse them in butter they just taste lile delicious tender savory snacks, but trying to bake them, especially when people suggest lemon or vinaigrette, just makes them come out little tough, unchewable balls that taste how piss smells.
We brush on some oil and add some pepper and spices, and BBQ them on a griddle, simply awesome.
I think I read there was a bit where he punished people by making them eat quail.
Hahaha, yeah, they ate it til it came out their ears. Serves us right, buncha stiff-necked complainers!
highly recommend y’all to go check the pornographique out!! if that’s yr thing ofc <3
Recommendation seconded definitely
Checked it out, and came to the conclusion that even comic strip characters are having a better Friday night than I am.
Please excuse me while I go cry myself to sleep.
it’s cool for them it’s sunday
Good idea, I need a excuse to reactivate my Slipshine account.
Dina should probably read the Bible, in order to better understand Becky’s brain. But, it’s funnier if she doesn’t.
I dunno about that. Dina reading the Bible is probably as likely to confuse the issue as it is to give her any actual insight. I imagine it could be at least equally funny in different ways.
“… and here it says this, but over here it says the opposite. How did you reconcile the contradictions?”
Contradictions in Genesis 1 vs. Genesis 2 can be in her Top Five Genesis complaints, but the lack of evolution would probably bug her more.
But if she can get to Psalms, the Leviathan is kinda like a dinosaur, right?
It’s an ordinary crocodile.
Crocodiles appeared at the same time as dinosaurs, and only one of those is still around today. There is nothing “ordinary” about crocodiles.
Both of them are still around today. As it is now spring, open your windows and hear the songs the dinosaurs sing.
I’d rather not, there’s a rather hungry-looking turkey vulture that’s been hanging around my place the past few days and I don’t want its attention
Im suprised she does not read yet for sciene and her girlfriend
What does the bible have to do with modern Christian Evangelicalism?
Okay, GRANTED, but at least she’d get the Garden of Eden reference.
Ok Their bible and interpretation
Reading the Bible is a surprisingly poor way of understanding Christianity in general or any specific subgroup in particular.
That might seem even stranger with a group like fundamentalists who claim to take it literally.
As an atheist, reading the Bible is definitely useful for understanding many cultural references in a Christian-dominated country like the US, but it seems to me that most Christians in this country either haven’t read it themselves, or they have developed ways to interpret the stuff in the Bible to mean entirely different things from what it actually says anyway.
And even then you can get most of the cultural references without actually reading the Bible – from other references or summaries or whatever. Often reading such things might give a better understanding of the cultural references than reading the text itself would. Our cultural understanding of the “Bible story” is sort of blurred amalgamation of different Biblical accounts and other materials. The Gospel stories, for example, get jammed together into single narrative with bits of each. Our understanding of Hell comes more from Dante and Milton than anything actually in the Bible.
That always strikes me as so crazy. How can somebody think they have the Literal Word Of Literal God, there in their hands, but then not even read the book? Some fundies don’t even read it in translation! It’s nuts.
Time to get of those jobs or gobs or whatever they’re called so I have some slip shine money.
I still wasn’t expecting the Slipshine, I’ll be honest
I dunno, some might unironically like the wooden spoon, and it DO be not for cereal
Eat yesterday, ride today? *mhmm* *mhmm* *mhmm* *mhmm*
Aww, these two <3
is it weird that my mind immediately gravitated towards the “wooden spoon” line
like, i already knew toedad was a spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child kinda guy, and we outright saw him slap her during the kidnapping, but… something about becky naming what was probably his specific implement of choice kinda makes it all the more real. the way she still expects that kind of violence, of pain for pain’s sake, any time, from anyone she considers parental or authoritative… fuck, i’ve been there. and come to think of it, it kinda adds a whole new layer that one scene where she was sneaking into leslie’s house to get stuff– even though she rationally knows that leslie would never do something like that, the association between failing a parental figure and pain is really fucking hard to shake. it’s a major part of my communication issues to this day.
granted, my parents were mostly hands-on when it came to corporal punishment (something about the tangibility probably made it more satisfying for them), so i’m not sure why the mention of the spoon was what triggered it in my brain…
Thank you for alerting me to the idea that a wooden spoon can be an instrument of parent-inflicted punishment. To me a wooden spoon is just the prize for coming in last place, and parental displeasure is more habitually meted out with a slipper/chancla/other foot related device.
No not weird at all- that IMMEDIATELY set off giant alarm bells for me. And for anyone else in the comments- a wooden spoon is p much directly analogous to a *belt* in terms of ‘kind of a direct nod to corporeal punishment’.
Oof, yeah. I hadn’t fully remembered Ross slapping her (and worse still, her complete non-surprise when he did so,) but yeah that is… almost certainly not a hypothetical expectation of violence.
Poor Becky. I really hope she’s eventually given the space and support to come to terms with just how fucked up her upbringing was.
No, it absolutely stands out. And I never got hit with one, but my Grandma did talk about it.
Yeah, I got that. Reading Becky talking about that linked automatically to her dad
Actually, if there is a young child and wooden spoon association for me, it’s fighting siblings for the right to lick them off after some types of baking activities went on. I think that’s likely a more pleasant memory…
…I just kinda assumed that was a bible thing.
I can’t remember if spoons even are in the Bible.
It’s a “specific evangelical pastor’s advice that became culturally endemic” thing.
Wooden spoons are not simply an evangelical thing, they span cultures. My Irish Catholic grandmother knew exactly what Becky is referring to here.
Wooden implements, in general, are highly traditional. Wooden spanking paddles used to be ubiquitous. My mom was hit with one occasionally.
Corporal punishment with paddles for schoolchildren is still completely legal in many states, including Indiana.
It made me think of blanket training (something I’ve fortunately only heard about but never known anyone to actually do).
…that’s a new set of horrors for me, actually. Hadn’t heard of it before.
(I should note that my parents were never fundie/evangelical types, so I’m not as familiar with the particular kinds of abuse committed in those bubbles. My parents did actually stop eventually, and I’m pretty sure it was less a religious thing and more an “our parents did this and we turned out fine” thing.)
tfw ur gf is literally so hot she blazes a sexual conquest against your shame and your god and flawless victorys that shit
“So, you would like to be punished, then? With a wooden spoon? I think I can arrange for one.”
“…”
“Yes, please.”
I mean… [shrug emoji]
I’m not sure if I’d be into S&M at all, but it does seem pretty kinky when boundaries are respected. I think Becky and Dina are a very healthy couple and I could definitely see them getting into the kink lifestyle, at some point waaay down the line. (not necessarily S&M of course)
Dina has attacked and dethroned God and now the throne is hers.
(Becky is the footstool)
Look if religious far right politicians can have various different mistresses to commit adultry with and be pro murderous war all the time because they sold all they’re moral value out for a buck and still be convinced they’re getting into heaven, then I think one or two acts of pre-wedlock sec is nothing but a droop in the bucket.
“Rules for thee, not for me. You have the freedom to do as I tell you.”
– Them, since forever ago.
I do hope this helps put her fears to rest.
Imma watch Avatar and get a good night’s sleep so I can get the most use out of this pornographic!
Maximizing fun through the power of SCIENCE!!! 😆😆😆
See you all later!!! 😉
Enjoy, sleep well, and have fun! 🙂
Ok so can we lay the weird comments about Dina assaulting Becky to rest now?
Hum, yeah, it’s good Dina was so careful with Becky. It’s funny, even in non-assaultive situations, mid-action and pre-action and post-action, quick-switch freakouts, and buyers remorse, and mind-changing, and cold feet, and sudden turnoffs, and sudden feelings of cold or nausea or dread or disinterest, and sudden dissociation or distancing from the body … aversive reactions can happen any time, even in the most consensual of settings. I’ve had that sick-to-your stomach feeling many times, with respect to a sexual situation. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it was noncon.
I swear to gosh if I see one fucking more of those, I’m gonna McFreakin’ Lose It.
Please, please
I think it’s amazing and wonderful that young folks today are being taught about enthusiastic consent. That stuff wasn’t part of the sex ed curriculum until after I was out of school altogether. I wish it had been taught earlier.
We got the mechanics (and I’m so glad we did!) and the basic information about condoms, but that’s about it. The same-sex prophylaxis we taught ourselves and each other, using the information from the local clinics’ street outreach. (The local CDC and Planned Parenthood clinics were such godsends for young folks and folks without health insurance!)
But teaching about enthusiastic consent — that it’s more complex than just “no means no” — that wasn’t taught when I was growing up.
Really sad all the attacks on teachers these days just for teaching kids about their right to control their own bodies. It’s such vital knowledge and I’m so glad that college-age kids today do learn it.
I’m not sure they learn it in school. Plenty of Kids These Days get all their Sex Ed from the internet. If they’re lucky, they find scarletteen. If they aren’t, their sex ed is watching porn.
That’s right, if we don’t teach our kids about sex, they’ll learn it from Willis. :0
I had never heard of scarleteen. Thank you for the reference! I’m gonna pass it along!
It’s like Bravo, except it’s pitiably tame because America.
Gotta check out Bravo now too!
Where can I find Bravo? Google has a few Bravos.
Only thing I was taught in Science class (no sex ed in Oklahoma) was all the terrible diseases you could get from it. And this was BEFORE AIDS.
My mom’s was like that too. But still, they got the mechanics, which many of the high schoolers in her class still did not know.
Public understanding and awareness of consent (and layers of consensual experience) have come so far in the past 40 years!
I was a Japanese teacher, but I used to have a hair trigger on delivering sex Ed mini lessons. Someone draws a dick on my whiteboard? Bang.
I used to have lines like ‘almost all the sex that happens is for the enjoyment of art least one participant,’ so I’d talk about anatomy but also some broad strokes on pleasure – shaft head balls on a penis, clitoral structure, nerve density, the prostate. Cervix vagina vulva.
I’m ace which may have helped me be totally divorced from my own sexual experience while talking to 14yos (never omg never give them personal sexual information ever). I’d also never use ‘you’ for the duration. And usually included a line about ‘there are physical and emotional risks in sex, so it’s generally advised that people your age hold off on it until you’ve got some actual communication skills and emotional development under your belts’
Wow!
I love how confident and supportive Dina is omg
No, Dina.
In this nonsensical absurd metaphour Dog would cook you.
The both of yous.
The spoon would be for stirring.
Dog would never do that, Dog would want pets and treats.
oh yeah, that takes me back. 😐
(not a common thing in my childhood, but it was there.)
It is kind of strange to me, though, that much of this comic tends to put a bright line in between “sex” and “not having sex”. As if all college romances automatically go direct to sexual intercourse unless one or both partner is consciously choosing to remain abstinent. There’s so much in-between there. Back when I was young and active, especially in college, there would often be many nights of cuddling, kissing, and often doing plenty of exciting and sexy stuff together, without doing “the deed” (by any definition). People who are involved together can be sexual in plenty of ways without “having sex”.
Dina and Becky kind of showed that earlier in the day, when they were experimenting with what kinds of visual displays might turn Dina on. That’s plenty sexy. But I almost wish it hadn’t gone straight to “having sex” from there. Sometimes you want to just drive for a nice long stretch together at 45 mph, rather than go from 0 to 60.
you’re not alone, even if it’s hard to tell from this comment section.
We’ve seen some allusions to it – Jacob asking Raidah if she was interested in fooling around being the first one that comes to mind – but there is definitely a lot of emphasis on sex specifically. That said, the people for whom it comes up most frequently – Becky, Joe, and Joyce in particular – all have very specific hangups around sex as well, with Joe likely to exaggerate any romantic encounter to ‘sex’ and Becky and Joyce feeling guilt for having any sexual urges at all. (Ethan definitely had some hangups before the casual dating, but we also have no reason to believe he always had sex 100% of the time with those.) We’ve seen Dorothy and Walky on one or the other’s bed without any implication they’ve had sex, for example. And for the group of characters whose relationships were in any way meant to be secret – most of the other pairings, with Sal/Jason, Danny/AG, Ruth/Jennifer, and not-secret-but-they-considered-it-shameful Amber/Walky – it makes sense that the focus was on their sexual attraction and how it was a bad idea, or that they generally kept hookups to sex and go because they didn’t want to get found together. (Particularly the case for Danny and AG there.) Dina and Becky have been together for months, but Becky’s shame and lust mean she was unlikely to push further – even now, she’s still got hangups after having sex, and that shame applied to ANYTHING remotely non-chaste. That could well be a different story for, say, Marcie and Malaya, or Ruth and Jason, who all seem to have healthier attitudes towards sex and are therefore probably more comfortable with a range of activities. So there are probably some that just don’t come up, whereas the characters who are going to be talking about sex a lot are the ones who’d be most fixated on Sex In Particular but also maybe aren’t comfortable with casual intimacy. Since a lot of that comes from Willis’s upbringing and sexual hangups, it makes sense.
Also, because Willis knows he can sell Slipshines. That is also a factor. Naked times probably sell more.
Thank you for the thoughtful analysis, Regali!
Oh, did Marcie and Malaya get together? I missed that.
They did not officially get together or anything to my knowledge, but mostly because Malaya has been working out gender stuff. We haven’t seen them interact much since the timeskip so it could always be revisited later or readdressed as Marcie mostly had sexual attraction, Malaya mostly saw her as a cool friend and seemed uncertain if further was really of interest to her when it was pointed out to her.
There was a lot of Marcie/Malaya smooching in the first July ’21 Patreon bonus strip when Marcie saw Malaya in a binder and nongender specific clothes.
Which couples, in particular? Walky/Dorothy had a full comic strip devoted to Walky being unsure if he could touch Dorothy’s breasts some time before they ever slept together, and Danny and AG started with “heavy petting,” Dan’s words, the night they tried to put the stop sign back up, unless Danny lied to Joe when he got back to his room.
In fact, if I remember correctly, Walky and Dorothy slept together before they “slept together”, if you know what I mean.
They had quite the build-up, for sure.
Ok, yeah, that makes sense. I stand corrected. Thank you for the Patreon update on Marcie, too!
Couples have been intimate without having capital s Sex in this comic plenty of times. It just can’t be shown if it escalates beyond cuddling because this comic is meant to be pg-13ish, nothing more intimate than heavy makeouts and after sex glow. Which is why we have the slipshines for the plot relevant sex scenes, but those take a lot of effort to make and people are paying money to see them, and it wouldn’t really make sense to do one just for some grinding or fingering. Basically due to not wanting to alienate people who don’t want to see heavy sexual content, but still having it as a rare exclusive side option, onscreen sexuality is go big or go home.
That makes sense. Thank you for explaining it! 🙂
Also a very good explanation of Slipshines getting some onscreen content vs heavy petting, makeouts, etc.
The Slipshine was excellent, topless and nude Dina was >chef’s kiss<.
Awww speech bubbles, relayers of dialogue, preservers of modesty, upwards of 25% of Dumbing of Age.
Covering up nothing, I swear!
Is anyone as surprised as I am to be seeing Dina making so much eye contact and showing so much emotion on her face today? She must have been practicing!
dopamine david?
Well you can’t very well call’m “Damn-You David” today can you
It’s here where people talks about Slipshine? I’m still processing it.
It’s so awesome to see Willis drawing full page. It’s very different from daily strip. I wish Willis got more 4 or six hands to make DoA huge like slipshine.
Dina’s last question would explain a lot of foods.
Apropos of nothing, I’m reminded of that one comment back in the day (when the NSFW side-bar was showing the Jason/Sal Slipshine, I believe) and due to that commenter apparently never having come across the “NSFW” acronym before and the fact that Sal’s long hair wasn’t visible in the banner, they thought it was Walky fucking Jason in the thumbnail and that NSFW stood for No Sex For Walky.
Thank you for this, that was delightful
Indeed XD
I’m vulnerable to DC/Marvel style jokes, and this one is an angle I don’t see a lot of. I took double Laugh Damage from this comic.
Velustiraptor. Heh 🙂
so, you can leave you hat on, uh
So many bad memories about the wooden spoon… Maybe it’s for that motivation I never use it for cooking. I’m sad for Becky to have the same bad experience with that unfortunate tools.
I’m so sorry to hear this, Rabisch. 🙁
Glad you can cook comfortably without one.
So hell is potato salad with raisins and BBQ with way too sweet sauce?
I really hope that the next time Dina expresses interest it is by saying “The Velustiraptor hungers” instead of “I am experiencing pants euphoria again.” I’m not against her traditional way of speaking, but I particularly love the idea of couples developing sexy in-jokes.
hell is an eternity of lentil stew
Hell is Manhattan style clam chowder, pineapple pizza and frozen yogurt.
I question the wisdom of eating pizza and chowder in the same meal, but what’s wrong with the frozen yoghourt?
It’s a reference from “The Good Place”. (Great show. Worth watching.) But you have a valid point. Frozen yogurt was in the Good Place.
Yogurt, as described in The Good Place: “There’s something so human about taking something and ruining it a little so you can have more of it.” (Which may also be applicable to today’s comic.)
More for me 😋
So yeah, Becky was being physically abused too, that shouldn’t actually be surprising to me.
My guess is that where the Browns taught Joyce to be perfectly obedient, Ross just beat Becky into compliance, and Becky had to find ways around him. Becky wants to cut her hair, so she very accidentally spills glue onto it, and you can’t beat your kid for something that’s not their fault if you’re a Good Parent, after all.
And from there, I think that’s how Becky developed her persona of a loud wacky goofball who is supposed to be everyone’s favourite cool badass friend, and then she latches onto the people who are most endeared by her because they love her unconditionally and so she never has to worry about disobeying them. Becky needed to be perfect for her dad, and perfection was following a strict guideline of rules that, if broken, led to being punished, but with Joyce and Dorothy she has absolutely no filter because they have repeatedly expressed that they love her no matter what, while Dina is someone who nudges Becky into positive directions because Becky had all those fears and anxieties that if they were sexually incompatible (which Becky eventually decided was entirely her fault) Dina would leave her and she’d be alone forever.
I think Becky’s at a point where the only way she feels safe around somebody is if she can convince herself they unconditionally love her and that whatever she does or say will never have any reprisal, because her entire life until now has been nothing but conditional love where she didn’t just have to act as Ross’s perfect godly daughter, she had to pretend she was and express herself in ways where she couldn’t get beaten.
Like she’s been with Leslie, I guess?
If I had to guess for the dramatic fallout, I think this is gonna make Becky double down on trying to convert Joyce back.
When Dina first proposed the idea of having sex, Becky refused on the grounds that she’d already changed too much in such a short time. Losing her virginity is the last nail in the coffin for Becky’s old life, where she was a good Christian girl with alive parents and a life laid out in advance with a community of people who didn’t all instinctively hate her guts.
All that’s left is Joyce, who is supposed to remain Becky’s besty in Christ and be the funny weirdo it’s hilarious to do things that make her to do Joyce Faces. If Becky accepts that Joyce is an atheist, then everything really has changed and it’s never coming back. Her parents are dead, her community threw her away, Becky has changed in a way she can’t immediately square with her all-loving God, and Joyce has changed from who Becky thinks she needs to be (ie: a permanent fixture that Becky can endlessly rely on for stability and comfort) and will keep changing until, eventually, Joyce is just gone forever too.
Wait, there is an asterix in the pink comment box, but where is the asterix in the dialogue it refers to.
… Dina, I am going to give you a wooden spoon, and then I want you to follow my instructions VERY carefully. It will be the punishment Becky expects, but I guarantee you she will love it. 😉
Okay, I’m no psychologist, and I’m fortunate enough not to have experienced corporal punshment myself, but I’m pretty sure people who were actually beaten with a wooden spoon aren’t going to be into that.
Depends.
There’s this kinda rampant backlash to the idea that BDSM is all about coping with childhood trauma. You’re a dom because you had an abusive mother and want control. You’re a sub because you had an abusive father and want to be abused again. It’s a stereotype, and so kinksters who don’t come from that background rebel against it.
But, y’know, it can still happen. We’re shaped by those experiences, so like it or not, they worm their way into every facet of our lives. My ideal romantic partner, I eventually realized, is someone I can look at every day and think “I’m safe,” because my entire life has been defined by chaotic emotional turbulence and every adult around me had a relationship that Al Bundy would deem excessive. I want boring, predictable, samey routine, because I’ve never been allowed to have it my entire life so it’s the most intimately romantic thing I can possibly conceive of.
(Sal leaning up against Danny in the snow and saying that she was looking for comfort this whole time spoke to me, in case that slipped anyone by)
Becky (who the entire universe pegged as a bottom a million years before two weeks ago, where she got massively turned on at Dina saying she liked having Becky all to herself where she could poke and prod wherever she wanted to see what excites her) grew up in a controlling and abusive environment that she has now escaped. That environment, however, was her status quo, and like it or not we become so intimately tied to our status quo that we yearn for it in some regard. Exploring kink in this circumstance would be for a way for Becky to process those feelings she had instilled into her, that love is being controlled and dictated by the whims of another person, in a way that exists for her to feel emotional and physical gratification that begins and ends at her command, which is the important part: Becky is completely in control of handing herself to Dina to be controlled. If Dina smacks Becky’s ass around with the exact same model of wooden spoon her dad used, it only lasts until Becky goes “nah I’m good.”
Kink as an expression of healing from trauma, taking the abuse you suffered and filtering it into an experience that you control that exists for your pleasure, is perfectly valid and we need to avoid saying things that stigmatize the idea that being abused is some kind of permanent poison on your character.
I’ve “heard of some people” that are “definitely not me” that thought they were totally vanilla well into adulthood until they randomly came across material related to a specific fetish and had a reaction like “haha, people get turned on by this? Wait, I’M turned on by this!? What the hell?” I’m no expert on the subject by any means, but I feel like there could be a large population of people who are just inherently predisposed to certain kinks but never came across anything that makes them realize it. If that’s the case, what you said about the prevalence of trauma survivors on both sides of the dom/sub kink community makes me think that trauma probably doesn’t cause the kink, but might provide experiences that alerts people to their latent predisposition towards it…?
What, like maybe it’s not a result OF the trauma, but the traumatic events/behaviors might sometimes be in close enough proximity to LEAD to the buttons being pressed? I could see that.
Yes, that’s a much clearer way of saying what I was trying to get across, thank you! In my case, the exposure to the button-pressing material was relatively benign, so I’m basically just happy to have learned something about myself. But, I could definitely see how those sorts of discoveries through traumatic means could lead to mixed feelings about exploring the related kink and could make people uncomfortable with anything that links the kink with the trauma.
We in the kink community have a saying: “If you think you’re not kinky, it just means that you haven’t found yours yet.” 😉
Spencer, I am so sorry that you went through all that. D-:
I am so glad and hopeful to hear that you are seeking out healthier relationships in adulthood. That takes real insight and strength of character to do.
(Possible TMI) But I was abused as a child (I literally learned how to tell my left from my right by a scar my mom gave me on my wrist with a match) and I’m into light to moderate BDSM. I don’t think the two interconnect at all. I’m not kinky because I was abused, and I don’t consider consensual spankings to be the same as the abuse I suffered.
That is awful, Tilt. How horrible! I am so sorry you went through such abuse!
D-8 :-0 🙁
SO SO GLAD that you are able to find your safe space to explore your sexuality without getting bogged down in trauma from the abuse you suffered. You are amazing. Grateful to hear that you are safe and well in adulthood.
Spencer gave a very excellent and erudite post about the use of kink and BDSM as healing/therapy. Now, I must hasten to add that I do NOT recommend using BDSM as a REPLACEMENT for proper therapy and mental health professionals, but it CAN help, in some circumstances. I have a friend who’s a submissive, and she told me how she was actually raped when she was in college by someone she trusted, and it really messed her up mentally. You wouldn’t think that somebody who’d been through what she had would wind up developing a submission fetish, but for her, the crucial difference was the knowledge that, once again, she was in a helpless state, but this time, it was because SHE wanted it to happen. And she knew too that she could stop things at anytime with her safeword. After her traumatic experience, the knowledge that she could once again confront the circumstances on her own terms was extremely empowering and therapeutic. The fact that she was also getting sexual gratification from it was a bonus. 😉
apple pie?
Man, imagine not having been taught that your body doesn’t actually belong to you. Imagine being able to express your sexuality without shame and fear. Imagine not immediately knowing what the wooden spoon thing is about.
Fuck “Christian values” and fuck abusive parents.
Being cooked foods you dislike can definitely be a punishment if you have sensory issues that make it hard for you to eat certain foods.
Even without sensory issues, it can still be a punishment when done as such – lower scale, but still a way of exerting control and showing power over you.
I think Dina would enjoy a… demonstration
I want to get my virginty back, just to lose it like Becky and Dina did. This slipeshine scalated so fast, it went from 0 to 100Km/h in 3 seconds.
Ever hear Madonna’s “Like a virgin”? Sometimes it can be just a matter of mindset and perception.
I do believe some time ago that Rose by Any Other Name introduced to the forum the concept of “multiple virginities”?
I hope she comes back here soon so we can explore that in depth.
Also, if provided my data is reliable, I can bet that one of them would include doing it on cannabis! 😂
Also, albeit it doesn’t involve a partner, from what I’ve heard, sex in lucid dreams is supposed to be EXTRAORDINARY! 😍
So much to learn… looks like this educational experience will stretch well beyond the Slipshine itself, much the same way that our solar system stretches well beyond the eight planets!!! 🤩
Oops, sorry, that wound up placed wrong.
Worth every penny of the subscription!
It is wildly healthy for Becky to be able to near a completely neutral take on Christianity.
Also, WOO LESBIAN SECKS
So, will Dina publish the results of her experiment in a scientific journal?
Oh you sweet summer child Dina.
I had to go get a branch off the lilac tree when I was little.
Damn that’s old school.
Dina is one of my favourite Austistic characters in fiction.
Do any of the other Walkyverse characters have specific diagnoses?
So many folks here went through such pain. I’m glad the comic and its community help to give voice to that experience. That we are all strong and came out on the other side mostly safely, and are recovering from that pain.
Lol there are the kids who got the spoon, and kids who have no clue.