Since we don’t have anything to go on for two of those three months, MY take on the matter is that Becky figures once Joyce rejected her old religious upbringing, she REALLY kicked over the traces … and is counting three months into something that takes around nine months to come to completion. And Joyce IS looking a little bigger on top and thicker around the middle (although that could be explained as subtle changes in Willis’s style as the comic has progressed. Go back to the first few months of the comic and compare what Joyce, Walky, et al looked like then as opposed to now).
Willis pointed out in the comments section a few days ago that they literally cannot do a pregnancy storyline in the comic, since at the comic’s pace any pregnant character would essentially be in a state of “I’m pregnant…now what next” for the rest of the comic’s run. Even with the Mother (heh) of All Timeskips a year ago, it’s taken the comic eleven and a half years>/b> to progress the plot by four months. Another six in-universe months of Pregnancy Storyline would, extrapolated from that, last the strip for eighteen years. Kids who aren’t even born yet would be going to college in real life by the time that’s done.
Yeah, I think I would, because it would mean he’d still have to go through with that extremely long commitment in his story. I don’t think the short term payoff of messing with us would be worth that, so no, I don’t think he’d mess with us in precisely this manner.
Re: not killing anyone: first of all, he’d always left an explicit exemption in that rule for characters none of the protagonists would care about (he used Tony as a hypothetical when setting that rule down, but see also Blaine), and secondly he also announced the better part of a year in advance that he’d broken a major established rule of his–which almost everyone correctly assumed would be the “no-deaths” rule.
To add something just because: pregnancy is typically 40 weeks after the first day of her last menstruation. While the confinement is on average 37-38 weeks the actual date of conception and the hankies-panky has less to do with with the due date
(aside from – y’know – actually getting the ball rolling).
That said, while my initial thought was also a “wait, wut?” I agree this sound far more like a long cycle than pregnancy.
She isn’t counting back three months. She’s noting January and November specifically. That and the iron comment indicates she’s talking about heavy periods rather than pregnancy.
If it was a pregnancy comment, there would be no bolding and it would be a comment about Folic Acid.
Yeah, but what does that suggest? That she didn’t have a period in December? Or just a light one? Even with the emphasis, just going back 3 month names seems a weird way to refer to it being a period. Seems like the obvious answer, even so, but not really surprising people are questioning it.
I’m no expert, nor do I have a uterus, but aren’t there forms of birth control that can make it a quarterly thing rather than monthly? While Joyce’s parents seem of the religiosity that would make birth control an evil evil sin that only harlots and floozies partake in, it’s possible that it was medically necessary for her and her parents figured that she was probably not going to suddenly trip and fall onto any penises the instant she started.
Given a nonzero number of religious people also historically justified period cramps and/or childbirth as God’s punishment for Eve in the Garden of Eden and people are still hesitant to vaccinate their kids for HPV in case it encourages them to be sexually active, I suspect it would have to be REALLY serious – like, ‘sometimes she passes out and we’re not sure if that’s the pain or the periods being THAT HEAVY’ serious – to overcome the Religious Judginess. Hell, I’m not even sure some religious groups RECOGNIZE that hormonal birth control is used for basically any Period Disorder TM, given they’ve gone to court to keep company health insurance from having to cover it. (Almost certainly, some of them realize but don’t care because controlling uterus-havers is more important than us not being in debilitating pain, but ignorance about periods and disorders thereof is SO WIDESPREAD that I genuinely think a lot of assholes do not know that most disorders’ treatment B is surgery, assuming there IS a Treatment B.)
Pharmacy tech here: Once you’re 18, you are an adult in the eyes of the law, and your parents can’t even touch your information without you giving approval that any medical professional can still speak to their parent(s) about anything regarding their health. It would be a violation of HIPAA to not do so. So yes, Joyce can go do whatever she wants without parent permission.
She can theoretically do whatever she wants, but she’s still financially reliant on them and if she has insurance through them, I believe they’ll see the records.
While pre-college Joyce might have had to suffer through that, I’m pretty sure that at this point, Hank, at least, would do whatever she asked on ‘womanly issues’ so long as she didn’t describe them in detail.
Either she’s got an IUD or pill (to regulate cramps of course!) that reduces the frequency of her menses to quarterly, or (more likely) Becky is noticing that Joyce felt ill at roughly the same time of the month for the past 3 months (or for the past 3 lunar cycles).
I used to have that privilege, but it was due to some fairly hefty problems and now it’s way too far in the other direction… Every three months is considered the bare minimum to be “healthy” but unfortunately it usually takes some weird hormonal or metabolic fuckery to get there. (I have both.)
Oh yeah, if you have an IUD that’s different. Your body doing that without medication generally indicates something that would at least impact fertility, though, so it’s a yellow flag.
Oh, okay, I thought you were saying something different above. Yeah, I used to be mildly concerned when I would go long stretches without periods, but not concerned enough to tell a doctor about it…for a variety of reasons, but one of which was the thinking, “What are they going to do, give me periods? Pass.”
That was pretty much my thinking on it too. I didn’t want periods so I didn’t care that they went away. My oldest sister had horrifyingly difficult periods as well so I also didn’t think the pain I was still experiencing was noteworthy.
Given how heavy my ex’s periods were, and how very frequent, (and what I understood from school), the time between periods doesn’t dictate how much or how easily a period flows.
If this were actually a thing, no doubt it would be cited as a concern for women doing continuous-cycling (birth-control) to skip having a period completely.
It is, or at least it used to be before they figured out that hormonal birth control also stops the build-up-layers part of the cycle. Amount of time in the preparing-for-baby state does impact heaviness.
I don’t know. Becky and Joyce have been close their whole lives. Becky would know Joyce’s cycle as well as she knew her own. But having Joyce pregnant would torpedo the premise of the strip, not to mention the time scale issue. Or maybe Willis wants to address abortion politics. Or maybe there’s another time skip coming?
And who’s the father?
I’m unlucky enough to have a menstrual disorder that i take the pill for, and lucky enough that now i get my period once every 2/3 months because of it. One day I’m gonna get an IUD and almost eliminate it
I mean chastity/virginity isn’t an actual tangible thing, it’s a concept made up to control people and assigned to the hymen breaking, so I don’t know how much danger it can really be in here
Ah, but Becky still clearly regards it as a thing that applies to her. She’s both yearning for some girl-girl action, and deathly afraid of it, and that obviously ties into her religious beliefs.
Chastity is such a fragile, vague construct that some nutjobs extend it to include fully inserting a penis into a vagina and leaving it there for a bit AKA “soaking”.
I’m surprised that Joyce didn’t tell Becky to simply go fuck her girlfriend. What with Becky’s poorly disguised thirst for all things Dina. Then again, Joyce still has yet to go buy a vibrator. She hasn’t even set foot in an adult shop, has she?
The washing machines are a pretty public space, unless Joyce develops a taste for exhibitionism. Also, just because you can get things done one way doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try other things too.
You brought that up before, and I don’t know if you saw all the comments that came off of that, but, in summary: really don’t need to go to a sex shop for that kind of thing.
listen, i know everyone’s probably run that search when they were 12 but apparently i never had so i was like “what sort of stuff do people get stuck up their butt”, and would you believe it the internet has fully SEVERAL pages dedicated to this very topic. anyway, i’m perusing this one (no pictures just stories), and listen i’m having a crisis about this line,
“We took a guy to hospital because he had six small plastic model horses stuck up his butt. The ER doctors described his condition as stable.”
Yeah I’ve seen them in some clothing stores here and in pharmacies in the states. Hell i got my first one when a sex shop put up a table at a fair on campus
You don’t need to step foot in an adult shop – the internet will send it to you in a little discreet cardboard box – and if she can’t order stuff online, I know I’ve seen them in CVS (this was a couple years ago though, and also in california which may be a little more accepting of that stuff than indiana)
it’s not wildly uncommon for close ppl around you to have a rough idea of your cycle. Especially if it’s regular. There’s no obligation to deal with it alone, and some people experience pretty shitty symptoms
that saida host on a local radio station found out that her COLLEAGUES were tracking her without her knowledge and THAT shit is weird as FUCK. contextually I don’t think she was shy about when she was cramping or pmsing, but STILL.
I didn’t track my girl [note the space] friends periods but it was easy to tell when they happened and it’s not hard to remember someone showing symptoms around the same time last month, especially since it’s common to sync up when you’re around each other long enough
See, I can’t remember a time when I figured out one of my female friend was having her period unless she explicitly told me so (like asking for pads or something).
On the other hand, with my wife, even without the calendar, I can often predict them ahead of time from her scent.
I don’t think needing to lay down on your period necessarily indicates endometriosis. Typically the horrendously painful cramps (up to and typically on scale with labor pains) that result in overuse of painkillers indicates that. Getting even a “normal” period can be exhausting.
Hey ever since her moment at Joyce’s party it’s been 100% ethical to be horny for Dina. If anything she’d be offended at it feeling wrong. And everyone once she ripped the top of ambers overalls off with her teeth, (or just general messy hair Dina) how can you NOT be horny for her?
This right here.
The part where Dina got really upset at people making choices about her sexuality for her.
The girl has chosen to embrace lewdness, particularly lewdness that involves Becky, so we can but be happy and horny for her.
Can someone explain what is going on? I’m confused about: 1) the “again?” 2) the three months.
They clash, right? And “lie down” doesn’t seem like morning sickness. It’s a weird joke. I’m sure part of that is cause we don’t know what happened in November but.. hm.
The right time for her period. Most people with periods have them at roughly the same day every lunar month (though plenty of people have irregular periods that are harder to predict). Becky is checking the past few months and noticing that this is consistently the day when Joyce feels crappiest. She has to go lie down because her body aches and she has cramps. She might have headaches or nausea, she might need to throw up.
And Becky is tracking it because it’s good to know when your best friend is feeling poorly. (Best case scenario is if she’d like to bring Joyce a heating pad or some chocolate, it would be so nice to see Becky do something kind for Joyce. Worst case is she blames atheism on PMS, but I highly doubt Becky is that flavor of dumb.)
Periods usually hit about the same time every month. Even if you’re not actively tracking it, someone you know well enough might notice the ‘hey wait weren’t you exhausted and miserable like this about the same time last month?’, especially because people tend to have at least… semi-consistent symptoms of the Blood Moon Rising Once Again. (Exhaustion being one, especially if you’re prone to heavy bleeding, and cramping bad enough to keep you in bed with a heating pad all day, but also allergies, GI issues, and various other Physiological Bullshit. Hormonal cycles are WEIRD.)
I know what a menstrual cycle is, I’ve had plenty. Three months to start again is absurd for most people, so it doesn’t really make sense for that to be the thing.
If Becky were tracking when in those months it happened, like BBCC said, it’s strange to just say the month names.
The other thing is that both for menstruation and pregnancy you could use iron supplements.
Almost certain that either way it’s a joke but I just want to know what I’m missing that I haven’t already noticed… if it’s nothing else though, then I admit that I’m just bad at this.
I thought she was saying the months to remember how many days in each one. You know, like when you’re a little kid and counting on your knuckles which months are shorter/longer?
“I need to lie down” was absolutely something I have said a lot during both morning sickness and period nausea but I also have POTS so I dunno how much of that is a normal reaction to nausea and how much is some blood pressure thing.
But yeah I’m having trouble figuring out what is going on with Joyce here. I thought she was depressed about the church thing, and the headache was an excuse so she didn’t have to explain it to Sarah. But maybe it’s a real headache after all? And I assume the iron comment and month tracking is meant to imply it’s period-induced? I guess we will find out tomorrow!
Maybe the emphasis on that is Joyce letting Becky assume it’s her period because she doesn’t want to talk about her depression/church?
I think it’s mainly that last one you said, tbh. Her period isn’t helping, but also she wants a lie-down because she’s got a lot going on emotionally. She doesn’t want to explain her feelings to Becky, right now or maybe ever, it’s fine with her if Becky only knows one of the reasons that she feels like crud stew.
As I am rather fond of reminding people, Dina is, canonically, a dinosaur-obsessed Spark in the Girl Genius universe. “For Science!” is definitely something she’d be down with.
One form of birth control comes as a shot you take once every three months that acts like a giant blast of hormones and when it starts to wear off at the end of the three month period. that can mean that those symptoms reappear in the last couple weeks of that three month period. For me, the intensity of these symptoms are reduced but still present at the end of every third month.
There are birth control pills that come in three-month packs and in the last week you usually have a period. I was on those cuz my cycles were hell and that helped but the one week was still shitty.
“Clothing article A produced the desired reaction from subject, as indicated by both verbalization and non-verbal cues such as heart rate increase, flushed cheeks, and staring. Must explore further revealing clothing options.”
Speaking of Sickness AND Science, ever since I was a kid, whenever I got sick, I would always watch this educational movie called Escape from Obeez City, where microscopic cyborgs battle inside the human body against personified body mechanics like Cortisol and Cholesterol.
The CGI might be a little dated, but I always thought it looked cool and futuristic and I watch it even today when I feel sick, and for some reason it always… helps me heal 😷
Yeah, I LOVE human body movies like that, but Escape from Obeez City is my favorite!!!
Whenever I get sick it’s like, one of my best healing rituals — that and a sleeping bag and a thermos of hot tea is basically my healing chamber!!! ⛑️😴
Woman feels not-great? There’s only two explanations: Period or pregnancy! Like, I get it, there’s stuff that makes it take longer than two weeks between periods, plus Becky’s iron comment, but damn.
A lot of people did initially assume it was because of Walky’s snacks. I think this might be the first time periods have come into the mind of the commentariat re: this chapter?
Among other things, both Iron and Folic Acid are part of the pregnancy supplements. Also ?calcium? it’s been over 40 years since I had to deal with a pregnant woman, and the last part of dealing with her pregnancy was a compound breech at-home delivery that still gives me bad dreams.
That time of the month, huh?
Yeah, don’t miss that. Only 32 years old, and severe anemia caused by giant fibroids resulting in a hysterectomy later, and I wouldn’t go back for anything. Except maybe paying attention to the signs of debilitating anemia sooner.
So yeah, take your iron, ladies. And follow it with vitamin C for better absorption.
i think they should more properly be called tagliatelle straps, but I’m sure Rabisch can enlighten us (i’ve never known an italian to not be a pasta sensei)
Male, here. So take what I say with a lot of salt.
I would assume that women, having a roughly matching period of their own, would be better equipped to track those of others. After all, if your best friend has a bad few days about a week before or after you do…
As a non- . – haver, I was convinced Becky was suggesting four hours equaled four months, and that it was a meta joke to the ‘one-month-per-day’ timeskip
I was confused by Becky’s counting months thing until I read the comments. Is it normal for uterus-having folks to track their other uterus-having friends menstrual cycles and stuff? I wouldn’t know, since I’ve never had that particular anatomy.
I mean, when I was in high school, my cis-dude friends knew the cycles of a couple of the uterus owners we were friends with.
Mostly the ones who did show some emotional differences between cycle and not, because it’s not everyone but some people do experience that.
They also had a decent idea of when mine was because I have a SUPER heavy period and would flood badly enough for it to be visible to others at least once a cycle until I started wearing tampons, and often enough that you could extrapolate reasonably even after I switched.
Eh, it’s not really tracking to notice an obvious pattern. It was always pretty easy to tell when my lady friends were having it, and it would’ve been damn easy to tell mine
What’s seemingly weird to me about this new plot point is…if we’re talking about Joyce’s period, why is it now suddenly a big deal?
Being in college and showing no signs of stunted puberty, I can’t imagine she’s only now getting her period. So this can’t be a sign of that. She must have done something (or been diagnosed with something) to change how she experiences her period. Birth control would be an interesting storyline, especially between Joyce and Becky’s new dynamic. But when does birth control *intensify* period symptoms? I thought it only ever lessened them.
Something happened in November. But I can’t logic out what.
I think it’s not so much a plot point as a way to get Joyce out of the way without wondering what she’s doing this storyline, especially since we’re going to be spending a lot of time with Sarah and Liz on another campus entirely. What happened in November’s a false lead, it’s just Becky going ‘hm yeah you were miserable this time the last few months too in a way that wasn’t easily attributable to trauma.’
I learned what period cramps were – the most I’d had before was mild bloating.
I bled for 40 days in a row, where before my periods had been irregular, light, and short. (Still irregular, just heavy and long).
And, twice, my body decided, nah, that’s not supposed to be there, and I wound up with a liiiitle bit of plastic (not just the strings) sticking out of my cervix. So because the copper IUD relies on placement to be effective, out it came. My doctor said, no, it’s not a good idea to try a third time. Which sucks, because my side effects were starting to settle down to more manageable levels, and I’d much rather the physical side effects than the mental ones. (It’s possible that the one I’m on screws with libido, so it’s a little bit, like… what’s the point? but also there’s been a lot of life turmoil in the years since I got it, so I can’t attribute it enough to the hormonal IUD to be bothered to get it out and see for sure.)
I think, in a real-world situation, Becky would have been saying dates as well (January 16th… December 18th-19th-ish… November 20th-ish…), but Willis has always tried to be vague about dates.
I’d guess that both girls have been aware of each other’s cycles since menarche. Both presumably got “the talk” from their moms (who wants to bet on which mother made sure to reference the bible and call menstruation “the Curse of Eve”?)
I didn’t think of this till now, but this strip’s a nice little indicator of Becky being a supportive friend in contexts where she’s capable of being helpful and caring when Joyce’s problem isn’t something that makes her stop being Becky’s Joyce.
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THREE months…? 🤔
I wish *I* as a uterus-haver had that kind of frequency (although it’s still pretty delayed as is)
[of course if this is a different kind of hemorrhaging, n/m]
Maybe she thinks Joyce has been rendered divinely pregnant
Maybe that’s what happened on Halloween (after midnight, when it was technically November).
She got magically pregnant on Halloween? I think she’s gonna give birth to Sam from Trick R’ Treat.
Or Michael Myers.
If she gave birth to Sam, it would explain so much. Until told otherwise, this is now canon for me.
Surely if Joyce is pregnant it is with the reincarnation of Mike.
He’d be risen
Since we don’t have anything to go on for two of those three months, MY take on the matter is that Becky figures once Joyce rejected her old religious upbringing, she REALLY kicked over the traces … and is counting three months into something that takes around nine months to come to completion. And Joyce IS looking a little bigger on top and thicker around the middle (although that could be explained as subtle changes in Willis’s style as the comic has progressed. Go back to the first few months of the comic and compare what Joyce, Walky, et al looked like then as opposed to now).
Probably, “The Freshman 15”
Willis pointed out in the comments section a few days ago that they literally cannot do a pregnancy storyline in the comic, since at the comic’s pace any pregnant character would essentially be in a state of “I’m pregnant…now what next” for the rest of the comic’s run. Even with the Mother (heh) of All Timeskips a year ago, it’s taken the comic eleven and a half years>/b> to progress the plot by four months. Another six in-universe months of Pregnancy Storyline would, extrapolated from that, last the strip for eighteen years. Kids who aren’t even born yet would be going to college in real life by the time that’s done.
Well, they could do a pregnancy storyline if they didn’t go through the whole pregnancy, but I’m not sure that’s something they’d want to do.
It’s Pregnancy!
…that’s all entirely rational, except that, as you said, Willis pointed it out.
I fully admit that I’m being paranoid, but is there anyone here that could honestly say that Willis wouldn’t fuck with us in precisely that manner?
Yeah, I think I would, because it would mean he’d still have to go through with that extremely long commitment in his story. I don’t think the short term payoff of messing with us would be worth that, so no, I don’t think he’d mess with us in precisely this manner.
But isnt that perfect? Another 11 years down the track and the pregnant character would still be barely showing.
Nothin’ wrong with that. The Girl Genius webcomic has been goin’ on 20 years. I’m expectin’ another 5-10 years more.
he also said he wasn’t gonna kill anyone off and look what happened…
Re: not killing anyone: first of all, he’d always left an explicit exemption in that rule for characters none of the protagonists would care about (he used Tony as a hypothetical when setting that rule down, but see also Blaine), and secondly he also announced the better part of a year in advance that he’d broken a major established rule of his–which almost everyone correctly assumed would be the “no-deaths” rule.
bloat is also a common menstrual side effect.
That shit can REALLY do a number on your Whooole situation.
To add something just because: pregnancy is typically 40 weeks after the first day of her last menstruation. While the confinement is on average 37-38 weeks the actual date of conception and the hankies-panky has less to do with with the due date
(aside from – y’know – actually getting the ball rolling).
That said, while my initial thought was also a “wait, wut?” I agree this sound far more like a long cycle than pregnancy.
… is no one paying attention to the bolded text?
She isn’t counting back three months. She’s noting January and November specifically. That and the iron comment indicates she’s talking about heavy periods rather than pregnancy.
If it was a pregnancy comment, there would be no bolding and it would be a comment about Folic Acid.
Not to mention that if the issue was pregnancy, Becky would be freaking out, not going on about spaghetti straps.
I mean, a lot of us were joking around.
Yeah, but what does that suggest? That she didn’t have a period in December? Or just a light one? Even with the emphasis, just going back 3 month names seems a weird way to refer to it being a period. Seems like the obvious answer, even so, but not really surprising people are questioning it.
That Becky either wasn’t near Joyce at the right time in December or that she wasn’t crampy enough to exhibit symptoms.
I’m no expert, nor do I have a uterus, but aren’t there forms of birth control that can make it a quarterly thing rather than monthly? While Joyce’s parents seem of the religiosity that would make birth control an evil evil sin that only harlots and floozies partake in, it’s possible that it was medically necessary for her and her parents figured that she was probably not going to suddenly trip and fall onto any penises the instant she started.
Given a nonzero number of religious people also historically justified period cramps and/or childbirth as God’s punishment for Eve in the Garden of Eden and people are still hesitant to vaccinate their kids for HPV in case it encourages them to be sexually active, I suspect it would have to be REALLY serious – like, ‘sometimes she passes out and we’re not sure if that’s the pain or the periods being THAT HEAVY’ serious – to overcome the Religious Judginess. Hell, I’m not even sure some religious groups RECOGNIZE that hormonal birth control is used for basically any Period Disorder TM, given they’ve gone to court to keep company health insurance from having to cover it. (Almost certainly, some of them realize but don’t care because controlling uterus-havers is more important than us not being in debilitating pain, but ignorance about periods and disorders thereof is SO WIDESPREAD that I genuinely think a lot of assholes do not know that most disorders’ treatment B is surgery, assuming there IS a Treatment B.)
As an 18 year old, would Joyce have had to get her parents’ permission to see a doctor L
As a 17 year old, yes. As an 18 year old, no. Assuming she can pay for it herself or is otherwise covered.
Pharmacy tech here: Once you’re 18, you are an adult in the eyes of the law, and your parents can’t even touch your information without you giving approval that any medical professional can still speak to their parent(s) about anything regarding their health. It would be a violation of HIPAA to not do so. So yes, Joyce can go do whatever she wants without parent permission.
She can theoretically do whatever she wants, but she’s still financially reliant on them and if she has insurance through them, I believe they’ll see the records.
Doesn’t stop her from doing it without their say so.
…18 year olds are adults.
While pre-college Joyce might have had to suffer through that, I’m pretty sure that at this point, Hank, at least, would do whatever she asked on ‘womanly issues’ so long as she didn’t describe them in detail.
Either she’s got an IUD or pill (to regulate cramps of course!) that reduces the frequency of her menses to quarterly, or (more likely) Becky is noticing that Joyce felt ill at roughly the same time of the month for the past 3 months (or for the past 3 lunar cycles).
Yeah I was definitely assuming she’s talking about a monthly pattern rather than three month intervals.
That’s what I assumed, this whole comic section has blown my mind lol I don’t understand what’s going on at all
I used to have that privilege, but it was due to some fairly hefty problems and now it’s way too far in the other direction… Every three months is considered the bare minimum to be “healthy” but unfortunately it usually takes some weird hormonal or metabolic fuckery to get there. (I have both.)
So, yeah, Joyce might have something like that.
I almost never have periods since I got my IUD, and everyone (medical professionals) I mention this to seem to be like, “Oh, then it’s fine!”
My periods were also highly irregular before I got my IUD, though, which I learned a couple years ago was likely due to some cool hormone shit.
Oh yeah, if you have an IUD that’s different. Your body doing that without medication generally indicates something that would at least impact fertility, though, so it’s a yellow flag.
Oh, okay, I thought you were saying something different above. Yeah, I used to be mildly concerned when I would go long stretches without periods, but not concerned enough to tell a doctor about it…for a variety of reasons, but one of which was the thinking, “What are they going to do, give me periods? Pass.”
That was pretty much my thinking on it too. I didn’t want periods so I didn’t care that they went away. My oldest sister had horrifyingly difficult periods as well so I also didn’t think the pain I was still experiencing was noteworthy.
I had an ex in hs ( a uterus haver ) with a 3 month cycle … it was Baaaaad.
Think a whole winter of wet sticky snow that cant slough, till an avalance or visit to Dr Plough.
the only ‘good’ that came from it was the order for teen contraceptives came directly from Dr.
( that and maybe Gynecologist horror stories to terrorize your teen boyfriend ‘they thought i was pregnant and miscarrying’ )
i hope Joyce doesnt have this.
Call Dr. Plough
That’s his name
That name again is Dr. Plough
Ya don’t say.
You’re right, he didn’t say
You say?
Given how heavy my ex’s periods were, and how very frequent, (and what I understood from school), the time between periods doesn’t dictate how much or how easily a period flows.
If this were actually a thing, no doubt it would be cited as a concern for women doing continuous-cycling (birth-control) to skip having a period completely.
It is, or at least it used to be before they figured out that hormonal birth control also stops the build-up-layers part of the cycle. Amount of time in the preparing-for-baby state does impact heaviness.
I don’t know. Becky and Joyce have been close their whole lives. Becky would know Joyce’s cycle as well as she knew her own. But having Joyce pregnant would torpedo the premise of the strip, not to mention the time scale issue. Or maybe Willis wants to address abortion politics. Or maybe there’s another time skip coming?
And who’s the father?
Well, every _two_ months. But yeah, *somebody* should be the counter-example to my ex-wife who was every 3 (or sometimes 2) weeks!
I’m unlucky enough to have a menstrual disorder that i take the pill for, and lucky enough that now i get my period once every 2/3 months because of it. One day I’m gonna get an IUD and almost eliminate it
😈 Looks like Becky’s chastity is in danger!!! 😈
*plays “Watch Out Pikachu!!!”*
Becky’s chastity had a good run. Like the dinosaurs.
So what is going to be our metaphorical meteor?
Spaghetti straps apparently.
What I’m wondering is what a clone of Becky’s chastity would look like… and whether you can fit it inside a Pokeball.
Lawyers would definitely be threatened around it
Sarah might have to be alert
If a Snorlax can fit in a pokeball, anything can fit.
Spaghetti straps are the meteor, Becky’s head are the Deccan traps: 🤯
I mean chastity/virginity isn’t an actual tangible thing, it’s a concept made up to control people and assigned to the hymen breaking, so I don’t know how much danger it can really be in here
Ah, but Becky still clearly regards it as a thing that applies to her. She’s both yearning for some girl-girl action, and deathly afraid of it, and that obviously ties into her religious beliefs.
Chastity is such a fragile, vague construct that some nutjobs extend it to include fully inserting a penis into a vagina and leaving it there for a bit AKA “soaking”.
@Rassilon: just because something is made up doesn’t mean it isn’t real.
@Taffy: awww, good for them.
It’s that time of the month uh
Okay so this is more related to yesterday’s comic than todays but I made a thing and whatcha gonna do. Spoilers for old continuity stuff
https://imgur.com/a/9BAGmU9
This is great
I mean, that’s basically canon.
hahaha amazing
Glorious.
hahaha perfect XD
Hahahahahah oh dang 😂
(Is this thing posting?? I feel like my posting attempts are being throttled despite only posting basically once a day with the odd exception)
It’s showing up on my end, so probably maybe yes?
I see it too.
it behooves you to investigate
you know, for science
And if those strap were to slip off during the science times, maybe you can do a little anatomy lesson instead.
How is anatomy not science?
Shhh, don’t point out the logical errors in my speech. Just go with it.
I’m surprised that Joyce didn’t tell Becky to simply go fuck her girlfriend. What with Becky’s poorly disguised thirst for all things Dina. Then again, Joyce still has yet to go buy a vibrator. She hasn’t even set foot in an adult shop, has she?
I don’t think Joyce is on that level yet. Give it a few weeks though.
Joyce doesn’t need to.
A washing machine and two fingers can work wonders. Just hope she as enough quarters…
The washing machines are a pretty public space, unless Joyce develops a taste for exhibitionism. Also, just because you can get things done one way doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try other things too.
If she’s extra resourceful she can hide in a sleeping bag whilst atop. Surprisingly versatile things those.
Who needs a washing machine?
who needs clothes?
I would love to see the misunderstandings that occur, since her only encounter with such devices has been Other Jacob.
Joyce: Do you get to name them yourself, or do they come with certificates like Cabbage Patch Kids?
Clerk: ?!?
You brought that up before, and I don’t know if you saw all the comments that came off of that, but, in summary: really don’t need to go to a sex shop for that kind of thing.
That’s true, all my stuff came from adam and eve. The internet is taking all the fun out of things.
No no no, the internet is helping you put fun into things. A&E has been quite the boon.
Here in the UK A&E stands for Accident & Emergency, basically our version of ER. Which means I severely misunderstood your reply at first.
I mean, if you put the wrong fun into the wrong things without making sure there’s a flared base, you might need that sort of A&E.
listen, i know everyone’s probably run that search when they were 12 but apparently i never had so i was like “what sort of stuff do people get stuck up their butt”, and would you believe it the internet has fully SEVERAL pages dedicated to this very topic. anyway, i’m perusing this one (no pictures just stories), and listen i’m having a crisis about this line,
“We took a guy to hospital because he had six small plastic model horses stuck up his butt. The ER doctors described his condition as stable.”
this is so delightful, i’m in tears XD
Yeah I’ve seen them in some clothing stores here and in pharmacies in the states. Hell i got my first one when a sex shop put up a table at a fair on campus
You don’t need to step foot in an adult shop – the internet will send it to you in a little discreet cardboard box – and if she can’t order stuff online, I know I’ve seen them in CVS (this was a couple years ago though, and also in california which may be a little more accepting of that stuff than indiana)
Hell, you can get them in Walmart.
“Joyce still has yet to go buy a vibrator”
I note that Joyce is going to “lie down” while Sarah is gone for hours…
i have heard good things about the effect of masturbation on cramps.
Watch out, lovebirds, the Love Doctor is in the building
…Wait what?
Becky appears to be tracking Joyce’s period. For… reasons?
Hence the iron comment – Joyce needs to replace it due to mensuration.
it’s not wildly uncommon for close ppl around you to have a rough idea of your cycle. Especially if it’s regular. There’s no obligation to deal with it alone, and some people experience pretty shitty symptoms
that saida host on a local radio station found out that her COLLEAGUES were tracking her without her knowledge and THAT shit is weird as FUCK. contextually I don’t think she was shy about when she was cramping or pmsing, but STILL.
I mean, sure, my wife and I mark ours on the calendar (helpful to know for many reasons).
So far as I know, no one I wasn’t fucking has ever tracked my period. That would be weird and invasive.
I didn’t track my girl [note the space] friends periods but it was easy to tell when they happened and it’s not hard to remember someone showing symptoms around the same time last month, especially since it’s common to sync up when you’re around each other long enough
so, last i’ve heard, that last thing might be a myth.
See, I can’t remember a time when I figured out one of my female friend was having her period unless she explicitly told me so (like asking for pads or something).
On the other hand, with my wife, even without the calendar, I can often predict them ahead of time from her scent.
Oof, heavy bloodflow, huh. And/or possibly endometriosis? My sympathies, kiddo.
I don’t think needing to lay down on your period necessarily indicates endometriosis. Typically the horrendously painful cramps (up to and typically on scale with labor pains) that result in overuse of painkillers indicates that. Getting even a “normal” period can be exhausting.
You should check if they dig into the skin. Y’know. Shoulder spillage.
Yes. Dina might need a shoulder massge to soothe her! Don’t worry Becky. It’s just innocent, “sympathy via light physical contact.”
It feels WRONG to be horny for Dina but here I am.
BONK
Don’t feel bad, embrace the Dina-horniness. Just don’t try to fuck your computer, it doesn’t work like that.
… Hifumi Yamada, is that you?
If it’s wrong to fuck your computer, why does mine have a slot to insert a 3.5″ floppy?
Welcome to the club. We meet on Thursdays for D&D*, coffee’s brewed fresh before the meeting, and the minibar is stocked courtesy of VIZ Media.
*Dina & Dina’s Hat
i mean, i think the comic WANTS you to be horny for Dina
Then I don’t want to be right.
Yotomoe, you MUST investigate further. With art.
4Science!!
Hey ever since her moment at Joyce’s party it’s been 100% ethical to be horny for Dina. If anything she’d be offended at it feeling wrong. And everyone once she ripped the top of ambers overalls off with her teeth, (or just general messy hair Dina) how can you NOT be horny for her?
This right here.
The part where Dina got really upset at people making choices about her sexuality for her.
The girl has chosen to embrace lewdness, particularly lewdness that involves Becky, so we can but be happy and horny for her.
If liking cute ladies in tank tops is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.
Can someone explain what is going on? I’m confused about: 1) the “again?” 2) the three months.
They clash, right? And “lie down” doesn’t seem like morning sickness. It’s a weird joke. I’m sure part of that is cause we don’t know what happened in November but.. hm.
Theoretically Joyce is in a menstrual cycle. Why Becky is tracking it id a whole other can of worms. I don’t even wanna know.
Probably tracking when it was in the past couple months to see if its the right time.
Right time for what?
The right time for her period. Most people with periods have them at roughly the same day every lunar month (though plenty of people have irregular periods that are harder to predict). Becky is checking the past few months and noticing that this is consistently the day when Joyce feels crappiest. She has to go lie down because her body aches and she has cramps. She might have headaches or nausea, she might need to throw up.
And Becky is tracking it because it’s good to know when your best friend is feeling poorly. (Best case scenario is if she’d like to bring Joyce a heating pad or some chocolate, it would be so nice to see Becky do something kind for Joyce. Worst case is she blames atheism on PMS, but I highly doubt Becky is that flavor of dumb.)
What’s weird is that the months are out of order.
Not if they are Benjamin Button months.
They are in reverse order – Jan year X , Dec year X-1, Nov year X-1
She’s working backwards.
Periods usually hit about the same time every month. Even if you’re not actively tracking it, someone you know well enough might notice the ‘hey wait weren’t you exhausted and miserable like this about the same time last month?’, especially because people tend to have at least… semi-consistent symptoms of the Blood Moon Rising Once Again. (Exhaustion being one, especially if you’re prone to heavy bleeding, and cramping bad enough to keep you in bed with a heating pad all day, but also allergies, GI issues, and various other Physiological Bullshit. Hormonal cycles are WEIRD.)
I know what a menstrual cycle is, I’ve had plenty. Three months to start again is absurd for most people, so it doesn’t really make sense for that to be the thing.
If Becky were tracking when in those months it happened, like BBCC said, it’s strange to just say the month names.
The other thing is that both for menstruation and pregnancy you could use iron supplements.
Almost certain that either way it’s a joke but I just want to know what I’m missing that I haven’t already noticed… if it’s nothing else though, then I admit that I’m just bad at this.
Idk I just thought that Joyce is depressed and wants to lie down because she had a lot happen recently and it’s a Sunday without church.
I’m hella confused too, whether this is yet another social duty to which I’ve been incidentally derelict or otherwise 😑 Neurodivergence!
Oh god no, this is something that’s actively weird to do.
It’s not a social duty it’s just recognizing a pattern when you’re long term friends with someone.
I thought she was saying the months to remember how many days in each one. You know, like when you’re a little kid and counting on your knuckles which months are shorter/longer?
“I need to lie down” was absolutely something I have said a lot during both morning sickness and period nausea but I also have POTS so I dunno how much of that is a normal reaction to nausea and how much is some blood pressure thing.
But yeah I’m having trouble figuring out what is going on with Joyce here. I thought she was depressed about the church thing, and the headache was an excuse so she didn’t have to explain it to Sarah. But maybe it’s a real headache after all? And I assume the iron comment and month tracking is meant to imply it’s period-induced? I guess we will find out tomorrow!
Maybe the emphasis on that is Joyce letting Becky assume it’s her period because she doesn’t want to talk about her depression/church?
I think it’s mainly that last one you said, tbh. Her period isn’t helping, but also she wants a lie-down because she’s got a lot going on emotionally. She doesn’t want to explain her feelings to Becky, right now or maybe ever, it’s fine with her if Becky only knows one of the reasons that she feels like crud stew.
Wrong webcomic. “For Science” is used in Girl Genius. 😀
Becky knows. She’s already given Dina one of these.
Please tell me it’s still possible to buy those 😮
Go here … https://topatoco.com/collections/girl-genius. It’s on page 2; $10 each.
As I am rather fond of reminding people, Dina is, canonically, a dinosaur-obsessed Spark in the Girl Genius universe. “For Science!” is definitely something she’d be down with.
Holy crow, I had completely forgotten that Dina had a cameo appearance in Girl Genius! Thanks for the reminder!
And Questionable Content, I had a Science Apron when I was baking bread as a sidehustle.
Oh geez, unwanted monthly visiter, huh?
Godspeed, kiddo.
That’s what Becky’s assuming. I still think Joyce is struggling with some depression.
Whatever Joyce is going through, she has my total sympathy right now 😪
The depression could fully be augmented by the period.
Look at me still talking when there’s science to do…
Is Joyce… on birth control?? Most shocking reveal of all, if true. (The three month thing is a big tip off there, for none period having people.)
Does starting hormonal birth control cause a three-month gap in periods? What’s the significance if you don’t mind me asking?
One form of birth control comes as a shot you take once every three months that acts like a giant blast of hormones and when it starts to wear off at the end of the three month period. that can mean that those symptoms reappear in the last couple weeks of that three month period. For me, the intensity of these symptoms are reduced but still present at the end of every third month.
There are birth control pills that come in three-month packs and in the last week you usually have a period. I was on those cuz my cycles were hell and that helped but the one week was still shitty.
I think Dina is experimenting! Science!!
“Clothing article A produced the desired reaction from subject, as indicated by both verbalization and non-verbal cues such as heart rate increase, flushed cheeks, and staring. Must explore further revealing clothing options.”
Like I said yesterday, I think she knows exactly what she’s doing, now that the term “horny jail” has been adequately defined.
For Science!
FOR SCIENCE!!
FOR SCI—uuuhn♥︎—…ce
#4science
I thought Joyce was feeling sick because of the snacks Walky gave her.
That’s probably also a possibility.
Speaking of Sickness AND Science, ever since I was a kid, whenever I got sick, I would always watch this educational movie called Escape from Obeez City, where microscopic cyborgs battle inside the human body against personified body mechanics like Cortisol and Cholesterol.
The CGI might be a little dated, but I always thought it looked cool and futuristic and I watch it even today when I feel sick, and for some reason it always… helps me heal 😷
You might like Osmosis Jones then!
Yeah, I LOVE human body movies like that, but Escape from Obeez City is my favorite!!!
Whenever I get sick it’s like, one of my best healing rituals — that and a sleeping bag and a thermos of hot tea is basically my healing chamber!!! ⛑️😴
That… sounds like a fat-shaming version of Il Était Une Fois… La Vie.
Welp. Now I just want to watch Il Était Une Fois… La Vie again. It’s been decades.
Do the trifecta by watching L’Homme and L’Espace as well.
Uh… have you even seen it? 😮
Well, salty/spicy stuff makes cramps worse, at least for me.
Woman feels not-great? There’s only two explanations: Period or pregnancy! Like, I get it, there’s stuff that makes it take longer than two weeks between periods, plus Becky’s iron comment, but damn.
A lot of people did initially assume it was because of Walky’s snacks. I think this might be the first time periods have come into the mind of the commentariat re: this chapter?
Ssshhh, I’m being a sarcastic bongo.
I think it is just Joyce has anemia because Ruth ripped out her femurs, leaving here short of bone marrow.
If it were pregnancy, she’d be recommending Folic Acid instead of Iron supplements….
Among other things, both Iron and Folic Acid are part of the pregnancy supplements. Also ?calcium? it’s been over 40 years since I had to deal with a pregnant woman, and the last part of dealing with her pregnancy was a compound breech at-home delivery that still gives me bad dreams.
She show her, she show her all!
That time of the month, huh?
Yeah, don’t miss that. Only 32 years old, and severe anemia caused by giant fibroids resulting in a hysterectomy later, and I wouldn’t go back for anything. Except maybe paying attention to the signs of debilitating anemia sooner.
So yeah, take your iron, ladies. And follow it with vitamin C for better absorption.
Spaghetti strap? What a weird name for a type of tank top! I’m agree, Becky has to investigate! FOR SCIENCE!
The straps are about as wide as spaghetti noodles, you see.
i think they should more properly be called tagliatelle straps, but I’m sure Rabisch can enlighten us (i’ve never known an italian to not be a pasta sensei)
Hey, did you see the Mega-strip video montage? You can see it here.
Nice montage, but that Rick Mullins song, it is terrible.
It is … nice … to see Becky is so close to Joyce, that she knows her period circle?? I just don’t know what I can say.
Male, here. So take what I say with a lot of salt.
I would assume that women, having a roughly matching period of their own, would be better equipped to track those of others. After all, if your best friend has a bad few days about a week before or after you do…
We’re largely socialized not to talk about it. Also I can barely keep track of my own, let alone someone else’s.
As a non- . – haver, I was convinced Becky was suggesting four hours equaled four months, and that it was a meta joke to the ‘one-month-per-day’ timeskip
In Girl Genius the phrase For Science! often amounts to foreplay. Jes’ sayin’.
“Don’t tell me you fear the experiment?!”
‘I fear the result – but the experiment itself – why – that is science!‘
“For science, then.”
‘For science!‘
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050318
Boffo–that’s the exact one!
…and of course this crowd is already all over it!
I was confused by Becky’s counting months thing until I read the comments. Is it normal for uterus-having folks to track their other uterus-having friends menstrual cycles and stuff? I wouldn’t know, since I’ve never had that particular anatomy.
I mean, when I was in high school, my cis-dude friends knew the cycles of a couple of the uterus owners we were friends with.
Mostly the ones who did show some emotional differences between cycle and not, because it’s not everyone but some people do experience that.
They also had a decent idea of when mine was because I have a SUPER heavy period and would flood badly enough for it to be visible to others at least once a cycle until I started wearing tampons, and often enough that you could extrapolate reasonably even after I switched.
nah this is pretty weird
i lived in a house of only women and i still only kept track of my own
Eh, it’s not really tracking to notice an obvious pattern. It was always pretty easy to tell when my lady friends were having it, and it would’ve been damn easy to tell mine
What’s seemingly weird to me about this new plot point is…if we’re talking about Joyce’s period, why is it now suddenly a big deal?
Being in college and showing no signs of stunted puberty, I can’t imagine she’s only now getting her period. So this can’t be a sign of that. She must have done something (or been diagnosed with something) to change how she experiences her period. Birth control would be an interesting storyline, especially between Joyce and Becky’s new dynamic. But when does birth control *intensify* period symptoms? I thought it only ever lessened them.
Something happened in November. But I can’t logic out what.
I think it’s not so much a plot point as a way to get Joyce out of the way without wondering what she’s doing this storyline, especially since we’re going to be spending a lot of time with Sarah and Liz on another campus entirely. What happened in November’s a false lead, it’s just Becky going ‘hm yeah you were miserable this time the last few months too in a way that wasn’t easily attributable to trauma.’
Copper IUD can.
I learned what period cramps were – the most I’d had before was mild bloating.
I bled for 40 days in a row, where before my periods had been irregular, light, and short. (Still irregular, just heavy and long).
And, twice, my body decided, nah, that’s not supposed to be there, and I wound up with a liiiitle bit of plastic (not just the strings) sticking out of my cervix. So because the copper IUD relies on placement to be effective, out it came. My doctor said, no, it’s not a good idea to try a third time. Which sucks, because my side effects were starting to settle down to more manageable levels, and I’d much rather the physical side effects than the mental ones. (It’s possible that the one I’m on screws with libido, so it’s a little bit, like… what’s the point? but also there’s been a lot of life turmoil in the years since I got it, so I can’t attribute it enough to the hormonal IUD to be bothered to get it out and see for sure.)
Oh geez, all the stress Joyce is going through AND it’s Blood Time too? Poor gal.
Actually that explains a lot of the anger.
According to the Timeline for Dumbing of Age, it is January 16.
I think, in a real-world situation, Becky would have been saying dates as well (January 16th… December 18th-19th-ish… November 20th-ish…), but Willis has always tried to be vague about dates.
I’d guess that both girls have been aware of each other’s cycles since menarche. Both presumably got “the talk” from their moms (who wants to bet on which mother made sure to reference the bible and call menstruation “the Curse of Eve”?)
Atta girl, Becky. That’s the spirit.
I didn’t think of this till now, but this strip’s a nice little indicator of Becky being a supportive friend in contexts where she’s capable of being helpful and caring when Joyce’s problem isn’t something that makes her stop being Becky’s Joyce.