Huh?
I feel like I’m not understanding this reference.
I mean, I get that he doesn’t want Walky to cut his hair, and I get that it’s a reference to John (19:5) (thanks to google), but I don’t see how that quote relates.
It’s a hillarious and weirdly upfting story. The fresco Ecce Homo in spain was worn and a parishoner made an honest effort to restore it and… did not succeed. However, the original was only 80 years old and not regarded as a notable work. In creating a mockery (accidentally) the new work (called Ecce Mono by some) has drawn attention and tourist dollars to the village. While god may may not work in mysterious ways, people certainly do. With the restoration, the work is raising money for various local charitable causes.. and the church.
I’m mostly familiar with Sporks that had a serrated edge, but after some quick research they don’t seem to be the most common variant and I’m not entirely sure if the sort of thing I’m thinking of are even considered true Sporks, they may be considered a separate but equally worthless type of novelty utensil.
Dunno. I’ve spread many a peanut butter with a spork. Of course that’s far removed from severing human hair. Still, I suppose you could use the twirl and yank technique.
Properly a Spork does not. I suspect those refering to a knife edge are thinking of a knspork, or knoork, possibly a sporf, kfs, or even a simple foof. There are mult-utensils out there that combine all three. But, one must beware the dangers of excessive cross-breeding.
Arctic cultures having a bunch of words for the Snow that is an integral part of day to day life makes a lot of sense to me. A bunch of words for interchangeable failed attempts to improve existing tools does not
It’s debated how many words the Eskimo languages actually have for kinds of snow. One problem is that “a word” is a fairly self-evident unit in Indo-European languages like English but not necessarily in other language families; like the Eskimo-Aleut languages which are polysynthetic (long glued-together strings of suffixes, not single identifiable words)
Another problem is with the significance that is implicitely ascribed to the “Eskimo words for snow” story. We tend to want it to neatly encapsulates the intuitively sensible influence of the natural environment on language, and that’s why it constantly gets used, more or less seriously, to draw all sorts of conclusions by analogy about English or other languages we have strong opinions about.
I’m not gonna go into why i think that’s almost always nonsense, but one thing I’ll point out is i very much doubt English speakers who live in, say, Alaska, have any trouble comprehending and discussing the many nuances of snow they encounter. Languages are way more adaptable to the environment their speakers inhabit than this aphorism would tend to have us believe.
Naturally the guy who’s concerned over having too MANY shoes is also that worried over having an effeminate hairstyle.
That said, I can sympathize, as a photo from when I was 12 or so later had my dad asked who the little girl was in it. That was more than a bit embarrassing.
I feel like I have a similar reaction the second I figure out there’s something others might find even mildly appealing about me. I MUST MAINTAIN MY STATUS OF DORK!
Walky was actually cool with that part, though. Even from his roommate, which would be legitimately awkward.
It was the inexplicable application of the word “feminine,” that he did not like.
I’m nonbinary but honestly, same. I’m so anxious and down trodded about all this legislation and haven’t yet actually done anything about it (calling governors and et cetera)
Honestly, I’d settle for voting in our favor, treating us as our presented gender, and not making a big deal out of us being trans. Beyond voting against politicians who would actively do us harm, I’m not sure how much the average person can do. Maybe I’m just projecting my own feelings of exhaustion and helplessness and pessimism, though; I can’t do rallies and debates and protests anymore, and I’m not even sure how effective they are.
Doing that plus addressing transphobic comments and actions from people we know in our daily lives and contacting our reps seems to be the general advice I’ve heard, yeah. I’m sorry everything is a garbage fire right now. Hugs if wanted.
Also, I haven’t been paying attention to the news lately. Is this about America? Are the Republicans at it again? I’m so tired. Why can’t they leave us alone?
Unfortunately, these are positions a lot of people support. A lot of people don’t understand us, and it’s easy to whip people into a frenzy (of sorts) over a constructed fear of an other they don’t understand. I wish people could see past the FUD. We’ve been around and in the public consciousness for a pretty long time now.
Yeah, that’s basically it. They’re trying to whip up fear for votes. It’s the latest replacement for the same sex marriage opposition they used to drive voting back in the 2000s.
I’m trying to treat it as a good sign – they’re having to openly oppose and pass laws because trans people are becoming more visible and acceptable. Like the flurry of laws passed against same sex marriage, it’s a rear-guard action, trying to hold back something that’s gotten out of their control.
No kidding. Though to be fair, I am not entirely sure my 18-year-old egg-self wouldn’t have reacted differently. The thought of being feminine was dangerously alluring and terrifying and “forbidden”.
But then, I did pretty much immediately start growing my hair out from under my parents thumb, so who knows. Maybe it would have just helped me figure some stuff out way earlier.
Read “growing your hair out from under your parents’ thumb” and immediately got a compelling mental image. It was very creative of you. Too bad that’s not what you meant at all ^^
Anyway i’m a cis guy but i can relate somewhat. It took me many years to accept that I like presenting more or less androgynous sometimes, depending on my mood (and where I have to be that day, let’s be real). For much of my 20’s i didnt care about clothes or hairstyle, and I groaned at the suggestion of makeup or cross-dressing for fun. I think I did feel scared on the one hand that I would like it, and on the other, that I would hate how I looked I think. turns out I don’t, I love it, but you know, it took time and patience.
My urologist once told me I was the ugliest woman he had ever seen. Somehow I was listed in his files as ‘female’. Also at the time I was over a year overdue for a haircut.
I am some flavor of trans masc/NB/something and yeeaaah.
The literal first thing I did when my parents gave me control over my own hair at 13 (which they made me keep waist length all my childhood) was shave half of it, hop the other half down to 1/2″ in length, spike it and dye it purple.
I had been asking for short hair from 4-11 years of age and finally gave up asking so mom thought I grew out of it and getting control of my hair would be a good 13th birthday present.
Unfortunately for her, that I’d accepted she wouldn’t say yes didn’t mean I didn’t want it anymore, and now I had 9 years of pent up resentment to vent with a hairstyle designed to piss her off as much as possible.
Oddly I did it anticipating my mom was going to have me grounded to my room till it grew out – and she totally wanted to – but my dad went to bat for me and convinced her that she couldn’t give permission for me to do anything with my hair and then punish me for taking her at her word, even if we all knew I did it in part to piss her off.
Anyway tldr my point being I totally get why you’d want to do something that feels more you with your hair at the first time the opportunity presents itself.
NB here too. “Delectably feminine energy” creeps me right out. Like I know that goes with “snack” but it sounds like they want to eat him with fava beans.
Yeah, booster has only known Walky for what? A few days now? They have their own shit going on and it’s not at all surprising that they haven’t learned all his hangups well enough to see this reaction coming.
The fact that they’re running after Walky trying to talk him down also pretty strongly suggests they simply didn’t expect such a melodramatic reaction.
https://imgur.com/a/6lERT02
I’ve mostly just been doing pinups on a whim. Here’s something with Walky’s Exes. Dotty strikes me as being way more cool with physical intimacy. Also who doesn’t love symmetrical docking
I like to imagine the toy is thrown by an alternate-timeline Joyce who branched off a few months ago when she suddenly realised she was Extremely Into blonde atheists in glasses and then immediately realised she ticked all her own boxes. Also she has short purple hair and a sword, for some reason.
Dang I didn’t check. I drew one head taller than the other and just guessed Amber would be the taller one. For a split second I thought it’d be dotty but then I really wanted to draw that sexy arm wrap and the rest is history.
I mean I do sorta like the idea that Amber is pretty short and squat. Makes her acrobatics more impressive. At the same time I just picture dotty being really tiny.
o3o I’ve been getting confused for a girl because of my hair since I was in middle school. Like you’d think it’d stop after puberty and stuff but nope. At a certain point I just stopped correcting people. It’s not really that big of a deal for me.
Oh yeah, no worries–my friends and partners and the few coworkers who know are really great about it. (A few of them are also trans.) It’s just strangers who never get it right–except one small child and this one older man who was actually legally blind, lol
Sure, unless she’s quick enough to stop him. She’s been running every morning specifically for this. And she’ll catch him and make him decide that “delectably feminine energy” is something he can get behind after all. And Lucy will not like.
You forgot a step. First, Dorothy is going to ask “Why (did you ruin your incredibly attractive hair)?!?”
And then Walky is going to proudly declare he did it to remain a macho dude or that his hair made him look like a girl or something.
By then, Joyce will have caught up and she’ll just be like “See? This is what I’ve been saying!”.
It’s an old-style emoji. The curved line is the hairline, the next two symbols represent the eyes, then the nose and mouth, Not sure what it’s meant to mean, though.
It’s a reference to a painting of Jesus, titled Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”), that a lady in Spain tried to restore on her own with disastrous results.
The second I was out of a school that had a hair code I started growing mine long, and have been confused for a woman a handful of times, most amusingly in a broad Scots accent on a holiday in Edinburgh when a parent advised their spawn to “get oot the lassies way pet”. Not a big deal tbh.
I was sometimes confused for a girl until I was 15. Then my facial hair became to dark and thick to ever be clean shaven again. I haven’t seen my cheeks bare for two decades.
This is still about to turn into a musical.number, but now it’s sort of like the dramatic end-of-act thing where everyone is singing about walky’s hair and what it means to them.
There was a painting of Jesus in a Spanish church called Ecce Homo. It would be considered unremarkable, but an untrained amateur tried to restore it and made it look like a monkey, so it became an internet meme. Booster’s telling Walky not to ruin his good looks.
I forgot that was the name of that painting. Booster’s way of talking kinda bugs me because it seems to me that far too often when they tell people stuff, they do it in the most confusing way possible.
Not until you realize it’s about the “restored” painting. Otherwise you can get lost in the biblical quotes and all the other art history stuff about that scene.
I like to imagine that Dorothy’s pursuit just gained the Metal Gear Solid “spotted” music. Hurry, Dorothy! Get him and “talk” him silly before he does something stupid!
Walky has pretty much always had his shoelaces untied. I assume he figured out how to run without tripping over his shoelaces long ago. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing Lucy on top of him.
I’m a guy and I just buzz mine anyway, so at least that situation didn’t change.
But if the clippers broke, I would’ve been SOL. After two months I just look like a fat-headed poofy doofus, I can only assume it would become sentient and start roaming the countryside after three.
In this strip I keep hearing Booster in my head as probably sounding just like Jason given his speech patterns. Which is weird, he’s American (not far from or even in Indiana right?) not an English stereotype.
I definitely think Booster has some odd speech patterns. Not sure why they talk the way they do, but it makes it harder for me to like them as they come off as kinda pretentious to me.
I don’t find it annoying, just odd (and haven’t made a solid judgment on Booster yet anyway) but I get weirded out a little when they use words like ‘delectable’ or in Ruth’s case ‘fascinating creature’. Just a bit creepy. I don’t hate Booster but rather like Joe who I also don’t hate I’m sometimes like ‘….really need a better word choice there. Crossing a line.’.
Maybe if instead of fascinating creature they’d said fascinating person for instance in Ruth’s case. Or amazingly feminine instead of delectably in Walky’s. Idk. It would still be distinctive and odd without crossing a verbal line which if a real person would be sending alarm bells in my head.
I think with Booster a lot of the core concepts building up for them is that they don’t really know how they sound like to other people. “Fascinating creature” and “delectable” sound perfectly normal in their head because they intimately understand the meaning behind the words they are choosing to say that, obviously, nobody else can because they’re not in Booster’s head.
Like with the psych reading they did for the girl’s dorm, where everyone was getting wildly, outwardly annoyed with them for blabbing about their secrets and they just did not understand even for a second that they were hurting people, because to them it was just an interesting anecdote to talk about, because psychology is fascinating and they thought everyone else would be as engrossed in having their characters dissected the way Booster, presumably, would find it riveting if someone did that for them.
I give kudos to Booster for FINALLY making this plotpoint minimally understandable, because I was COMPLETELY lost with the whole “Walky’s hair grew a millimeter and now he’s incredibly hot to everyone”. “Walky is hotter because he looks slighly more like Sal” at least falls in the “not completely preposterous” range.
I may be seeing too much but isn’t Booster calling Walky a “snack” and “delectibly feminine” a little… Joe-ish? Like, did Booster pick that up sitting next to him?
Some people: hating on Booster and the way they talk as annoying
Other people: relating strongly due to having funky speech patterns and odd references and being nonbinary/transmasc figuring it out.
It’s me. I’m Other People. My sister told me to stop “using big words” the other day when I said “retroactively”. I also mimic the speech patterns of people I hang around with so when I was teaching toddlers I mimicked toddlers. When I teach middle schoolers I start talking like all the internet slang.
Never stop “using big words”. Folks can brag about their monosyllabic vocabulary all day and all night, but words with more than six letters are people, too. Mimicking the speech patterns of people around you is called “fitting in on purpose”, and speaking as an autism, it’s one of the best ways to mask/blend in so you can get by in extended social interactions without getting stupid looks.
I have a predisposition toward polysyllabic nomenclature, but I try to keep it in check. (Think Charles from MASH but with more cussing.) I never thought of it as an AS masking thing before, though. That makes sense, and explains a few things…
I am also an Other People. I sometimes have funky speech patterns and odd references and I’m here for Booster being a bit of an oddball that way. Some people just have a way with words and I love theirs.
I like how everyone is dunking on Booster because they said the thing that made Walky act like an idiot, when surely the real issue here is that Walky is acting like an idiot.
I mean, I’m a cis guy, and if someone told me I was attracting female attention because my hair gave me “feminine energy” I’d … okay, I’d be super weirded out, but I would shrug and get on with my life, not run through the halls shrieking “For the love of god, someone find me a hedge trimmer!” And honestly, I’d be more weirded out by simply attracting attention than why.
Yeah, exactly. As a generically Cis straight guy, only the “delectable” part of what Booster said would give me any pause, because that just comes off as kind of gross. I mean, sure, it fits with the ‘snack’ reference, but it’s pushing the comparison too far! They’re edging into Lecter territory with that phrasing.
Walky, no! Don’t impulsively cut your hair, that way lies madness!
I did exactly that the other day, for Some Fucking Reason. Now every time I look in the mirror I’m increasingly uncomfortable, because now I look the way I did before I had managed to Figure Things Out. Hair went from pink-and-brown, wavy, sitting extra-hot at least once a week and down past my shoulders, directly to “Voiced by Nolan North”, and it was the worst possible idea.
I find this interaction pretty funny because people keep telling me that my hair is very pretty and that there’s women that’d kill to have a hair like mine and nothing has boosted my confidence with my personal image more than this.
I mean, being feminine is not a pet peeve of mine, but Walky having a meltdown over a pretty similar experience is funny to me.
Although, to be fair, I don’t have an identical twin sister and haven’t been told that what makes us different is that she’s hot.
I have three pair because eventually the pair I’m wearing falls apart, so I need an identical back up. The third pair is black and only worn at weddings and funerals, so it stays looking new.
I think this has more to do with being cheap than with being masculine tho.
BOOSTER 👏 APPRECIATION 👏 THREAD
The prodigal child has returned. I missed them.
Their sweater is insanely cute and I want one when I finally move out of the tropics. I love the use of big words it’s just relatable. Big words are fun. The reference at the end is funny too (idc if i had to Google ecce homo that honestly made it better)
Booster was just trying to compliment walkys hair and his toxic masculinity issue cropped up again, sigh. I really hope Walky kicks that in some arc eventually, he’s a fun character but that aspect of him is quite annoying. It’s not even really in the in the interesting, complex type of way that Joe has, Walky just has some bad ideas about masculinity that way too many guys casually do.
yes! i stan Booster too! i also stan Walky! those seem to be mutually untenable positions around here for some weird reason! behold the field where i grow my fucks! it is so very barren!
I jotted down some thoughts about this above, but to maybe make it more prominent: Booster talks like this because they think it sounds cool, and probably doesn’t realize what it sounds like outside their head.
Maybe I’m projecting my own experiences because I do the exact same thing where I’ll go out of my way to pick the most deliberately overwrought word to describe something and then just say fuck as much as possible in the next sentence, but how I’m reading Booster’s word choices like “delectable” and “fascinating creature” is that it really is just a matter of Booster thinking those words sound cool and interesting, and Booster in their head knows exactly what they mean in a way that someone else, either the person hearing it or the audience reading it, won’t immediately gel with.
I agree. Booster sounds like they swallowed a dictionary, or maybe the complete unabridged works of Charles Dickens. They might think it sounds intelligent or sophisticated, but it just makes them come across as pretentious. Maybe they don’t notice, or just don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, but it would be grating to put up with after a while.
Booster’s using words that appeal to them without understanding (possibly, because this actually hasn’t come up yet in-universe and I’m more talking the relationship between Booster and the audience) why it sounds weird when spoken aloud.
I suspect we arrived at the same conclusion from different angles. (I just tend to blurt out whatever then have to go back and clarify later. It’s a curse.)
I think Booster’s inner monologue basically goes “oh, that sounds better and means what I’m conveying, I’ll use that” when constructing sentences, without regard to what it sounds like verbalized. Their use of such cromulent phrases as “ne’er shall I err”, for example, sounds pretentious in a situation where there’s no reason to be so stuffy and formal.
Ecce Homo, in this context, refers to a painting whose restoration gave… less than stellar results. What Booster is saying is that he doesn’t want Walky to “ruin himself” by changing his looks.
Ecce Homo is the name of an old church fresco in Spain. It was deteriorating, and a well-meaning amateur attempted a “restoration”. Their artistic skills weren’t up to the task, to put it kindly.
Maybe Booster talks this way because they’re educated and like reading. Not everybody needs to talk like a slob. Maybe some people should stop hating education.
First I thought Walkys new look made him look like Asher or a boy band member. Identifying it as a touch of the feminine makes Jennifer’s attraction to Asher appear in a different light.
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hahahahahahahaha oh no
Oh yes! Do it Walkerton! It’s empowering to throw off the shackles of expectation. Transform as the phoenix and arise Ecco Homo.
… do not ‘behold the man’ yourself…
Huh?
I feel like I’m not understanding this reference.
I mean, I get that he doesn’t want Walky to cut his hair, and I get that it’s a reference to John (19:5) (thanks to google), but I don’t see how that quote relates.
Could it be…about plucked chicken?
I feel like the plucked chicken answer makes the most sense, except that Plato would have been speaking Greek.
I didn’t get until someone else explained it, but it’s the name of the Jesus painting that was enhanced by a botched restoration
It’s a hillarious and weirdly upfting story. The fresco Ecce Homo in spain was worn and a parishoner made an honest effort to restore it and… did not succeed. However, the original was only 80 years old and not regarded as a notable work. In creating a mockery (accidentally) the new work (called Ecce Mono by some) has drawn attention and tourist dollars to the village. While god
maymay not work in mysterious ways, people certainly do. With the restoration, the work is raising money for various local charitable causes.. and the church.I can’t believe that was already nine years ago.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Homo_(Mart%C3%ADnez_and_Gim%C3%A9nez)
Look up “Potato Jesus”
I wonder if that quote was interjected post hoc into the Bible at some point, like the story where the “least sinful should cast the first stone”.
Thanks to the thread for the explanation, I saw ecce and thought it was an anime reference.
Might be this “restoration” (cosplay at Austin Comic Con 2012)
https://tinyurl.com/Restoredd-ecce-homo
Goddamit Booster.
Try to see this from Walky’s point of view. Just about the only things that distinguish him from Sal are shorter hair and the absence of boobs.
And with his diet, the boobs are surely coming.
I’m just trying to figure out how a spork would do anything to his hair…
It’s a Spoon and a Fork and a Knife, but only the last bit is relevant here.
Since when do sporks act like knives?
I feel like a tutorial is needed.
They *don’t* but there’s enough of an edge that you could sever hair with them. It wouldn’t be very effective but you could do it.
One at a time, by pulling them out?
There ARE sporks that include a knife edge on the side, though it’s not part of the basic definition of “spork”.
Huh, I’ve never come across a spork that had knife qualities to it. Apparently I’ve just had the boring ones
I’m mostly familiar with Sporks that had a serrated edge, but after some quick research they don’t seem to be the most common variant and I’m not entirely sure if the sort of thing I’m thinking of are even considered true Sporks, they may be considered a separate but equally worthless type of novelty utensil.
You may have been thinking of a Fife. Or maybe a Knork. Hard to tell honestly.
Fife seems to be the closest match, but these sorts of novelty utensils are basically interchangeable.
Dunno. I’ve spread many a peanut butter with a spork. Of course that’s far removed from severing human hair. Still, I suppose you could use the twirl and yank technique.
You may wish to go to Wikipedia and look up the Splayd.
Fife?
[Attempts to cut hair with a small flute. Fails.]
Properly a Spork does not. I suspect those refering to a knife edge are thinking of a knspork, or knoork, possibly a sporf, kfs, or even a simple foof. There are mult-utensils out there that combine all three. But, one must beware the dangers of excessive cross-breeding.
Why are there so many names for these things?
As with the many Eskimo words for snow, it stems from people being cast into circumstances where they have too much time on their hands.
Arctic cultures having a bunch of words for the Snow that is an integral part of day to day life makes a lot of sense to me. A bunch of words for interchangeable failed attempts to improve existing tools does not
Actually I shouldn’t say all the names for stupid novelty cutlery don’t make sense, it does make sense but that doesn’t mean I respect it
Observe the snow. It fornicates.
It’s debated how many words the Eskimo languages actually have for kinds of snow. One problem is that “a word” is a fairly self-evident unit in Indo-European languages like English but not necessarily in other language families; like the Eskimo-Aleut languages which are polysynthetic (long glued-together strings of suffixes, not single identifiable words)
Another problem is with the significance that is implicitely ascribed to the “Eskimo words for snow” story. We tend to want it to neatly encapsulates the intuitively sensible influence of the natural environment on language, and that’s why it constantly gets used, more or less seriously, to draw all sorts of conclusions by analogy about English or other languages we have strong opinions about.
I’m not gonna go into why i think that’s almost always nonsense, but one thing I’ll point out is i very much doubt English speakers who live in, say, Alaska, have any trouble comprehending and discussing the many nuances of snow they encounter. Languages are way more adaptable to the environment their speakers inhabit than this aphorism would tend to have us believe.
“Observe the snow. It fornicates.” — Justin Baker
Hence the Eskimo word for “Great, more fucking snow.”
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln:
Anything’s a spork if you’re brave enough.
Maybe he is calling for Spork Man.
Walky is still my vote for a bi dude better than Danny. Why? Because he and Jason would be awesome together.
And no, I don’t know why I ship them. I just DO.
I spewed my soda, thank you
I always thought it was more like (`.-o
Naturally the guy who’s concerned over having too MANY shoes is also that worried over having an effeminate hairstyle.
That said, I can sympathize, as a photo from when I was 12 or so later had my dad asked who the little girl was in it. That was more than a bit embarrassing.
Sorry, Booster. Marge Simpson beat you to the punch decades ago.
I have 100% been in Walky’s position. Granted, I was like 8 at the time, so it was more like “ew girls” than “ah! Femininity!”
Yep. Booster can fuck up a wet dream.
…”ecce homo, qui est faba”?
I was under the impression that the only Bean in this comic was Leslie.
It’s a reference to the potato jesus painting
Actually, “Ecce homo” translates as “Behold the man!”, and is from the Vulgate Latin version of the Gospel of John (John 19:5) when Pilate presented Christ to the crowd, claiming that he found no guilt in him.
Which is also the title of the “potato Jesus” painting, as prior to its disastrous attempted-restoration that moment was what the painting depicted.
Is that from the time when Jesus was alluded to Greek and Roman gods?
The time when Jesus was alluded to by the Greek and Roman gods is kind of hard to date.
It has unreasonably high standards.
Honestly, I only remember it from a Three Pines novel.
My wife and I are huge Louise Penny fans but I can’t remember which book has the “Ecce homo” reference. Which one?
The one set in the monastery. I remember that phrase being mentioned several times, though the context eludes me at the moment.
And it’s therefore the name of a painting. Which is the reference Booster’s making.
I feel like I have a similar reaction the second I figure out there’s something others might find even mildly appealing about me. I MUST MAINTAIN MY STATUS OF DORK!
Walky was actually cool with that part, though. Even from his roommate, which would be legitimately awkward.
It was the inexplicable application of the word “feminine,” that he did not like.
Walky no, don’t ruin it!!!
Now it’s the cis who aren’t okay
Again, we’re doing our best-
*looks at the string of super strong transphobic legislation coming out*
Actually, we’re really not. We could do better. We NEED to do better on stamping out transphobia. Myself included.
I’m nonbinary but honestly, same. I’m so anxious and down trodded about all this legislation and haven’t yet actually done anything about it (calling governors and et cetera)
Honestly, I’d settle for voting in our favor, treating us as our presented gender, and not making a big deal out of us being trans. Beyond voting against politicians who would actively do us harm, I’m not sure how much the average person can do. Maybe I’m just projecting my own feelings of exhaustion and helplessness and pessimism, though; I can’t do rallies and debates and protests anymore, and I’m not even sure how effective they are.
Doing that plus addressing transphobic comments and actions from people we know in our daily lives and contacting our reps seems to be the general advice I’ve heard, yeah. I’m sorry everything is a garbage fire right now. Hugs if wanted.
Also, I haven’t been paying attention to the news lately. Is this about America? Are the Republicans at it again? I’m so tired. Why can’t they leave us alone?
Yes, it’s about America. And they’re doing it because adopting positions that people support is too much like work for them.
Unfortunately, these are positions a lot of people support. A lot of people don’t understand us, and it’s easy to whip people into a frenzy (of sorts) over a constructed fear of an other they don’t understand. I wish people could see past the FUD. We’ve been around and in the public consciousness for a pretty long time now.
FUD?
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. It’s a common political/rhetorical tactic.
Yeah, that’s basically it. They’re trying to whip up fear for votes. It’s the latest replacement for the same sex marriage opposition they used to drive voting back in the 2000s.
I’m trying to treat it as a good sign – they’re having to openly oppose and pass laws because trans people are becoming more visible and acceptable. Like the flurry of laws passed against same sex marriage, it’s a rear-guard action, trying to hold back something that’s gotten out of their control.
to be fair, they’re NEVER okay
Am Cis, Can Confirm.
Is anyone ever really “okay”?
No kidding. Though to be fair, I am not entirely sure my 18-year-old egg-self wouldn’t have reacted differently. The thought of being feminine was dangerously alluring and terrifying and “forbidden”.
But then, I did pretty much immediately start growing my hair out from under my parents thumb, so who knows. Maybe it would have just helped me figure some stuff out way earlier.
*growing my hair out the second I was out from my parents thumb
Read “growing your hair out from under your parents’ thumb” and immediately got a compelling mental image. It was very creative of you. Too bad that’s not what you meant at all ^^
Anyway i’m a cis guy but i can relate somewhat. It took me many years to accept that I like presenting more or less androgynous sometimes, depending on my mood (and where I have to be that day, let’s be real). For much of my 20’s i didnt care about clothes or hairstyle, and I groaned at the suggestion of makeup or cross-dressing for fun. I think I did feel scared on the one hand that I would like it, and on the other, that I would hate how I looked I think. turns out I don’t, I love it, but you know, it took time and patience.
My urologist once told me I was the ugliest woman he had ever seen. Somehow I was listed in his files as ‘female’. Also at the time I was over a year overdue for a haircut.
I am some flavor of trans masc/NB/something and yeeaaah.
The literal first thing I did when my parents gave me control over my own hair at 13 (which they made me keep waist length all my childhood) was shave half of it, hop the other half down to 1/2″ in length, spike it and dye it purple.
I had been asking for short hair from 4-11 years of age and finally gave up asking so mom thought I grew out of it and getting control of my hair would be a good 13th birthday present.
Unfortunately for her, that I’d accepted she wouldn’t say yes didn’t mean I didn’t want it anymore, and now I had 9 years of pent up resentment to vent with a hairstyle designed to piss her off as much as possible.
Oddly I did it anticipating my mom was going to have me grounded to my room till it grew out – and she totally wanted to – but my dad went to bat for me and convinced her that she couldn’t give permission for me to do anything with my hair and then punish me for taking her at her word, even if we all knew I did it in part to piss her off.
Anyway tldr my point being I totally get why you’d want to do something that feels more you with your hair at the first time the opportunity presents itself.
Kudos to your dad!
Seconded!
Booster just started commenting on their roommate’s attractiveness and then proceeded to ramble on about the subject.
Get a Haircut And Get a Real Job
Clean your act up and don’t be a slob…
Booster, you told him the right thing the wrong way. “Feminine” is a great way to get Walky to scramble.
I refuse to believe this wasn’t deliberate from the new Mike.
I dunno, as a NB person myself stuff like this doesn’t parse as potentially upsetting to a cis person, it could have been an honest mistake
NB here too. “Delectably feminine energy” creeps me right out. Like I know that goes with “snack” but it sounds like they want to eat him with fava beans.
“delectably” is certianly the sort of word I only expect to hear coming from people like Hannibal Lecter.
Now that’s a delectably readable comment right there, JBento.
*straps on helmet* You’re not getting to MY brains, you’re not.
i read it with a nice chianti.
yeah that’s a creepy fucking thing to say
Okay fair I was focusing on the wrong word here
Yeah, booster has only known Walky for what? A few days now? They have their own shit going on and it’s not at all surprising that they haven’t learned all his hangups well enough to see this reaction coming.
The fact that they’re running after Walky trying to talk him down also pretty strongly suggests they simply didn’t expect such a melodramatic reaction.
Man we were so close.
Thanks for trying to put an end to this storyline though Booster. Props to you for that.
Well he wasn’t trying to so I don’t know if he gets any credit for this.
*they.
Dammit.
Never fear. Dorothy will show up to save the day.
In fairness, I’m a trans girl, and if my roommate did I had a “delectably genuine energy” I’d be running too.
Bah, autocorrect got me again!
Autocorrecting your pronouns for you is the sign of a well trained phone.
I think it was autocorrected
said->did
(wrongly).
Also, probably “Feminine” to “genuine” is probably the bigger autocorrect issue.
https://imgur.com/a/6lERT02
I’ve mostly just been doing pinups on a whim. Here’s something with Walky’s Exes. Dotty strikes me as being way more cool with physical intimacy.
Also who doesn’t love symmetrical dockingNow that Joyce has glasses, maybe she’ll get a toy thrown at her head, too.
I like to imagine the toy is thrown by an alternate-timeline Joyce who branched off a few months ago when she suddenly realised she was Extremely Into blonde atheists in glasses and then immediately realised she ticked all her own boxes. Also she has short purple hair and a sword, for some reason.
You continue to impress me, though Isn’t Dorothy a tad bit taller than Amber? Unless she holder her up in that hug.
Dang I didn’t check. I drew one head taller than the other and just guessed Amber would be the taller one. For a split second I thought it’d be dotty but then I really wanted to draw that sexy arm wrap and the rest is history.
I feel like a character did once refer to Amber as a “shorter, rounder Dorothy”, but I am 100% on board with your artistic interpretation. Too cute.
I mean I do sorta like the idea that Amber is pretty short and squat. Makes her acrobatics more impressive. At the same time I just picture dotty being really tiny.
It’s pronounced “thicc”, Yotomoe.
Artistic license.
Yep, that’s a heck of a visual right there. Joyce being a grump is a nice touch, too.
definitely not because I also like symmetrical docking ahahahahaBest Avitar ever.
I wanna see the color version again.
Hid it in the username again cuz I was sleepy. 😉 Coloring is fun.
o3o I’ve been getting confused for a girl because of my hair since I was in middle school. Like you’d think it’d stop after puberty and stuff but nope. At a certain point I just stopped correcting people. It’s not really that big of a deal for me.
Delectibly Feminine Energy.
Delectininergy
As a trans guy, I can’t say I’d respond much differently. …Ah, who am I kidding? I can’t “pass” to save my life anyway, lol
Damn, ain’t that a mood. I hope your friend and coworkers at least treat you like a man. :/
Oh yeah, no worries–my friends and partners and the few coworkers who know are really great about it. (A few of them are also trans.) It’s just strangers who never get it right–except one small child and this one older man who was actually legally blind, lol
jhsdhjsfkjhsdkjhf holy shit
Damn you, Booster!
I was enjoying the Hot Walky arc!
So now Walky is going to ruin his hair, right before Dorothy gets to him. Thus Dorothy will snap out of it and decide not to sleep with Walky again.
I was just thinking this.
…so what you’re saying is that Joyce still has a chance?
Sure, unless she’s quick enough to stop him. She’s been running every morning specifically for this. And she’ll catch him and make him decide that “delectably feminine energy” is something he can get behind after all. And Lucy will not like.
I’m not sure Walky would be into Dorothy getting behind him … but I’d be interested in finding out.
You forgot a step. First, Dorothy is going to ask “Why (did you ruin your incredibly attractive hair)?!?”
And then Walky is going to proudly declare he did it to remain a macho dude or that his hair made him look like a girl or something.
By then, Joyce will have caught up and she’ll just be like “See? This is what I’ve been saying!”.
Lucy in the last panel is positively adorable.
no (ecce) homo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI&ab_channel=JeffreyBosman
Panel 3 Lucy has a look that suggests she knows Booster’s about to fuck it up for everyone.
When has Booster not fucked it up for everyone?
This is my favourite Booster look so far. The pink suits them.
Alt text explanation please?
It’s an old-style emoji. The curved line is the hairline, the next two symbols represent the eyes, then the nose and mouth, Not sure what it’s meant to mean, though.
Archaic emoji…
NOW I feel old.
I think it’s supposed to be an emoji representation of the infamously-botched Ecce Homo painting Booster references.
It’s a reference to a painting of Jesus, titled Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”), that a lady in Spain tried to restore on her own with disastrous results.
Looks like a Faz face to me. DeadJoiras and King Daniel are probably right, though.
We had perfection and then someone had to ruin it for everyone.
Probably for the best.
I love that this now has become the stupidest imaginable race between Dorothy finding Walky and Walky finding a spork.
Walky, it means it makes you hot to women, not that you look like a girl.
He’s not secure enough in himself to parse it that way, though.
The second I was out of a school that had a hair code I started growing mine long, and have been confused for a woman a handful of times, most amusingly in a broad Scots accent on a holiday in Edinburgh when a parent advised their spawn to “get oot the lassies way pet”. Not a big deal tbh.
“Hair code”?
Limitations on what hairstyles are acceptable.
That’s barbaric.
Oooo! Ironic!
Is it? 🤨
Well, it’s certainly not very Greek
I was sometimes confused for a girl until I was 15. Then my facial hair became to dark and thick to ever be clean shaven again. I haven’t seen my cheeks bare for two decades.
This is still about to turn into a musical.number, but now it’s sort of like the dramatic end-of-act thing where everyone is singing about walky’s hair and what it means to them.
I’m visualizing Lucy tackling Walky in the hall, and when Dorothy arrives, Lucy is holding him down by sitting on his face.
You just spoiled Yoto’s next sketch
spoiled -> inspired FTFY.
I don’t know what Ecce Homo means. Unfortunately, the joke at the end is lost on me because of that.
There was a painting of Jesus in a Spanish church called Ecce Homo. It would be considered unremarkable, but an untrained amateur tried to restore it and made it look like a monkey, so it became an internet meme. Booster’s telling Walky not to ruin his good looks.
I forgot that was the name of that painting. Booster’s way of talking kinda bugs me because it seems to me that far too often when they tell people stuff, they do it in the most confusing way possible.
Thank you. Googling didn’t help me, I was still confused but that makes sense.
OH. I assumed it was Latin and booster was using some fancy way to say “don’t “no homo” your hair”
That makes WAY more sense
I assumed it was about Nietzsche, because never presume a man has not philosophers at his disposal
Well, it is Latin. “Homo” is “man” or “person” in Latin, and is found in terms like homo sapiens and homicide.
You’re thinking of Greek. “Homo” is “same” in Greek, and is found in terms like homogenous and… well, you know.
Google should solve that in a jiffy. It’s better seen than explained.
Not until you realize it’s about the “restored” painting. Otherwise you can get lost in the biblical quotes and all the other art history stuff about that scene.
Really? The painting was the first thing that popped up when I googled it
I like to imagine that Dorothy’s pursuit just gained the Metal Gear Solid “spotted” music. Hurry, Dorothy! Get him and “talk” him silly before he does something stupid!
Thanks AGAIN, Booster!
You ruined what could’ve been an otherwise perfectly fine Reverse Gang-Bang!
For every potential F/F/F/M mattress party, there is an equal but opposite force created in the form of a low-filter roommate.
I don’t think Walky will get far. Look at his shoelaces. Lucy is going to end up on top of him in a few seconds.
Walky has pretty much always had his shoelaces untied. I assume he figured out how to run without tripping over his shoelaces long ago. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing Lucy on top of him.
Show of hands: Who else here was (at least momentarily) afraid to google “ecce homo”?
(Yes, I’d heard about the painting. No, I didn’t remember its name.)
I didn’t know it was a painting. I’d only heard the phrase in a Three Pines novel before now.
“Snack”; ugh. Booster is so annoying.
Auto-hair-cut was a desperate way to keep my hair in a decent way in pandemic times.
I’m a guy and I just buzz mine anyway, so at least that situation didn’t change.
But if the clippers broke, I would’ve been SOL. After two months I just look like a fat-headed poofy doofus, I can only assume it would become sentient and start roaming the countryside after three.
Walky: Full on Sprinting
Lucy: Running after him
Booster: Following along at a . . .hunched over power walk?
In this strip I keep hearing Booster in my head as probably sounding just like Jason given his speech patterns. Which is weird, he’s American (not far from or even in Indiana right?) not an English stereotype.
Sorry, they.
I definitely think Booster has some odd speech patterns. Not sure why they talk the way they do, but it makes it harder for me to like them as they come off as kinda pretentious to me.
If we didn’t already know their major, I’d have said ‘yep, you’re a first year arts student’.
I don’t find it annoying, just odd (and haven’t made a solid judgment on Booster yet anyway) but I get weirded out a little when they use words like ‘delectable’ or in Ruth’s case ‘fascinating creature’. Just a bit creepy. I don’t hate Booster but rather like Joe who I also don’t hate I’m sometimes like ‘….really need a better word choice there. Crossing a line.’.
Maybe if instead of fascinating creature they’d said fascinating person for instance in Ruth’s case. Or amazingly feminine instead of delectably in Walky’s. Idk. It would still be distinctive and odd without crossing a verbal line which if a real person would be sending alarm bells in my head.
I think with Booster a lot of the core concepts building up for them is that they don’t really know how they sound like to other people. “Fascinating creature” and “delectable” sound perfectly normal in their head because they intimately understand the meaning behind the words they are choosing to say that, obviously, nobody else can because they’re not in Booster’s head.
Like with the psych reading they did for the girl’s dorm, where everyone was getting wildly, outwardly annoyed with them for blabbing about their secrets and they just did not understand even for a second that they were hurting people, because to them it was just an interesting anecdote to talk about, because psychology is fascinating and they thought everyone else would be as engrossed in having their characters dissected the way Booster, presumably, would find it riveting if someone did that for them.
Hahaha this is much better Booster, I like this side of them much more. That’s also a great sweater on them.
So it was only his Salness (Salivity? Salishness?) that made him hot. I can dig that.
I give kudos to Booster for FINALLY making this plotpoint minimally understandable, because I was COMPLETELY lost with the whole “Walky’s hair grew a millimeter and now he’s incredibly hot to everyone”. “Walky is hotter because he looks slighly more like Sal” at least falls in the “not completely preposterous” range.
Behold, the error.
“Delectably feminine energy”- eh, it can’t be
Called it
about to commit an homocide? (on himself, of course)
Damn it Booster why’d you have to ruin this silly “hot Walky” arc that I’ve been enjoying.
all things have to come to an end
I may be seeing too much but isn’t Booster calling Walky a “snack” and “delectibly feminine” a little… Joe-ish? Like, did Booster pick that up sitting next to him?
What makes you think that Booster wasn’t ALWAYS like this?
Wait till you meet Booster’s imaginary sister.
So, he’s Mike AND Joe now? Will he also be Danny next?
Booster uses They/Them pronouns.
Yes, I apologize. They are Mike AND Joe now.?
Some people: hating on Booster and the way they talk as annoying
Other people: relating strongly due to having funky speech patterns and odd references and being nonbinary/transmasc figuring it out.
It’s me. I’m Other People. My sister told me to stop “using big words” the other day when I said “retroactively”. I also mimic the speech patterns of people I hang around with so when I was teaching toddlers I mimicked toddlers. When I teach middle schoolers I start talking like all the internet slang.
Never stop “using big words”. Folks can brag about their monosyllabic vocabulary all day and all night, but words with more than six letters are people, too. Mimicking the speech patterns of people around you is called “fitting in on purpose”, and speaking as an autism, it’s one of the best ways to mask/blend in so you can get by in extended social interactions without getting stupid looks.
Why use big word when many little word work fine?
I have a predisposition toward polysyllabic nomenclature, but I try to keep it in check. (Think Charles from MASH but with more cussing.) I never thought of it as an AS masking thing before, though. That makes sense, and explains a few things…
“Sorry, can you rephrase that? I’m having trouble parsing what you typed.”
“Normal people don’t use words like that.”
I was reeeeeeally not relaxed/comfortable in that relationship.
>”Normal people don’t use words like that.”
“Boo hoo hoo. Die mad about it.”
I am also an Other People. I sometimes have funky speech patterns and odd references and I’m here for Booster being a bit of an oddball that way. Some people just have a way with words and I love theirs.
I like how everyone is dunking on Booster because they said the thing that made Walky act like an idiot, when surely the real issue here is that Walky is acting like an idiot.
I mean, I’m a cis guy, and if someone told me I was attracting female attention because my hair gave me “feminine energy” I’d … okay, I’d be super weirded out, but I would shrug and get on with my life, not run through the halls shrieking “For the love of god, someone find me a hedge trimmer!” And honestly, I’d be more weirded out by simply attracting attention than why.
Yeah, exactly. As a generically Cis straight guy, only the “delectable” part of what Booster said would give me any pause, because that just comes off as kind of gross. I mean, sure, it fits with the ‘snack’ reference, but it’s pushing the comparison too far! They’re edging into Lecter territory with that phrasing.
Walky, no! Don’t impulsively cut your hair, that way lies madness!
I did exactly that the other day, for Some Fucking Reason. Now every time I look in the mirror I’m increasingly uncomfortable, because now I look the way I did before I had managed to Figure Things Out. Hair went from pink-and-brown, wavy, sitting extra-hot at least once a week and down past my shoulders, directly to “Voiced by Nolan North”, and it was the worst possible idea.
Does the “after” version still have some part of it dyed pink? If not, maybe that’d help.
Y’know, I DO still have a whole box of dye to use. Might be worth a try. And it’s only $10 for another box if I need more later…
Fuck it, let’s-a go.
Hope it works out for you. \o/
I find this interaction pretty funny because people keep telling me that my hair is very pretty and that there’s women that’d kill to have a hair like mine and nothing has boosted my confidence with my personal image more than this.
I mean, being feminine is not a pet peeve of mine, but Walky having a meltdown over a pretty similar experience is funny to me.
Although, to be fair, I don’t have an identical twin sister and haven’t been told that what makes us different is that she’s hot.
GO BOOSTER! Finally someone brave enough to say it to Walky.
LOL. Is this because Walky doesn’t want to look hot, or because he doesn’t want to be infused with “feminine energy”?
The latter. Walky doesn’t own more than one pair of shoes because that’s girly.
(whereas I only have one pair because I only got one pair of legs)
I have three pair because eventually the pair I’m wearing falls apart, so I need an identical back up. The third pair is black and only worn at weddings and funerals, so it stays looking new.
I think this has more to do with being cheap than with being masculine tho.
RIP Walky’s markedly different hair.
I’m loving the Walky and Booster interaction here <3 Can't wait to see more of these two.
Lucy is probably thinking that very thing right now.
The art history nerd in me is ecstatic at the punchline in the final panel.
Booster seems like they really like the arts and we love that for them.
BOOSTER 👏 APPRECIATION 👏 THREAD
The prodigal child has returned. I missed them.
Their sweater is insanely cute and I want one when I finally move out of the tropics. I love the use of big words it’s just relatable. Big words are fun. The reference at the end is funny too (idc if i had to Google ecce homo that honestly made it better)
Booster was just trying to compliment walkys hair and his toxic masculinity issue cropped up again, sigh. I really hope Walky kicks that in some arc eventually, he’s a fun character but that aspect of him is quite annoying. It’s not even really in the in the interesting, complex type of way that Joe has, Walky just has some bad ideas about masculinity that way too many guys casually do.
YAY BOOSTER APPRECIATION THREAD.
yes! i stan Booster too! i also stan Walky! those seem to be mutually untenable positions around here for some weird reason! behold the field where i grow my fucks! it is so very barren!
Yeah, this makes sense.
Cast it into the fire!
I suddenly have a powerful dislike, for Booster.
we are getting another imminent ‘bald in the name of science’ moment
Ecce homo qui est Nachito.
I jotted down some thoughts about this above, but to maybe make it more prominent: Booster talks like this because they think it sounds cool, and probably doesn’t realize what it sounds like outside their head.
Maybe I’m projecting my own experiences because I do the exact same thing where I’ll go out of my way to pick the most deliberately overwrought word to describe something and then just say fuck as much as possible in the next sentence, but how I’m reading Booster’s word choices like “delectable” and “fascinating creature” is that it really is just a matter of Booster thinking those words sound cool and interesting, and Booster in their head knows exactly what they mean in a way that someone else, either the person hearing it or the audience reading it, won’t immediately gel with.
Anyway yeah Booster ASD headcanon is now live.
I agree. Booster sounds like they swallowed a dictionary, or maybe the complete unabridged works of Charles Dickens. They might think it sounds intelligent or sophisticated, but it just makes them come across as pretentious. Maybe they don’t notice, or just don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, but it would be grating to put up with after a while.
That is *definitely* not what I was getting at.
Booster’s using words that appeal to them without understanding (possibly, because this actually hasn’t come up yet in-universe and I’m more talking the relationship between Booster and the audience) why it sounds weird when spoken aloud.
I suspect we arrived at the same conclusion from different angles. (I just tend to blurt out whatever then have to go back and clarify later. It’s a curse.)
I think Booster’s inner monologue basically goes “oh, that sounds better and means what I’m conveying, I’ll use that” when constructing sentences, without regard to what it sounds like verbalized. Their use of such cromulent phrases as “ne’er shall I err”, for example, sounds pretentious in a situation where there’s no reason to be so stuffy and formal.
Power move
I had to google Ecce Homo and tbh still not sure what it means in this context
Ecce Homo, in this context, refers to a painting whose restoration gave… less than stellar results. What Booster is saying is that he doesn’t want Walky to “ruin himself” by changing his looks.
D’you know the famous “potato Jesus” meme?
Ecce Homo is the name of an old church fresco in Spain. It was deteriorating, and a well-meaning amateur attempted a “restoration”. Their artistic skills weren’t up to the task, to put it kindly.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecce_Homo_(Mart%C3%ADnez_and_Gim%C3%A9nez)
Booster doesn’t want Walky to carelessly hack away at his hair, because he won’t improve on the way it is now.
Oh, that! It’s something many of us knew by sight but it’s good to put the name to Booster’s words.
more like Ecce No Homo lol
Maybe Booster talks this way because they’re educated and like reading. Not everybody needs to talk like a slob. Maybe some people should stop hating education.
oooops you forgot not to be elitist and condescending Kaffeeteria
First I thought Walkys new look made him look like Asher or a boy band member. Identifying it as a touch of the feminine makes Jennifer’s attraction to Asher appear in a different light.
Welp, Booster ruining stuff again.
And we seriously Replaced good ol Mike with THAT!?!?