Honestly, as bad for business as it’d be, I would definitely accept payment in titty pics. There’s like…not a non-predatory sounding way to advertise that service, but I certainly would accept that deal.
No, no, no. Modern money is called fiat money because it only has value because of government decree.
Compare with older forms of money, that only had value because they were in the form of coins containing precious or semiprecious metal (usually gold or silver).
First, props to Jason for covering consent AND for bad sms goal tending.
Ya know, if I were driving a convertible, I prolly wouldn’t care if I was being sassed, if something was going over my head, or that it was a Fiat. Especially if Daisy and Ruth were riding with me. So Yoto… do you do commissions? I’ve put on some weight this year and could prolly manage an a- or even a b- cup titty picture. I mean, if you don’t mind ginger chest hair.
Good luck getting THAT image out of your heads y’all! Look dad! I painted a picture and didn’t even lift a brush.
Ah yes, “precious metals,” which we all pretend are not themselves accorded value entirely arbitrarily. The only way in which such materials have inherent value is that a great deal of effort is expended to mine and refine them. But we only bother to invest that labor because we decided they look pretty.
Regardless of what “backs” a given currency, its value is established by a collectively accepted delusion. At bottom, money is a token representing labor (here are my tokens, which I exchange for your own work product). It simplifies trade so direct barter is no longer necessary – otherwise we’d all have to engage in byzantine chains of sequential bartering to trade our narrow skills for all the things we want and need – or all have to give up our specialized expertises and become subsistence farmers or hunter gatherers.
My FIAT 124 was pretty reasonably priced, and it’s only been in the shop for anything other than routine maintenance once in 3.5 years. Then again, it was actually built by Mazda. (Yeah I drive an Italian car that was made in Japan.)
Yeah, it’s not like there were women’s strikes at home in order to make it clear that they are providing men time/chances to sell their workforce in a untold and unequal barter. Men are women bosses, because women are men’s proletariat, and there wasn’t really a contract between them to give this bater a status… (note I left sex barter out of this, as if we could)
Scovilles aren’t spicy, they’re a unit of measurement. More of an abstract concept than a food. The higher your Scoville count, the harder it is to get drunk.
i believe that Wagstaff is actually performing mild cluelessness for the benefit of all humankind via hilarity. you understand that Wagstaff can not themself confirm this as they are surely taking their mission too seriously to break character.
Also, “star-craving mad” is lovely and suggests some sort of sad and poetic children’s story about an astronomer forced to work in the city, maybe to endlessly feed sheets of meaningless digits to a scary anthropomorphized computer, and there are too many lights and air pollution to see a single star!! Oh no!
And also, “star-craving mad” is from one of my favorite childhood characters: an undead pirate skeleton who would make up math puzzles with his own bones!
You’d think a country that fought, won, and celebrate their war of independence would be ALL OVER a different measuring system than that of their IMPERIAL oppressors.
Sure, but since those former oppressors eagerly adopted that alternative system first, we prove our bold independence by retaining the old, outmoded system all sensible nations have long since abandoned.
Also, we’re pretty sure changing now would be a sign of weakness – leaders don’t belatedly do what everyone else does, they stand apart, proud and confident!
I mean Ruth’s the one who even brought up getting laid in the first place so this is a little weird to me that’s she suddenly guilty about not wanting it.
Wouldn’t that be precisely the reason? She brought it up, therefore she feels obliged to go through with it, therefore she feels guilty for not totally wanting to go through with it.
My question is why did she even bring it up? Things were going pretty well before sex was even put on the table at all. It was pretty much established that Daisy is in to her and wants to see her again regardless of if they actually smash or not. But Ruth is drunk so maybe I’m trying to apply more logic to this than she is.
Things honestly weren’t going all that great. Ruth still had her walls up around her. You can see a huge difference between how she’s opened up to Jason vs. Daisy. Ruth basically offered sex because she’s forcing it. That’s at least my impression. She’s just trying to force herself with another girl who’s nice who she’s not super compatible with but is nice and wants to bone. Daisy’s a rebound.
There are important differences between Ruth and Daisy vs Ruth and Jason. For one Ruth is drunk. She had one shot before they even really started talking and before that she was her usual abrasive self with him. Plus they’ve met before the last time Ruth was here with “Billie”. That’s established familiarity which is much less pressure than a blind first date. Ruth was showing some attraction to Daisy. Enough to proposition her and even now she’s saying she think’s Daisy’s hot. It’s just strange to me that she essentially psyched herself out in the process of trying to psyche herself up when there was no pressure on her to begin with.
– “She had one shot before they even really started talking and before that she was her usual abrasive self with him.”
Emphasis on “usual”. She’s not trying hard with Jason and that makes all the difference. Ruth feels like she SHOULD have sex with Daisy, but I don’t think she actually WANTS to. Like she wants to but she doesn’t WANT to. There’s instant gratification and then there’s the reality of the situation.
“She want to but she doesn’t want to” See that’s exactly what I’m confused about. Although frankly I’m not sure what Ruth wants even matters at this point because I think she’s past the point where she can even give consent. Which might actually be what she wanted all along. Kind of take the choice away so she doesn’t even have to make it.
I mean, there’s a million and one reasons for someone to float the possibility of sex and then regret it? The most basic interpretation is that Ruth made a forward and flirty comment to let Daisy know that she was open to sex, and then she got nervous exactly because of how overly excited that made Daisy. At the very least, if you offer something to someone and they basically respond with “I am so grateful that I have lost control of my bowels AND the social awareness that would otherwise stop me from saying that,” wouldn’t you really start to question the offer, or at have some anxiety over whether you just committed to something that’s a way bigger deal than you thought?
That’s not even getting into the million nuances here. Ruth may have been hoping for a fling, and Daisy’s excitement is telling her that she wants more than that (or is reminding Ruth of potential unresolved feelings re: Jennifer), which is making Ruth feel guilty about it. Ruth could just generally be comfortable with romantic partners whom she can idolize (or more generally stand-off-ish partners), so she could be uncomfortable with the the fact that, rather than engage in snarky banter, someone “too hot for her” is THIS excited about sex with her. Hell, she could just be self-sabotaging. There are a legitimately dozens of other reasons I could list for why Ruth would bring this up and is now regretting it.
The fact that Daisy has been in the bathroom so long that Ruth had time to get somewhat drunk probably isn’t helping the doubt, anxiety, and possible regret.
Those are all valid insights. I’m just chalking it up to Ruth probably not being ready to actually date. Jennifer did set this up kind of assuming what Ruth needed. I’m not sure how long Daisy’s supposed to actually be gone on this. It’s weird comic time. It doesn’t take long to down two shots of whiskey. That’s kind of on Ruth. She ordered a drink basically as soon as Daisy was out of line of sight and got drunk almost instantly. Like I said yesterday that’s pretty impressive.
We have to remember that Jennifer sometimes thinks that casual sex is a good thing*. There’s a strong vibe of “Sure, we broke up, but don’t worry, I’ll get you laid! Sex is the important part, right?” from her. So since she arranged this date, and probably made it fairly clear that she was finagling an easy lay for both Ruth and Daisy (and, let’s be honest, from her point of view it makes sense — she knows Daisy is desperate, Ruth could use it [as she thinks], it’ll all be fine), both Daisy and Ruth probably think of this as equivalent to a Tindr meet-up. Jennifer has promised both of them sex (just not with her), so they sort of both think that’s what’s on the table; not going through with it because of reasons would seem rude, since they both feel they’re meeting on that basis.
Ruth definitely isn’t ready to date, and I think she realizes that; but this isn’t a “Let’s date” date, it’s a “Shall we bump genitals?” date. Because this is Dumbing of Age and everyone is therefore stupid, the fact that not being ready to date might make casual sex not a good idea (for this particular person, in these particular circumstances) might not come across.
*Not saying that casual sex is necessarily a bad idea! Just that Jennifer doesn’t always think things through. It’s not for everyone, or not always. But Head Cheerleader has found what seems to her the ideal situation, so of course she’s going to push it through. Unfortunately, she apparently hasn’t worked out that “So you couldn’t have that guy, go have sex under the bleachers with that one” isn’t necessarily a cure-for-all.
I think it’s just that a lot of things slipped out her backdoor and now she’s mentally going through every option for what Ruth might say and how she can respond to that once she gets back there.
I‘m honestly not sure how to read the situation. Is it really Ruth feels obliged to habe sex with Daisy and doesn’t want to, or is it that Ruth would like to have sex, not with Daisy per se, Daisy as a person is still an unknown anyway, but just doesn’t know how that works outside of her usual ways (which involved being very drunk and/or bullying the person before the fact)?
Is this about ongoing consent or freaking on the unknown?
(Not saying it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Ruth to have sex now she‘s drunk, but before she got drunk, what was the real issue?)
Maybe Ruth just isn’t comfortable jumping into bed with someone two hours after meeting them, and is pumping the brakes a bit and would rather wait until the third date or something.
There are some hints that Ruth kind of feels that getting laid with Daisy is something she owes to Jennifer. She doesn’t really want to, and now that it’s obvious how much Daisy wants it the pressure is going up. She is getting (drunkenly) aware that if she sabotages the sex part of this date she will not just failing Jennifer, she will also hurt Daisy. Too much responsibility to mix up with half bottle of whiskey.
Berke Breathed is not the most regular of updaters but he has produced around 900 new Bloom County strips since 2015, available on gocomics and two book collections.
i’m not sure if the origin is talked about somewhere, but i always figured Robin’s accent is a more traditional/Northern Midwestern accent? Which can be similar to a Canadian accent, if Ruth’s is slipping through here
Was Jason actually bad at teaching tho? I mean he failed with Walky and Sal but those two were pretty specific circumstances that clashed with his personality. It’s not really enough to just completely write off his teaching skills for me.
He was effectively teaching the class, I feel like? I’d have to check, but Amber was able to change grades when Jason was fired because no one else knew. (Could be he was only grading papers and not instructing, but that’s still an aspect of teaching where the subsequent judgment fails come into play.)
Either way, though, the sleeping with a student alone was enough for me to say ‘yes, you are a bad teacher, the onus is on you to SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN especially since (as Sal did indeed think) there’s the perception sleeping with you will equal better grades and that inherently fucks the power dynamic’, and the specific ways he antagonized and belittled her were… also not great. Walky wasn’t giving his best effort either, though Jason went in saying ‘it’s a lost cause and you disappoint your mother’ immediately and I can’t imagine that endeared Walky to the guy. Not knowing your student may have ADHD (because he himself doesn’t know either) and therefore your teaching methods won’t work is one thing. So is your teaching methods not working on any student when you’re young and maybe don’t know alternate approaches yet. Considering it the student’s personal failing when your methods don’t work, to the point of disbelief when Sal found a tutor who DID help her learn the material, is another. Sleeping with said student? NO. Nonononono. No. And he recognized that he had a position of power over her (having someone else grade her papers) and that this was a terrible idea.
The TAs do the grading, but he didn’t do any of the actual lecturing. The only ‘teaching’ teaching he did was with Walky and Sal, neither of which went well.
Yeah, TAs don’t actually do the main lecture — they often observe the lecture, which is presumably why Jason was at the front of the room, they usually run the labs for science courses, and they might lecture for recitation (basically, “recitation” is a supplementary lecture they sometimes have where TAs go over the material with a fraction of the class, since each class has multiple recitation groups). They probably don’t have recitation for freshman courses, though.
Just based on the small insight we got into his methods on helping someone who wasn’t getting it, it seems like he’s at best not great. Being able to explain something in multiple different ways is usually the key to bridging a gap in understanding. I say this with much experience.
If that’s a representative sample of his operating procedure, it doesn’t speak well to his general teaching ability. And if it’s not, it doesn’t speak to his ability to apply the right technique at the right time. Either way it’s not good for him, and absolutely exacerbated the personality conflict.
Walky was a different scenario, you can’t help someone who isn’t ready to be helped, and that shouldn’t be held against him. Despite Walky showing up, he was very clearly not ready. This was not imho wholly Walky’s fault, but he was not in a place to receive help, and it would have taken tremendous skill on the part of a TA to help him. A success there would speak very highly in someone’s favor, but a failure should not necessarily count against them.
Yeah, I wouldn’t hold the sessions with Walky going badly against Jason, but I am willing to say that the bit where he’s immediately dismissive of both twins’ chances of improvement reflects badly on him as a whole (since it is, in fact, shared between two otherwise-different interactions.)
But yeah, from what we see of the Sal sessions, at best he doesn’t know how to help her and instead of recognizing that, he keeps trying the same approach or considers it a Sal problem. I can see a novice TA making that mistake – or even a TA with some experience but not a ton of training or interest in teaching – but still, not great.
Yeah, that’s a terrible start and absolutely set a bad tone to begin with with Sal. I’m not sure how much difference it made with Walky, but that doesn’t make it any better. That’s not an attitude anyone in a teaching position should ever be taking.
On the other hand, he did actually reach out to Walky to try and help him. For his own selfish reasons, but yeah.
The feeling I always got about Jason is that he was thrown into the job with no proper training. In one of the earliest strips he appears in, he’s calling out to the students repeating what the prof just said, as though he’s trying to establish his existence. According to Penny, Prof. Rees just rushes back home as soon as he can and ignores everything else. It’s very easy to become a TA with no idea what to do — especially in Jason’s case, given that he just came over from England. An American student would at least have the experience of having had a TA himself when he was doing these lower-level classes. Jason ends up in the deep end. Like when he first interacts with Sal, and has that gross reactions of “Holy hell, you’re hot, I want to change my office hours to accommodate you,” but then does walk it back afterwards. And yes, absolutely, he should have shut Sal down the moment she started taking off her shirt, but he does then try to salvage his ethics by 1) giving her the grade she deserves and 2) handing over future papers to someone else to grade. Unlike Penny, he at least gets what the ethical issues are. Hence why he found it so easy to not contest his firing.
He’s a terrible teacher, but the thing is, I don’t think he’s been given any model for being a good one. People who end up as TAs, being advanced students and thus presumably actually interested in the subject, tend not to be the ones who necessarily needed a good teacher at any point, and definitely never needed tutoring, so don’t know how good tutoring works. Jason’s a bad teacher because he gets his subject matter; the most important quality in a teacher at this level is understanding how people might not get it. It’s all so obvious to him that he can’t see where Sal is finding a roadblock, whereas Danny, who’s good with rules, can.
And it’s understandable! Learning how to talk about your subject with someone who’s not at the same level is tough! The sad thing is, TAs ought to be given some training in this, and I definitely feel Jason wasn’t. Which is also sad, since unlike Penny, he clearly actually wanted to be a good one. But I feel like he accepted his firing not just because he couldn’t help but agree he deserved it, but also because he knew he wasn’t a good teacher and being fired spared him from having to realize it day after day.
That’s absolutely true – and can often extend to college professors as well. Knowing a subject doesn’t mean knowing how to teach it and neither faculty nor TAs are required to take classes in education.
That said, other than the inappropriate comments to Sal, his first interaction with either of them was to suggest they drop (or should have already dropped in Walky’s case, I think.) Sometimes that’s appropriate, but it shouldn’t come before an attempt to help. That’s not a matter of needing to learn different techniques for helping people, just dismissing them because they don’t instantly get it.
That’s about stance as well. He was almost certainly dropped into this with no guidance or training, but even with that as the standard we’re judging against, he’s subpar in his interactions with students.
You’re absolutely right. He’s a bad teacher, but it’s not necessarily his fault.
His bad teaching is indicative of a failed system, and not a failing of character on his part, but in the end it had the same effect for Sal. I think this is useful for what we say about Jason in the larger picture, but it doesn’t make him any better of a teacher.
I would also argue that the most thorough understanding of a subject allows you to explain it to a layperson (although this does also require some degree of communication skills) so it’s also possible that his understanding of his subject matter is functional but not masterful.
My understanding is that he was a PhD student. In my experience (insert obligatory “not all departments”) faculty don’t give a crap if you can teach, especially in your first couple years of the program. They care about your course work/research. And if you’re their TA, they care that you take care of the tedious parts of their job, like grading and dealing with students who complain about grades (which includes the ones who need help). I feel like a lot of departments suddenly remember you won’t get a job if they never teach you how to teach when you’re in like your 5th year and about to actually graduate. Before that they don’t care about you because odds are you’ll drop out for some reason and they will have wasted their precious time doing the boring parts of mentorship. Plus, they don’t want their drop outside getting jobs in the field.
I’ve been ASKED for dick pics and I still feel like an asshole sending them. But i also don’t like receiving titty pics for nothing. I don’t have anything else to show.
Ok you’d have no way of knowing this, but girls pulling open their shirts to take titty pics is one of my biggest turnons. o3o I mean I’m not exactly shy about how much I love boobs. I guess it’s the same reason i really like boob flashes. It’s just very deliberate and that makes it sexy.
Believe it or not, female Homo Sapiens are one rare occasion XY! It all comes down to a single gene on the Y chromosome that starts the developmental domino effect so to speak. Without that gene, the person will grow up to be female (different from being a woman), regardless of everything else.
Considering the negative societal effects of being either, still (altho thank god still better than it was when I was a kid), and the actual literal danger of coming out, though, can we really be sure yet that we have a decent handle on the actual frequencies of various sexualities?
Like, in such an environment, people who, were they in a culture that regarded it on the minor level of importance as, say, hair colour, would have no issues recognizing their gender and sexuality and just be gay or whatever and no one would think twice, can very well still find themselves not only not recognizing it in themselves, but also not even being self-reflective enough to even consider asking the question.
There’s a known correlation between neurodiverse people and trans people, and the rates of each in the other community are higher than we see in the general population; but we don’t yet know if that’s because of something to do with the actual neurology of either, or if it’s because part of the process of getting medically recognized and treated for either is a lot of self-examination and psychiatric consultations, and that the process of assessment itself just makes it more likely to find the other thing when you aren’t looking for it. You know? It’s been postulated that if such assessments were done on everyone, that correlation might smooth out, but until then (or until we can point at a specific and overlapping mechanism that causes or increases the likelihood of each) all we can do is note a correlation.
TL;DR: Is the frequency actually higher? Or are women just more prone to the kind of self-reflection that would prompt that realization, coupled with a greater societal acceptance of gay women that might make it feel safer to (a) accept that about oneself, and (b) come out (and therefore be counted)?
Re: Neurodivergence and trans people, I’ve also seen it posited that neurodivergent people tend to recognize they don’t quite follow the rules of society, even if they’re undiagnosed, and not-infrequently go ‘wait, why are these rules even a thing?’ (Particularly in the case of autism, which is the one I’ve most frequently seen statistical citations for. Dunno what the rates are with others.) Thus, another question is ‘are autistic people more likely to be trans because they’re autistic, or are they actually about as trans as the general population statistically but recognize it more because they’re internalizing societal rules and expectations less?’ (Being autistic and nebulously not quite cisgender, I definitely feel like there was a link between my going ‘all these social rules are bullshit, particularly as they apply to gender’ and then ‘wait, yeah, this gender doesn’t quite fit me as well as I thought.’ Long since diagnosed, but only started realizing there was Gender Shit going on in the last few years.)
Just another autistic chiming in, here. Once I finally came to terms with my (diagnosed since kindergarten) autism, I definitely did start noticing other things that were “different” about myself, especially things that felt wrong like people saying “he” when referring to me. I tried sort of reinforcing that assigned masculine identity and leaning into it, but that only confirmed what I’d been slowly realislzing. It’s like I’ve been masking not only my neurodivergence, but my gender identity as well, using exactly the same behaviors. So there might just be something to the idea of correlation, one way or another.
I suspect that has more to do with toxic masculinity making it harder to come out for guys? A guy acknowledging that he wants to suck another guy off or that he wants to be the recipient of bottom sex may well find himself characterised as cissy/girl-like/other term used to indicate he is an inferior male and person. I don’t think that happens so much to women.
Long before getting to actual sex, it’s much more socially acceptable for women to show platonic physical affection to each other, which may make it easier to realize.
I haven’t seen statistics, but I’d be interested to know if the ratio is changing with time. More people in younger generations identify as LGBTQ, but I don’t know if the gender breakdown is different than in older generations. I think I have seen that most of the increase is in bisexuals, whatever that means.
it’s likely because there’s less bi erasure. people really used to act like bisexuals/pansexuals were just gay people in denial. at least for gay men. women bisexuals of course were probably experimenting, and maybe just “kinky” because boy do men love to fetishize queer ladies.
Less bi erasure, but also less homophobia in general. It used to easier for bisexuals to just not come out at all, even to themselves. Just pretend to be straight, it’s not that hard if you actually are attracted to the opposite sex.
There’s also a massive confounding variable in both ‘more LGBT people in younger generations’ and the proportion of older lesbians to any other older queer people – AIDS disproportionately killed gay and bisexual men, particularly in the early days of the epidemic, so there are way fewer surviving gay Boomers and Gen Xers. (There’s a racial bias in mortality rates as well, which continues to this day. Good old systemic racism in the medical system.) Gay kids definitely seem to be coming out younger as well, but if your statistics come from the current populations of each generation, there’s a gap in your numbers.
Am I being a bit predictable by being INCREDIBLY active for the first time in a while the second a comic includes the word titty and the photos thereof?
Predictability is mostly a good trait. However, I’m not super clear on how many times I’m supposed to chant “Titty” at the mirror to invoke your dark powers.
The furniture between them is taller than when Jason was a TA and is fixed to the floor. That makes it harder to get over or around it. Even so, I give it at most 3-5 comics before Ruth tries to get on top of Jason and take off her shirt unless Daisy gets back in the meantime.
Making/serving drinks is just the base requirement. Good bartenders are also there to lend an ear/advice as needed, and the best will keep you from acting like an idiot if they feel it’s necessary
Bad Ruth! You should at least wear a t-shirt under your jersey. The less you have to wash them, the better. Plus they don’t tend to be terribly comfortable on bare skin.
We’ve seen her in a tank to that looks a lot like that, before, so maybe she’s wearing it now? On the other hand, I’m pretty sure Ruth’s bras are pretty plain, based on what I can remember.
The fact that she’s on a date at a pizza place wearing that jersey is also giving me anxiety. I mean, I’m fairly sure Willis based it on the 2016-17 Reebok jerseys based on the collar, the 2 narrow stripes on the arm, and the wide stripe at the base, so if it gets a stain that won’t come out, good luck finding one of them that won’t set you back a couple hundred bucks.
Incidentally (since there’s one more chapter in Book 11 after this one), that makes this the first book to have more than four chapters since 2012 – Books 1 and 2 had six chapters each, but 3 through 10 had four each.
I’m really hoping it’s a Jocelyne arc (maybe even about her coming out?) but Becky learning that Joyce is an atheist seems more likely. I think Dorothy probably suspects as much in light of this conversation, so it makes sense for Becky to be the next to learn— and the fact that Dorothy knew first would likely hurt her a lot. It could be both, I suppose— actually, those two things combined could be a really good story.
Come to think of it, we don’t really know much about Jocelyne’s religious beliefs, do we? Unless it was in a Patreon strip or something. Hoping that gets explored at some point.
I think it helps when he likes people, and he just got to talk trash about America with Ruth, so, that’s one reason to like her. Also they have similar fuckups and shitty home situations, so he can also relate to her.
Ruth saying “Enough” to the alcohol give me hopes this will not become a total disaster. Jason is actually a great bartender, he looks to care for Ruth’s sake and stop her to do stupid things. But now I’m starting to be worried for Daisy. She’s taking really a lot of time.
Ruth doesn’t think she deserves Daisy (or anyone); hence the self-sabotage, the drinking and the general Ruthiness. The really sad thing is Ruth trying to work up the nerve to offer Daisy a sympathy bone because she feels bad Daisy is so desperate she’s willing to settle for her.
Also, I am getting a little worried that Daisy’s been gone so long. Maybe she did bail (Because she thinks she doesn’t deserve Ruth or Daisy’s learning she has a previously undiagnosed but serious condition that can be triggered by extreme stress. Remember who writes this strip.
Ruth is getting drunk and thinking about someone else’s feelings, which is better than getting drunk and simply dumping on herself until she passes out. It’s not pretty but it may be progress.
A-ann-nd here comes the moment when Ruth realizes, through the ‘clarity’ of fermented & distilled spirits, that she is actually bi and jumps Jason’s boney British bones behind the bar.
But she’s still pretty young and has seemed unsure about her sexuality before. Willis knows things about his characters that they may not have realized themselves.
She had a boyfriend in Canada, who Sir brought up during his awful visit. Ruth hadn’t realized she was interested in women as well before Jennifer, but she knew she was into guys beforehand and never showed the same confusion and discomfort about bisexuality that Jennifer did. Some ‘yeah this surprised me as well’ in a conversation with Howard, but she never felt like this was an outlier and recognizes that bisexuality wasn’t just made up for porn. Ruth has textually known she’s bi and into guys specifically for ages.
Odd, that’s not the vibe I got. Maybe I missed some context, but with Ruth’s boyfriend referred to in past tense, my head just jumped to her being into women exclusively, after a period of trials and experimentation with males in her youth and deciding it wasn’t for her.
I went thru that with a lady I was serious about for several years. When she turned 30, she decided all men suck. She’s now 60, living in New Hampshire and married to a woman. But it took her time with me for her real self to emerge.
I seem to recall that she hadn’t done all that much sexually with her ex-boyfriend. Some lesbians will date a boy before they realize their own sexuality. Ruth may know she’s bisexual but she may also be uncertain, if she’s never had sex with a man. It hasn’t been addressed that much in the comic from what I remember.
It was never mentioned either way so why the hell are we constantly looking for reasons why Ruth is not actually bi.
Look I’m not blaming you for any of this, y’all’ve been conditioned for a longass time, but maybe finding out someone likes the same gender shouldn’t automatically mean gay all the time anymore.
Seriously, she has expressed no angst about being bi, and surprise/mild confusion about being attracted to women, but no onscreen reexamination of her attraction to men – she thinks she has bigger things to worry about anyway. Given she still remembers Ciaran’s name years down the line and is willing to bring it up later against Clint’s abuse, that suggests he did mean a fair bit to her (as does Clint’s awareness and dismissal of him.) You’d think if she did dramatically reassess/question her attraction to men this would occur onscreen, and that it would include reassessment of a past relationship she canonically had and valued. Occam’s razor suggests that she’s pretty comfortable with herself and not thinking a ton about her attraction one way or another – she may not be calling herself bisexual, but I don’t think she’d be surprised to find herself attracted to a man again.
There’s no reason to believe she’s questioning her sexuality. People are in fact allowed to go ‘oh huh’ and then roll with it.
You don’t need to have sex with a man to be certain if you feel attraction to them. Even if she chose not to do stuff with her ex-bf, which I can’t recall being mentioned in that type of context either way, she hasn’t wavered in her sexuality like Jennifer has and just accepted she was bi without hesitation. Don’t really have to address something in this comic over and over if it doesn’t have drama attached and all. It is more Danny and Jennifer’s thing to be insecure about that for different reasons, though Danny has pretty much accepted it now, Jennifer clearly hasn’t.
Actually never mind I’m blaming you for saying this now.
“A bi person doesn’t actually know” like, I ain’t got a polite way to address this. That is not an okay thing to say about bi folk and you should feel ashamed of yourself.
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Jason should point out that titty pics canNOT be withdrawn at any time
Nor are they legal tender to pay for whiskey, in case she’s thinking she can kill two birds with one titty.
Honestly, as bad for business as it’d be, I would definitely accept payment in titty pics. There’s like…not a non-predatory sounding way to advertise that service, but I certainly would accept that deal.
Just another reason why we should return to the barter system. Such offers would probably become more common
Technically we are always in a barter system. Money is just the most often traded item due to its fiat.
Somehow, I read that as “it’s flat,” and that honestly made a lot of sense. In paper form, it’s so easily carried and passed around!
That’s how I read it too!
“Flat”? That’s awesome! And it makes so much sense too! Well played…
But arent Fiats like horrible expensive while also being horribly unreliable?
No, no, no. Modern money is called fiat money because it only has value because of government decree.
Compare with older forms of money, that only had value because they were in the form of coins containing precious or semiprecious metal (usually gold or silver).
*Woosh!*
__|[your head]\__
|–O————–O—\
^
The Fiat convertible you are driving
usually i find woosh comments obnoxious, but your ascii art is stunning, so instead, i think you’re awesome *0*
First, props to Jason for covering consent AND for bad sms goal tending.
Ya know, if I were driving a convertible, I prolly wouldn’t care if I was being sassed, if something was going over my head, or that it was a Fiat. Especially if Daisy and Ruth were riding with me. So Yoto… do you do commissions? I’ve put on some weight this year and could prolly manage an a- or even a b- cup titty picture. I mean, if you don’t mind ginger chest hair.
Good luck getting THAT image out of your heads y’all! Look dad! I painted a picture and didn’t even lift a brush.
Ah yes, “precious metals,” which we all pretend are not themselves accorded value entirely arbitrarily. The only way in which such materials have inherent value is that a great deal of effort is expended to mine and refine them. But we only bother to invest that labor because we decided they look pretty.
Regardless of what “backs” a given currency, its value is established by a collectively accepted delusion. At bottom, money is a token representing labor (here are my tokens, which I exchange for your own work product). It simplifies trade so direct barter is no longer necessary – otherwise we’d all have to engage in byzantine chains of sequential bartering to trade our narrow skills for all the things we want and need – or all have to give up our specialized expertises and become subsistence farmers or hunter gatherers.
My FIAT 124 was pretty reasonably priced, and it’s only been in the shop for anything other than routine maintenance once in 3.5 years. Then again, it was actually built by Mazda. (Yeah I drive an Italian car that was made in Japan.)
But… the FIAT factories in Turin were instrumental to worker’s power (I mean, literally, potere operaio)
“The GM/DM drives up in his Fiat and makes a ruling.”
(not my line, but one I’ve heard)
Yeah, it’s not like there were women’s strikes at home in order to make it clear that they are providing men time/chances to sell their workforce in a untold and unequal barter. Men are women bosses, because women are men’s proletariat, and there wasn’t really a contract between them to give this bater a status… (note I left sex barter out of this, as if we could)
Well if we are always in a Barter system
And tittie pics would be a valid thing to barter with.
How exactly would Taxes work in that case?
But they can be DRAWN at any time. 😛
Good point.
We’re not stopping you.
(In fact, we’re encouraging you. Possibly because we’re terrible people.)
Luckily I know of a roof where we’d be welcome
Hypothetically, yes.
… is this more than a hypothetical? If so, please keep us abreast of any such developments.
I too am interested in the development of these breasts.
Wow. This provides a very useful metric on her alcohol tolerance.
What is the metric unit for alcohol tolerance?
I didn’t mean an exact metric. I just meant that this observation can give us a good idea on just how effective alcohol is for her.
Scovilles.
Uh…. I think that one’s for peppers.
No, peppers are measured by color.
No, I mean Scovilles are used to measure their spiciness.
Scovilles aren’t spicy, they’re a unit of measurement. More of an abstract concept than a food. The higher your Scoville count, the harder it is to get drunk.
As UNITS. Where did you get your information about Scovilles in regard to intoxication?
Clif asked about it?
i’ve measured this conversation and it’s 2,5 megascovilles (it’s a unit of roflness i’m specifying just in case cos i’ve seen people get confused)
milu: I see the problem. When measuring roflness, the unit is usually called a SydneyScoville, to alleviate confusion.
Wagstaff:
I believe that (1) the people you’re responding to are aware of this and (2) you need to check and/or replace your sarcasm detector.
(as I’ve now seen a couple of posts by you that fit the general pattern of “yes, that’s literally true, but they’re making a joke”.)
i believe that Wagstaff is actually performing mild cluelessness for the benefit of all humankind via hilarity. you understand that Wagstaff can not themself confirm this as they are surely taking their mission too seriously to break character.
Besides my sense of humor, I mainly seek to benefit the entire human species with the power of science!
Also, this webcomic and its message board are currently among the few things in my life that keep me from going star-craving MAD!
This place is making you LESS mad??!
….relatable.
Also, “star-craving mad” is lovely and suggests some sort of sad and poetic children’s story about an astronomer forced to work in the city, maybe to endlessly feed sheets of meaningless digits to a scary anthropomorphized computer, and there are too many lights and air pollution to see a single star!! Oh no!
Well, I do hope you look after yourself anyway <3
Thanks milu!
And also, “star-craving mad” is from one of my favorite childhood characters: an undead pirate skeleton who would make up math puzzles with his own bones!
I thought peppers (like kisses) were measured by the peck
Scovilles are a unit of measurement for profanity per second.
Since Scoville is already used for spicyness, I think those units are called SpS or Sydneys per Second.
Profanities can be spicy!
Dunno, but you’d better use it, because she’s having none of that Imperial unit shit.
You’d think a country that fought, won, and celebrate their war of independence would be ALL OVER a different measuring system than that of their IMPERIAL oppressors.
Up to and until it takes EFFORT
Sure, but since those former oppressors eagerly adopted that alternative system first, we prove our bold independence by retaining the old, outmoded system all sensible nations have long since abandoned.
Also, we’re pretty sure changing now would be a sign of weakness – leaders don’t belatedly do what everyone else does, they stand apart, proud and confident!
Are we talking per mill?
Except that we don’t know how many shots she’s had.
Could be just the two we’ve explicitly seen her downing, but I think more are implied.
I mean Ruth’s the one who even brought up getting laid in the first place so this is a little weird to me that’s she suddenly guilty about not wanting it.
If only she knew just how hungry a Daisy was.
Wouldn’t that be precisely the reason? She brought it up, therefore she feels obliged to go through with it, therefore she feels guilty for not totally wanting to go through with it.
My question is why did she even bring it up? Things were going pretty well before sex was even put on the table at all. It was pretty much established that Daisy is in to her and wants to see her again regardless of if they actually smash or not. But Ruth is drunk so maybe I’m trying to apply more logic to this than she is.
Things honestly weren’t going all that great. Ruth still had her walls up around her. You can see a huge difference between how she’s opened up to Jason vs. Daisy. Ruth basically offered sex because she’s forcing it. That’s at least my impression. She’s just trying to force herself with another girl who’s nice who she’s not super compatible with but is nice and wants to bone. Daisy’s a rebound.
There are important differences between Ruth and Daisy vs Ruth and Jason. For one Ruth is drunk. She had one shot before they even really started talking and before that she was her usual abrasive self with him. Plus they’ve met before the last time Ruth was here with “Billie”. That’s established familiarity which is much less pressure than a blind first date. Ruth was showing some attraction to Daisy. Enough to proposition her and even now she’s saying she think’s Daisy’s hot. It’s just strange to me that she essentially psyched herself out in the process of trying to psyche herself up when there was no pressure on her to begin with.
– “She had one shot before they even really started talking and before that she was her usual abrasive self with him.”
Emphasis on “usual”. She’s not trying hard with Jason and that makes all the difference. Ruth feels like she SHOULD have sex with Daisy, but I don’t think she actually WANTS to. Like she wants to but she doesn’t WANT to. There’s instant gratification and then there’s the reality of the situation.
“She want to but she doesn’t want to” See that’s exactly what I’m confused about. Although frankly I’m not sure what Ruth wants even matters at this point because I think she’s past the point where she can even give consent. Which might actually be what she wanted all along. Kind of take the choice away so she doesn’t even have to make it.
Ruth’s not entirely over Jennifer yet, and she thinks she’s not good enough for Daisy. Hence the self-sabotage.
I mean, there’s a million and one reasons for someone to float the possibility of sex and then regret it? The most basic interpretation is that Ruth made a forward and flirty comment to let Daisy know that she was open to sex, and then she got nervous exactly because of how overly excited that made Daisy. At the very least, if you offer something to someone and they basically respond with “I am so grateful that I have lost control of my bowels AND the social awareness that would otherwise stop me from saying that,” wouldn’t you really start to question the offer, or at have some anxiety over whether you just committed to something that’s a way bigger deal than you thought?
That’s not even getting into the million nuances here. Ruth may have been hoping for a fling, and Daisy’s excitement is telling her that she wants more than that (or is reminding Ruth of potential unresolved feelings re: Jennifer), which is making Ruth feel guilty about it. Ruth could just generally be comfortable with romantic partners whom she can idolize (or more generally stand-off-ish partners), so she could be uncomfortable with the the fact that, rather than engage in snarky banter, someone “too hot for her” is THIS excited about sex with her. Hell, she could just be self-sabotaging. There are a legitimately dozens of other reasons I could list for why Ruth would bring this up and is now regretting it.
The fact that Daisy has been in the bathroom so long that Ruth had time to get somewhat drunk probably isn’t helping the doubt, anxiety, and possible regret.
Those are all valid insights. I’m just chalking it up to Ruth probably not being ready to actually date. Jennifer did set this up kind of assuming what Ruth needed. I’m not sure how long Daisy’s supposed to actually be gone on this. It’s weird comic time. It doesn’t take long to down two shots of whiskey. That’s kind of on Ruth. She ordered a drink basically as soon as Daisy was out of line of sight and got drunk almost instantly. Like I said yesterday that’s pretty impressive.
We have to remember that Jennifer sometimes thinks that casual sex is a good thing*. There’s a strong vibe of “Sure, we broke up, but don’t worry, I’ll get you laid! Sex is the important part, right?” from her. So since she arranged this date, and probably made it fairly clear that she was finagling an easy lay for both Ruth and Daisy (and, let’s be honest, from her point of view it makes sense — she knows Daisy is desperate, Ruth could use it [as she thinks], it’ll all be fine), both Daisy and Ruth probably think of this as equivalent to a Tindr meet-up. Jennifer has promised both of them sex (just not with her), so they sort of both think that’s what’s on the table; not going through with it because of reasons would seem rude, since they both feel they’re meeting on that basis.
Ruth definitely isn’t ready to date, and I think she realizes that; but this isn’t a “Let’s date” date, it’s a “Shall we bump genitals?” date. Because this is Dumbing of Age and everyone is therefore stupid, the fact that not being ready to date might make casual sex not a good idea (for this particular person, in these particular circumstances) might not come across.
*Not saying that casual sex is necessarily a bad idea! Just that Jennifer doesn’t always think things through. It’s not for everyone, or not always. But Head Cheerleader has found what seems to her the ideal situation, so of course she’s going to push it through. Unfortunately, she apparently hasn’t worked out that “So you couldn’t have that guy, go have sex under the bleachers with that one” isn’t necessarily a cure-for-all.
And possibly Daisy had regrets and slipped out the backdoor.
I think it’s just that a lot of things slipped out her backdoor and now she’s mentally going through every option for what Ruth might say and how she can respond to that once she gets back there.
I‘m honestly not sure how to read the situation. Is it really Ruth feels obliged to habe sex with Daisy and doesn’t want to, or is it that Ruth would like to have sex, not with Daisy per se, Daisy as a person is still an unknown anyway, but just doesn’t know how that works outside of her usual ways (which involved being very drunk and/or bullying the person before the fact)?
Is this about ongoing consent or freaking on the unknown?
(Not saying it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Ruth to have sex now she‘s drunk, but before she got drunk, what was the real issue?)
Maybe Ruth just isn’t comfortable jumping into bed with someone two hours after meeting them, and is pumping the brakes a bit and would rather wait until the third date or something.
There are some hints that Ruth kind of feels that getting laid with Daisy is something she owes to Jennifer. She doesn’t really want to, and now that it’s obvious how much Daisy wants it the pressure is going up. She is getting (drunkenly) aware that if she sabotages the sex part of this date she will not just failing Jennifer, she will also hurt Daisy. Too much responsibility to mix up with half bottle of whiskey.
On the one hand, as Jason says, it is one’s right to withdraw consent at any time for any reason.
On the other hand, withdrawing consent without hurting the other person’s feelings is a fucking minefield
Ah, here came the boozles.
*throws arms up in air* You do you, boo.
The reprint of the 1989 strip naming them. https://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/2013/07/10
Thank you for that Opus. I missed Opus the Penguin and that comic in particular is going in my inspiration folder.
Berke Breathed is not the most regular of updaters but he has produced around 900 new Bloom County strips since 2015, available on gocomics and two book collections.
…Maybe a second date will go better. With Daisy less anxious, and Ruth less self-sabotaging.
Medicated Drunk Ruth sounds oddly like… Robin? Her speech patterns, anyway.
Or maybe Robin just sounds drunk all the time, I’ve known people like that
A near constant sugar high seems more likely for Robin
i’m not sure if the origin is talked about somewhere, but i always figured Robin’s accent is a more traditional/Northern Midwestern accent? Which can be similar to a Canadian accent, if Ruth’s is slipping through here
I mean, is the 3rd date thing just a lie they tell kids?
My answer depends on whether or not you’re a kid.
It is. I for one have never seen a 3rd date. 3rd dates are a myth.
Hmm. What’s the algebra between 3rd date and 3rd base?
Give me some more parameters, and I’ll solve this word problem in a jiffy!
It’s all explained on xkcd 540.
That only accounts for one variable. It tells us nothing about the quantity of dates.
I sure hope this doesn’t turn out to be a three-body problem; it’s gonna be a while before I get my hands on an adequate computer for such a task.
It’s like a giant third raisin. You just need a bigger container than can hold more than two pieces of dried fruit.
While they say “It’s the thought that counts”, I’m sure Daisy would prefer this to not be a spur of the moment drunken decision
… Yeah there’s a LOT to unpack here and I have the brain capacity to get into precisely NONE OF THAT right now. Ruth. Sweetie.
Good to see that Jason does appear to genuinely be a decent bartender now! Certainly he’s better at it than he was teaching.
Was Jason actually bad at teaching tho? I mean he failed with Walky and Sal but those two were pretty specific circumstances that clashed with his personality. It’s not really enough to just completely write off his teaching skills for me.
They’re the only two we know of him trying to teach. He wasn’t teaching the class so that’s all we have to go on.
He was effectively teaching the class, I feel like? I’d have to check, but Amber was able to change grades when Jason was fired because no one else knew. (Could be he was only grading papers and not instructing, but that’s still an aspect of teaching where the subsequent judgment fails come into play.)
Either way, though, the sleeping with a student alone was enough for me to say ‘yes, you are a bad teacher, the onus is on you to SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN especially since (as Sal did indeed think) there’s the perception sleeping with you will equal better grades and that inherently fucks the power dynamic’, and the specific ways he antagonized and belittled her were… also not great. Walky wasn’t giving his best effort either, though Jason went in saying ‘it’s a lost cause and you disappoint your mother’ immediately and I can’t imagine that endeared Walky to the guy. Not knowing your student may have ADHD (because he himself doesn’t know either) and therefore your teaching methods won’t work is one thing. So is your teaching methods not working on any student when you’re young and maybe don’t know alternate approaches yet. Considering it the student’s personal failing when your methods don’t work, to the point of disbelief when Sal found a tutor who DID help her learn the material, is another. Sleeping with said student? NO. Nonononono. No. And he recognized that he had a position of power over her (having someone else grade her papers) and that this was a terrible idea.
The TAs do the grading, but he didn’t do any of the actual lecturing. The only ‘teaching’ teaching he did was with Walky and Sal, neither of which went well.
Yeah, TAs don’t actually do the main lecture — they often observe the lecture, which is presumably why Jason was at the front of the room, they usually run the labs for science courses, and they might lecture for recitation (basically, “recitation” is a supplementary lecture they sometimes have where TAs go over the material with a fraction of the class, since each class has multiple recitation groups). They probably don’t have recitation for freshman courses, though.
Just based on the small insight we got into his methods on helping someone who wasn’t getting it, it seems like he’s at best not great. Being able to explain something in multiple different ways is usually the key to bridging a gap in understanding. I say this with much experience.
If that’s a representative sample of his operating procedure, it doesn’t speak well to his general teaching ability. And if it’s not, it doesn’t speak to his ability to apply the right technique at the right time. Either way it’s not good for him, and absolutely exacerbated the personality conflict.
Walky was a different scenario, you can’t help someone who isn’t ready to be helped, and that shouldn’t be held against him. Despite Walky showing up, he was very clearly not ready. This was not imho wholly Walky’s fault, but he was not in a place to receive help, and it would have taken tremendous skill on the part of a TA to help him. A success there would speak very highly in someone’s favor, but a failure should not necessarily count against them.
Jason was a bad teacher and Walky insulted the man doing him a favor repeatedly.
Yeah, I wouldn’t hold the sessions with Walky going badly against Jason, but I am willing to say that the bit where he’s immediately dismissive of both twins’ chances of improvement reflects badly on him as a whole (since it is, in fact, shared between two otherwise-different interactions.)
But yeah, from what we see of the Sal sessions, at best he doesn’t know how to help her and instead of recognizing that, he keeps trying the same approach or considers it a Sal problem. I can see a novice TA making that mistake – or even a TA with some experience but not a ton of training or interest in teaching – but still, not great.
Yeah, that’s a terrible start and absolutely set a bad tone to begin with with Sal. I’m not sure how much difference it made with Walky, but that doesn’t make it any better. That’s not an attitude anyone in a teaching position should ever be taking.
On the other hand, he did actually reach out to Walky to try and help him. For his own selfish reasons, but yeah.
The feeling I always got about Jason is that he was thrown into the job with no proper training. In one of the earliest strips he appears in, he’s calling out to the students repeating what the prof just said, as though he’s trying to establish his existence. According to Penny, Prof. Rees just rushes back home as soon as he can and ignores everything else. It’s very easy to become a TA with no idea what to do — especially in Jason’s case, given that he just came over from England. An American student would at least have the experience of having had a TA himself when he was doing these lower-level classes. Jason ends up in the deep end. Like when he first interacts with Sal, and has that gross reactions of “Holy hell, you’re hot, I want to change my office hours to accommodate you,” but then does walk it back afterwards. And yes, absolutely, he should have shut Sal down the moment she started taking off her shirt, but he does then try to salvage his ethics by 1) giving her the grade she deserves and 2) handing over future papers to someone else to grade. Unlike Penny, he at least gets what the ethical issues are. Hence why he found it so easy to not contest his firing.
He’s a terrible teacher, but the thing is, I don’t think he’s been given any model for being a good one. People who end up as TAs, being advanced students and thus presumably actually interested in the subject, tend not to be the ones who necessarily needed a good teacher at any point, and definitely never needed tutoring, so don’t know how good tutoring works. Jason’s a bad teacher because he gets his subject matter; the most important quality in a teacher at this level is understanding how people might not get it. It’s all so obvious to him that he can’t see where Sal is finding a roadblock, whereas Danny, who’s good with rules, can.
And it’s understandable! Learning how to talk about your subject with someone who’s not at the same level is tough! The sad thing is, TAs ought to be given some training in this, and I definitely feel Jason wasn’t. Which is also sad, since unlike Penny, he clearly actually wanted to be a good one. But I feel like he accepted his firing not just because he couldn’t help but agree he deserved it, but also because he knew he wasn’t a good teacher and being fired spared him from having to realize it day after day.
That’s absolutely true – and can often extend to college professors as well. Knowing a subject doesn’t mean knowing how to teach it and neither faculty nor TAs are required to take classes in education.
That said, other than the inappropriate comments to Sal, his first interaction with either of them was to suggest they drop (or should have already dropped in Walky’s case, I think.) Sometimes that’s appropriate, but it shouldn’t come before an attempt to help. That’s not a matter of needing to learn different techniques for helping people, just dismissing them because they don’t instantly get it.
That’s about stance as well. He was almost certainly dropped into this with no guidance or training, but even with that as the standard we’re judging against, he’s subpar in his interactions with students.
*About MY stance. Realized that just as it was posting. Damn.
You’re absolutely right. He’s a bad teacher, but it’s not necessarily his fault.
His bad teaching is indicative of a failed system, and not a failing of character on his part, but in the end it had the same effect for Sal. I think this is useful for what we say about Jason in the larger picture, but it doesn’t make him any better of a teacher.
I would also argue that the most thorough understanding of a subject allows you to explain it to a layperson (although this does also require some degree of communication skills) so it’s also possible that his understanding of his subject matter is functional but not masterful.
My understanding is that he was a PhD student. In my experience (insert obligatory “not all departments”) faculty don’t give a crap if you can teach, especially in your first couple years of the program. They care about your course work/research. And if you’re their TA, they care that you take care of the tedious parts of their job, like grading and dealing with students who complain about grades (which includes the ones who need help). I feel like a lot of departments suddenly remember you won’t get a job if they never teach you how to teach when you’re in like your 5th year and about to actually graduate. Before that they don’t care about you because odds are you’ll drop out for some reason and they will have wasted their precious time doing the boring parts of mentorship. Plus, they don’t want their drop outside getting jobs in the field.
*plays “Desperate Romantics” on the Voxola PR-76*
Jason stop, the world needs as many titty pics as humanly possible, but the dick pics can all just die in a fire unless solicited by the receiver.
I’ve been ASKED for dick pics and I still feel like an asshole sending them. But i also don’t like receiving titty pics for nothing. I don’t have anything else to show.
https://somethingpositive.net/comic/following-orders/
i think it’s less about anatomical and more about erotic equivalence?
Titty pics can be a good thing, but they must be done for the right reasons.
You have to be pure of heart or they can’t defeat Buu.
Give me some Chi-chi’s that can ride the nimbus <3
*plays “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” on the jukebox*
Ok you’d have no way of knowing this, but girls pulling open their shirts to take titty pics is one of my biggest turnons. o3o I mean I’m not exactly shy about how much I love boobs. I guess it’s the same reason i really like boob flashes. It’s just very deliberate and that makes it sexy.
Totally agree on this one
Isn’t that true about the vast majority of Homo Sapien males?
Even the gay ones. We XY people are programmed to like/want boobs
Believe it or not, female Homo Sapiens are one rare occasion XY! It all comes down to a single gene on the Y chromosome that starts the developmental domino effect so to speak. Without that gene, the person will grow up to be female (different from being a woman), regardless of everything else.
Yeah, the SRY gene. I like to think it’s saying “sry!!” to transwomen for giving them male genitals.
I’ve lost track of the joke.
Oh, please. We’re ALL born to suck tit.
I wonder if that’s somehow connected to the fact that the frequency of females being lesbian is much higher than the frequency of males being gay…
Considering the negative societal effects of being either, still (altho thank god still better than it was when I was a kid), and the actual literal danger of coming out, though, can we really be sure yet that we have a decent handle on the actual frequencies of various sexualities?
Like, in such an environment, people who, were they in a culture that regarded it on the minor level of importance as, say, hair colour, would have no issues recognizing their gender and sexuality and just be gay or whatever and no one would think twice, can very well still find themselves not only not recognizing it in themselves, but also not even being self-reflective enough to even consider asking the question.
There’s a known correlation between neurodiverse people and trans people, and the rates of each in the other community are higher than we see in the general population; but we don’t yet know if that’s because of something to do with the actual neurology of either, or if it’s because part of the process of getting medically recognized and treated for either is a lot of self-examination and psychiatric consultations, and that the process of assessment itself just makes it more likely to find the other thing when you aren’t looking for it. You know? It’s been postulated that if such assessments were done on everyone, that correlation might smooth out, but until then (or until we can point at a specific and overlapping mechanism that causes or increases the likelihood of each) all we can do is note a correlation.
TL;DR: Is the frequency actually higher? Or are women just more prone to the kind of self-reflection that would prompt that realization, coupled with a greater societal acceptance of gay women that might make it feel safer to (a) accept that about oneself, and (b) come out (and therefore be counted)?
Re: Neurodivergence and trans people, I’ve also seen it posited that neurodivergent people tend to recognize they don’t quite follow the rules of society, even if they’re undiagnosed, and not-infrequently go ‘wait, why are these rules even a thing?’ (Particularly in the case of autism, which is the one I’ve most frequently seen statistical citations for. Dunno what the rates are with others.) Thus, another question is ‘are autistic people more likely to be trans because they’re autistic, or are they actually about as trans as the general population statistically but recognize it more because they’re internalizing societal rules and expectations less?’ (Being autistic and nebulously not quite cisgender, I definitely feel like there was a link between my going ‘all these social rules are bullshit, particularly as they apply to gender’ and then ‘wait, yeah, this gender doesn’t quite fit me as well as I thought.’ Long since diagnosed, but only started realizing there was Gender Shit going on in the last few years.)
Just another autistic chiming in, here. Once I finally came to terms with my (diagnosed since kindergarten) autism, I definitely did start noticing other things that were “different” about myself, especially things that felt wrong like people saying “he” when referring to me. I tried sort of reinforcing that assigned masculine identity and leaning into it, but that only confirmed what I’d been slowly realislzing. It’s like I’ve been masking not only my neurodivergence, but my gender identity as well, using exactly the same behaviors. So there might just be something to the idea of correlation, one way or another.
I suspect that has more to do with toxic masculinity making it harder to come out for guys? A guy acknowledging that he wants to suck another guy off or that he wants to be the recipient of bottom sex may well find himself characterised as cissy/girl-like/other term used to indicate he is an inferior male and person. I don’t think that happens so much to women.
Long before getting to actual sex, it’s much more socially acceptable for women to show platonic physical affection to each other, which may make it easier to realize.
I haven’t seen statistics, but I’d be interested to know if the ratio is changing with time. More people in younger generations identify as LGBTQ, but I don’t know if the gender breakdown is different than in older generations. I think I have seen that most of the increase is in bisexuals, whatever that means.
it’s likely because there’s less bi erasure. people really used to act like bisexuals/pansexuals were just gay people in denial. at least for gay men. women bisexuals of course were probably experimenting, and maybe just “kinky” because boy do men love to fetishize queer ladies.
Less bi erasure, but also less homophobia in general. It used to easier for bisexuals to just not come out at all, even to themselves. Just pretend to be straight, it’s not that hard if you actually are attracted to the opposite sex.
There’s also a massive confounding variable in both ‘more LGBT people in younger generations’ and the proportion of older lesbians to any other older queer people – AIDS disproportionately killed gay and bisexual men, particularly in the early days of the epidemic, so there are way fewer surviving gay Boomers and Gen Xers. (There’s a racial bias in mortality rates as well, which continues to this day. Good old systemic racism in the medical system.) Gay kids definitely seem to be coming out younger as well, but if your statistics come from the current populations of each generation, there’s a gap in your numbers.
oh it is absolutely toxic masculinity at play here, no question
I often go with the ancient Greek interpretation of “What’s more manly than two men fucking?”
hell yes
3 men fucking?
*hands over phone*
it’s for you
My understanding is that it is. Probably even true for the vast majority of Hominid Males come to think of it, though it’s difficult to ask them
I’m inclined to agree with this pervert.
It is pretty darn sexy.
Sending it to Daisy when she’s on the toilet might send the wrong message.
Sending it to Daisy when she’s on the toilet might result in her staying on the toilet.
gross.
Jason’s a way better bartender than he was a TA or tutor, it must be said.
Not handling your customers/students with contempt does that.
Well, he is British.
Just like Va11 Hall-A
I mean, it’s not like Daisy would turn down that message.
Am I being a bit predictable by being INCREDIBLY active for the first time in a while the second a comic includes the word titty and the photos thereof?
Predictability is mostly a good trait. However, I’m not super clear on how many times I’m supposed to chant “Titty” at the mirror to invoke your dark powers.
Yes, but we don’t mind. Actually I’m here becaudse I was just like “wait, I should reread the comments to see if Yoto posted some art!”
Haha sorry no dice. Been trying to draw my own characters more. Right now I’m trying to make animated dance loops but it’s a bit hard.
In that case you’d better take a break every four hours or you’ll have to go to the hospital.
Predictable or reliable?
“Reliable, sensible, dependable. Lotsa little words that end in ‘ibble’.”
Horrible, incorrigible, Adorable
Whatever happened to predictability
The milkman, the paper boy, text message titty?
everywhere you look, everywhere you go
there’s a heart, there’s a heart,
a breast to hold onto
Is that the duty of a bartender? I thought it had something to do with drinks or alcohol or something. I was way off.
Reminding your intoxicated customers or those around them about consent seems a natural extension of “cut you off now” bartending roles.
Officially, probably not. Ethically, Jason’s kicking ass here.
Yeah. It’s amazing how much easier it is to be ethical when the hot girl isn’t climbing onto your lap after pulling her shirt off.
The furniture between them is taller than when Jason was a TA and is fixed to the floor. That makes it harder to get over or around it. Even so, I give it at most 3-5 comics before Ruth tries to get on top of Jason and take off her shirt unless Daisy gets back in the meantime.
Agreed
Jason’s trying to make his job more important to cope with the loss of his academic career
Also, therapy!
ohhhhhh Ruth that is way too many boozles, you need to put some back
Now I wanna see her grab and eat one of the boozles.
That, or it’s a reasonable amount of boozles mixed unreasonably with psych meds.
For Ruth, any boozles are too many.
Making/serving drinks is just the base requirement. Good bartenders are also there to lend an ear/advice as needed, and the best will keep you from acting like an idiot if they feel it’s necessary
Welp, instead of accidentally replying to someone as is common here, I managed to forget to hit reply on Skemono’s comment
For some strange reason, I’m getting ‘Daisy escaped through the bathroom window, didn’t she’ vibes.
I know it wouldn’t make sense, but if it happens, I called it.
yep me too
That or she is watching them vibe from the bathroom door and is all sad that Jason stole her date.
Jason is a great bartender. I’m proud of him.
And of course – RUTH NO.
yeah unfortunately it’s not a bartender’s job to ask “are you an alcoholic?”
For the record, if I ever work at a bar or suchlike, I’m totally printing out Panel 3 and putting it in a frame on the wall.
Having worked behind a bar for one summer, I wholeheartedly support this idea.
Bad Ruth! You should at least wear a t-shirt under your jersey. The less you have to wash them, the better. Plus they don’t tend to be terribly comfortable on bare skin.
We’ve seen her in a tank to that looks a lot like that, before, so maybe she’s wearing it now? On the other hand, I’m pretty sure Ruth’s bras are pretty plain, based on what I can remember.
She normally does, but she’s on a date
The fact that she’s on a date at a pizza place wearing that jersey is also giving me anxiety. I mean, I’m fairly sure Willis based it on the 2016-17 Reebok jerseys based on the collar, the 2 narrow stripes on the arm, and the wide stripe at the base, so if it gets a stain that won’t come out, good luck finding one of them that won’t set you back a couple hundred bucks.
Poor Billie had a great plan to pimp her ex for a college newspaper position.
She’ll have to go back to supervillain school.
I think Daisy has probably wrecked that bathroom. Like just fucking destroyed it. Walky would be proud.
amen to that
In that case we should pity whoever has to clean that bathroom after closing up.
That’s probably a good rule in general.
…What.
Little spoiler: the title of first capitule of book 12 is already in the air. You all can see it in “Archives” page. You’be seen it by me :).
Incidentally (since there’s one more chapter in Book 11 after this one), that makes this the first book to have more than four chapters since 2012 – Books 1 and 2 had six chapters each, but 3 through 10 had four each.
Yeah, I’d figured it out.
And what’s about the title: Sister, Christian? I wonder who is this person that will be focused…
My guess? Becky (who’s effectively Joyce’s adoptive sister) finds out about Joyce’s current outlook.
I’m really hoping it’s a Jocelyne arc (maybe even about her coming out?) but Becky learning that Joyce is an atheist seems more likely. I think Dorothy probably suspects as much in light of this conversation, so it makes sense for Becky to be the next to learn— and the fact that Dorothy knew first would likely hurt her a lot. It could be both, I suppose— actually, those two things combined could be a really good story.
Come to think of it, we don’t really know much about Jocelyne’s religious beliefs, do we? Unless it was in a Patreon strip or something. Hoping that gets explored at some point.
I wonder if Jason would be saying the same about consent if drunk Ruth would be making a move on him later when it will turn Daisy fled.
How long has Daisy been in the bathroom now? It seems like she’s been there an awfully long time.
Uh… I think it’s only been a few minutes. Or even just seconds, for that matter.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome is no laughing matter. This is the second time nature’s call has interfered in her plans.
Since when Jason is capable of showing real empathy??? (Panels 2 & 3). This can only have one logical explanation: He’s really Mike. And he’s drunk.
I think it helps when he likes people, and he just got to talk trash about America with Ruth, so, that’s one reason to like her. Also they have similar fuckups and shitty home situations, so he can also relate to her.
I just hope Daisy realizes how intoxicated Ruth’s gotten herself. Maybe she’ll call off the snu-snu so as to not take advantage of her current state.
It would build trust between them and let the “Daisy never gets any” gag continue running.
Trust building is good.
I think that this still has good potential for their relationship in the long run.
It going so bad that it’s ending early, so it gives the perfect chance to start over either as friends or lovers.
Daisy might yet learn exactly how far down those freckles go.
(Yes, I have them, and a fellow redhead once used this line on me, very effectively.)
I’m liking bartender Jason a whole lot more than I liked TA Jason.
I know, right? I think he’s found his true calling.
Ruth saying “Enough” to the alcohol give me hopes this will not become a total disaster. Jason is actually a great bartender, he looks to care for Ruth’s sake and stop her to do stupid things. But now I’m starting to be worried for Daisy. She’s taking really a lot of time.
Ruth doesn’t think she deserves Daisy (or anyone); hence the self-sabotage, the drinking and the general Ruthiness. The really sad thing is Ruth trying to work up the nerve to offer Daisy a sympathy bone because she feels bad Daisy is so desperate she’s willing to settle for her.
Also, I am getting a little worried that Daisy’s been gone so long. Maybe she did bail (Because she thinks she doesn’t deserve Ruth or Daisy’s learning she has a previously undiagnosed but serious condition that can be triggered by extreme stress. Remember who writes this strip.
Pooping of Age.
In theme with Dorothy and Walky’s turdplay.
At least Edmund Mcmillen and Arale are not alone in their extraordinary obsession with poop.
Ruth is getting drunk and thinking about someone else’s feelings, which is better than getting drunk and simply dumping on herself until she passes out. It’s not pretty but it may be progress.
Does “too hot for me” mean “too attractive for me” or “too horny for me”?
Yes
A-ann-nd here comes the moment when Ruth realizes, through the ‘clarity’ of fermented & distilled spirits, that she is actually bi and jumps Jason’s boney British bones behind the bar.
ruth’s BEEN bi
like Word of Willis has always been that Ruth is bisexual. no epiphany of identity necessary here.
But she’s still pretty young and has seemed unsure about her sexuality before. Willis knows things about his characters that they may not have realized themselves.
She had a boyfriend in Canada, who Sir brought up during his awful visit. Ruth hadn’t realized she was interested in women as well before Jennifer, but she knew she was into guys beforehand and never showed the same confusion and discomfort about bisexuality that Jennifer did. Some ‘yeah this surprised me as well’ in a conversation with Howard, but she never felt like this was an outlier and recognizes that bisexuality wasn’t just made up for porn. Ruth has textually known she’s bi and into guys specifically for ages.
Odd, that’s not the vibe I got. Maybe I missed some context, but with Ruth’s boyfriend referred to in past tense, my head just jumped to her being into women exclusively, after a period of trials and experimentation with males in her youth and deciding it wasn’t for her.
I went thru that with a lady I was serious about for several years. When she turned 30, she decided all men suck. She’s now 60, living in New Hampshire and married to a woman. But it took her time with me for her real self to emerge.
I seem to recall that she hadn’t done all that much sexually with her ex-boyfriend. Some lesbians will date a boy before they realize their own sexuality. Ruth may know she’s bisexual but she may also be uncertain, if she’s never had sex with a man. It hasn’t been addressed that much in the comic from what I remember.
It was never mentioned either way so why the hell are we constantly looking for reasons why Ruth is not actually bi.
Look I’m not blaming you for any of this, y’all’ve been conditioned for a longass time, but maybe finding out someone likes the same gender shouldn’t automatically mean gay all the time anymore.
Seriously, she has expressed no angst about being bi, and surprise/mild confusion about being attracted to women, but no onscreen reexamination of her attraction to men – she thinks she has bigger things to worry about anyway. Given she still remembers Ciaran’s name years down the line and is willing to bring it up later against Clint’s abuse, that suggests he did mean a fair bit to her (as does Clint’s awareness and dismissal of him.) You’d think if she did dramatically reassess/question her attraction to men this would occur onscreen, and that it would include reassessment of a past relationship she canonically had and valued. Occam’s razor suggests that she’s pretty comfortable with herself and not thinking a ton about her attraction one way or another – she may not be calling herself bisexual, but I don’t think she’d be surprised to find herself attracted to a man again.
There’s no reason to believe she’s questioning her sexuality. People are in fact allowed to go ‘oh huh’ and then roll with it.
You don’t need to have sex with a man to be certain if you feel attraction to them. Even if she chose not to do stuff with her ex-bf, which I can’t recall being mentioned in that type of context either way, she hasn’t wavered in her sexuality like Jennifer has and just accepted she was bi without hesitation. Don’t really have to address something in this comic over and over if it doesn’t have drama attached and all. It is more Danny and Jennifer’s thing to be insecure about that for different reasons, though Danny has pretty much accepted it now, Jennifer clearly hasn’t.
Actually never mind I’m blaming you for saying this now.
“A bi person doesn’t actually know” like, I ain’t got a polite way to address this. That is not an okay thing to say about bi folk and you should feel ashamed of yourself.
I’m just wondering if there’s a truck waiting around some corner to test Ruth’s regret levels
I don’t think she’s showing much integrity at the moment
well, I never.
Titty pics are a thing? How come I’ve never received one? Uh-huu-huu-huu-heart-rending-huu
Speaking of consent. I don’t think bartenders are allowed to confiscate cell phones.
so that’s where the logic chain comes from…
I’m sorry, I could swear I’ve seen that little symbol before in Binding of Isaac, do the Leafs have a deal with the devil or something?
That’s just some string laced up in the front. Unfortunately.
Ruth has a very good point, this tactic worked for me before
This strip alone makes me like Jason 100% more