This week in Welcome To The Fuck Zone is Amber! Amber and a booklet of some sort. If you’re a Slipshine member, you can pop right on over.
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This week in Welcome To The Fuck Zone is Amber! Amber and a booklet of some sort. If you’re a Slipshine member, you can pop right on over.
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might be easier to escape Robin by just getting Leslie a whole new apartment and not telling anybody where it is
even Leslie
or, idk, have her investigate 45
My vote’s on investigation
Leslie doesn’t appreciate the new slang
HELLO, I am here to freak out about this Hayley Mills reference, thank you for this.
Yeah… I have no idea who that is…
She’s a British actress. She’s had a long career, and is best known in North America for her Disney films, especially the original version of The Parent Trap from 1961.
Which she stared in along side Hayley Mills.
Let’s be fair- Hayley Mills totally carried Hayley Mills in that movie.
She was totally overshadowed by Hayley Mills though.
Like I don’t fully get why it was made? Also interesting to me that someone Robin’s age would be making it– I’m a few years younger than her, but my experience has been people my age not knowing who she is. (And then I’m like, “Well, in the original Parent Trap…” and some are like, “Wait, there’s an older Parent Trap?”)
In a way I’d almost expect Joyce to know who she is, not Robin. I can imagine Joyce’s parents letting her watch 50 year old Disney movies, assuming they’re wholesome and not “anti-Christian” like modern secular culture.
Well, she definitely saw the old version of the Parent Trap: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/pizza-2/
So you’re right about Joyce knowing who she is.
I’m assuming the reference was more specifically to Haley Mills playing Pollyanna.
That makes sense! Kinda roundabout, but now I’m imagining Robin looking up who played Pollyanna in preparation for this exact moment.
And no one even cares.
Sal called Joyce Pollyanna early on, maybe Willis didn’t want to repeat the joke word for word
She’s not really being a Pollyanna here, though. She’s being cynical and pessimistic, which is the opposite of the endless optimism of Pollyanna.
She was in the LL version. If I remember correctly, she played the mom.
She was not/did not. You may be thinking of the TV movie Parent Trap sequels?
The mom in the LL version was the late Natasha Richardson.
In the original Parent Trap, Joanna Barnes played Vicky Robinson, the woman that the twins’ father was going to marry.
In the Lindsay Lohan Parent Trap, Joanna Barnes played Vicki Blake, the twins’ father’s mother.
Not the twins’ father’s mother–the mother of the woman that the twins’ father was going to marry.
I’m going to say blame the cartoonist. Speaking from my own experience, as only a scant few months younger than Willis, he likely doesn’t see a 30ish Robin as having all that different experiences growing up and the Hailey Mills version of the films Pollyanna and The Parent Trap saw a reasonable amount of replay between the then premium Disney channel and The Magical World of Disney during my own childhood in the ’80s. That said, those few years do make a significant difference that can be very difficult to remember at this age, because the era when that was done was only between the mid-80s and very early ’90s.
I wanna say it lasted into the mid to late 90s, as well. Or at least sporadically, ’cause I’m 29 and I remember watching those movies a lot on Disney. Along with The Love Bug, The Absent-Minded Professor, The Shaggy Dog, and lots more.
Though as I type this I remember having to stay up really late to watch these movies.
I wouldn’t be surprised, but I lost touch with Disney outside theatrical releases around the time The New Mickey Mouse Club started and didn’t touch it again until around the time of Kim Possible (which was when they went from premium to basic locally).
I am so old. I saw ALL of those movies in theaters!
IIRC There are movies older then willis that are still in Theatres 😉
Or do you mean when they were new.
Yous parents have good taste.
I…don’t get it… >_>
You know, I don’t get it either, but I was named after her, and it is very rare for me to run into media where she is relevant, so I get excited.
yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah same
When Robin puts it like that, Leslie is a straight up supervillian
/obvious snark
/I’m being sarcastic fellow commenters, plz don’t yell at me
I just realized how apt my Dina gravatar is for this. Let the lizbians sleep together, damn it! It’s for SCIENCE
There is no Dina, only Zuul!
(is anyone else thinking that the “modern human” in the graphic–supposedly their paleoartist–looks suspiciously like Annie Potts?)
Oh my god Robin I seriously fucking hate you.
I second that emotion
Third! Walkyverse Robin was entertaining, this Robin is straight-up evil.
Fourth
Leslie would probably fifth it at this point.
Robin may sixth this!
I think you’re giving her too much credit.
No, Robin would sixth it. She goes with the popular vote.
I think she prefers the Electoral College to the popular vote.
Well I’m definitely seventh.
You could probably just count the commenters and have a pretty accurate number of those who agree. (Possibly you could even count the readers of the comic, but they aren’t saying.)
Well, Becky’s life IS great. I mean, her dad is out of the picture for good! That’s a good thing! No mom either!
and ‘saved by superhero’ is evidence that she’s got a great life. “an amazing fireman pulled her out of the fire that burnt down her house and all her posessions, so obviously everything is fine!”
DING DING DING WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER
By all accounts, her mom was decent.
I think he was going for the sarcasm: “Like, she’s basically an orphan now, and that’s how Bruce Banner became Batmite, so her life must be totes spectacular!”
Dear god but all the comic book sins in that statement make want to curb stomp you. But then the logos part of brain kicks in.
She is the worst.
she’s terrible
So with you there.
Tell me exactly how Robin is wrong here. I’m not saying that she’s not being an asshole (as always) but she was right when she pointed out that Leslie “weaponising” Becky’s situation was a shameless politician-like move, and she’s right again here when pointing out that she clearly didn’t even think it through.
Note that I am not trying to justify Robin in general but when a good person like Leslie stoops to use this kind of tactics she needs to be called out on it and Robin is perhaps the only person in the strip with both the cunning to notice it and the balls to just throw it on her face.
‘Oh, she’s not homeless, she has a home, that she will be kicked out of in a few days, and will probably get her girlfriend in trouble, too. And a superhero saved her from the man who wanted to torture her! That’s so much better than not having someone try to murder your girlfriend and kidnap you to torture you!’
Yeah, Robin’s being a wonderful fucking person. So much better than the asshole she’s stalking.
I completely agree with you!
But with regards to the comics, I doubt Robin is even able to see it that way, especially if she is in denial about herself 24/7. I mean, she sees a cheerful Becky on the couch who told her only positive stuff, mainly because she doesn’t want to be dragged down by the negative things in her whole situation (which is, for her, good, unless she stays that way – because then she’s starting to avoid everything serious. But even Joyce didn’t want to talk about Scarface at first, so I’d cut them both some slack. Becky especially probably needs time to work everything through in her mind…)
Now where was I?
Oh yeah – Becky is cheerful, Robin just looks at it superficially; Becky being cheerful makes it of course even EASIER for Robin to say “Everything’s fine, why do you complain?” to Leslie…
So from Robin’s warped point of view, everything’s hunky-dory.
This of course isn’t meant as any justification at all. Just as a maybe possible explanation of that Robin probably didn’t even consider any of the points you mentioned for longer than the fraction of a second, shoving them out of her mind, because it’s so much easier to not feel any guilt or anything because of that. So what I’m trying to say is – Robin doesn’t even consider those things, I think. It’s hard to tell with how she’s acting.
So yeah, you phrased it perfectly: She’s being a wonderful fucking person.
Robin is a manipulative egomaniac. Becky could be a sobbing wreck and she’d still find a way to justify her actions because at the end of the day her convenience is the most important thing in the world Becky just made it easier for her to do by being pleasant. Robin doesn’t CARE about other people if it requires any sort of meaningful inconvenience on her part otherwise she wouldn’t be fucking squatting in Leslie’s home.
Exactly – though she’d definitely have a more difficult time with that. Well, I still think that Robin at least knows enough of emotions to see that someone crying means that something is wrong – so her argumentation would be more difficult. But I think that’s what you said anyway.
Yeah, like she’s perfectly willing to recognize someone elses distress it just doesn’t really matter to her especially when relieving it would come at the expense of her indulging her whims.
I tried to make very, very clear that I was not justifying Robin let alone saying that she’s “wonderful” but when pointing these things out to Leslie she’s /right/. It may have come as an act of selfishness to benefit herself but she’s capable of making correct observations. Let this be a lesson: when a good person uses bad tactics to fight a bad person, those tactics are not only likely not to work (as the bad person is wise to them) but also it will give the bad person a foothold to throw your hypocrisy back on the face of the good person, effectively weakening their argument.
Another reason why I felt the need to point out that in this matter Robin is right and Leslie wrong is because I’m a bit tired of all the comments completely demonising Robin. I see so much of that crap in real life that I though this would be a place to try to educate people. Yes, Robin is a selfish asshole incapable to see how her privilege and the self-indulgence with which she wields it hurts others. But she a human being. One that has shown herself somewhat open to dialogue and who has demonstrated not to be hateful, merely self-centered and ignorant. A person like that doesn’t need to be destroyed like a monster (such attempts will only serve to make her and other people like her actually hateful and more entrenched) but converted into an ally. I’ve seen many windows of opportunity to do so and I’m sad to say that Leslie has squandered most of them due to acting and reacting overly emotionally, and yet, the negative outcome of their interactions are time and again placed on Robin’s shoulders, even–as it’s the case here–when she’s the one in the right.
(Apologies for the wrong use of pronoun next to “hypocrisy” I was initially redacting the sentence with “you” used as a general term and when I changed the phrasing to be less vague, that pronoun was accidentally left over. I was not meaning /you/ you.)
Robin is twisting the fuck out of Becky having a positive attitude and not wanting to be pitied into deciding that the couch-surfing basically-orphan who’s breaking dorm rules just to have a path to survive is less in need than the congresswoman with two homes (probably not including her parents’ home in which she’d likely be welcome) who’s squatting Leslie’s apartment uninvited just because she wants to.
It’s a bullshit catch-22 where if Becky WAS in a woe-is-me funk desperate for help, Robin would’ve accused her of not doing for herself and just looking for a handout, yet because Becky IS doing what she can for herself, she’s not in need ‘enough’
And most of all… It’s not Robin’s fucking decision whether Becky sufficiently ‘deserves’ that couch, because it’s not Robin’s fucking home. Robin has inserted herself into Leslie’s life and keeps making up her own rules to justify whatever the hell she wants, yet also calls out Leslie for playing Robin’s game?
Robin broke into Leslie’s apartment uninvited and has remained despite numerous attempts to get her to leave. Leslie would be offering Becky that couch regardless of the whole situation with Robin. Yet somehow Leslie is ‘stooping’ to some monstrous level by trying to make Robin feel some basic human empathy for the person she’s putting out with her continued squatting?
Samesies!
I concur. Does everyone else concur?
No, but I blame it on not being a new(er) fan of Willis. Around, what, 15 years of being with these characters tends to have me give them some slack. Well, so long as they weren’t irredeemable monster from the start. And didn’t get a character growth arc. So, it’s pretty much Ryan and Ross I hate.
Also, in case anyone is wondering, I’m viewing Robin as having a breakdown, with the realization of what she’s done and how it’s been harmful, and is putting on a wacky facade to hide from the pain, and is clinging onto what she views as a safe space. As well as Becky being Becky, and putting a brave face on everything, Robin take-away from their conversation makes sense, since it would’ve boiled down to “Yeah, I lost my home, and my Dad’s abusive; but he’s going to prison, I have a job, and a girlfriend who says I can stay with her” (to which that last one appears to be a lie, but Robin doesn’t know that) “so things are definitely better now.” She’d probably recall the trauma of having to break into her own house as an adventure with Joyce ‘Punching’ Brown.
Sounds like you have experience with these characters in another universe. Your view is more god-like as a consequence where I prefer to take a mortal view in just the Dumbiverse. I like being surprised as the story unfolds on this plane of existence.
It would be nice to be able to view this work wholly on it’s own, but I’d probably just be gnashing my teeth far more than it’s good for me to do so.
Also, on the plus side, I just realized that Robin is now openly stating that sex between two women is okay and should not be stopped so…slight progress?
In private, Robins a mercenary not a bigot.
In public too. As in, in public she’s a bigot because it brings her personal gain (votes), currently in private she is saying good things about two women sleeping together because she thinks that will bring her gains (staying with leslie).
She’s a mercenary who will do lots of awful things so long as the price is right.
And soon Robin is shown to be a human being we can relate with. I remember when people disliked Ruth and Carla. But then the Fire nation attacked.
It all changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Except, like, Mary… ****in’ Mary, so terrible.
…Considering Zuko is probably (or at least probably should be) the poster child for character growth, I find this comment simultaneously hilarious, accurate, and sorta eerie.
For some reason, the words “clit blocking” coming out of this Robin’s mouth make me so happy.
And yes, before anyone yells at me – Robin is obviously missing the point in an extravagant fashion.
But still… clit blocking. Heehee. ^^
I thought that was a pull out couch for a sec but it’s just Robin putting her bare feet on Leslie’s coffee table. Like a fucking asshole.
A bold move, if she’s Donald Ducking.
Yep, that’d be the last drop for me. I would banish her to the realm of Outsidia, or at least the kitchen, with heavy censure.
At least it’s not her shod-with-outside-shoes feet, right? She has not quite plumbed the true depths of terrible guesthood! Although she’s sure made it pretty far…
“She’s the awesomest!”
“And she’s gay.”
“…Dammit.”
Hayley Mills?
How.old is Robin again?
Well, I guess she is old enough to have seen the old Parent Trap before seeing the 1998 one? Or other things, but I don’t really know what.
I’d say about 27-30 give that you have to be 25 to run for the house of representatives .
Doesn’t matter what your age is, if The Parent Trap (the original only!) and Pollyanna aren’t part of your childhood, you’re deprived. :p
(OK, the only reason I watched Pollyanna was because of my ridiculously huge crush on Hayley Mills, which is probably also why the fact that she was in it was the only thing I remember about that movie that isn’t pure cultural osmosis.)
I saw it, and I’m also old enough to remember Kurt Russell as a teen star, not an action star.
What I’m trying to figure out if Robin went to “Disney live-action 60s” because she’s used to talking about how wholesome media Used To Be (to her constituents), or if she’s just that way owing to a vague immaturity.
Also, obligatory callback: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/pizza-2/
Oh wow. I forgot Joyce said “slut” before. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that word not used as swear before. Also, ooohhhh old Joyce hurts. Ah well, character growth is awesome.
Becky, you’re a sweetheart and all, but illegally staying in your girlfriend’s dorm room is not a long term solution. You have an adult with an established job OFFERING you rent-free space were you can get settled, save money apply for school next year.
Don’t give the creepy home invader reasons to NOT stay here!
I’m pretty sure she knows, and that’s what her “kinda” response is about.
This is not a direction she expected the conversation to go
i think the kinda is about the fact that becky doesn’t want to be tempted by dinas rockin’ bod
Damn, Robin is a master at missing the point.
It’s only missing the point if it’s unintentional. She’s arguing in bad faith.
i mean like this is literally how the republican party has been arguing for ages tho
like if you have a job you clearly don’t need any other kinds of support, and definitely not the kind of support that inconveniences us. which is all kinds of support, really
You summed up perfectly what previously I had only vaguely understood
i. thanks? i. yes.
if you can say some things about your life are great then obviously your life is great even if some parts of it suck. and if you complain about the parts that suck you’re a whiner because there’s always somebody else who has it worse. you know, somebody else, far away from here, who we can’t help
To be fair, they were trying to convince their own constituents as much as anyone else when they first started doing it during the Neocon swing from the Dems to the GOP. Now with two generations of people in their party using those arguments it’s just become default kneejerk SOP without even the understanding of why that first generation of Neocons argued as they did for what they did, just as the view of “liberal” as an insult is.
oh man that is Before My Time
but yeah!! that is exactly what i hear has happened. propaganda is propagandizing itself, going beyond the previous extreme to new extremes.
The early years of it, when the Neocons shifted to the GOP, is before mine as well as that was largely a backlash against the antiwar protests and counterculture, but I grew up with their rise to power in the ’80s and ’90s as a backdrop to my formative years and my own political philosophy (libertarian socialist) is very similar to where they started from so it’s history I kinda had to learn as I came to understand my own political views (which are much too long to post here in any meaningful degree and far too interconnected to easily pare down to modern sound bite political discourse and impart meaningful understanding).
Well, I would say it was largely a backlash to Civil Rights and desegregation (and in many ways still is), though many other cultural shifts tie into it.
And yeah, I’d say much of it was originally a con, just to appeal to the rubes, but now we’ve got generations of Republican politicians who grew up believing the con and still take it seriously.
see that’s so weird to me because like. this is what I grew up with! this is what my mom essentially grew up with, because she hardcore believes all that pull yourself up by your bootstrap nonsense. learning about phyllis schafly was so…eye opening…because i could see the ways that woman influenced her thinking and inflexibility.
but yeah! i could see how events like that would influence your politics one way or the other, they were very polarizing. in ways that i guess they needed to be polarized in order to effectively fight and win.
Yep. How soon til Robin says, “We both have jobs! You sling pies at that place, I get my Congressional salary, let’s split the expense”? (For something nontrivial.)
Nah, I think that’s what her smugness about getting along with Becky was from. She thought they’d planned it to be either confrontational or end up with Robin feeling remorse.
There’s definitely some level of denial about her own wants and refusal to seriously consider the consequences of her actions, but I think Robin might actually be sufficiently dense and/or self-centered to be making that argument in earnest.
…for certain values of “earnest”, at least
i mean like yes but also: way to miss the point and ignore the physical realities of becky’s situation like
i know being a politician cuts you off from reality but jesus h. christ, read between the lines here robin
…being sufficiently self-centered makes her earnestness even worse imo, because it’s willful ignorance at this point
Is she though? If there’s anything that’s remained consistent about Robin other than her energy it’s definitely how blind she can be to things going on around her. Plus, think about how Becky communicates, she’s super happy and upbeat and emphasizes the positive. With Robin’s basically non-existent ability to read between the lines combined with the way Becky would describe her situation, I have no trouble believing that Robin honestly thinks Becky’s life sounds great.
(In no small part because it’s the kind of life Robin is seeking right now, an escapist fantasy from her current situation. She looks at Becky as someone with no responsibilities or strong ties, an easy job that has no long term impact on anything, completely out of the public eye, and openly living with a loving girlfriend. It’s all the things Robin wants, when you strip away the context she doesn’t know.)
You just made me feel extremely powerful feelings for Robin’s situation. Unfortunately, she’s still an asshole. The longer Robin stays the more I see Leslie never forgiving or letting Robin back into her life. To be fair, with Robin here (I never fully read IW or SP, so my understanding of the characters is limited) I can see that being the only reprimand from Leslie that would actually take.
She’s not literally starving, therefore her life is perfect!
Well she is a republican. They’ll ask shit like, “How can you really be poor if you own a refrigerator?”
jesus h christ tho
“Maybe you could afford insurance if you didn’t buy so many iphones?”
“i don’t own a cellphone…”
Oh, one of my favorite GOP talking points. I have pointed out to several how silly it is thus:
Me: First can you easily find a cellphone that isn’t either a government funded freebie or a smartphone?
Them: Not really.
Me: Second, have you priced the current cost differential between a cell phone and a land line monthly?
Them: No.
Me: Even with the phone’s cost rolled into a cell plan it’s cheaper to use a smartphone with a data plan than it is to get a land line or VOIP equivalent along with home internet.
Me: *without pause from the above* Finally have you tried to get a job without an internet connection and a phone line in the last five years?
Them: No, I have a good enough job to not need to.
Me: And there’s the rub, you literally can’t get a job in many fields without both a phone number and internet anymore. Even in the food service and retail industries, you need internet to even apply most places because paper applications have largely gone the way of the dodo because a web application is cheaper and if you can’t provide usable email and/or phone number they can’t contact you to even come in for a first interview and even if you contact them to check on status of your application they will tell you if you don’t have a phone number to be called in they will not hire you. And that is a wage job that pays less than $9 per hour for thirty hours a week tops unless you have a couple years experience. Which, in turn, is not enough to even cover cheap, unhealthy food, shelter and utilities in most of the US let alone grooming supplies like basic soap, shampoo, deodorant, clothes, shoes, et al nor other actual needs in such as that cell phone we were discussing…. Oh, I nearly forgot health insurance, which your employer won’t likely provide or maybe will provide but at exceptionally shit tier and inflated prices or else the marketplace alternatives which are only slightly better and you’re going to be down that amount in additional charges on your taxes if you don’t get it. And here’s the real rub, you may get slightly better pay and benefits, if you’re lucky enough, coming out of college with a BA or BS, but your college loans will eat more than the extra amount you make without plenty of good family connections or top tier grades at an ivy league school. *turns and walks away*
The quickest way to get a job is networking, but yes computers is pretty much a must nowadays, good thing libraries give you free internet access and a computer.
‘the quickest way to get a job is networking’ is actually really untrue. It’s the most reliable, but building up a network takes a lot of time, and it takes time to strike paydirt. But no, libraries do not often provide access to literally anyone who walks through the door. Generally, at _best_ residents. At specific hours – often the hours you need to be elsewhere. And the right wing has been trying to erode library funding as well.
mmmmm depends
like i went to a networking group and was basically like “i need a job, hi” and i got a job like a month later. which was much faster than what i’d already been doing for a year! and like keeping that social contact is really important to keep you motivated because job searching can be so demoralizing since you have to spend so much time alone
library computers tend to have limited access (think like an hour), but if you have a laptop you can use their internet, i think? and if you still have access to your college library computers those let you stay on for a lot longer.
idk i also would recommend panera and starbucks as places with good internet service (if you pay for a coffee), but panera has limits around mealtimes and/or if they have too many people using their wifi
What area are you in? I have never found a networking group like that and I know people who need them in my area. Most of the networking I know is literally more along the lines of literally trying to go to as many functions that involve my industry in this area as I can and trying to meet people there. And, trying to encourage other people I know to do the same. I am currently looking for a new position because my work situation isn’t a good one and anything that would make finding something easier would be a great thing.
honestly like…i’m really close to Los Angeles so that’s probably part of it. the group i joined was a little more about having people from different industries meet and socialize and find more clientele from each other, but they were flexible enough to meet my needs too! it was really great to see professional people in action, haha.
but if you know enough people who have a need, that sounds like a really great way to start one! meetup.com is a good place to collect people and circulate events for people in your area. idk, i hear facebook is good for that too.
If you HAVE a large network of employed professionals, that can be a fast way to find a job. Then you can even expand your network quickly if necessary.
Too bad Becky has almost no professional network at all. She’s still working to put together a social network, as her community and only living family are out of the question. The only people she knows who even HAVE jobs are: Hank, Leslie, and her current co-workers.
Not to mention that her current resume consists of home schooling, maybe a G.E.D. and zero work experience apart from a few days as a waitress. The only people who would hire her based on that would have to know her well enough to believe she could handle the job, or wouldn’t be paying any better than the job she has now. She can do it, but it sure as hell won’t be quick.
And not even owning her own phone puts her at a huge disadvantage. It makes it harder to make use of whatever contracts she does make, as any communication will be delayed until she can talk to the person whose phone number she gave, borrow someone’s computer, or walk to the library to use one. Again, doable, but it would be absolutely absurd to pretend her situation is “great”
Speaking of landline phone v. cellphone: The idea that aspirational people in poverty can just rely on their landline also ignores that “People living in or near poverty levels were also more likely to live in a cellphone-only house.”
Not to mention how dial-up is near-useless for many websites one needs to do all-inclusive job hunting.
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/261657-cellphone-only-homes-become-the-norm-cdc-survey-finds
At this point maybe Leslie should just take the risk and call the cops. Or at least threaten to.
Robin’s such a bro–err sis ?
She’s just one of the boys!
We are honored by your offer however I think us boys will pass on this one, thank you so much for your consideration.
You can call women ‘bro’. It’s like ‘dude’.
sigh…let the Robin hate continue.
I mean, she’s pretty well earning it now. Maybe she should try to be less hate-able.
There’s no justification anymore. She’s just a horrible person.
…yeah, let ‘er have it, Les. I see those wheels turning, just let it out.
Also I’m hoping Becky’s doing something devious on Robin’s phone, but I somehow doubt it
Now that you mention it, I’d really hope she’d somehow film the conversation and not necessarily show it to the media, but show it to Robin for her as evidence of WHAT she even spouts, when she tries to wind herself out of Leslie’s next explanations and trying to get her to see reason. Which probably wouldn’t happen, but it could be worth a try.
Although a big part of me really hopes that Leslie will just draw the line and stop continuing to humour Robin….
Oh my God, Robin has actually gotten worse as a human being in this strip. I did not think that was possible.
Oh right Robin , you just found Becky “delightful” because she didn’t bother you with her “sad backstory”.
ikr like SORRY she isn’t being one hundred percent sad about everything
Dang right she is!
I kike it when Robin lapses into a ‘streetwise’ cant; droppin’ ‘G’s’ an’ like all that, yo. ‘Clitblockin’, that’s a hoot right there.
I LIKE it …is what I meant to say. Damn you auto correct.
Why is that word even in your phone’s dictionary dude
The k and l are right beside each other on the keyboard, so I could understand it being a typo, but autocorrect tends to use words in your dictionary, so I have to second that question.
I’ve had some weird fuckin’ auto-corrects before. Sometimes, it was changing a random word to something racist or sexual. Sometimes, it was for words were never even on a single web page I’d visited.
Weird. I’d hope it’s that one then.
Sometimes the phone dictionary is really quick to pick up on typos and add them to your dictionary. I don’t use autocorrect but I get suggestions for things like “srarting” and os where ps should be all the time.
I don’t. She’s not black.
What has that got to do with the way she talks?
There’s a frequent real world phenomenon of people who aren’t black using aave or slang terms that originated from (or were popularized by) african americans in an effort to appear cooler. Robin’s use of “yo” and “fo rizzle” definitely strike me as that and given that she’s someone who has very likely implemented policies that harmed black communities her tossing them out is not something I find cute. (I’m black btw).
i dunno about streetwise, to me it says southwest usa
Sal’s accent would agree. In Robin’s case, it’s probably like when Becky or Walky drops ‘G’s – she’s speaking sloppily.
(yeah, I don’t have much to say, other than Robin’s missing the point and Leslie needs to just push past her own feelings and lay down some truths that’ll hurt Robin, but get her to leave and think about what she’s doing)
*approves of the punchline*
I don’t think I’ve ever quite heard it as “clitblocking.”
Robin: Your even clit blocking me Yo ! How could you.
i think clam jam fits better for some reason but thats just me.
Thanks for that because I now can’t get the theme to Space Jam out of my head
And that’s a bad thing how?
If you hit em high, hit em high, hit em high.
“Clit blocking” seems like a transphobic term.
Im not sure how clitblocking can be transphobic while cockblocking isn’t.
Who says it’s not? If Becky was straight and Robin assumed boyfriend = cock that could be seen as transphobic. So it would follow assuming girlfriend = clit.
You’re not wrong, though generally cockblocking/clitblocking generally refers to the anatomy of the person being blocked (Becky) rather than the abstract person/people they’re being blocked from (Dina).
Obviously, assuming genitalia is crass and leads to more transphobic lines of thought, but Robin is a pretty crass person, though she’s not technically incorrect.
and with that I’ve hit my limit for defending Robin in anyway.
I wouldn’t say it’s transphobic. It’s merely Occam’s Razor.
Occam’s Razor says the simplest answer is most likely, not that the… most likely answer is most likely. Assuming Becky’s girlfriend is cis is no simpler than assuming she’s trans — it’s just statistically more likely that she’s cis.
The simplest explanation that fits the evidence
You are both right, Occam doesn’t apply here. But yeah, I don’t think it’s transphobic or cisphobic to assume someone’s genitals when you only know their gender.
Right, thanks
It’s heterosexist to assume random people are either cis or trans. It’s heterosexist to normalize especially sexual anatomy as part of a person’s identity.
It’s not high crimes to me but it _is_ these things.
Um… how does “hetero” enter into into this? We are talking about genders, not orientation?
Pretty sure Lailah means either cissexist or heterocissexist (which would be about the paradigm as also including and reinforcing heteronormativity, and you might be surprised how many things do that while still talking entirely about lgbtqiapn+ people.
It’s all cis-normative.
cis-normative perhaps, but I think calling everything that’s cis-normative transphobic is a bit far.
What “cock-blocking” certainly is, is sexist – the assumption that the whole point is the guy getting laid. Even in this case, “clit-blocking” pushes the idea that the problem with Becky not staying with her girlfriend is that she won’t be getting sex – which we know neither of them are ready for.
It’s a microaggression.
Becky all ready had sex, hence she was removed from her previous collage.
Pretty sure that was just for getting caught making out, wasn’t it? Maybe some groping, but I think she’d have said something if it had been full-on sex.
No, Becky is freaking out about rooming with Dina specifically because she doesn’t believe in premarital hanky panky.
At Anderson she got busted for smooching
By the way there’s a flaw in her plan, I don’t think Becky can stay with Leslie if she’s planning to go to the same college she’s teaching at. It feels like there would be a rule about that and I think that would raise more problems than her staying in the drom.
i mean like currently becky isn’t technically going to her college, she’s just some random hobo leslie met on the street, as it were, so leslie is perfectly free to offer her home. or at least i think that’s how it works? leslie can let anyone she wants stay in her home. whereas the dorm comes with a permanent price tag.
there isn’t as much of a conflict of interest if becky goes to the college leslie teaches at after staying in her home, because she’s just some kid? she’s not a relative. i guess it could kind of be an issue that she’s not paying rent, but the terms for a houseguest are different from a renter.
idk as long as becky doesn’t attend one of leslie’s classes i figure she’s probably fine. and even then i don’t think there’s a legal thing involved, just that it’d probably be easier for them to live together that way
Once Becky got into college, she’d have a dorm, and won’t be staying at Leslie’s place.
That sort of thing is not a conflict of interest. MAYBE the admins would hear half of it, ask a question or two, get a clarified answer, and say, nope, no problem here. Not necessarily because they’re feeling reasonable, but because they don’t like pointless red tape.
i mean yes but also like dorms cost money, which is dependent on becky getting a scholarship and/or aid
…and meal plans cost money too. kind of wonder how becky’s feeding herself right now. i mean she could just be using people’s extra meals, but still
She got employed, muffin-effer!
lol
YES but like. was that a couple days or a week since she got to joyce’s school
Well, first-years are required to be in the dorms. Obviously she’ll need scholarships and lots and lots and lots of college debt which she’ll no-doubt have a very easy time paying off with her awesome income as a scientist.
golly gee willikers yes!!
i hate money
Joyce was skipping meals to feed her. At least originally.
THAT’S RIGHT
Joyce was sharing her meals at first. Dina’s parents gave her $200 to “take [Becky] somewhere nice” and Hank gave her some money to hold her over until she got on her feet with an offer of further support. I imagine that’s been covering her meals since then.
this poor child living on ramen and leftovers
Well, but even if Becky was Leslie’s kid, there’s no rule that she can’t go to the college she teaches at, so I don’t see any reason Les can’t offer her couch to her. If they were sleeping together, that would be scandalous, but there’s no rule that says your roommate can’t attend your school, or even your class, as long as you don’t play favorites. Honestly, Leslie’s class would probably be an elective for somebody going into biology or anything short of anthopology anyway, so I don’t see why there would be any conflict of interests here.
I mean, the fact that Leslie blew off her class to deal with this in the first place is way more incriminating than the fact that she’s offering her couch to a homeless girl.
If she took Leslie’s class, there would very much be a conflict of interests. HOWEVER, since Becky is not a student when she’s moving in, it probably won’t count against Leslie now. And it wouldn’t count against Becky at all – the main Dean’s son goes to his school.
DINA suddenly moving in with Leslie would be a problem, because Dina IS a student there and that looks fishy.
You’re right that there’s a conflict of interest, I’m just saying that a conflict of interest is not inherently a guarantee of bad behavior. if Leslie is the only person teaching Gender Studies, (unlikely, but suppose it’s true) and her roommate decides to/has to attend a gender studies class, what exactly is the recourse there? They have to just take the class and everyone involved has to be careful that no special advantages are given. It calls for oversight, but it’s not like it’s some kind of terrible black mark on her career or anything. Even with Dina, Dina isn’t in -her- class, and if she isn’t planning to take any of her classes, there’s no conflict of interest there.
You just sad the recourse – she gets extra oversight, probably has to give Becky’s stuff to her department head to grade. Or Becky doesn’t take get to take Gender Studies.
As for Dina, the school would likely see a professor allowing a student to move in with them as inappropriate. It’s one thing for someone ALREADY LIVING there to go to the school, but another for a teacher to invite a student (even a student who isn’t theres). That’s why Jason or Penny could be fired even for fucking students who aren’t their own. Because faculty inherently has power over students. Meanwhile, Ruth’s situation is a bit different. An RA only has power over their floor – they can’t mess with any random student the way faculty can. So, sure, move Billie, it’s all good.
If Becky was Leslie’s kid, she could probably go to the school for less money. I had a friend when I was younger whose dad almost took a job teaching at a local college just because part of the perks would have been free tuition for any children of his who attended the school. It may not be like that at every school but I have heard of things similar to that since.
I think the ideal situation is that by the time Becky’s applying for college, which is at least a couple months from now, she also will have somewhere to live that isn’t this couch. Dorms, ideally?
Dorms, by regulation.
Is that a college thing or an overall education thing? My mom taught me Maths and Physics throughout middle school. 😀
Mostly a college/university thing in my experience, though private schools also do this in some cases. Public schools (US not UK meaning 😉 ) are typically fine with it as their teachers are subject to more direct scrutiny to begin with that makes the kind of presumed cheating that could occur much harder to pull off.
It really depends on certain factors. If, for purposes of helping Becky, Les were to become her legal guardian (or else Becky were to get an entry level job at the school, such as a custodial or food related one, for around a year) she would potentially be eligible for lower red tape admissions and a reduced tuition cost. That’s a thing many colleges and universities do (well, did in the ’90s not sure how much that has survived). Hell, she could even be waived the required dorm residency and meal plan for various reasons if she could demonstrate appropriate need.
That said, in the first circumstance she would never be able to take a course taught by Les for credit because that would be seen as a conflict of interest.
The only acceptable follow-up with this is a week solid of strips of Leslie just punching Robin in the mouth over and over again.
I would understand the urge but I don’t want to see her getting violent with someone in front of Becky.
I think after watching Joyce go to town on Toedad I think Beckys ok with a bit of the old ultra violence
I think there’s a difference between seeing your best friend use violence to save your life and seeing a potential parental figure act out violently when they’re not being physically threatened. Keep in mind Becky grew up in an abusive home.
Did…she? I mean, her dad is an asshole bigot, but I haven’t seen anything that implied that he ever hit or even mistreated his wife or daughter before the whole gay thing came up. Did I miss a strip somewhere?
There’s no evidence of physical abuse that I know of. Becky shows huge red flags for long term emotional abuse though – even if it was just the constant reinforcement of the idea that she would never be allowed to do anything but marry some jerk and raise his kids.
Her mom’s suicide is another hint.
Yeah abuse is not only physical. In fact abuse is mostly not physical, even in cases where there’s also physical abuse. It’s very common for an abuser to save actual hitting for only the most severe “infractions” and then just let fear of being hit again so the work 98% of the time. Less effort and less risk of being found out by concerned teachers / neighbors.
Oh, believe me, I know not all abuse is physical, that’s not the point I was making. I haven’t seen any direct evidence that he was emotionally abusive to her, except for his opinions on gays, which would probably have seeped into her before she awakened to her own feelings. And the controlling religious household not allowing phones and such. And the whole subjecting her to a factually false worldview. I mean, okay, yeah, that stuff by itself is probably enough to qualify.
And his opinions on the role of women.
Well, when he slapped her in the car, they were both really casual about it. It wasn’t a Thing like it was in, for example, It’s Walky when Sal’s adoptive mother slapped her.
Theoretically it’s possible it wasn’t a huge thing because he was already kidnapping her at gun point – we were already so far beyond a slap it didn’t register.
But yeah, that had happened before.
Actually, I think there should be one strip in the middle where she punches Richard Spencer. As a palate cleanser.
Really. How do you look at Becky’s situation and remotely define it as “great”?? Didn’t Becky act as if she didn’t need pity? How do you turn that around into “her life is great”???
She just really, really, really wants that couch…and sexy time on the couch, but yeah I agree it’s a desperate pigheaded move.
Well those are the only options.
Either you’re pitiful and just trying your sob story to manipulate people and/or should quit complaining, or you’re totally fine and no action is necessary.
It makes perfect sense if you refuse to acknowledge that anyone’s life is or could possibly be harder than your own
By being monumentally self-absorbed and WANTING to view it as great so she can continue not giving a fuck about her.
robin more like stopin cause Stop
the only necessary comment
Yay! Robin and Becky are friends!
Yay! Robins using Becky!
At least they’re not murdering each other! Yay!
Robin is using Becky about 90% less than-Leslie- is using Becky. I don’t understand why this isn’t bothering people more than it is.
I’m not at all fond of Leslie bringing Becky into her hot mess, but Leslie’s desperate and Robin is the one who’s broken into Leslie house.
Because the current state of what passes for discourse demands one choose a side, then act as though your side can do no wrong and the other side can do no right. NB: Incomplete agreement is judged to be the same as an attack.
Welp, Becky failed to do anything except convince Robin that she (Becky) is awesome. Time to move on to plan…what number plan are we on for getting Robin out of Leslie’s house? Like Plan g or something?
…I say we move Becky into Robin’s house since it’s newly vacant
Or wait, maybe Riley lives there? That’d be fantastic actually, I bet she and Becky would get along famously
Dina could move in too! Her and Riley already hit it off nicely!
I approve. Leslie would have to move in too, for adult supervision and because SOMEone won’t get out of her apartment.
Don’t let Dina and Riley prepare meals (unless you cereal and Mountain Dew: pretty much I’m saying to let them prepare meals, because most of us could use the balanced breakfast)
Riley presumably lives with their mom and her husband. Robin, presumably, doesn’t.
Damn, that’s a lot of plans if we’ve run out of numbers and are using letters now.
No, see you start with letters first. As in Plan A, Plan B, Plan-…. I see what you did there. … Well, eventually I saw.
…. did Robin REALLY pull a TotalBiscuit?
The hell is a TotalBiscuit? Is that some sort of competitor with Pilsbury or something?
He’s a YouTuber…I don’t know what he’s done that’s on topic to this situation. He supported GamerGate, but that’s a related, rather than the same, situation.
At that point the whole mess had gone to hell and beyond in terms of horribleness that public figures were pressured to pick one side or the other and whichever they picked, they would be confronted with accepting ideas that were irrelevant when the mess began because it had gone back and forth into infinity with both sides hurling accusations at the other until the only people who could keep track of what was going on suffer from migraines every time they look back at it.
Short version, his decision to support GamerGate is less an accurate reflection of his political views and more evidence of how confusing that conflict became the longer it went on.
That’s not even remotely true. Gamergate was the clear villain and the scant amount of “anti GG is bad too!!!” evidence that even exists is hilariously pale compared to even like 1 week of what Anita Sarkeesian endured just for existing, much less Zoe Quinn.
I never said there were any evidence that anti-GamerGate was supposedly good. Nor did I say I supported TotalBiscuit’s decision. I said the whole mess developed into a giant clusterfuck, not helped by GG’s own ridiculous attempt to play the victim that tons of young idiots fell for, that people who were pressured to pick sides felt that whichever they supported, they also had to go against other core beliefs that otherwise had nothing to do with the issue because of how huge the whirlpool had grown.
If I came across as supporting TB’s decision, then I apologize. I don’t. I believe he made the wrong choice, but I also find it inconsistent with his overall political views. He’s one of those people who tried to choose a middle ground and fucked up as a result.
Which core belief is hurt by finding fault with people who harass women?
Gamergate was _really simple_. Especially when he supported it, which was fairly quickly, with no indication of ever changing.
It’s really not ‘confusing’, and there’s not really a credible ‘both sides’ narrative.
*Sigh* odd thing is I think I liked Robin in Shortpacks.
I love Robin in Shortpacked, but she’s awful here.
well she does start off as a kinda lousy person in that universe too… not AS lousy, but her relationship with Leslie showed she had many of the character flaws she displays in this version of her… just not backed by the conservative nutjob upbringing that she needs to unlearn. So we can hope that Robin shows similar growth and improvement this time too
Robin grew as a person in shortpacked and made amends for her shitty behavior and selfishness. This Robin is doing none of that.
It took a long time in Shortpacked (though it was covered up by the general wackiness of the strip) and DoA moves at a snail’s pace in comparison.
Becky, don’t you dare. Dina and Joyce can get into a lot of trouble for keeping you past guest limits. I can get avoiding homeless shelters – a lot are religious, and the ones that aren’t may not have room, resources for your specific situation, you don’t know the city, and you’d be away from your support network. That is no longer the case. You have a viable alternative now, a rent free space with a support network in the adult and easy access to your support network. Don’t do anything stupid.
Robin, you’re an asshole and an idiot. Fuck off.
(Also, speaking of ass-y politicians, you guys should definitely call your reps and senators (or the party majority leader if you don’t have a rep) and tell them, of course, about your opposition to the AHCA, but also tell them you need an independent special commission to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia, like the one post-9/11).
Some days I feel like I miss a lot of context and cultural stuff by being not being American.
It’s a bit like not being part of the bonding experience from that time those three buddies of yours were stranded out in the wilderness with nothing to eat and it was below freezing and one of them got mauled by a [s]crazed gunman with legal and easily-accessible firearms[/s] bear.
….. meanwhile, NONE of us miss the experience of screwing up tags.
AHCA is a the GOP’s replacement for Obamacare. It’ll throw roughly 20 million people off healthcare and screws people with pre-existing conditions over.
And the independent commission is because Trump fired the man in charge of investigating his connections with Russia.
Is it true that it classifies rape as a pre-existing condition?
Under the new rules, apparently it does. And what would be more ridiculous if that hadn’t hit the limit on ridiculous-Ness, apparently pregnancy does as well.
And also being the victim of domestic abuse, and also C-sections, just in case some women were super-safe and about to evade the awfulness.
No, it does not. Nor pregnancy. Nor domestic abuse.
That is fake news.
Technically it doesn’t. The bill would just repeal the parts of the ACA which explicitly forbade insurance companies from defining them as pre-existing conditions.
Which really isn’t much better.
Sherrod Brown made a list of things like to be considered pre-existing conditions. Rape, c-sections, and domestic abuse aren’t on there (but insurance companies have done that before) but pregnancy is. Full list is here:https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/860121634681835521
Growing up, I’d have been fucked because of heart murmurs, asthma, and epilepsy being on these lists. YIKES.
The bill doesn’t specifically classify anything as a pre-existing condition, it just doesn’t rule anything out. The assumption that stuff like rape will get hit as a pre-existing condition is because insurance companies have done it before.
Remember, an insurance company doesn’t care why you’re higher risk, just that you are. It doesn’t have morals, it’s a sociopathic for-profit corporation that only exists to make money for its stockholders. That’s how corporations work.
On the bright side, you probably have good healthcare, decent housing, better education, cleaner air, and a lot less gun violence. Oh, and you probably don’t have a right-wing demagogue with bad hair in charge of your country. Ok, you might have that but only if you live in the Netherlands. Meanwhile we Americans…have lower taxes for the rich and the world’s best funded military. I’m trying to think of anything else that could possibly be spun as a positive and failing. I am now sad. Time to go cheer myself up with adorable kitten and or puppy videos.
And the destruction of net neutrality.
On that note, the FCC is still taking comments and likely will until the vote on the 18th. Get on that, all!
Unfortunately I live in Oklahoma, which means calling my congressmen is pretty futile, because my congressmen are the worst. My congressmen make Robin look like Elizabeth Warren. My congressmen are a stone’s throw away from being Captain Planet villians.
Didn’t they just pass a law requiring government documents to refer to abortion as murder?
Call them anyway. They track call volume and even if it doesn’t actually sway your congresscritters, others may be looking at it and thinking “If it’s even drawing flack in Oklahoma”
Exactly. “Calling my Congressmen is pretty futile” is defeatist flack. Don’t get complacent. Call them anyways. Even if it doesn’t do anything, you have to at least try.
Yeah. They can always hide from or ignore their constituents, but even if you only make that require slightly more effort makes a difference.
like literally there is no way to win with Robin the way she is
right now the best option is to be just. blank face. no fun. give her none of the interaction or attention she wants. make every conversation about when she’s leaving.
god i bet that Leslie could get Robin out of the house by just being like “hey, I’m going to take Becky out to eat for a special meal since she’s my new houseguest, byeee” and Robin would follow
“If you see a troll… Stand Still. Stay Silent…
It might go away…”
Helpful advice from SSSS comic!
lol truth
It applies to any troll too! LotR troll, SSSS troll, Internet Troll… If you ignore them, don’t respond, and/or move, it’ll most likely leave
unfortunately with homestuck trolls they usually just do whatever they were doing more aggressively
That’s a great comic. I’ve followed it for about a year, now.
Becky, you useless lesbian D:
*Cracks knuckles* Don’t you dare insult Becky you piece of -BEEEEEEEEEE…
D:<
|D:<]
That book Amber’s reading in the slipshine preview is making me wish Chuck Tingle was writing Batman
“Pounded In The Butt By Our Mutual Thirst For Justice”
Pounded In The Butt By The Hammers Of Justice
Yer kinda giving me a Dr. Horrible flashback here… I really should go rewatch that, been a few years.
Pounded In The Butt by Two Face and His Giant Coin
The Comment Section From Past Strips: Wow, I doubt Robin could get any worse.
Robin: Hold my beer.
I don’t see how this is worse than literally breaking back in after being kicked out. This is exactly the same amount of terrible. Leslie, OTOH, is spiraling in my eyes.
Leslie’s not going to take this any more. Time to pack up, Robin.
Well, that did not work out the way I had hoped.
Okay, no one’s mentioned it. Why is Robin assuming Joyce is Becky’s GF in the first place? Did Becky frame it as such?
If yes: oh boy 🙁
wait is she assuming that joyce is becky’s girlfriend? because that would be hilarious
What is… This feeling I have? Is this… Happiness? Lau-laughter?! How am I… Happy? Do jokes cause this sensation? I… I guess so?
listen. do you know how much i would give for Becky and Joyce being fake girlfriends and realizing that they just don’t have that kind of chemistry together
because i would give A Lot
Hm? This is referencing back to when Dina and Becky talked about Becky staying in her room? And then Becky laid on the stairs?
She’s talking about Dina.
Yeah, as mentioned, she was talking about Dina, and there’s no reason to assume that Robin has misunderstood that, although it is plausible that Robin -could- have misunderstood that, given Joyce’s protectiveness.
“Leslie the Clitblocker!” twice as dangerous as “Conan the Barbarian”
What about “Hagar the Horrible?”
Hagar’s cool; he’s just himself.
Short-term, Becky does indeed to be doing fine. New girlfriend. New job. New freedom from abusive dad, But she is either avoiding thinking about the serious things or not letting it show. She has no permanent housing, a part-time job with no security, and no family or back up plan if something fall through. Plus, she wants to go to college which, while admirable, is very expensive.
And as an adult, Robin should be well aware of these challenges. She, too, is actively ignoring them, but by the ever-changing expressions on her face, she’s probably aware of this. It seems to me that Robin’s biggest fear is facing the consequences of her actions and taking responsibility for them. This is one of the reasons that I can’t really sympathize with her even when she’s going through hard times herself.
When it comes to real people, I can sympathize with their suffering, even if I don’t necessarily like them. But as a fictional character, Robin pisses me off, annoys me, and frustrates me in equal measure…which I suppose is sort of a step in the right direction as I used to unequivocally hate her guts. Still, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to really sympathize with her unless she stops caring about nothing but what happens to her and starts being more concerned with others.
Becky has stated several times that she’s looking into aid to pay for school.
And she will soon become painfully aware how hard it is to get enough to cover all the expenses, even for a public university. Although, maybe it’ll work out better for her than it did for my friends. I would’ve been fucked without scholarships and parental help.
Add on: I would not have been able to afford school even with the loans offered to me if it weren’t for the aforementioned scholarships and parental help.
Yeah, wait ’til she realizes the FAFSA requires your parents’ financial information until you’re 25, no exceptions.
It’s been a while for me, but I’m fairly sure there ARE exceptions. A parent simply refusing to help pay isn’t enough, but your only living parent being in prison might.
I don’t know what legal process is involved, but I would think that getting legally emancipated from her butthole dad would be sufficient. Then again, I wouldn’t be that surprised if both parents being dead was the only exception.
Gonna be a big mess of paperwork either way, even once she gets all of her OWN documents together
Robin is rapidly exhausting my ability to Even.
not only cant we even, we can’t even odd
[gasp] Not even prime??
not even zero
Robin desperately needs to get German suplexed by Leslie…
Welp. Time to bring out the Blunt To The Point bat.
Don’t hit people with bast unless they have faces.
You mean the Sourest Super Hero, Punisher Reincarnated, Sarah will make an appearance?
Oh wow turns out Robin learned literally nothing and is still awful and manipulative and was literally only “bonding” with Becky so she could justify herself as always. Truly shocking.
I mean even if things that Becky said did penetrate, I would expect Robin to take much longer to actually absorb them. Just because it hasn’t had any visible affect yet doesn’t mean it won’t.
But I say that as someone who has nothing to say about these strips right now because they’re just awful to read.
I won’t know how I actually feel about this arc until it’s over, which is not to say I think anybody else should be withholding judgment.
Maybe Leslie should say something like this: “Yeah, I’m a terrible person. I’m viciously manipulative and controlling. You ought to cut me out of your life whilst you still can!”
Robin: But I can fix you! I Know I can!
So yeah, Robin’s an idiot, but what exactly WAS Leslie’s plan? She blew off her class and rushed home so that she could…throw a total stranger into the living room with Robin and just kind of hope things worked themselves out? I mean, everybody here seems pretty eager to jump on the Robin hate train, but it’s _Leslie_ who has been perpetualy disappointing me for the last several strips.
Robin is going through an identity crisis and, yes, a total psychological meltdown. Throwing a baby gay at her isn’t going to help her with any of the things that are keeping her from going home, they’re just going to reinforce her cognitive dissonance and make her want to go home LESS.
Robin is specifically fleeing the fact that she can’t reconcile her political rhetoric with her personal feelings. Going home means she’ll have to make some difficult choices about her campaign and probably her entire political career and she doesn’t want to face any of that so she is RUNNING THE FUCK AWAY.
Leslie’s plan to deal with that was to drop Becky in a room with Robin and just hope that Robin will see Becky’s humanity and…what, exactly? Robin has already been confronted with what the legislation she supported meant to Leslie, and Robin already recognizes Leslie’s humanity and incidentally is super gay for her to boot.
All this does is reinforce the reasons Robin is running away!
Robin had a bit less than eleven percent of a plan.
Leslie. Must have coffee.
Does anyone know any good podcasts? I’m in the market for a new one to listen to while working. The ones I’m already familiar with are SleepyCast and The Official Podcast, but Official is currently updating and I’m not interested in listening to it until there are at least a dozen more episodes, and SleepyCast is almost over and I’ve already listened to every single episode at least 4 times. I can highly recommend them.
Oh. Just in case anyone decides to check those two out, they’re predominantly occupied by crass, swear-happy dudes. SleepyCast will occasionally have a female guest, but most of the time it’s guys. They’re all animators and huge nerds, so there’s a lot of different subjects.
Do you like the surreal?
Try Welcome to Nightvale.
Isn’t that the one that was supposed to appear at Dashcon?
way to miss the point, robin :U
Stop being such a bongo, Robin.
Not got anything to do with the comic, but I just want to … hell, I might as well tell the truth, even though I’m worried I’m going to offend people here as well. I got invited to a closed Facebook group where it turned out most of the main participants were trans. The fact that I’m not het went down quite well, but it looks like I totally screwed up everything I said after mentioning I was cis. – No, I’m not even game to say what I said that unexpectedly (to me) offended people, in case someone here tells me I was offensive too. And when I tried to clarify what I’d meant to say, someone else said I was simply digging a bigger hole for myself, and I should just apologise and aim not to make the same mistake again. Which I had no idea was going to be perceived as a mistake at all… My brother came out as trans nearly ten years ago, and I’ve learnt a lot about trans issues as a consequence of that. But apparently it’s not nearly as much as I thought it was, seeing I couldn’t open my mouth in the presence of a group of trans people without coming across as intolerably offensive. I just want *some* trans people to hug me and tell me they still love me, cos I feel like a total screw-up right now… 🙁
*hug*
Thank you! 🙂 You’re very kind.
It’s probably a good idea to share the offending comment. You openly admit to feeling bad about it, which to me seems to imply wanting to learn from and make up for it. People here tend to not be super judgmental about this sort of thing, although they won’t sugar-coat why something is wrong.
At a guess, I get the feeling you described yourself as “normal” or some variation. If that’s the case, then just don’t use that term anymore. I did the same a while back, and was swiftly corrected. If it’s not the case, then I apologise for my presumption. Doug has been coming out more, lately.
No, I didn’t. Okay, here goes:
I was telling a story about how several friends of mine were asked what they’d do if they had the body of the “opposite sex” for 24 hours. My first mistake was probably not putting that term in quotation marks, because I do know there are more than two sexes. But I carelessly quoted the literal question we were asked, and that went down badly.
And I mentioned various things friends of mine said they’d do, and said that *I’d* said I’d spend the 24 hours in bed and wait for it to wear off. Because if I went out and people saw me looking like a man, they’d assume I was a man, and treat me as a man, and refuse to believe me if I said I was really a woman… and it would be really horrible.
So, I said, I hoped it gave me a bit of insight into the feelings of some trans people, because *I’d* hate it if someone mistook me for a gender other than my real one, so it made sense to me if trans people hated it too.
As well as leaving in the “opposite sex” ref, which is something I admit I should have modified (though I’m not now sure how I should have phrased it in order than it *didn’t* bother anyone), I was also called out for suggesting that anatomy equated to gender (there is, I was told, no such thing as a “male body”), for suggesting that all trans people feel bad in the bodies they have (which I know they don’t; that’s why I said “some”. There are certainly SOME who do), and for suggesting that trans people exist as a learning exercise for me. I tried to answer each of those points, and was told not to dig the hole any deeper. So… yeah, that turned out a lot worse than I was thinking it would.
– And also, in a different post, I mentioned Dumbing of Age, and was told that ‘dumb’ is an ableist slur. Really felt I couldn’t succeed for failing…
Okay, yeah, I can see how all of that wouldn’t’ go down well. I honestly can’t point to a good solution for the parts that caused the most upset, since I’ve had little experience with real-life trans people.
What strikes me as slightly odd, however, is the idea that you were suggesting trans people exist as a learning exercise for yourself. Nothing about the way you’ve presented this gives off that vibe, at least to me. You were giving your answer to the posed question and hoping it might give you some insight on something you don’t experience. Again, that’s just my take on that. There may have been something in the way you were wording things, the people you said it to may be differently sensitive about the entire subject, it’s hard to say.
As for the “dumb” thing, from what you say, you were literally just stating the name of the comic. Saying it’s a slur feels like splitting hairs or something, in that context. This part is what leads me to suspect, at least for the moment, that the person pointing that out may be somewhat prone to the occasional overreaction toward these things, but I can’t make a full assumption.
Um, also please disregard my previous mention of “Doug”. That’s… a whole Thing I’m still trying to work out, and has nothing to do with your matter. Didn’t even realise I’d mentioned it.
Yeah, I certainly didn’t *intend* to come across that way. I didn’t intend to imply quite a lot of things that I apparently implied anyway, or at any rate that they definitely inferred whether I meant to imply them or not. It was very confusing.
Re Dumbing of Age, I was just saying that people there might like it. When challenged on the name, I said I doubted the author would have used the word ‘dumb’ if it had the least link in his mind with any type of disability. But apparently it’s a word to be deprecated in all contexts.
Re Doug: I see no mention of Doug! 🙂
i think…….probably that was not the right group for you.
it is. kind of a lot to go into a group of mostly trans people as a newbie and ask to be educated; it is entirely possible that that was not the focus of the group, and that educating you took away from said purpose of group. which! as a group of people with limited resources, was probably more than they could gracefully handle.
i think if you want to learn more about what it’s like to be trans you probably should look up some first hand accounts? there have to be books out there; internet sites, if nothing else. i don’t really have any resources to mind but i’m sure they exist, if you want to look for them.
i think….usually the best option, when you’re a single member of a privileged class in a minority group, is to spend most of your time listening. not asking to be listened to – listening. educating people is a skill that not everybody possesses, so asking the first trans people you meet to educate you on trans people issues is kind of an imposition on their time and resources. i mean, if you have individual questions, ask; but if you’re just going to be there to be uncomfortable then maybe walk away, because that’s not a good experience for anybody.
but, like, yeah, i hope your next experience works out better for you!
I’m not entirely sure why I was invited, tbh. The person who invited me had previously invited my brother-out-law, the (cis) guy who’s my (trans) brother’s partner, so I guess they’d seen my replies to him on FB and decided I looked like a suitable person to snaffle as well.
I didn’t mean to come across as asking to be educated when I made my original post. What I meant to convey was “Unlike most of you, I’m not trans, but my brother is, so I’m informed and friendly. And I feel as if this experience of mine may have helped give me a bit of a window into what it might be like.”
Whereupon I got chomped. And I’m like “Oh, sorry. What I meant to say was…” and one person was like “Look, just apologise and then stop talking.”
I thought I’d already done a great deal of educating myself, both online and in conversation with my brother and my brother-out-law. I’ve certainly done a fair bit of trying to inform other people who asked, seeing I have privilege in being the cisgender sister of a trans guy.
But apparently I can still piss trans people right off. 🙁
mmmmmmm that sounds like there may have been some confusion on the part of the person who invited you about what the group’s purpose was, then. if its focus was mainly on trans people, then having allies kind of defeats that purpose.
it does sound like you said stuff that offended them, yeah. I mean I can easily see how the whole “what if you spent a day as the ‘opposite gender'” thing could trigger people, let alone cause some gender dysphoria and alienate some of the nonbinary people who may have been in the group. and then it sounds like your terminology just wasn’t inclusive enough. idk. when you’re online we can’t see your body language or anything else about you; all you have to go off of is language choice, pretty much. and i mean not intending to offend people is…really not always enough in order to not offend people.
but i think if you got to the “just apologize and stop talking” place with somebody, that’s probably a good sign that you were talking over people instead of listening and figuring out how to change your behavior. and honestly…another indicator of that is how you keep making this about your emotions here, instead of trying to figure out where they’re coming from. that’s part of the problem imo.
and i mean the fun part about educating yourself is that it never stops!!!!!!! i mean. maybe it’s the “fun” part, but there’s always more to learn, and there’s always people with new perspectives to learn from if you’re willing to listen. so what i’m saying is: take this experience, and learn from it.
Perhaps she was supposed to learn that Becky was a human being?
This motivation requires Robin to have empathy for anyone, though, so it’s not a solid plan.
Or that Robin can draw the similarities between herself and Becky, since Robin cares about herself, she might care about someone just like herself. Again, caring about other people required.
Contrary to popular opinions, I’m pretty sure Robin cares about other people. She’s self-centered, not a sociopath. But like I said, realizing Becky’s humanity is meaningless, because the recognition that gay people are people, and that she might be one, and that her actions have been harming people like her is specifically what she is running from right now. She has a massive case of cognitive dissonance.
I think you’re right, I was overstating her callousness. She can probably notice and even care about other people’s feelings… she just doesn’t choose to prioritize them.
And yes on the cognitive dissonance, which is a tough nut to crack, as people hate experiencing it, and have lots of exciting mental gymnastic skills to avoid it.
I hope Leslie pushes that — your feelings and actions are not aligned at all right now, whoops, so how can you bring your actions into alignment, style of thing.
Anyway. Becky’s resilience in the face of everything makes her a frigging inspiration, it is not a reason to continue oppressing her, grr.
It’s sad how often that justification gets used though. “THIS kid from a low income, polluted area with crappy schools got a full ride to a top tier college…so clearly all the other kids in the same situation just aren’t working hard enough!”
I told you they were bonding!
But how bonded are they, really? Robin’s form of “bonding” so far amounts to stalking and home invasion.
Robin has yet to figure out the difference between bonding and bondage.
If that were the case, this would be an entirely different scenario.
including concepts like “consent” and “safewords”.
Luckily, Becky doesn’t have a… wait, no, that’s the other thing. Damn.
I’m still really worried about Ryan.
I don’t think Robin is evil. She’s just stupid.
People can do a lot of evil by being too stupid to know (or care).
Not mutually exclusive.
it’s called Box Blocking, Robin! but kudos for the hand gestures.
There’s a lot to unpack here.
The first panel gets me angry at Robin all over again. Not wearing pants, print her bare feet on the table and the sign nailed to the wall all show a complete disrespect for Leslie and her home. The lamp with the sign “
aideyou” possess me of even more. It was probably the first red flag of just how awful a person Robin is. His fucking name is Kyle you self obsessed, dehumanizing shite.Sorry. The Kyle thing had been bothering me for a long time.
In the second panel, she came Becky their “secret weapon”. She’s still thinking of Becky as a”people prop”. She clearly doesn’t think of Becky as a real person whose experience is real and matters. She sees her ability to relate to Becky on any level as a political victory.
She reinforces that by asking “what was she supposed to teach me?” She’s treating Becky as a teaching moment and seems to be almost smug about missing the lesson.
She’s got a job. She was rescued by a superhero. She’s got a girlfriend. The absolute worst didn’t happen to her, she’s merely homeless. She’s not on the street. She’s not in some foreign “pray the gay away” camp. Never mind the fact that that’s only true because of all the people fighting for her. So she’s obviously fine and doesn’t deserve Robin’s sympathy.
And she tops it off by deflecting onto Leslie. Sure, Robin campaigns on denying Becky basic rights. Sure, she’s actively trying to come between Becky and a safe place to live. But Leslie is potentially coming between Becky and sexy lesbian make outs. Leslie is the true monster. I don’t know if that speaks more to Robin’s priorities of her desperation to deflect guilt.
You know what, it can be two things.
OTOH, she’s right – on some points at least. Becky was Leslie’s secret weapon. That’s why she brought her here today, rather than just extending the offer of a couch and letting Becky choose whether to take her up on it (or talk to Dina first).
Sure, Leslie’s place would be a better, more secure long term place for her to stay – though I can see reservations about moving in with and being dependent on a total stranger, but she’s not in a crisis where she’ll be on the street tonight without Leslie’s couch.
Of course, being Robin, she’s twisting everything in the worst way possible and adding a pile of crap onto it, but it’s possible to see Robin as the real problem here while still acknowledging this whole debacle isn’t a shining moment for Leslie.
Oh, absolutely. Leslie has been making some less than stellar decisions lately and she was pretty keen on using Becky to get rid of Robin. Of course, Becky knew what the plan was and participated enthusiastically and Leslie was sincerely trying to help Becky in the process. That doesn’t make me feel 100% OK about it, but I feel a lot better about it than what Robin’s doing.
And yeah, Becky has reasons to be a little wary. She doesn’t know Leslie at all. As far as she knows, Leslie could be angling to take advantage of a vulnerable baby gay. While I wouldn’t call it likely, from Becky’s position it is a non zero risk. Given her vulnerability and the fact that the vast majority of the people she used to trust have turned on her, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was a little nervous about it.
But while she may not be in immediate crisis tonight, she knows that staying at the dorms is a highly unstable arrangement that could collapse any day with serious consequences for Joyce, Billie and Dina. Combined with her apparent reservations about pushing physical intimacy boundaries too fast by sharing a bed with Dina, she’s probably feeling some pressure to find a new place to stay pdq.
It’s hard to be mad at Leslie for her horribly ill-conceived handling of this mess when Robin “The Literal Devil” DeSanto is acting as the world’s most powerful rage magnet.
And Leslie explodes in 3…2…
There are people in the world who if they have a choice between imposing on their girlfriends living space, when they know it would really be a problem for their girlfriend, and having a place to live that doesn’t would choose to have their own place. But yea clit blocking.
Ok so Leslie has asked Robing to leave, has thrown her out of the house, has told Robin the couch is needed for someone else and still Robin refuses to go
Its time for Leslie to throw a quick left followed by a straight right into Robins face, yes violence is not normally a good thing but if all else has failed (and it appears it has) then its time for the short, sharp shock of a shot to the nose
Also panel two: Becky thinks shes “winning” (whatever winning may happen to be), panel five: sudden realization that you’ve been played and that you’re merely a pawn
Hope this doesn’t color her perceptions of Leslie and/or lesbians in the future
Due to recent events, I find “The Republican Party kicking someone in power out due to a scandal” to be the most ludicrous and unbelievable thing to ever happen in this Dumbing of Age, a comic in which a superhero fell off a car and fell *up* off-panel to be caught by a motorcyclist making a jump.