Questionable Content 11: It's Like Seeing a Unicorn

[Yana]

No Winslow! Don't do it! We love you for being cuddly and slightly awkward!

[Wraith]

I mean it does, I literally just described how it does. Yeah sure, if we want to play "technically correct semantics wars" homophobia is just a fear of gay people but thats not how the term gets used. For better or for worse thats the word we use when we're talking about injustice and systemic oppression of gay people. And that type of situation is very much an injustice and part of the systemic oppression of gay people. It enforces heterosexuality onto gay people by making wlw about men and mlm about women.

You're free to use another word to describe it (orientationism? sounds bad) but homophobia is a word that gets used that way

I believe I understand what you're getting at. The assumption that gay or bisexual therefore must be equal to a one-dimensional fantasy, almost dehumanizing in a way, which is therefore homophobic in that it's a negative stereotype of that orientation.

That is of course problematic in itself, however I believe that a better term for that might be "objectification", as it encompasses an attraction to any specified person of people though one expressed in a negative way. That, at least, is how I have interpreted Renee's potential interest in an Eliot/Clinton tryst - she's absolutely for it in a pro-LBGT sense, but only in a very shallow way in which she would probably also envisage a straight ship or other cast members.

In essence, not homophobic because it's nothing to do with them being gay or bi - she just likes the idea of ANY cute, bashful people getting together and bangin' the living daylights out of each other.

No Winslow! Don't do it! We love you for being cuddly and slightly awkward!

Is it a good or bad thing that I had absolutely no recollection of Winslow's name until I read this post? Poor little guy is long overdue some character development.

[John Cribati]

I believe I understand what you're getting at. The assumption that gay or bisexual therefore must be equal to a one-dimensional fantasy, almost dehumanizing in a way, which is therefore homophobic in that it's a negative stereotype of that orientation.

You seem to have lost the point. Here it is, with some clarifying bold.

"Fujoshi" is the Japanese word for "yaoi fangirl." The implication being that upon learning that Elliott was bi, Renée immediately stopped seeing him as her big buff soft coworker and friend, and instead a piece of meat to take part in her vaguely homophobic sexual fantasies.

[Keltest]

Ok, can we just move on from the stupid fujoshi argument already please? Its not a concern in comic and the discussion is starting to get exceptionally nasty. It was never a particularly plausible concern in the first place, so I don't know why so many people are still harping on it.

[Max_Killjoy]

Ok, can we just move on from the stupid fujoshi argument already please? Its not a concern in comic and the discussion is starting to get exceptionally nasty. It was never a particularly plausible concern in the first place, so I don't know why so many people are still harping on it.

I'm utterly perplexed where that stuff came from... seems that webcomics are very prone to that sort of thing, because of the big pauses in the middle of scenes. Conversations that take under a minute in-story take days to play out in the comic progression the reader experiences. So some readers jump the gun, come up with wild conjecture, and even when the next snippet of the conversation invalidates that conjecture they don't retract it or update based on new data.

Anyway... I'm far more interested in where the new Winslow subplot is going.

[halfeye]

So that means:

Yeah, thought it might be a problem.

THIS JUST RAISES FURTHER QUESTIONS

So because Elliot is muscular, he's only allowed to be the bottom in same-sex relationships?

What?

In feel good PC cartoons, probably.

also this can't be stated enough, consent is never optional, and when you specifiy that it's optional in one specific instance you're kind of implying there are other instances where its not

I think you twisted a "not" in there. Yeah, consent is never optional, morally. Sometimes, tragically, people forget morals, CW (in another context) for one.

[Fawkes]

I think you twisted a "not" in there. Yeah, consent is never optional, morally. Sometimes, tragically, people forget morals, CW (in another context) for one.

What I mean is, when you say "with Elliot being this muscular a relationship only works if it's fully consensual", you're treating Elliot being muscular as a variable, as if to say "if X, then Y", with X being "Elliot is muscular" and Y being "the relationship requires consent". When you do this, you imply that that there are other situations with other variables (like for instance, no one being muscular) where consent is not required.* This is obviously not what you mean, but it's still an unusual thing to say.

Elliot being muscular and bisexual does not make consent more important to the relationship than usual, because consent is always important.

Also the unnecessary addition of the word 'morally' is confusing. There's no need to qualify. Consent is never optional, full stop. If you're just trying to say that sometime rape happens, yeah, that's true, but that horrible fact of life didn't suddenly become more relevant or likely when Elliot revealed he liked men, so why bring it up now?

*Before someone comes in and calls me out on logical fallacy, yes, I'm aware of logic and causality and the contrapositive and etc. According to capital-L Logic, saying "if X, then Y", does not automatically mean "if not X, then not Y", but it does suggest that as a possibility. In this situation, Y always equals yes, so there's no need for an if/then. If X, Y. If not X, still Y. Regardless of X, always Y. Y forever. Y is love, Y is life. Y.

Yeah, thought it might be a problem.

The word 'bottom' isn't a problem. The suggestion that someone is limited to being one because of their musculature is... well, maybe not a 'problem', but it's certainly baffling.

In feel good PC cartoons, probably.

And at this point I have no idea what you're talking about. What part of 'Elliot is a big muscleboy so he can never top' is either 'feel good' or 'PC'? (Or 'cartoon')

[John Cribati]

So do you think Pintsize having 3 fo four AI friends in humanoid bodies would be enough to convince Marten to get him one?

[Lethologica]

So do you think Pintsize having 3 fo four AI friends in humanoid bodies would be enough to convince Marten to get him one?

Would he even want one?

[Traab]

So do you think Pintsize having 3 fo four AI friends in humanoid bodies would be enough to convince Marten to get him one?

I dunno man, maybe pintsize is comissioning his own humanoid body one aprt at a time. Wang first. The rest can be made as he earns the money for it.

[Morquard]

No.
Can you imagine what he's capable of with opposable thumbs?

[Max_Killjoy]

So do you think Pintsize having 3 fo four AI friends in humanoid bodies would be enough to convince Marten to get him one?

Could Marten afford it?

Could Pintsize on his own? (Pintsize sometimes appears to have a Plot Wallet -- just as much money as he needs for the joke to work.)

[John Cribati]

Maybe a gift from Hanners('s dad)? Or coming off of that maybe just a projector attachment his chassis so he can be like Station.

[AuthorGirl]

Oh gosh . . . this was such a feel-good strip for me, something about Hanners looking so perfectly relaxed

And yeah, if not a humanoid body for Winslow, at least one that lets him live a little more independently. Being a walking tablet with near-useless appendages must be somewhat less than fun. Also, it's great to see the little guy again!

[Mith]

My understanding is that AIs choose their names, so Pintsize chose the name Pintsize. I can see him going for a halfling style chassis. I say Halfling style as it would still be adult proportion, just smaller. The idea of Pintsize in a adult sized human chassis seems weird to me.

[AuthorGirl]

My understanding is that AIs choose their names, so Pintsize chose the name Pintsize. I can see him going for a halfling style chassis. I say Halfling style as it would still be adult proportion, just smaller. The idea of Pintsize in a adult sized human chassis seems weird to me.

The idea of Pintsize in an adult sized human chassis seems dangerous to me.

[Traab]

Looks like no fancy futuristic hologram body for winslow, just a trip to the apple store for a new chassis. I am curious to see what he ends up going with.

[SaintRidley]

One day humans will figure out how to genetically engineer our species so we can photosynthesize, and then we will all have Sun's Out, Guns Out Charging Mode.

[John Cribati]

I love that Jeph came for Apple immediately. Team iPhone can suck it.

[tomandtish]

If Hanners changes her mind about the robotic boyfriend, it looks like the Brosepf is packing....

[Dorath]

I can't help but think Jeph's been playing Dream Daddy.

[Fawkes]

Hanners, let's not pretend that Winslow isn't a sweet soft boy.

[Ibrinar]

One day humans will figure out how to genetically engineer our species so we can photosynthesize, and then we will all have Sun's Out, Guns Out Charging Mode.

We have a too small surface area compared to our energy demand to make it worth it. Though maybe we could change the form of human to giant sails. Pro: huge surface error for photosynthesis, can be rolled up for storage, can act as sail of small sailboats! Con: no limbs, don't know where to place brain.

[Thialfi]

I love the hipster model. I'd personally go with the broseph because in real life I've already run with the softboy chassis for far too long.

I wonder what model the sales girl is? That's the one I'd really want. She's the first AI I've seen in the strip that didn't have the obvious joints.

[SaintRidley]

Sales girl might just be a regular human in the teenage girl model.

We have a too small surface area compared to our energy demand to make it worth it. Though maybe we could change the form of human to giant sails. Pro: huge surface error for photosynthesis, can be rolled up for storage, can act as sail of small sailboats! Con: no limbs, don't know where to place brain.

Doesn't have to completely cover our nutritional needs. Even being able to photosynthesize for 10% of our necessary calories would be a nice benefit.

[Fawkes]

Sales girl might just be a regular human in the teenage girl model.

Possibly. There's something kind of uncanny valley about her. Her eyes are farther apart than Jeph usually draws, her skin lighter, her nose less defined. Combined with her purple color scheme, my first guess was robot.

Plus, Softboy doesn't have any visible joints, either. Although that might just because he is a sweet soft boy.

(Is Softboy the second reference we've had to Griffin McElroy and Nick Robinson?)

[mythmonster2]

Possibly. There's something kind of uncanny valley about her. Her eyes are farther apart than Jeph usually draws, her skin lighter, her nose less defined. Combined with her purple color scheme, my first guess was robot.

Plus, Softboy doesn't have any visible joints, either. Although that might just because he is a sweet soft boy.

(Is Softboy the second reference we've had to Griffin McElroy and Nick Robinson?)

What was the first reference?

[John Cribati]

What was the first reference?

IPhone users I'd guess.

[Qwertystop]

Square speech bubbles, too. She's an AI in a near-human skin tone and flexible outer covering.

[georgie_leech]

Square speech bubbles, too. She's an AI in a near-human skin tone and flexible outer covering.

So that's why I thought she was an AI.

...Huh, I never noticed that before. Hurrah for consistent design choices working even if you don't notice them.