Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

Theory on Penelope

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Mr_Rose:

--- Quote from: Near Lurker on 24 Jun 2010, 15:25 ---All we hear is...

--- End quote ---
Radio Gaga....

Carl-E:

--- Quote from: Tago Mago on 24 Jun 2010, 21:03 ---Yeah, I guess it's a tenuous theory. The only incontrovertible parallel QC has with classical Greece is ubiquitous homosexuality.

--- End quote ---

Ubiquitous?  I haven't counted, but the proportion seems to be about the same as IRL.  You know, the "1 in 10" thing that's spouted all the time (but may well be incorrect, thank you, Dr. Kinsey). 

On the guy side you have Marten's dad, Maurice (if you choose to count him - he's more of a half-character as he was there as a foil), and Marten's old boss.  On the hetero side, you have Marten, Steve, Wil, Sven, Angus, Mr. Bianchi, Dave (? Meena's hubby), that trustee from the copy room incident, and ntil we know more about him I'm going to count Dale.  OK, so that's closer to 20%, but still...

Females?  You have Tai.  There are the other lesbians from her dorm (Brandi?), but again they're more like half-characters, having rare appearances with no real development.  I guess you could also count Dora as another half lesbian?  And that leaves us Faye, Hannelore, Raven, Penelope, Sarah (who wanted to ask Marten out), Meena, Victoria Vance, Mrs. Bianchi, Ellen, Cossette,... oh god, just trying to count the female characters is giving me a headache.  Oh yeah, and Dora counts as a half character on the straight side!

So really, ubiquitous?  I think you're suffering from something that a lot of straight people suffer from.  Due to a lack of exposure to homosexuality (or a lack of acknowledgment of it), when you finally spend some time around someone who's homosexual, it seems that the entire world has the gay.  And lately, we've been spending a good bit of time with Tai.  Well, she's been in the room.

One of the funnier things that happens when you spend time with gay people is that you find out a lot of the people you didn't think were gay, really are! I've unfortunately been attending quite a few funerals recently (parents of friends), and I've found out a lot more about this town than I ever wanted to know... there's something about a funeral that brings out every little piece of "dirt" about the entire extended family.  My recent favorite involved the matriarch of a family of eight, and all five of the sons are closeted homosexuals, prominent in the community.  While two of them stayed single, the other three married, had children, later divorced... one of them was married to a lesbian friend of mine who caused quite a scandal when she came out after the divorce!

Ahh, fun times...

raoullefere:
The other aspect of QC that may make it seem like gay characters are prominent is their easy acceptance. With one exception, no one, so far, seems to be hiding (well, Marten's dad, but that's done and gone before the strip starts) their orientation, and no one seems to be upset by said either. Maybe that's the way it is up Nawth. Tip of the hat to Jeph for having the one character who does seem a little in the closet to be Faye's sister. Her mother's reaction is fairly typical, too, of those I've known; what we haven't got is the community's reaction. In some cases, ostracism is putting it mildly. Anyone read about the lesbian girl in north Mississippi a few months ago? Wanted to go to her senior prom with the person she was dating, a girl, natch, and the school canceled the entire fucking prom to keep the other kids from having to see that horror. And, well, there's <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/constance-mcmillen-fake-p_n_525856.html
">more[/url].

As for the Ancient Greeks, it sounds to me that, like many people, you've a limited understanding of exactly what was going on. Homosexuality was certainly not the path to instant pariahood it can be in the U.S., but it was much like pot in the Netherlands—okay in certain designated places, and used in certain ways, but not universally accepted.  I'll add that Ancient Greece does not seem to have been a good place and time to be a lesbian.

Carl-E:
Well, except for the isle of Lesbos. 

jwhouk:
Sounds like someone needs that greeting card Tai was talking about...

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