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WCDT: 2796-2800 (22-26 September 2014) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread

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Alphawolf55:

--- Quote from: Valdís on 26 Sep 2014, 13:42 ---
--- Quote from: Alphawolf55 on 26 Sep 2014, 13:37 ---I agree for the most part the only part I find weird is how she outright outs herself. Like it felt inorganic, like it was just an initial statement "Hey kids look we have diversity!" without doing anything with that diversity. It'd be like if instead of Tai talking about girlfriends and hooking up with girls in an organic sense she'd be like "Yeah I like girls" but then never date girls, express interest in girls. Like I felt like a more organic way of showing Clare was trans without making it about trans-issues could've been done like offhand comments about transition or side conversations.
--- End quote ---

It needs to be blatant because of the Null Hypothecis. Emphasis on the cis. Anyone not explicitly stated otherwise people will consider cis, due to cisnormativity. Just as how people presume characters in books are white for no reason, or project heterosexuality onto characters even when none is mentioned (and trying to argue characters with very, very blatant hints otherwise still aren't anything but hetero).

Oh, and don't presume avoiding transness is a goal for everyone. I wear a pendant by our very own CaspianSeaMonster, for instance. For many of us it's important to not give into societal pressures to have it as a shameful secret. Y'know.. Pride.

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It doesn't need to be blatant in a comic, that's one of the strong points of a comic. Literally someone has to do is during Clare's daily schedule panels put her getting hormone therapy or anything. Something that say to anyone with a brain "She's transperson but it doesn't define who she is" the way Jeph did it  screamed "Let me make a big deal that she's trans but don't expect anything out of it"


--- Quote ---Well, look at it this way: Jeph has done FAR more with the token transgendered girl than he did with the token black girl. :mrgreen:
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Yeah I'm not amused by that shit to be honest.

Aziraphale:

--- Quote from: Alphawolf55 on 26 Sep 2014, 13:37 ---
--- Quote from: Toe on 26 Sep 2014, 13:26 ---
--- Quote from: FireREGS on 26 Sep 2014, 13:15 ---Being transexual has nothing to do with her character, AND THAT's what i dont like.
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I would argue that that's EXACTLY how it should be - being trans is just one small aspect of who she (and other transgendered people) is as a person. If you don't like the rest of who she is, so be it, but that's pretty much a separate issue.

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I agree for the most part the only part I find weird is how she outright outs herself. Like it felt inorganic, like it was just an initial statement "Hey kids look we have diversity!" without doing anything with that diversity. It'd be like if instead of Tai talking about girlfriends and hooking up with girls in an organic sense she'd be like "Yeah I like girls" but then never date girls, express interest in girls. Like I felt like a more organic way of showing Clare was trans without making it about trans-issues could've been done like offhand comments about transition or side conversations.

--- End quote ---

Maybe it's just me, but I've never had a one-size-fits-all outing experience. When people have come out to me in one way or another, I don't think there's a little manual somewhere that they consulted first. Never having been on their side of the situation, I can only guess/empathize that it probably involved a bit of mental calculus as to how "safe" it'd be to come out to me, how I might react, what I might or might not tell other people, and a whole host of other stuff that I'm probably totally missing because, again, that's not my lived experience.

With that being said, for me (again, speaking from my own limited experience), something about Claire's coming out to Marten rang true to me. It wasn't played for shock value, or as an exploitative plot hook. To me, it read as someone deciding she trusted someone else enough to come out to him, and maybe fumbling with it a bit because hey, it's awkward sometimes, and you also never know how the other person's going to take it.

The point is, people come to that point in a way that feels right to them (or at least as close to right as they can get, depending on circumstances). The timing, the words, and all the rest aren't always what they'd planned or what you'd expect -- sometimes blunt, sometimes very circumspect; sometimes eloquent, others halting -- but that's just how life is sometimes. It's not always going to be in a way that fits some grand narrative arc or some dramatic reveal; life ain't always like the movies. Similarly, sometimes our fiction ends up being as untidy as life itself.

Hope this gets my point across, even if it's not as well put as I'd like.

davedig:
What I like also about the last two strips, aside from all the squee, is the second panel of Thursday's comic where Claire starts rubbing her head. It has a very 'ugh that band was killing me, oh shoot I forgot to buy milk, got to get that form in on time.' A million mundane thoughts in that head then suddenly 'hellooooooooooooooooo' in the third panel.

reicreature:
I think though, Marten has known about Claire from the beginning and such "soul searching" is something that comes along after feelings are had. Also Marten was raised in a family that is not part of societal gender and sexual norms, so it might not be that difficult for him to confront.

I think it's very wrong to say that Claire's tran-ness isn't a part of her character and a little after the wedding arc they go into her fears on this very thing, that cuddling and other intimacies with a boy will lead to freak outs.
People are people first, the other details are more nuanced.

In other words, if this story was exclusively Claire's it might focus more directly on certain issues, but because there is more of an outsider's perspective we're not privy to all of the internal issues that might be and they get revealed over time as story telling progresses. 
And every female character in QC has some issues that come apparent over time, be it Faye's trauma to Hannelore's struggle with mental illness...Claire is no different, she has her internal struggle.

I am not trying to be dismissive when  I say that having a romantic relationship with a transgendered person is no different from a romance with a cisgendered person. I have seen problems arise between partnerships where a person transitioned away from the gender that their partner is attracted to...but not as many problems when people have matched up post transition.

As for those that think it's disingenuous that Claire outted herself early on, from my own life experience my friends came out to me within weeks to a month of meeting them. I can't speak to their motivations about outing themselves, but it was pretty early on in the friendship when it happened.  so, for me anyway, Claire disclosing her status to Martin and Emily seemed pretty normal.

Alphawolf55:
I don't have a problem with how Clare outed herself but it feels disjointed by a narrative perspective. Stories have a flow and when you devote a certain amount of attention on an issue it can't be just put to the side at least story wise.

Also all the QC girls have issues except for Tai it seems, or is her being creepy her trait?

You're not allowed to get angry with people pre-emptively, you're entitled to your emotions of course but how you act on them before you even hear them out is entirely on you as an individual regardless of the topic.

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