Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
How QC and webcomics generally relate to the real USA
Emperor Norton:
My social group is remarkably gay, I've commented on it before in my real life, but it makes total sense. Friends are generally self-selected, and people tend to be friends with people with similar belief systems, and since social liberals don't have an issue with gay people, gay people are more likely to be social liberals, and therefore will be represented higher in friend groups with that belief system. My entire D&D group is all non-hetero sexuality of some sort (my wife and I are both Bi, all the other players are gay men), we considered flying a rainbow flag on our caravan in game.
Of the people who came to my new year's eve party we have:
3 gay men
2 bisexual men
3 straight men
4 bisexual women
(and not even all of my D&D group made it)
Yeah, much much higher than in QC.
Neko_Ali:
My thought is pretty much along Emperor Norton's line. Like tends to attract to like. You tend to hang around people with similar experiences and attitudes towards you. A very high percentage of my friendship circles are in the LGBT community. The same way as a lot of my friends are geeks and nerds like me. In QC, it's really more a circle of college slackers, indie rockers and such. If anything, it's a surprise that the mix up of the group is as varied as it is.
Carl-E:
Hmm. Akima pretty much addressed my issue - I only responded to the statement about gays because it was the only part of the OP that I really disagreed with (as I said at the time).
Interestingly, others are reporting personal experiences because of the way it was expressed, but that's not really the point. As you yourself admit, and others have pointed out, they're probably a bit underrepresented in the comic.
The same's probably true of alcoholics... sorry, sidetracked for a moment.
As for grotesques, I think I have to disagree with a few of your assumptions. They use stereotypes, and the ones you mention from Dickens are good examples, though several develop more later (like Jeph, Dickens was writing serially). But Tai? Maybe in the beginning, but she was developed a lot into a whole personality. Marten's dad? Well, no, he wasn't stereotyped much - we really don't know much about him except that he was a good dad, and they split amicably. So a case of underdevelopment there, I guess, but not much of a reliance on stereotype - more of a cipher than a grotesque. Maurice is more of a stereotype, but has had very little "screen time", so I guess he could qualify. Veronica also uses stereotyping to some extent, but again we've seen the beginnings of her being fleshed out as a character.
Hanner's mom, and Pintsize? No argument there! Although Pintsize does have hidden depths, as has been mentioned on other threads in here.
I guess the upshot is that you can expect thoughtful responses to comments that may or may not be off the cuff. We're rarely knee-jerk around here, although it gets that way in the WCDT when there's a big dramatic arc tht brings in new people.
Oh, and welcome to the (rest of the) forums!
Emperor Norton:
Hell, on the strength of self-selection: Only one person in my D&D group isn't polyamorous, and that is WAY rarer than LGBT.
Boomslang:
Since my social circle actually doesn't include that many gay people (one of the people I work with is, and a friend of mine is bi), I'll actually take issue with a completely separate part of your post. You describe the cast as having, in your words, "service-industry non-jobs". That... doesn't even make sense. If someone is paying you to do it, it's a job. Most of their jobs admittedly aren't careers, although Dora is an entrepreneur and works her ass off so you can't lump her in with her employees even if you limit it to dead-end work, and certainly if starting your own business is your idea of a 'loser' I really don't understand what you expect.
Beyond that, I'm questioning your awareness of economic realities if you think most of the cast are living beyond their means. Dora is the only one shown who can pay rent on an apartment without having someone else help her, but she owns a freaking business. Hannelore is heir to ridiculous wealth and wouldn't even have a job if she didn't want one. The rest of the cast can get by and even make the occasional splurge, but that's normal in people who have full time jobs, are healthy, and don't spend a huge portion of their income on housing, regardless of whether they're making only a bit above minimum wage.
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