Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 2887-2891 (2-6 February 2015)
Is it cold in here?:
Panel 3 was a deft touch on Jeph's part. It answered the legitimate plot questions of "How will Claire handle anxiety?" and "Is Marten as open-minded as he thinks he is?". It scrupulously avoided all the things we have to learn not to ask about trans people.
If this has been a story of Marten overcoming a hangup, that's in character for Marten, consistent with some of the major themes of the strip, and inspiring.
(The rain of tungsten rods from orbit a while back was to deal with people who made "assume good faith" untenable. Honest mistakes will be treated as honest mistakes.)
ReindeerFlotilla:
--- Quote from: Aziraphale on 08 Feb 2015, 10:03 ---RF: Okay, maybe not fluidity, since you find that "clangy".
--- End quote ---
I don't find applying labels to Marten clangy. I find the need to justify his choices by appealing to his childhood clangy. As in, nobody is appealing to Faye's childhood to justify her straightness.
If there's nothing special, on a fundamental level, about being trans--if there's nothing special about being attracted to and romantically engaged with a trans person--then there's no more need to appeal to explanation with regard to Marten's sexuality than there is for Dora's, or Tai's, or Steve's, or Faye's...
--- Quote from: kerky on 08 Feb 2015, 12:19 ---Hello all,
I hope this is OK and not out of place in the WCDT, else would the mods be so kind as to move it to the "T"-thread. I also don´t know what the banmageddon was all about, but I will stick to what *I* see in the latest comic.
I personally think panel 3 gets as close as possible to answering "Teh Question That Must Not Be Asked"
Please, and this again goes for the mods and also people who read this forum and who I know have special sensitivity issues around this subject: I am not making a statement how things are supposed to be, or, behold, of right or wrong. I am just giving my personal opinion and reading of Claire´s expression in that panel which is, after all, part of the comic.
--- End quote ---
It's probably not Kosher, but that's not going to stop it happening. I said earlier that Jeph implies the answer to the question here, but the implication is not an answer. No matter what the truth is, Claire's actions and reactions make sense. What you think the implications are is just a matter of your own head canon. Nothing in the strip supports one interpretation over another.
The fact that the strip can be legitimately read to mean whatever the reader wants was the reason I expected a bannedammerung to follow.
I'm pleasantly surprised by this and the lack of outright hate.
Half Empty Coffee Cup:
I think the first few rounds of bannings from earlier arcs probably got all the people who were going to go that route.
Neko_Ali:
--- Quote from: Half Empty Coffee Cup on 08 Feb 2015, 13:40 ---I think the first few rounds of bannings from earlier arcs probably got all the people who were going to go that route.
--- End quote ---
Indeed. Claire coming out to Marten probably caught people who have issues with trans people off guard. And as I remember about that time the comic made a bit of news because of Claire's coming out. So that would draw in people who feel the need to troll anything trans positive. At this point now, it's a well established fact, so it wouldn't draw as much attention and anybody who's still here has accepted at least the fact that Claire is trans and she and Marten are dating. So not a big a reaction for this event.
Aimless:
--- Quote from: swapna on 08 Feb 2015, 04:39 ---True, and at the moment, Marten seems very comfortable with his sexuality, but it's not always been displayed that way. A few months prior, while he was still dating Dora, he was certainly not OK with dating a transgendered Person: http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=615
Even in jest, that's a very hurtful comment to make, and for Marten it's just been a few months (I've scanned AprilArcus' wonderful timeline, and as far as I can see, it's maybe 6+ months). This is not the only time he displayed discomfort with people who's visible gender might not always be the same: http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=457
--- End quote ---
Do you think perhaps Jeph may have changed a lot in the time since that comic was written? Do you think Jeph's changes may in some way influence Marten's character and the way the comic is written?
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