Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 2897 - 2901 (16-20 February 2015)
cesariojpn:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 18 Feb 2015, 13:21 ---That is not what's happening.
Jeph has been approaching everything trans-related with taste and respect. Jeph, the mods, and the community are only asking for the same from the fans.
--- End quote ---
But the strip can't escape the unsightly issues that come with such things. It's better to educate than just sweep it under the rug.
eschaton:
--- Quote from: brew on 18 Feb 2015, 12:57 ---I don't mind how the relationship is, but I don't like strips being written to show this. You could take away these strips and we'd still get it. It just feels like a waste.
--- End quote ---
If we're going to have filler, I'd rather have Steve eating cereal, or Pintsize doing something zany. At least it would make me chuckle for a second.
ReindeerFlotilla:
Dennis Miller once said, "We all like to think we're beautiful and unique snowflakes, but when we're alone we all do the same stupid shit."
He was just talking about the condition of being human, at that moment. I think it applies to the condition of being human. Strip a work of references to its time, and you find it applies as much now as did when it was written. Kids these days has a storied history dating back to ancient Greece (the popular quote on the subject actually dates to 1907, but if you look up the context, it stands as a summary of a number of Greek educators complaining about how kids used to be more studious and respectful).
If the kids have always been... well... kids, it follows that the fans have always been fans. The internet only allows more fans to connect more rapidly. It's not that it's changed what we are. It's just allowed us to be alone together with millions of like minded souls. Our same stupid shit is amplified, but it isn't fundamentally different.
Now, about Claire's sex tackle, there are three points that I think bear mention. First, all animals may be equal, but some animals are more equal than others. This here is Jeph's house. If he wants to draw on the walls in marker, he can do that. You have to ask permission. If he says "no," that it. You just to get to watch him draw on the walls, but you get no marker for yourself. If you want a marker, get your own house. You can then discuss the content of Claire's pants to your heart's content. Invite like minded friends! Enjoy the power of denying them access to the markers!
Second, there's nothing necessarily prurient about genitals. That's just a social construct. Like gender or heterosexuality. We have (and by "we" I mean us, including me) some exceptionally dangerous post-Victorian hangups about this whole sex thing. That these hang ups exist is at the root of the discomfort the subject of Claire's anatomy invokes. I propose to do exactly nothing about that aspect. I'm not going to erase nigh 200 years of puritan thought with a pithy comment in webcomic fandom. But I can shine the harsh light on it. Getting bent out of shape about the existence of vaginas and pene costs lives. For some bizarre reason, we tend to think that other people's bit are our business. I mean that in a narrow sense. If we only kept to our own business, it would be a lonely world. But there's a difference between knowledge and ownership of business. I might ask what kind of peanut butter you use. That's really none of my business, unless I mean to eat some of it. But it's not a gross violation of anything, either. Genitals are like that. Most people have them, and you aren't going to eat the vast majority of them. (Also, some people are violently allergic to them.) Knowledge doesn't imply action.
But the flipside of the puritan hang up is the fact that majority confuses knowledge with action. The majority thinks, "I know this thing, so I must do something about it." "Or I know this thing and I find it distasteful, so I must punish those who gave me this information, even though I asked for." To quote another wise man, "a person is smart. People are dumb panicky animals, and you know it."
So, the board policy is the best policy among no great options. But it's important, IMO, to remember that the side-eye given to people with potentially justifiable curiosity is actually a symptom of the underlying pathology that make the policy necessary.
Third--I have said this before, but it deserves repeating until it stops being true--nothing in QC has served as even a useful hint about the configuration of the junction between Claire's legs. Everything is wholly consistent with whatever interpretation you choose to be your headcanon. In/out/none. Whatever you want, the comic supports.
It's possible that Jeph knows the answer (I happen to agree with Christopher Nolan; if you don't intend to tell the audience, you still need to tell yourself. Otherwise you risk injecting nonsense into the story). It's also possible he doesn't. But, so far, nothing in the comic has given a clue, one way or any other.
If a definitive clue ever does drop, the forum rules make this exactly not the place to discuss it. I understand the temptation. When Claire took her pants off, my first thought was that a definitive clue had dropped. Further reflection convinced me that nothing had changed, but there was a moment. And in that moment, I wanted to run my thoughts by a group of people who had the necessary background to vet them. But I didn't, because the rules say that's not cool.
Item's one, two, and three come together at that point. There's nothing definitive. Even if there had been, humanity isn't ready for a rational discussion on the subject for a variety of reasons. Even if humanity was ready, it's Jeph's house and in Jeph's house we do not talk about Fight Club--er the specifics of people's pants cargo. It's not cool. It's not cool when the n00bs do it, it's not cool when the trolls do it, and it's not cool when vets point to the marks on Jeph's walls and try to use them as justification for their own impromptu impressionist phase.
/rant
Zebediah:
--- Quote from: cesariojpn on 18 Feb 2015, 13:40 ---
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 18 Feb 2015, 13:21 ---That is not what's happening.
Jeph has been approaching everything trans-related with taste and respect. Jeph, the mods, and the community are only asking for the same from the fans.
--- End quote ---
But the strip can't escape the unsightly issues that come with such things. It's better to educate than just sweep it under the rug.
--- End quote ---
Here. Also here.
If that's "sweeping it under the rug" then it's an awfully goddamned big rug.
WanderNotAimless:
--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 18 Feb 2015, 13:51 ---Dennis Miller once said, "We all like to think we're beautiful and unique snowflakes, but when we're alone we all do the same stupid shit."
He was just talking about the condition of being human, at that moment. I think it applies to the condition of being human. Strip a work of references to its time, and you find it applies as much now as did when it was written. Kids these days has a storied history dating back to ancient Greece (the popular quote on the subject actually dates to 1907, but if you look up the context, it stands as a summary of a number of Greek educators complaining about how kids used to be more studious and respectful).
If the kids have always been... well... kids, it follows that the fans have always been fans. The internet only allows more fans to connect more rapidly. It's not that it's changed what we are. It's just allowed us to be alone together with millions of like minded souls. Our same stupid shit is amplified, but it isn't fundamentally different.
Now, about Claire's sex tackle, there are three points that I think bear mention. First, all animals may be equal, but some animals are more equal than others. This here is Jeph's house. If he wants to draw on the walls in marker, he can do that. You have to ask permission. If he says "no," that it. You just to get to watch him draw on the walls, but you get no marker for yourself. If you want a marker, get your own house. You can then discuss the content of Claire's pants to your heart's content. Invite like minded friends! Enjoy the power of denying them access to the markers!
Second, there's nothing necessarily prurient about genitals. That's just a social construct. Like gender or heterosexuality. We have (and by "we" I mean us, including me) some exceptionally dangerous post-Victorian hangups about this whole sex thing. That these hang ups exist is at the root of the discomfort the subject of Claire's anatomy invokes. I propose to do exactly nothing about that aspect. I'm not going to erase nigh 200 years of puritan thought with a pithy comment in webcomic fandom. But I can shine the harsh light on it. Getting bent out of shape about the existence of vaginas and pene costs lives. For some bizarre reason, we tend to think that other people's bit are our business. I mean that in a narrow sense. If we only kept to our own business, it would be a lonely world. But there's a difference between knowledge and ownership of business. I might ask what kind of peanut butter you use. That's really none of my business, unless I mean to eat some of it. But it's not a gross violation of anything, either. Genitals are like that. Most people have them, and you aren't going to eat the vast majority of them. (Also, some people are violently allergic to them.) Knowledge doesn't imply action.
But the flipside of the puritan hang up is the fact that majority confuses knowledge with action. The majority thinks, "I know this thing, so I must do something about it." "Or I know this thing and I find it distasteful, so I must punish those who gave me this information, even though I asked for." To quote another wise man, "a person is smart. People are dumb panicky animals, and you know it."
So, the board policy is the best policy among no great options. But it's important, IMO, to remember that the side-eye given to people with potentially justifiable curiosity is actually a symptom of the underlying pathology that make the policy necessary.
Third--I have said this before, but it deserves repeating until it stops being true--nothing in QC has served as even a useful hint about the configuration of the junction between Claire's legs. Everything is wholly consistent with whatever interpretation you choose to be your headcanon. In/out/none. Whatever you want, the comic supports.
It's possible that Jeph knows the answer (I happen to agree with Christopher Nolan; if you don't intend to tell the audience, you still need to tell yourself. Otherwise you risk injecting nonsense into the story). It's also possible he doesn't. But, so far, nothing in the comic has given a clue, one way or any other.
If a definitive clue ever does drop, the forum rules make this exactly not the place to discuss it. I understand the temptation. When Claire took her pants off, my first thought was that a definitive clue had dropped. Further reflection convinced me that nothing had changed, but there was a moment. And in that moment, I wanted to run my thoughts by a group of people who had the necessary background to vet them. But I didn't, because the rules say that's not cool.
Item's one, two, and three come together at that point. There's nothing definitive. Even if there had been, humanity isn't ready for a rational discussion on the subject for a variety of reasons. Even if humanity was ready, it's Jeph's house and in Jeph's house we do not talk about Fight Club--er the specifics of people's pants cargo. It's not cool. It's not cool when the n00bs do it, it's not cool when the trolls do it, and it's not cool when vets point to the marks on Jeph's walls and try to use them as justification for their own impromptu impressionist phase.
/rant
--- End quote ---
I like this post. I can't say I agree with all of it, but I like it and respect it.
On a different note, which brought me to the thread originally: Are Marten and Emily the only friends who know about Claire being trans? I remember she told Marten at the lake house some time ago and then Emily at the library more recently. Is that as far as it has gone that we are aware of?
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