THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: bethcarielle on 12 Aug 2010, 18:53
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The feminist blog Deeply Problematic (http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/ (http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/)) is hosting a series of articles about the female characters of QC.
It's a good read and honest (positive!) critique of the comic.
Today's posting: http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/2010/08/women-in-questionable-content-women-run.html (http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/2010/08/women-in-questionable-content-women-run.html)
There is also a previous article about the normalization of disability and Faye and Hanner's role in that. http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/2010/06/disability-and-comics-how-questionable_08.html (http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/2010/06/disability-and-comics-how-questionable_08.html)
Thank you, Jeph, for creating realistic female characters!
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I'm a chemist and I spent some time wondering about "cis". "What's 'cis'? I get 'trans' and all...". Then I got it. It wasn't a strange code. It was exactly what it meant... the opposite of trans is cis! The chem geek in me asploded for joy.
Also. YAY JEPH!
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When I read cis I was thinking German for c# and cos+i*sin. Cue confusion.
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Yeah, I had to wikipedia it. There's a gender role disambiguation, or I'd never have figured it out. I sure wouldn't have though to look in chemistry!
All I could think of is Computer and Information Sciences, which means I've been in education for way too long!
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My favorite QC female is the one with psychological issues.
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Is there a QC character, male or female, without psychological issues that hasn't already been eaten by an allosaurus?
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Dr. Corrine, I hope.
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http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1196
/relevent
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I dunno why, but it often makes my teeth ache when someone, having found a work of literature, film, art, etc., after praising it for what it does do, then proceeds to complain because it fails to service all of that individual's banner-carrying needs. You want a webcomic to do this and that and the other thing, too? Go write it yourself.
Of course, I am a GOM, with a capital G. (Yeah, yeah, I do see I capitalized them all. But you know what I mean.)
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But raoullefere, writing and drawing and getting people to read your internet drawings is hard.
It's much easier to bitch, moan, and complain about it, and you get the added bonus of wollowing in your victimhood when even the people who support you don't understand how badly oppressed you are by everyone and everything all the time, whether they mean to or not.
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But akronnick, it's so hard to read a review that isn't completely positive or completely negative, it's much easier to just read things that say THIS SUCKS or THIS ROCKS and masturbate with sandpaper!
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But wiregeek, sandpaper is so scratchy, it's so much easier to use tissues and a bottle of lavender-scented hand lotion!
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But wiregeek, sandpaper is so scratchy, it's so much easier to use tissues and a bottle of lavender-scented hand lotion!
But Tergon, I had to switch to scentless after I was rock hard at the old folks home! :-o
/pavolvian penis would be an awesome band name
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But... but... but...
Oh, nevermind.
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Pointing out failures of a work in what poses as a piece of criticism is one thing—claiming a work fails simply because it does not fully advance your personal agendas is quite another. I'm speaking particularly of the article examining how Hannelore and Faye are positive examples of disabled persons. The writer explains how they work well as such and how they do not. That is criticism.
Then, however, the writer goes on to lament that Jeph has no physically disabled character, and how she* wishes he'd include someone missing a leg or other body part, or perhaps someone who's wheelchair-bound. That's where the whining begins. Whether or not any characters are physically disabled has nothing to do with how well or poorly Jacques executes his work. The comic is Questionable Content, not Lookit all the Handicapable Peeples!. That's her agenda, and it moves this article from interesting, even thoughtful, observations straight into the Land o' Bullshit.
I do not think at any time Jacques has intended his comic to be some sort of flagship for disability awareness. Instead, he deals with the disabilities of some specific characters. For that matter, I think Jacques also covers parental neglect and its results in an adult's behavior very well in two characters (probably not the ones you're thinking of). At the same time, that neglect is the result, I think, of simple self-absorption. But, horrors, Jacques doesn't include a character who's scarred because one or both parents is a philanderer or, worse a child abuser. If he's going to deal with these issues at all, shouldn't I bitch that Questionable Content ought to present the entire spectrum?
No, because, again, that is utter nonsense. My job as a critic is to acknowledge where Jacques succeeds and fails with those characters who present this problem, not to suggest how he can reshape his work to further my cause. If I were to do that, anyone with any sense should quickly sing the 'get over yourself' chorus to me. As I do to her.
*An assumption, I admit.
Edit: So I calmed down a little.
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Yeah, I just read four pieces on QC by that woman. Did she give her name? Not that I saw, so let's say "that Deeply Problematic woman." Oh good lord there's so much "PC" agenda & obsession with "privilege." She actually feels it necessary to apologize for Jeph using the phrase "MTF" when talking about an anatomical male who identifies as female, hence the phrase--because it's not the hip new PC term.
:Grrr punk kids grrr:
And she is so fucking happy that Faye is portrayed as fat & attractive--but Faye is mildly just overfat & probably aerobically deconditioned, not morbidly obese, which undermines her thesis. She's all praising the "diversity" of mentally ill people, but then she's offended by Dora's creepy attitudes. So some mental quirks are protected classes (metaphorically) & others are unacceptable behavior? :Sigh:
Dora is supposed to be a little bit sick, that's her character! Like Faye & Steve are alcoholics, Angus is a slut, Raven is Ms Malaprop, Penelope is uptight (compared to the others; also "sane" comes to mind), Wil is a flaky romantic, blah blah blah.
They're imperfect characters, you sophomore! Don't think, "Oh, this one confirms the rightness of my bias that I don't need to take care of my cardiovascular health," & then, "Oh, it's so offensive that Dora macks on everyone."
Og knows how she'll react to Dora's behavior in the new strip.