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[StudentRecords]

I'm a big fan of the comic, and I don't mean this to come across as an attack, but Tai's characterizatiion has sort of caused me to put my "critical reader's" cap on in recent weeks. To qualify this comment I would like to say that one of the best things about QC in my opinion,  is that in a very subtle way it is a pretty socially progressive comic. Characters from all different racial backgrounds, interracial couples and homosexual characters have been worked into the strip in such a natural way that it would hardly ever occur to a reader that these things are absent from most mainstream, popular media sources.

With that said, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Tai has been the most prominently featured gay or lesbian in QC. And coincidentally or not, her character is hyper sexualized. Sex on the photocopier, im promptu clit-piercing trips, hitting on Penelope as soon as she walks into the library.. the list goes on. I would guess that in all of her QC appearances , the number of conversations in which Tai has NOT talked about sex  in some shape or form would be vastly outnumbered by those in which she has. Now there is nothing in itself wrong with that. I think however the stereotype of gays and lesbians as being oversexed and hypersexualized is out there, and it is a prejudiced one.

The real danger of stereotypes is that they have a way of working their way into our collective sub-conciouses sometimes without our even considering them, and that is why I thought it might be valuable to make this post. I am by no means suggesting Jeph is homophobic, or even that there is -necessarily- a problem with how Tai has been portrayed. But (without I hope,  sounding TOO professorial) I would suggest that it is important for readers of this comic and anything else to be aware of how character portrayals fit in within the wider societal context and make an effort to appraise them critically from this perspective.

[Nomicakes]

I don't mean to be an ass, but perhaps you're just a little too opinionated?

It's a character in a story. I highly doubt Jeph is using it to portray gays/lesbians as "oversexed" in any way whatsoever.
She's just the overactive lesbian girl in his story. That's the character.


Oh, and might I suggest going over to our "Hi, I'm new" section? It's kinda the done thing round these parts.
Hyuck.

[RobbieOC]

People read into literature all the time because of issues like this. Just cause a webcomic is a different medium doesn't mean it is any less open to criticism. Maybe even more so, since it's on the internet and it's free and lots of people have access to it, and there is a forum specifically dedicated to talking about the comic strip.

Sure, it's just a character in a comic strip, but there are people who make their living studying gay characters and themes in literature. I think the OPs point is extremely valid, to be honest. I don't, incidentally, think Jeph has hypersexualized her because she's a lesbian, but more because she's a college student. And she happens to be gay.

But, yeah, go introduce yourself!

[nettatea]

I think that StudentRecords has a point. (I'm sorry I don't know your gender so I'll repeat your sn) StudRec never implied that Jeph meant anything by the portrayal, but only put the thought on the table that one should regard Tai's portrayal as as much of a divergence from the norm as one would if Tai were straight.
That said it would be unfair to request action or change by Jeph in this case..
It's just interesting to point out and maybe helpful.
I also think its telling that responses to ideas that recall political correctness, no matter how gentle or harmless, are often aggressively defensive. As if the mention that prejudices may accidentally be reinforced is an attack on one's liberties.

[benji]

I think this is a valid criticism, but I would also point out that there is another way of reading the character in relation to queer theory. While Tai is highly sexual, the idea that she is over-sexualized puts an undue limitation based on a hetero-normative monogamous relationship model (how's that for sounding professorial?). There's no reason why gay relationships need to be portrayed as "just like straight relationships." There are no patriarchal lines to be preserved, and some gay people feel that this liberates them from the confines of a sexual ethics designed to preserve such lines of inheritances.

I agree that its somewhat problematic that Tai is the most predominantly queer character (though Dora's the most prominent queer character) and she's also polyamorous. It does play into stereotypes. But there's also plenty of gay people out there who feel that they shouldn't be required to make their relationships more like heterosexual relationships just because it will make the heterosexuals feel better. If Tai appeared as a character in, say, Bechdel's "Dykes to Watch Out For," she would seem to fit right in as a lesbian among many lesbians, all of whom approach life and love in different ways. The fact that she's the only lesbian who regularly appears in this comic makes her stand out more.

It is notable that the other 2 queer characters that have actually appeared (Dora and Scott) have both been monogamous. But Dora is less obviously queer (since she's currently in a relationship with Marten) and Scott hasn't appeared since Marten lost his first job, and wasn't that prominent before. I don't think this means Jeph needs to change Tai's character, or introduce some new character that will balance her out, but I think the criticism is valid and interesting.

[RobbieOC]

Very problematic, but I think it makes it all the more interesting. Especially the last few strips have been interesting to me, with her dragging Marten to the piercing shop and all. It definitely shows that she's more open with herself sexually, but it also shows an extreme amount of confidence that most of the hetero characters (especially Marten, which maybe is why he's there with her?) do no show. Most of the drama in the strip is about characters' self-consiousness about their sexuality, and having a character that doesn't show those same hang-ups is good for the strip, I would argue. It gives something new and fun to pull us out of the doldrums occasionally. And, consider that in most places (in the states, anyway) gay people are still judged much harsher than heteros, and giving Tai this confidence really underscores a strength of hers, as opposed to stereotyping the gay community. Plus, it is a story, and often stereotypes (or, I suppose, archetypes) are necessary, because I would guess most people who read the strip are not homosexual, so this makes the storyline more accessible to them than it would be if she tried to downplay her homosexuality.

In fact, Neil Patrick Harris (how awesome is he?) has been getting a lot of heat from the gay community for playing too many straight characters, and not acting gay enough. If it's really gay rights that you are interested in, it should at least be comforting that Jeph is using gay characters as often as he is, and is definitely portraying them in a mostly positive way.

[SleeperCylon]

Tai's character was originally this parody of hypersexual TV dramas, so I don't see her portrayal as general to other homosexuals.

The trouble with homosexuality being such a big politicized issue right now is that you can't have a gay character without people seeing them as representative of all gay people.

I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for some gay people that their sexual preferences are seen as the one defining thing about their identity.  You have the straight people on one side trying to pigeonhole you into some gay stereotype, then the gay people on the other side getting mad at you if you don't act like you owe them something.

[Captfamous]

It's true that she is the only prominent gay character at the time. However, she isn't the only prominent hypersexualized character by a long shot. It's a positive thing that nobody calls her out on it while hypocritically accepting other people. It is, however, complicated, because being hypersexed and being gay are both aspects of her sexuality, so it makes sense to be concerned about them being inextricably linked.

You can say that it's bad that the only prominent gay character has this as her predominant character trait, but you could say the same thing about almost trait that she could've had (say, if she talked to people like Faye, then all lesbians are bitter and hateful). If you don't give her a dominant character trait, then she's just defined by her homosexuality. I suppose you could write in a bunch more LGBT characters, but then why haven't you done the same thing for other social and ethnic minorities?

Tai also hasn't had a storyline dedicated to her development, as most characters have, so her individual personality isn't quite as developed. Until she gets a chance to grow, she has to be a bit flanderized (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization) or else she has a hard time being entertaining. It's like trying to describe someone who you've only really met at parties, and haven't hung out with one-on-one a lot. "Hey, this is my friend Joe. He likes PBR and hooking up with girls on other peoples couches". I'm sure Joe has some other redeeming qualities, but until you get to know him better, this is about as much as you can say.

[Freya]

to be honest I didn't think Jeph made her hypersexualized because she is bi/lesbian... it's more the other way around.

[Surgoshan]

Why does everyone insist on a link?

A:  She's gay because she's sexual.
B:  She's sexual because she's gay.
C:  She's gay and she's sexual.

My money's on C.

[Jepser]

No offense, but I think this line of thinking is a bit narrow minded.

I know three gay people. All three are teachers (and very good ones, if you want to know).
In your reason, I should now have the idea that all gay people are teachers?
Even more, the portrayal of a fictional character should be the standard for how you see groups of people? I'm not saying Jeph doesn't make credible characters, but still.
Maybe it's because I'm not American, where parents think their children will be gay if they see gay people on tv.

[Mad Cat]

I see her as more of a parody of the stereotypical hypersexualized college fratboys. Think about it. If she were a large male character acting the way she does, attending a coed college, working in the library to pay *his* way through school and lusting after all the hot chicks on his coed dorm floor, he wouldn't even stand out. He wouldn't even be noticed. Even shoulder chucking and dragging his underling out to get a... lemme look up a suitable piercing... let's go with a generic foreskin piercing, would not be outside the realm of uber macho fratboy behaviour.

But shrink Tai down to under 5' and make her a girl at a women's college and suddenly she becomes iconoclastic. THEN make her a lesbian and her coin flips again into stereotype land? Come on!

The idea that gays are hypersexualized isn't a stereotype or an indictment of homosexual culture. It's an indictment of MEN. The major moderating influence on the amount of sex men get is female choice. Gay men don't have that problem. They don't have that moderating influence, and so, SURPRISE, gay men get laid more often than straight men. So what?

And absent the concern over pregnancy, and largely the concern over contracting STDs, I would be seriously surprised if lesbians didn't get laid more often than straight women. It's nothing endemic to homosexual culture or stereotyped homosexual conduct, it's just the mechanics of the situation.

I don't see Tai as a hypersexualized girl, putting the adjective before the noun. I view her as a girl who happens to like sex, and bless her for that. Too many people, men and women alike, are psychopathicly repressed by American puritanical culture. There's a reason the evangelicals refer to their struggle to keep America sexually repressed as the "Culture War".

I agree with Freya. I imagine Jeph had already set so much of QC around Smif/Smith and then had the idea for a free-swinging character and the best way to fit such a character into the established fabric was to make the character a lesbian. Who knows, maybe she'll turn out to be a L.U.G. anyway.

[Kairuka]

I think Tai is just really unrestrained. I also think she enjoys making other people uncomfortable. I think that perhaps the reason why she talks about sex so much is precisely because she likes making people squirm just a little. The fact that she happens to be a polyamorous lesbian and doesn't have to reach far to make people uncomfortable just seems to make things convenient for her. She is clearly kind of hypersexual in her intimate dealings with others. I suspect that if she were a straight girl, she would be like Samantha from Sex and the City (albeit with more complicated polyamorous relationships and possibly fewer random hookups). I think that if she couldn't talk about sex for some reason, she might be walking around telling really gross jokes or doing other crazy, random things. To me, she seems to be dedicated to shaking up the status quo for people around her. The club music in the library, I think, is a good example of her shaking up the status quo in a way that is not distinctly sexual.

I could be wrong, that's just how I've always seen her.

[benji]

The idea that gays are hypersexualized isn't a stereotype or an indictment of homosexual culture. It's an indictment of MEN. The major moderating influence on the amount of sex men get is female choice. Gay men don't have that problem. They don't have that moderating influence, and so, SURPRISE, gay men get laid more often than straight men. So what?

Agreed. To a point. Many gay men are monogamous and many are not. For those who have no real feelings of monogamy, however, there does tend to be less of a limiting factor then for straight men. It is easier to find gay men who are interested in purely sexual non-committed relationships then it is to find straight women who are interested in such relationships. Where it becomes a "stereotype" is when it is assumed that all gay men are non-monogamous. And promiscuity is occasionally used (I would say illegitimately) to indict gay culture.

And absent the concern over pregnancy, and largely the concern over contracting STDs, I would be seriously surprised if lesbians didn't get laid more often than straight women. It's nothing endemic to homosexual culture or stereotyped homosexual conduct, it's just the mechanics of the situation.

I don't see Tai as a hypersexualized girl, putting the adjective before the noun. I view her as a girl who happens to like sex, and bless her for that. Too many people, men and women alike, are psychopathicly repressed by American puritanical culture. There's a reason the evangelicals refer to their struggle to keep America sexually repressed as the "Culture War".

Agreed. See above. Tai can be seen as representing a stereotype of gay culture, but she can also be seen as representing the realistic behavior of a woman who is queer and who loves sex. She's unapologetic about her behavior and the other characters around her don't condemn her for it. Why should her relationships with other women be forced into a rigid heteronormative structure? Sans the the need to preserve legitimate bloodlines, the reasons for fidelity are mostly optional. Nonmonogamy produces certain emotional complications at times, but so does monogamy. Early on, Tai actually says she doesn't do poly relationships, but she changes her mind. Once we've stepped outside the heterosexual paradigm, why shouldn't someone also be free to step out of the monogamous paradigm?

I agree with Freya. I imagine Jeph had already set so much of QC around Smif/Smith and then had the idea for a free-swinging character and the best way to fit such a character into the established fabric was to make the character a lesbian. Who knows, maybe she'll turn out to be a L.U.G. anyway.

Another possibility: Tai may have originally been envisioned as a sort of foil for Scott, Marten's old boss (I think it's interesting, by the way, that Marten's bosses, his father, and his girlfriend have all been queer). It's interesting to look at how they're the same and how they're different. Both characters are friendly to Marten, both are bosses of his, and both are gay. But while Scott is older, relaxed, and seems to have a stable life to the point of being unshakable even when his job is eliminated, Tai is younger, energetic, and seems constantly embroiled in chaos. Their approach to sexuality is related to this. Scott refers to his boyfriend, and we get the distinct impression that he means the same one every time. Tai has a shifting relationship with a number of women. Sometimes she's monagmous, sometimes she's not. She also has a somewhat shifting gender identity; while she always proffered to be called "she" apparently, she did talk about going through a boy phase. 

[St.Clair]

IMO, gender orientation doesn't really factor into it; she's just being a typical college student, early 20s and away from home.  No impulse control and the gonads are driving the bus.

[Rocketman]

"Heteronormative"... "pertaining to a different norm"? 

[benji]

heternormative: pertaining to the marginalization of non-heterosexuality.

[Rocketman]

heternormative: pertaining to the marginalization of non-heterosexuality.

Why must you people mangle poor, innocent Greek so?

[Mad Cat]

It's all Greek to me.

[Surgoshan]

"heter-" comes from Greek and means "of two things, one is different".  In "heterosexual" it refers to the fact that the sexual coupling is of two distinct genders.

"norm" comes to us from Latin through French and means "rule or pattern".

It has long been considered gauche* to combine Greek and Latin in a single word.  That's as stupid, though, as claiming you can't end an English sentence with a preposition just because it's not possible to do so in Latin.  The reason we use ancient Greek and Latin words at all is because they're dead languages and hence don't have the multiplicity of meanings that common English words do.  They can thus be ascribed a single, fixed meaning and add precision to technical discourse.

* from French.  It means 'left'.  ie. not right.  Wrong.

[Rocketman]

The reason we use ancient Greek and Latin words at all is because they're dead languages

Uh, Greek is very much alive. 

[britMonster]

@Rocketman Not ancient Greek. =P

[Surgoshan]

A few decades ago, Greece was rocked with a controversy; should they stop teaching their schools in a language no longer spoken?

The Greek spoken today is not the Greek spoken by Homer, and that's not the Greek used by American scholars.

[Jepser]

Yeah, well, Old and Middle English are dead languages too then.
Just like how Australopithecus is extinct. But you could also just say it has changed and evolved, which is what species and languages do.

But yeah, academic Greek/Latin does make little sense from a Classical perspective.

[Rocketman]

@Rocketman Not ancient Greek. =P

There's really not that much difference. Ancient Greek is a lot closer to what's spoken now than Middle English is to us. Especially in the simple words/parts of words like "hetero-", "homo-", "anthro-", "pedo-/paido-" and all the other truncations people spout off nowadays.

They have specific meanings, you assholes! *shakes fist in unfocused rage*