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The strip.

66 (13.1%)

Jeph's health.

110 (21.9%)

MY health.

60 (11.9%)

YOUR health.

31 (6.2%)

Family and friends (though not necessarily in that order).

86 (17.1%)

This forum.

20 (4%)

Turkey and all the trimmings.

13 (2.6%)

The interwebs.

47 (9.3%)

Something else.

24 (4.8%)

Spathe Ham!

13 (2.6%)

...must... read... ALL the posts...

33 (6.6%)

Total Members Voted: 173

[StevenC]

the * is used in a lot of contexts as a placeholder. Like when you put into your computer search *.jpg it will show you all files that end in .jpg. In this context it means that it encompasses all different trans folk.

[Rainforce]

trans*

Another question from one of the people who are somewhat uneducated on the matter:
what's that asterisk about?
(I mostly notice because it totally breaks MY reading flow, not that that is any kind of relevant factor when it comes to writing something)

EDIT: thank you, post above, I guess.......

[RyanW1019]

the * is used in a lot of contexts as a placeholder. Like when you put into your computer search *.jpg it will show you all files that end in .jpg. In this context it means that it encompasses all different trans folk.

Ah, okay. That makes sense. Carry on, and thank you.

[riccostar]

I just refreshed the page from two o' clock this morning.  The page count jumped from two to six... Looks like its going to be a big page week.

[PthariensFlame]

the * is used in a lot of contexts as a placeholder. Like when you put into your computer search *.jpg it will show you all files that end in .jpg. In this context it means that it encompasses all different trans folk.

They're called glob patterns, and I happen to intensely dislike them.  Learn proper regexes, people!

[Just Karen]

the * is used in a lot of contexts as a placeholder. Like when you put into your computer search *.jpg it will show you all files that end in .jpg. In this context it means that it encompasses all different trans folk.

Wildcard, not placeholder.  Same difference, I suppose, except that a placeholder is waiting for one thing while a wildcard means all of the above.  Back in the DOS days you could use ? as a replacement for a single character or * as a "take everything to this point and find all the matches".

Transgender is an umbrella term; it includes transvestite, crossdresser, transsexual of either variety, genderfluid, genderqueer, and probably a few other variants I'm not thinking of.  To simplify it when you are referring to the category, trans* is generally acceptable.

[Uniquitous]

Heh, given the mirror-image nature of Clinton and Claire, it would be humorous if Clinton was also trans, just headed in the other direction.

[idontunderstand]

It would be humorous in a kind of Laurel and Hardy way which wouldn't suit the comic, tho.

Really brave of Claire to just tell Marten like that. Makes me wonder who else knows at this point. Atta, girl.

[muffin_of_chaos]

I have a hard time understanding gender issues.
I have a hard time understanding why anyone would make gender an important aspect in their identity or lifestyle.
But that's part of my privilege, I'm aware.

Right now, comic-wise, I'm just curious if any of the characters will react negatively to Claire, if she were to come out to the others.  I can't really see it.  I think that if no one tries to have a dialogue about it, if it's just sort of accepted and only subtly touched upon over time, it might be a wasted opportunity.  Only because of Jeph's rather large and somewhat mainstream audience.

[Uniquitous]

It would be humorous in a kind of Laurel and Hardy way which wouldn't suit the comic, tho.

Yeah, you're probably right. Marten handled it right, anyway. My reaction to being told such things is generally "So...?" People are people. Subdividing ourselves into tribes identified by words or acronyms only serves to reinforce the us-versus-not-us narrative.

[ink slinger]

I'm surprised that Claire would share this with Marten so early in their relationship. But, I guess the "you're one of [my friends] now" comment was enough for her to feel safe telling him. They have, after all, being working together and casually hanging out for a while now. And, one of my best friends told me he was gay pretty much as soon as we met, so I guess it really depends on the individual (I know that being gay is not the same thing as being trans, but the coming out aspect seems somewhat analogous).

I am curious, though, how common it is for trans people to come out as Claire did if they're already living as their preferred gender. None of the (very few) trans people I've known have identified as anything other than women (they were all FTM). Even the one who I actually knew before she transitioned has only ever been a woman to me since her transition and has never explicitly identified as trans (though, I lost contact with her for many years and only reconnected after she had starting living as a woman, so maybe I missed the coming out stage of her experience).

(I apologize if this has already been discussed upthread, but there are so many pages and I've decided to skip most of them in order to avoid the drama that seems to have developed.)

[Mojo]

I have to admit, I'm not all that suprised.  I'd been thinking how odd it would be that Claire should look like her twin brother.  Identical twins come from a single egg (Monozygotic), so they would be the same gender.  For a male/female twin combo, you would expect dizygotic twins, who would not look any more alike than any other siblings.

[Zingoleb]

They're not twins.

[Is it cold in here?]

I want to talk about the comic.

Claire is not a "trans person introduced to appeal to a demographic". She is a high-strung driven character introduced to be funny, who has a background. So far every background we know about has been non-boring.

She is not there to push an agenda. Jeph's comments about people trying to read an agenda into the comic are a matter of record and, er, frank and unambiguous.

The comic was also characterization in that it revealed Claire is a good judge of people. She figured out that Marten was a safe person to talk to about a sensitive personal subject.

EDIT: Oh, and welcome, new people!

[Lummer]

I want to talk about the comic.

Claire is not a "trans person introduced to appeal to a demographic". She is a high-strung driven character introduced to be funny, who has a background. So far every background we know about has been non-boring.

She is not there to push an agenda. Jeph's comments about people trying to read an agenda into the comic are a matter of record and, er, frank and unambiguous.

The comic was also characterization in that it revealed Claire is a good judge of people. She figured out that Marten was a safe person to talk to about a sensitive personal subject.

Boom.

Also, Paul, you have PM.

[Emperor Norton]

... Every time I see the * used as a wildcard I start looking for a footnote...*

*not saying its bad, just commenting on my brain being trained to look for footnotes when someone puts a * in.

[Mr. Doctor]

I thought it was going to be 15 tops by friday... But I guess I'm going to lose on that bet. I'd say 20 by friday now.

Are we really making semi-crude* comments about someone's appearance in terms of 'hotness' right now?

What? So now I can't say someone looks very good and I find really attractive?

C'mon....

[Rainforce]

Also, 12 pages by Wednesday. Anyone want to take that bet?

I raise to 14 minimum.
I mean, we still have the tuesday comic, and wednesday is loooong and includes another comic as well.

[haikupoet]

I have to admit, I'm not all that suprised.  I'd been thinking how odd it would be that Claire should look like her twin brother.  Identical twins come from a single egg (Monozygotic), so they would be the same gender.  For a male/female twin combo, you would expect dizygotic twins, who would not look any more alike than any other siblings.

Well, it's already established that Claire is a couple years older than Clinton, but that's less of a thing than you'd think. I have cousins -- a pair of fraternal twins and a younger sister -- and if you saw them all together you'd swear they were triplets. (Yes, I did say fraternal.)

[gijora]

*A wild lurker appears!*

Claire, I don't care what parts you have, I still think you're hot.

So there.

[Is it cold in here?]

Welcome, new person!

Human/cartoon attractions are frowned on here, though you may simply have meant "if she were real she'd be my type".

[Blyss]

I mean this in all sincerity, as I am merely trying to understand: Claire was born male?

[Oglokoog]

So, this made me register. I mean, the realistic portrayal of a bi character was awesome (along with all the other stuff, too numerous to name, but that stood out), but this just blew my mind. Inclusion for the win!

I mean this in all sincerity, as I am merely trying to understand: Claire was born male?

Most likely.

[idontunderstand]

Regarding "choice": Well, thank you for the replies. It's the way I thought it was. I didn't choose my gender and neither did you trans people out there.

[I can be really slow with stuff like this, I remember being younger and asking my sister "do homosexual men really masturbate and think of dudes??" and she would answer "well what the hell do you think?" and of course she was right and I realized how stupid I was. Well, it's happened again I suppose.]

I mean this in all sincerity, as I am merely trying to understand: Claire was born male?

I understand it as we don't know that yet, we only know she identifies as trans*.

[ShermanFirefly]

Heyo,

Long time lurker here. I've been reading for a year or two now, and I registered to commend Jeph Jacques for introducing such a multi dimensional trans character. I myself am cis-gender or whatever you want to call it, but I think that there is far too much prejudice against the trans community, even today.

Good work.

[Mothykins]

Well. That was unexpected o.o Kinda cool, though. You don't see many trans characters in media, unless its specifically aimed at the LGBTQ community. Nice to see that trend get broken now and then

[/very late to the party]

[maleia]

Been reading the comic for years now.  Didn't even know there was a forums until the other day with the guest strip mentioning, lol.

I like that Jeph has made this comic and it's characters about inclusion, and that Claire is not just to appease one particular audience.  This takes me back to the original concepts behind Star Trek, and Roddenberry's vision of a non-racist, non-sexist utopian future.  I think Jeph will do a good job of working those aspects in, in the future as well as I think he's done a good job of that in the past.  It will be comics like this that someday, we'll look back on and say that they helped to pave the way for a future where these things are normal and accepted, where they are not currently.

[Is it cold in here?]

There's "confusion", and there's the fact that English is not at all suited for the task at hand.

Jeph is going to do a respectful job, based on all we've seen of his work. He's visibly tried to educate himself.

Oh lord. I just imagined Emily asking questions with the same amount of sensitivity, awareness, and tact that she showed with Momo. I hope she doesn't find out.

[bhtooefr]

I'm not sure what would be worse - Emily finding out, or a drunken Faye.

[TheEvilDog]

I'm not sure what would be worse - Emily finding out, or a drunken Faye.

Tai is probably going to try and get everyone to go skinny dipping again. Claire doesn't want to, and someone, possibly drunken!Emily, will pants her and boom! Shock and confusion while Marten facepalms and Clinton screams because he doesn't want to see what his sister has.

[Method of Madness]

I mean this in all sincerity, as I am merely trying to understand: Claire was born male?

We don't know yet.

Ah, 12 new posts, one of them answered it.

[cesariojpn]

Oh lord. I just imagined Emily asking questions with the same amount of sensitivity, awareness, and tact that she showed with Momo. I hope she doesn't find out.

It depends on which Asian background Emily is that Jeph decides on. Some embrace "third genders" somewhat easily, others mock it openly.

[bhtooefr]

I was under the impression that Emily was of Japanese descent?

In any case, though, it's Emily. Her only rival in tactlessness is Faye, and Faye has to be severely drunk to match it.

[haikupoet]

I've just gotta say, I'm still bummed that my old guess of Emily being the trans character was wrong. I was so sure the first intern to take an interest in Momo would be the one.

I mean, seriously, the existence of a race of sentient beings that can freely swap between bodies whenever they feel like it has got to be annoying as hell for a struggling transperson in QC-verse.

I'm pretty sure Emily was a red herring. Tall Asian girl? Too obvious. Skittish little redhead who, we now realize, was always behaving like she was hiding a secret? You might not think of it in advance, but it makes total sense in hindsight.

Come to think of it, it also puts an interesting spin on her revulsion towards her brother -- based on what we know of Clinton so far, I'm going to guess he was just a little bit too supportive of finding out his big brother was becoming his big sister. (I mean, yeah, he could have been transphobic about it, but let's be honest -- Claire doesn't really hate him, admits as much, and Clinton is probably the sort of person who wakes up squeeing every morning when it's time to put on the robot hand. He's probably unable to understand just how awkward Claire's situation is.)

[celticgeek]

There's "confusion", and there's the fact that English is not at all suited for the task at hand.

Jeph is going to do a respectful job, based on all we've seen of his work. He's visibly tried to educate himself.

This subject was treated, very briefly, in the movie A Mighty Wind

[PHDrillSergeant]

Well. That was unexpected o.o Kinda cool, though. You don't see many trans characters in media, unless its specifically aimed at the LGBTQ community. Nice to see that trend get broken now and then

[/very late to the party]

Yeah, except for Jodie Dallas in Soap, David's childhood friend fromJust Shoot Me, one of Becker's old colleagues in Becker, the character Mackenzie Philips played in The Love Boat, George's navy buddy in The Jeffersons, Alexis Meade in Ugly Betty, Quagmire's dad in Family Guy, Candis Cane's character in Dirty Sexy Money, Yamaziki's friend in the manga Welcome to NHK, Natani in the webcomic TwoKinds, The Tya in the tabletop game Exalted, Elendira the Crimsonnail in Trigun Maximum, Arakune in Angel Sanctuary, Coagula from DC Comics' Doom Patrol, the villain in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Ava Moore from Nip/Tuck, and Cassandra from Doctor Who...And just since Questionable Content is so based around music, don't forget "Lady Godiva's Operation" by Velvet Underground.

My point, of course, is that including a transsexual character is not new to media.

Maybe I'm just the cynic, but why does this matter so much? Does this drastically change Claire, as a character? I don't think so. People are people are people are people. Who you find bangable (AND WHO YOU WOULD PREFER TO FIND YOU BANGABLE) should not be a definition of who you are.

[jwhouk]

On a somewhat completely different topic:

For you newcomers who weren't here a few years ago (ironically, right around US Thanksgiving time in 2010), when Dora and Marten broke up, we had threads closed over back-biting on a regular basis. There were some posters on here who essentially posted things to "stir $#!+ up", as it is colloquially termed. Due to the great mod team (PWHodges, IICIH, and the others whose names escape me at the present), we managed to not only get things calmed down, but we also prevented the wrath of Jeph.

As I have essentially taken over the "job" of getting the WCDT up on a regular basis - and was one of those behind strip 2316¹ - I do tend to get a bit touchy when I comment on the comic, go to bed, wake up and discover that there are now EIGHT PAGES of comments. I have visions of bans, locked threads and general acrimony and vitriol dancing in my head again.

Jeph has stated that the moral of the comic is that people should be try to be nice to each other. We've come a long way over the last few years - to the point where strip 2316 actually came about. I'd kinda like to keep it that way.

Also, I'm on a streak of consecutive threads started without one being locked...

---

¹ - For those of you wondering, check over here for more on how strip 2316 came to fruition.

[Renewman]

<quoting reduced by moderator>

It depends on which Asian background Emily is that Jeph decides on. Some embrace "third genders" somewhat easily, others mock it openly.

Her surname has been given as Azuma, which is Japanese (it's in homage to the author of Azumanga Daioh, of course). I don't know the status of trans people in Japan - I would suspect fraught.

Transgendered people in Japan is a quite touchy subject like it is here in America. Most are either shunned or disowned by family and friends as being shameful to the family. Mix that with the idea of them being fetish material (just like America!) and you have a whole can of crazy. This is spoken from someone who lived in Japan and had Trans friends there.

 Also, it seem I may have misspoken when I originally posted my comment about Jeph jumping the shark. What I was trying to say is that the way he went about doing it in this comic made it seem ok and normal which is fine, but came out of left field. I'm not buying the whole argument of "Well if you have been paying attention, you would of KNOWN it was coming!" With as many crazy and wacky things that go on in the world of QC, a fraternal brother and sister seemed quite normal. Besides, if I had to guess who was Trans from just looking at the group, my guess would have been Emily (like everyone else). It's just going to be hard for people to understand how I possibly see this when everyone is too busy slapping each others asses and agreeing with each other. With that being said, I don't think Jeph would be able to delve into Marten possibly having a romantic relationship with Claire without having something result from it. I'm still pulling for Gabby or Marigold!

[Emperor Norton]

The are not twins!

Seriously, I know its silly of me to be getting annoyed at this, but can people please stop calling them twins. Its already been established in canon that Claire is three years older than Clinton. I don't think its possible for one twin to be three years older than the other.

I find it especially annoying when someone is criticizing Jeph for not putting in enough clues when the person can't seem to be clued in to something that has been straight out SAID in the dialogue of the comic.

[Near Lurker]

But who can read all those little words?!

[Omega Entity]

The are not twins!

Seriously, I know its silly of me to be getting annoyed at this, but can people please stop calling them twins. Its already been established in canon that Claire is three years older than Clinton. I don't think its possible for one twin to be three years older than the other.

I find it especially annoying when someone is criticizing Jeph for not putting in enough clues when the person can't seem to be clued in to something that has been straight out SAID in the dialogue of the comic.

Not a silly thing to be annoyed by - I've been annoyed by that too. I've found I've had to repeat myself on a number of occasions on things like that (namely, that Tai had always been poly, when it was stated quite clearly that she was not, and even had an aversion to the idea of being poly until a substance-induced night of shenanigans).

[TheEvilDog]

They are not twins!

Seriously, I know its silly of me to be getting annoyed at this, but can people please stop calling them twins. Its already been established in canon that Claire is three years older than Clinton. I don't think its possible for one twin to be three years older than the other.

I find it especially annoying when someone is criticizing Jeph for not putting in enough clues when the person can't seem to be clued in to something that has been straight out SAID in the dialogue of the comic.

Yeah, its not silly at all. Its along the lines of people calling him Martin. Its something that has been stated in black and white but people still get it wrong.

[Mr_Rose]

I've found I've had to repeat myself on a number of occasions on things like that (namely, that Tai had always been poly, when it was stated quite clearly that she was not, and even had an aversion to the idea of being poly until a substance-induced night of shenanigans).

I wonder if Claire would have raised the same ire as Tai did if she had come out as not being trans?


(For those that aren't aware, there was Internet Drama when Tai confessed to being unhappy with her sleeping arrangements and expressed a preference for monogamy; for some bizarre reason this was interpreted (by tumblr, natch) as a universal condemnation of all poly people ever on Jeph's part)

[Platypodes]

I think it's awesome that Claire already had a clear, complex personality and role in the strip before we learned she was trans.  Jeph didn't introduce her as "the trans character," he introduced a full-fledged CHARACTER who, among her many facets, is trans.

Gosh, it must really bug Claire when people tell her how much she looks like Clinton--not only someone who drives her nuts, but also a dude!

I can easily picture Clinton having responded to Claire's transition by totally geeking out on surgical possibilities and processes in a way that was free of prejudice but really freakin' annoying.

[Is it cold in here?]

Welcome, new person!

Thoughts on posts above:

Wow, that was a good point about AnthroPCs. Remember, not only can they change their external expression whenever they can afford it, their internal identity is a software configuration setting that can be changed.

The closest thing to an answer to "What does it matter?" is that it matters a lot to Claire, and to any friend close enough to know where she's coming from. For day to day life, not at all of course.

[jwhouk]

The Return of the OMGTurkeys! What are YOU thankful for?

The strip.    46 (14.6%)
Jeph's health.    65 (20.6%)  <== See, Jeph? We really DO care about you. Honest!
MY health.    36 (11.4%)
YOUR health.    18 (5.7%)
Family and friends (though not necessarily in that order).    56 (17.7%)
This forum.    16 (5.1%)
Turkey and all the trimmings.    11 (3.5%)
The interwebs.    32 (10.1%)
Something else.    13 (4.1%)
Spathe Ham!    6 (1.9%)
...must... read... ALL the posts...    17 (5.4%)

Total Members Voted: 116

[delciotto]

This puts Claire's comment in the last panel of this comic in a new light

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2280

[Oglokoog]

This puts Claire's comment in the last panel of this comic in a new light

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2280

Yes, I believe that has been brought up a couple times now.

The are not twins!

Seriously, I know its silly of me to be getting annoyed at this, but can people please stop calling them twins. Its already been established in canon that Claire is three years older than Clinton. I don't think its possible for one twin to be three years older than the other.

I find it especially annoying when someone is criticizing Jeph for not putting in enough clues when the person can't seem to be clued in to something that has been straight out SAID in the dialogue of the comic.

Has Jeph confirmed it outside of the comic? Because the possibility that they actually are twins and only say they're not is still there if he hasn't.

[Emperor Norton]

Has Jeph confirmed it outside of the comic? Because the possibility that they actually are twins and only say they're not is still there if he hasn't.

That seems like a highly unlikely thing to lie about. What would be the purpose?

I really don't think this needs outside writer corroboration, its spelled out in black and white. To suggest otherwise is a bit of a epileptic tree theory.

[Oglokoog]

Has Jeph confirmed it outside of the comic? Because the possibility that they actually are twins and only say they're not is still there if he hasn't.

That seems like a highly unlikely thing to lie about. What would be the purpose?

To avoid outing her as trans, maybe?