Grrl Power #317 – Public relations, schmublic relations
Sydney’s next assignment is apparently having the PR lady review all the news that’s been published about her since she got up a few hours ago. Obviously Sydney had a lot more to say to the press than we saw in the few pages we got of her at the comic shop. Arianna can’t get too mad at her – if they wanted to keep her away from the press entirely they should have sequestered her in the base overnight. There were so many other things going on after the fight last night that that detail slipped through the cracks. Yeah, I just used a sentence with “that that” in it.
Sydney is awfully fidgety on this page. She keeps changing position in her chair. Maybe she has to pee.
Mentioning my Patreon in the comment here for the first time in a while brought in a few more pledges, so thanks to everyone who’s jumped on board. (And of course thanks to everyone who’s been on board). I try not to be obnoxious about self promotion and hat-in-handing cause I know people are here to just read a comic and not be harassed like I’m some obnoxious street vendor. “Superheroes, get your superheroes right here. Naw, we ain’t gots no Superman or Spidermens, we got those, whatcha call it, lady superheroes. No sharp edges like the Bat Guy. Much easier on the eyes. Hey don’t walk away, at least take a flyer!” On the other hand, I’m pretty bad at self promotion so there’s probably balance somewhere in between. Speaking of self promotion, check out the vote incentive if you haven’t. Or even if you have. You can comment on it here.
As many words as there are in English, if you write enough you keep coming across situations where you find there isn’t a word that means what you need it to mean. That or you just don’t know it, which is usually the case for me. This time I was looking for a word that means “the thing that makes you mad” I wound up using the word “trigger” as in “people’s pet trigger.” The problem is trigger has its own meaning and while it works here, it skews Sydney’s meaning a bit. It obviously a little subjective, but it would be ideal if there was a word that meant exactly “the thing that makes you mad” and had no association with any kind of past trauma. I googled a bunch of stuff, hit the online thesaurus and asked on twitter, but trigger was the closest thing to what I was thinking of. Hot button issue, hulk out topic (different from Hot Topic), I just wanted a single word that meant the thing I wanted it to. I’d make up my own word and try to slip it in to general usage via social media (which wouldn’t help me with this page) but for some reason I am enormously bad at making up words. The stuff I come up with sounds like Melmacian Holidays. Sclab-flurmin… gorf. I’m also enormously bad at any kind of letter jumble game like the one on Countdown. I’m assuming those things are related. Anyway, after this big honking paragraph on the subject, I expect someone will immediately post “the word you’re looking for is ______ you big dummy.”
Non Seguitur*: This is a pretty cool looking tool. A virtual tabletop space with video chat, multi layered maps, music, the works. I just found it so it might be janky but I thought I’d share. Too bad I don’t have time for tabletop RPGs these days.
* A portmantau of “segue” and “non sequitur”
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…from George Washington, in a letter dated 1789/05/25:
“…My political conduct in nominations, even if I were uninfluenced by principle, must be exceedingly circumspect and proof against just criticism; for the eyes of Argus are upon me, and no slip will pass unnoticed, that can be improved into a supposed partiality for friends or relations.”
Ari is NOT making the point that these pundit-yahoos are right, rather that this is the sort of behavior that Syd must guard against, by only speaking *AFTER THINKING*!!! The number of “Suzy Wen”-types (=”Allies of Supers”) in journalism are very few indeed. It’s so much easier for reporters to adopt an adversarial stance against our heroes/icons/leaders, because past celebrities have tarnished the press’ perception of them with their “feet of clay”.
(No, this is NOT a recent thing – yeah, I’m lookin’ at YOU, Babe Ruth!)
Sad truth is that at this point, we’ve all been trained by past example to assume the worst, & even to SEEK OUT the worst that we can imagine of our icons’ actions, rather than give them the benefit of the doubt. This is NOT Syd’s fault – it’s just the way things are in the community of celebrities that she’s chosen to join. Once Syd accepts that this is not a personal attack, she can respond accordingly.
My “G.W.”-reference was [Copy/Paste]’ed from here:
[https://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Writings_of_George_Collected_and_Edited_v11_1000468071/417]
+1
Well said!
Have you seen the pic of Babe Ruth with Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson?
Just want to drop this in here because it has not been noted.
Archon is military and the military does have regulations controlling your public speaking, and can curb your rights to free speech. Just because a civilian court might not touch her, a military one can.
So right or wrong, Sydney has to learn the rules.
Yup once you sign on the line you give up several rights among them are the first amendment rights to free speech there are a wonderful set of regulations dealing with this very subject in the UCMJ. The military has very heavily regulated speech. There are several other things you give up the right to as well like an attorney being required for a criminal case and so forth it is rather interesting when you actually to this to folks that don’t understand it. I signed on the line knowing most of this but understood the great duty involved.
Be cautious; military members still have their constitutional right to free speech, with additional caveats. It’s worth noting that NOBODY has an absolute right to free speech. This has been well-established by the supreme court, including limitations on the “public good” (i.e. libel, slander, sexual expression, violation of property rights, etc). Using the same justification, military members have further limitations based on classification, operational security, and yes, public image.
grr… that should’ve read “…including limitations based on the public good…
Actually, you’re not “giving up” your Rights…It’s just that they’re downgraded a bit in the interest of National Security & not giving away so much information that your country is subjected to invasion or open rebellion (among other such unpleasant consequences).
Open rebellion, you say? That seems like the sort of information we ought to know.
Not sure the standard military code of conduct applies at Archon if the press conference is anything to go by. Both Harem and Max got away with public remarks that would normally lead to a formal warning. Still Adriana is correct that Sydney needs to be more circumspect with her comments, but trying to make her all press friendly is probably (a) impossible, and (b) self defeating as much of her charm comes from her openness.
Yes but a military court still has to abide by the guidelines in the Military Code of Conduct, and nothing in there says “Avoid offending anyone, because that may hurt their feelings.” Most of it involves how to treat enemy combatants, protecting civilians, not raping and pillaging, and not committing treason. Calling a reported an idiot, is not treason or even a crime, no matter how many times the reporters try to make it out to be so. Although decking one would fall under assaulting a civilian and have severe consequences (even if the military court felt it was justified). However the reporters stalking her and staking out her apartment would me marginally illegal.
Article 134 of the UCMJ also called the “we can put you in chains for literally anything” clause.
True, but not being politically correct has never been one where it has been invoked. If it was, there would be no military.
Interesting. Given that it is the US equivalent of the British “conduct unbecoming a gentleman”, and has been in existence since the 50s, I find it strange that it has never been invoked. Have all US military personnel been of unblemished character for six decades?
honestly i’m fairly sure it only exists as a way to bust soldiers who find ways to weasle out of the rules but it has so many stupid subsets that even swearing can land you at Courts Martial if the CO takes strong enough offense.
Had some buddies get an Article 15 for saying “The Army $uck$”, so they pretty much have you when they want to get you. The documents were framed as proof.
A lot better than any of our politicians. And if an officer tried to invoke it, he better be sure he is clean too.
Actually it does get invoked I had a Sargent bust under part of that when he was caught sleeping with a subordinates wife. Right nasty little mess they nailed him with that a a couple of others.
Rightly so too.
That could be more abuse of rank than telling a guy who shoves a microphone in your face where he can stick it and offer to stick it there.
That would actually be considered appropriate in that situation, as opposed to being rude to rude reporters to are barely one step above paparazzi.
But as we know it’s so common to use Art. 94 that one just doesn’t come up.
Down with this sort of thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-F2HKLzB6c
I almost linked that in my comment. :)
Irritant?
Aggravator? (probably not a word yet)
Rantivator? (definitely not a word yet but you can have it)
I prefer the solution whereby you say so much stuff the press could make a thing of that they get bored.
I really like “aggravator.” If it’s not a word yet, it should be.
I always thought there should also be a word for people who are already or always primed to be offended. “Touchy” works, but it just doesn’t capture the cloud of meaning that I want. (What I want is something that implies a person will react with the emotional equivalent of a “Bouncing Betty,” (They’ll jump up, explode outward in all directions, and take out everyone in the blast radius with verbal shrapnel just because someone tapped their sore spot.))
I think Sydney must like Deadpool because they have the same lack of verbal mediation. They both basically say whatever comes to mind. I’m not sure Arianna appreciates the value of a verbal force attractor like Sydney. She can make everyone else look sensitive :)
peeve
pet peeve
I think it appropriately disses the depth of the emotion.
But bugbear for the win.
I skimmed through some of the suggested replacements for trigger (e.g. “pet peeve”), but after searching all the comment pages for it I’m surprised no one mentioned the classic term “bugbear,” meaning “A source of dread, resentment, or irritation”:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bugbear
Yeah, Sydney would have heard about the D&D monster first, but of course they share an etymology.
No no, treants would only get involved if Sydney started chopping trees down, to make placards!
Mind you, she did burn that forest…
If she did you can be sure they would be Red Neck Treants as featured here: https://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05012002.shtml
and here https://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02152009.shtml
and if your sick enough to unleash on your gamers… https://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05042002.shtml
:-D
… … MINE EYES!!!
This would helpfully go along with the term “pet bugbear.”
If Sydney asks nicely,maybe Maxima could put her on either kitchen police or peeling potatoes..?
As a way of getting out attending that media prep course???
Then again,Sydney might end up on latrine duty-or scrubbing toilets?!?
But she can’t leave *until* she completes the prep course. That would just lead to her being stuck there overnight, wouldn’t it?
Also Sydney peeling pototoes…Sharp objects + Wet, Slippery Vegetable + Sydney-ness = Pain, empty band-aid boxes, and some red stuff in the raw potatoes that everybody chooses to ignore. And possibly some extra work for Archon’s medic. And potatoes peelers being added to “the List.”
What about Sydney scrubbing toilets?
People do realize that Maxima’s Sydney’s commanding officer, not Arianna right?
Maxima, who I somehow don’t think is going to come down that hard on Sydney for inappropriate public responses…. given her own track record for it.
Yes, but Arianna seems to think she has the power to give orders, with the expectation that they will be obeyed. She may be wrong, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try–and make someone else’s life a lot harder in the process.
Archon isn’t a traditional military unit, though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she does have some legal authority over Archon members.
All it would take is for Maxiama to say “Arianna is our public relations officer. If she gives an instruction you are to follow it, unless you have a very good overriding reason”.
Basically Arianna’s role is important and must be given consideration. So she is justified in giving orders, and with the expectation that most of the time they will be followed.
However she has not been trained in crisis situations, or other aspects, that S.W.A.T. team members and other military/police have been. And there are very precise rules on who can give them orders, because of this, and other reasons (e.g. if under martial law the soldiers have the authority). As such, they have the ultimate say in whether to obey or not. Unlike an order from someone in the chain of command.
If they were trapped (say in a stuck lift) and had a disagreement on the actions that needed taking, Halo would actually be the tanking individual. There are certain situations under which a police officer can legitimately order a civilian
Even if Sydney did not know this, part of Arianna’s job is to advise her on such matters. So, unless she decided to pull a fast one, Arianna should cede authority to Sydney (when applicable).
So long as she peels the potatoes FIRST, and not afterwards, I see no problem with that.
(Does the PPO have a ‘close shave’ setting?)
Actually, unrelated orb query – how is the ‘stationary’ object determined between her and the orb? Could she levitate an orb straight out a window, then swing from it spiderman-style? Or holdherself up when swapping flight for PPO with her shield up?
Yes and no. Obviously it would depend on how DaveB chose to implement it. But, as things stand at the moment, the following apply:
Immovability has only been demonstrated when trying to separate Sydney from the orbs (or vice versa).
The maximum force the orbs appear to have, when levitating is about that of a human punch.*
That said though, they were able to lift Halo up high enough to punch through the ceiling. So what you are proposing is plausible. Albeit that we take comedic moments, like punching through the ceiling with a pinch of salt, if trying to calculate forces. For instance Sydney may well have assisted that with a jump.
The ‘no’ part though comes from the fact that this is ‘real world plus super powers’. So whilst a Spider Man-like super could do what you are describing, Sydney could only do so for a very short time.
To see what I mean check out the Mythbusters episode where they investigate the movie myth of heroes hanging onto the sides of buildings (/cliffs /aircraft etc) by their hands.
Humans are not very good at doing that for any but the shortest period of time. Perhaps a minute, if prepared for it. Only mountaineers and others who have extensively practised the feat, can do so for any sustained period. Someone with super human grip, of course can do so easily. Sydney though is a normal person, for these purposes. And a nerdy one, who is into scuba diving, not rock-climbing.
So my expectations are that Halo would be able to do this, for a short period only. And it is likely (unless she has a way of activating the immovability, that we do not know about) that she will need to keep concentrating on telling the orb to go up. And it may not have the power to keep her up, using its usual lift capability.
So Halo may well find herself descending, albeit a controlled parachute-like decent. And trying to concentrate on directing flight, whilst also using other powers, could be tricky. Especially hard to activate ones, such as the PPO.
* More than that and Math would not have a head and Sydney would be wearing a prosthetic leg. Err, actually, she would not, unless Math developed head regenerating powers, in order to have the return match.
Then the individual added to “The List” would be “that guy” who somehow managed to miss the toilet bowl entirely for both #1 and #2, leaving the whole stall covered in squick.
Sydney: *recoiling in horror* “How is that even possible?!”
I think the word you wanted is “Animus”.
an·i·mus
/ˈanəməs/
noun
1. hostility or ill feeling.
“the author’s animus toward her”
2. motivation to do something.
“the reformist animus came from within the Party”
I can’t quite imagine Sydney using the word though. It’s the kind of three-dollar word only editors and English professors use. Or private detectives named Nero Wolfe, which is where I found that word.
animus is the base for animosity so it’s not so far fetched that she would use it considering her job at the comic shop as well as her hobby of playing D&D.
Are we playing Assassin’s Creed now?
That would be the other Jungian concept of animus which is part of the duality. Interesting concept here is a link to the wiki for it as with all wikis vet it against other sources. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus
Animus
https://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120621170125/assassinscreed/images/8/8e/AC1_Animus_1.28.png
I cannot believe nobody mentioned MapTool https://www.rptools.net/
Ooh, I’ve used that!
Did not consider it worth mentioning though, as it is a limited sub-set of the utility that DaveB mentioned in his blog. Capable though it was, should I get involved in another online gaming group, I would check out the one he linked, despite my familiarity with MapTool.
Having a complete integrated gaming table sounds like a big step up to me.
Short of us all strapping on VR headsets and gloves, that sounds like the best solution.
Mind you the latter is a nice concept. All gather together around the VR tavern table, to do the socialising thing. Then step out of the door and off on your adventure together. With the
evilkind and generous games master overseeing the world from a god’s-eye view.“The word you’re looking for is irritant you big dummy.”
:)
BTW, Arianna is looking to get herself into a LOT of trouble with Max. Arianna is a civilian consultant, and thus has no authority over Sydney, so ordering Sydney to take the shirt off is a great big NO-GO.
Max and Harem would shoe up within an hour wearing Deadpool shirts or worse.
Did anyone mention pet peeve?
Several.
She’s getting after sidney for being lax about sex jokes and being a bad role model?
What, Math and Xuriel too busy right now?
How do they behave in the public eye?
It’s not about behavior, per se, but behavior when being, or perceived as being, a representative of ARCHON, thus reflecting on the organization’s image and implied behavior and policies.
+1
well we haven’t seen math much in public but xuriels still pretty much the same in public, only making minor effort to conceil her true nature.
Xuriel is the de-facto ambassador of an advanced alien race (or three). She knows she can get away with just about anything she feels like.
No, Sydney. “Role model” is what happens when you become famous and do extraordinary things. Come on, you read Spider Man. “With great power comes great responsibility,” period. When you’re in the public eye, people WILL copy you, like it or not. Yes, there is no constitutional right to not be offended, but Ariana is right. People may not need an excuse to be offended, but they will happily look for one just so they can blame you for their attitude.
For crying out loud, you work retail, Ariana shouldn’t have to tell you this.
Sydney is not big on the motto “The customer is always right.” This was literally yesterday: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/119. The tag line of the next one after that is “The quality of the customer service depends entirely on the quality of the customer.”
That is because in most cases, the customer usually is not right. The person who came up with that concept was not the brightest thinker. The second one is more accurate. And as someone who has worked in positions involving customer service, invoking “the customer is always right” never helps, especially, when the customer is wrong and has screwed up.
Yeah…
My brother works for a certain well-known company (whose name I don’t have their permission to use) making data storage solutions. He basically finds ways to arrange large numbers of hard drives so that even when a bunch of them fail, nobody loses any data or has to spend any extra time recovering data. He told me a story about one of his work days, during which he spent no less than 10 hours working with a customer whose system had failed because they didn’t follow instructions and tried to fix the problem alone by what could have been the second-worst method possible (the worst being to smash it with a hammer). They would have been fine if they’d paid for more redundancy OR if they’d followed instructions OR if they’d had the company’s remote support software installed OR if they’d called for support immediately after getting the error lights, instead of trying to reboot a sub-section of the system.
Anyone who can hear about that and still claim that “the customer is always right” is in some form of denial.
Also, even though the saying is that “the customer is always right”, that isn’t really what it means at all. What an employee should really take away from that is that you should go out of your way to make sure the customer doesn’t take offense. So you can’t just say “YOU’RE WRONG: DO IT THE RIGHT WAY, SO IT WORKS”. You have to be diplomatic about it. It would help to rather say something like “If you do that, then it will cause this and this which lead to That Other Thing, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”.
While, Arianna has some valid points regarding some of the comments Sydney made (particularly the Jewish/religion comment), the rest just turns into a standard issue escalating PR/PC Police overreaction.
That’s the one thing that always annoys me about friends and family I know who are in the PR business. They view virtually everything as either beneficial or damaging to one’s image.
And if they are in PR mode (which most of them seem to be unable to switch out of), everything gets over-analyzed under the lens of the ultra-PCness to the point where it seems like they think just breathing might offend someone.
You have my sympathies. Half my family worked in one industry and ‘shop talk’ drove the other half crazy. And that is without it being an industry that would have impact on daily life, the way you are describing.
“I don’t even want to to breathe same air as you!”
See, breathing can be offensive. :)
And the idiot Political Correctness Nazis would insist you stop breathing. Of course they would also be wondering why they were suddenly rendered unconscious shortly there after. I see you have run into them too.
I’ll just leave this here…
https://cdn.bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/dead.jpg
Why does Sydney always have long sleeves?
To protect her savory essence from the raw, unfiltered power of the Sun.
And to protect from the dreaded…
*voice drops to a whisper*
paper-cuts!
The word you were probably looking for is peeve.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/peeve
Peeve. “Pet Peeve”.
*hackles up*
Grrr. Woof woof!
*assumes aggressive posture, and bares teeth*
Hey, now. You two might get along better after a good sniffing.
I just watched the latest episode of Agents of Shield. They have a character that can make at least five copies of herself. Kinda like Daphne, but not the same. She has strawberry blond hair, too. Coincidence?
Daphne has multiple hair colours simultaneously. So the only commentary on co-incidence vs conspiracy, at least as far as the hair is concerned, would lie on the other character having the same choices for most, if not all, of her bodies. One match alone would not have any great significance.
On the other paw though, the ‘there is no such thing as a new idea’ cuts both ways. Despite the fact that it would be nice to think that the writer of that character is a GrrlPower fan and is doing an homage.
But having a character with more than one body is not itself a new concept. To give you credit, where credit is due though, having the same number of bodies and the same gender, is interesting enough to justified pointing it out.
Mind you, if she also turns out to have teleportation abilities… that would be pushing the bounds of credible deniability too far!
Check out Emily in the Cape High series of books. She is a duplicator, is telepathic, and can teleport. She also has been know to send one of her duplicates to class for her.
A difference between her and Daphne is that the copies are created wearing everything that the original is wearing. This could lead to interesting battle tactics. In a firefight you could just make a bunch of copies and they would also have your gun or rifle or whatever. Have them shoot at the enemy until they either get killed or run out of ammo. Then just dismiss them and send in new ones as needed. This gives you effectively infinite soldiers and infinite ammo as long as you protect the original.
I think an ancestor of hers may have played a part at the battle of Thermopylae.
ABC had their Agents of Shield season finale last night. One new character introduced was an ‘Inhuman’ who is a young attractive female who could make multiple copies of herself. The number of individuals on screen at once: five. I think they called her Alicia or Alisha. One difference from her and another similar person I have seen somewhere is that if you knock out the ‘prime’ the duplicates vanish.
Sorry about the duplicate post about a duplicator. The above comment wasn’t there when I hit enter.
I found her official bio at https://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Alisha
Just saw the vote incentive…
… That bar will be closing early…
Honestly, particularly in the case of Sydney, I’m not bothered when a character, in-character, uses a term slightly incorrectly, so long as I’m not completely confounded what they meant. The context here is clear, and I can easily see Sydney’s brain, fast searching for a retort, coming up with “personal trigger” without actually putting much thought behind it. Her intent is quite clear.
>It obviously a little subjective, but it would be ideal if there was a word that meant exactly “the thing that makes you mad” and had no association with any kind of past trauma.
“Pet peeve”, perhaps?
Gah, the dreaded HSBC sofa mugger! Run, hide your sofas! But check there are no muggers in them first!
*runs carefully to sofa, and frisks it*
*scoops up all the loose change at the back of the sofa*
*keeps going, dragging the sofa somewhere safe*
Good luck mugging MY sofa, its armed!
Mine’s carnivorous. Fortunately, it’s slow, so I can usually escape before it manages to devour me. But one of these days, I’m gonna fall asleep watching Netflix, and end up getting digested by springs.
Mine has a black hole defense system .
Just don’t sit on it commando then.
I see what you did there. (-_-)
Congratulations David Nuttall I see you managed to keep Canada within the top ten most educated countries in the world. And top of the list of English-speaking countries. Keep up the good work!
It is not like I did it on my own! I tended to inform less than a hundred (semi-)eager teenagers each semester I was teaching.
Yup, you could only manage more than that, if you were some kind of secret time-traveller.
*knowing look*
Hopefully you are getting the $ from the amazon link. I’m moving and have completed 11 orders on amazon.com in the last week tied to your link. :)
Well done.
And, I keep forgetting to say so, but thank you to all the new Patreons, and to the existing ones who carry on supporting the comic. Your generosity is very much appreciated by those of us who lack the means to do likewise. You are a credit to humanity.
Ok i’m confused about the use of the word ‘Transactionalization’ but i can’t tell if it’s the proper use of the word or not.
quote ‘The conversion of something into a series of transactions.’ is apparently the definition but it doesn’t seem as it’s the right one for this case.
There are probably better ones, that would more explicitly cover the problems, which could be used, if Arianna rephrased things.
However, contextually, it is not wrong. Sydney indicates that she is ‘gaining mileage’, which is another way of saying she is profiting from something. Albeit that the currency is in emotional satisfaction, rather than cash. So Sydney is exchanging the trivialisation of sex for her own gratification. Which is indeed a transaction, where she is the recipient of the gratification, at the expense of anybody listening to her.
Of course most of us do not mind, and those of us who do not can also benefit from the transaction, by gaining enjoyment at the joke. Those who do not, however, have to pay the price. So from the former, Sydney is right, in that she can give enjoyment to others by her comment. But, from the latter, Arianna is right, in that Sydney would be offending some people.
The text under the comic is right. But conditionally.
We all have to pick our audiences, if engaging in risqué humour, if we wish to avoid causing offence. Easy enough to do in a group of people you know. But getting harder as the numbers grow. Unless you are a stand-up comic, speaking to an audience of fans, the more people who are listening to you, the more there are who are likely to be offended.
Sydney needs pointers on when and where she can get away with her comments. Given that they are habitual, that is going to be hard for her to moderate herself. What she may get away with, as a guest of honour, at a comic convention, she might not on a prime-time family-friendly talk show, for instance. But the more progressive ones might just say ‘be prepared for a lot of bleeping in the course of next interview’.
Or, more sensibly, film a couple of hours, in the hope of being able to air about fifteen minutes of minimally bleeped material. And have an hour-long uncensored outtakes blooper version on sale separately.
Ok, I didn’t expect this amount of a response. The first paragraph was enough to fill me in on how that word works in this instance. I didn’t think it was referring to her second bubble in panel 5 so that’s why I was confused on the matter. But thanks all the same :D.
My pleasure.
I am afraid that ramble mode has been activated in me. It is pretty much binary. Do a small post, and get on with other things. Or type until the ink runs out on my monitor…
Arianna’s asking Sydney to be PC. Sydney doesn’t really do PC. This can only end badly.
This may have already been suggested in the comments but there are 559 of them, so…
Is “pet peeve” not strong enough for what you’re thinking? I feel like a lot of the time when people get enraged on the internet over stuff, it isn’t really that strong an emotion. They just have access to an instant anonymous vent on their computers.
“Transactionalization”
WHO TALKS LIKE THAT?!
Also, I imagine people will be more annoyed by arianna telling her client to strip than by the client making a joke about it.
Certain professions have a level of duty to their client which supersedes lesser considerations. In this case Arianna is advising* Sydney to carry out an act which will reduce the chances of Sydney alienating conservative individuals. Which in turn could help prevent her loosing her job.**
Bear in mind also that Sydney is a member of the armed forces, so does not have the automatic right to wear what she wants. Maybe in her own time. But not at any point when she can be associated with the service. Currently she is on Archon property, conducting official duties. She should not have turned up in such an outfit.
So Arianna is also reducing the number of hours Sydney will have to spend peeling potatoes, scrubbing toilets with her toothbrush and doing press-ups. If she follows Arianna’s advice, before Maxima notices the top.
Bear in mind that there is clearly nothing sexual about the instruction, albeit that Sydney chose to pretend so, in order to have a laugh.
The fact that political correctness is tied up in this does go against the grain, for a lot of us though, of course. But, having signed up to join the military, Sydney does not have the option of ignoring things like that anymore. Albeit that she can push the boundaries, a bit more than your average recruit, thanks to her personal circumstances.
But, once you have taken ‘the right to not be politically correct’ out of the equation, the situation becomes a lot simpler. You can think of this as being a lesser version of what anybody needs to do if performing resuscitation. The patient has stopped breathing, and you must compress their chest, to try and get the cardiovascular system restarted.
If, during the process, some of their ribs break, that is not a problem. If you succeed, they will be alive. And broken ribs will heal. If you fail, they are already dead anyhow, so no harm has been done.
What Arianna is advising will not harm Sydney. But it will help her. Arianna is not failing her client, she is acting in her best interests.
* As pointed out by others, Arianna is not Sydney’s superior, and is in fact a civilian, so is not even in the chain of command. But anybody who has access to a highly skilled professional, who is providing sound, personalised, advice would be foolish to ignore their advice.
** Not that her job is in immediate danger. But she has just severely embarrassed her company commander, in front of the president no less. So it is clear that she will need every bit of help she can get, to prevent even worse from happening, in the future.
… Pffft. Sydney is doing fine. Being popular is not a prerequisite of doing right.
A minor point I suppose, but Arianna would be the Public Affairs Officer. Or in that PA office. PA handles interaction with the public that doesn’t go through legal.
https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/browse-career-and-job-categories/arts-and-media/public-affairs-officer.html
Arianna actually represents several different roles. Public relations, human resources, legal, marketing and probably more. Anything not hero, military or cop related is bundled up into one human form, and given a skirt. And an I-pad.
Frankly trying to reign Sydney in seems counterproductive. Arianna did want to try and humanize ARCSWAT, and there’s nobody better for that than Sydney, the goofy, uncensored, normal-looking human whose harmless and amusing antics make the whole team less scary to innocent people. The swearing might be a bit of a problem, but her natural personality is a pleasant break from the unnaturally attractive and mostly fairly serious heroes who make up the rest of the group. The only ones who aren’t overly serious are all so lecherous they would get in more trouble than Sydney does.
If anything, as Arianna I would be concerned about people thinking that Sydney was a skilled actor faking her nutty spontaneity specifically in order to make the team look less threatening on purpose.
I’d say Arianna’s being a bit too strict actually. There’s three types of ways someone can be offended:
1. blatant offense- as in, saying “geeks suck” or something similar. That obviously should be avoided.
2. saying something unintentionally offensive to a group. This would be where you don’t think about what you are saying.
3. someone actively looked for something to be offended about- like Sydney’s shirt- there’s no satisfying these people, since they’d probably complain about you being too PC if you made sure you couldn’t offend anyone.
avoiding #1 and #2 is a good idea. however, don’t bother with #3, since they never will be satisfied. Sydney’s shirt is fine, particularly when off-duty. (on-duty she should probably wear her uniform of course) As for her “buy a girl a drink first”, she hardly overuses it, so that’s fine in context. If anything, it’d make her seem more down-to-earth to people.
Pet Peeve?
Roy Rogers had a pet Trigger …
As a made-up word I’d use Narf. It’s the word driving The Brain mad whenever Pinky said it.