Grrl Power #933 – Ding psychology
This feels like a jarring transition to me, but the alternative was to stick with Maxima as she does a ton of paperwork , hands out tickets (or whatever the procedure is for arresting space mercenaries) and debriefs the team up in NYC. That was definitely the only other option.
The answer to the question, “Why didn’t the orbs give Sydney her level up sooner?” is because it amused me more to do it this way. Besides, now that Sydney seems to know how to pull up the skill web, maybe the orbs are content to wait to be prompted now.
I wanted Frost to call the guy a psychopath or even a sociopath, (instead of a “person with an extreme personality disorder”) but apparently those aren’t terms psychologists use a lot? “Antisocial Personality Disorder” utterly lacks the gravitas that “Psychopath” carries, so it’s no wonder popular media sticks with the latter. I have to imagine when psychologists are off the clock if they let fly with more colorful descriptions to describe people, like a pressure valve.
Sydney does have mandated time with Frost, but this visit was by request, not her normally scheduled session, which is why she can pimpwalk out early.
Holy crap. I definitely should have changed the “Gender” select on the prior page to “Sex” select. Although then, I don’t know what I would do about the symbols. Like, are the male and female symbols for sex or gender? I think when they were codified, the words sex and gender didn’t have separate definitions. (I’m talking about like, ancient Greece, although I myself wasn’t aware of the need to differentiate the terms prior to about ten years ago. I’d say my awareness of a thing is a pretty low bar, but I suspect I’ve also just described at least half of all Americans as well in this case.) Which leads me to my conundrum. If sex and gender don’t mean the same thing, shouldn’t we have different symbols for male sex and male gender? Really, the solution would have been to design about 30 different totally alien symbols, but since I was translating the text on the screens, it made sense to translate the gender icons. Also since I was running a little behind on the vote incentive, I had trouble justifying spending like two hours designing alien sex icons, which, now that I think about it would have probably been a lot of fun.
The new vote incentive is up! I tried something different this month – instead of doing one well painted picture with a bunch of dress variants, I wanted to tell a bit of a story. Hopefully it makes sense without any dialog or sound effects. So, instead of one picture, you guys are getting nine. I was going to do a tenth one, but I kind of ran out of time. Patreon has the whole series of pics, naturally. I might add it if I find the time, or I could work on the next Tamer: Enhancer book. Time management is not my strongest skill, so we’ll see.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Cool. I thought overcoming being captured was worth a skill point. Glad to see it happen and more excited to find out what on. :D
Is she going to show people the skill tree again?
I think she is off to find Dabbler or Max for advice on which point on the graph to select for her power-up.
Hopefully she’ll find Krona. It seemed like she was able to see a lot more in the skilltree than a normal person.
Ah, yes…Krona op0ened her eyes & looked into Infinity (note: Capital ‘I’ Infinity)…Or, for as far as the limited human mind & perceptions can conceive of Infinity, it was an effectively reasonable facsimile of Infinity.
I hadn’t noticed on first read through that Sydney activited the skill tree herself.
Would be cool if she could do that anytime now. Whether or not there were points to be allocated.
Sounds about the right strategy for Sydney
VOTE,VOTE
Thing is, will she seek out Mac this time before making an upgrade decision?
And what will it be? Lighthook needs work…. ‘Vheminence’ didn’t even notice the 16 tones last time…
Max…..
She should definitely find max, zephon, dabbler, gwen and probably get a call in to krona since krona can see deeper into the orbs than snyone else on the planet far as we have seen.
That way they can analyze the orbs during an upgrade skill tree point, in a safe and controlled environment, and get asmuch info as possible in order to make the best choice on what to put points into next to get as perfect a character build as possible:)
MinMaxing is for chumps.
Role play build uber allen!
Uber Allen – his super power is correctly assembling Ikea furniture, first try every time.
At optimum speed.
Did I do a Germish? XD
And is it contajish?
Not qualified to diagnosh.
I’m more meaning maximizing a build like how, when you play Fallout 3 or New Vegas, you try to make sure that you’ll have all 10s by the end. :)
Isn’t Krona on-site these days?
Sydney: Hey Leon. Hey Krona, guess what I got for you?
Leon: Oh, so that is your upgrade graph? Cool!
Krona: [ Jaw-drop, drool ] Oh, you did it again! Let’s me pull up my display. Leon, write this down!
More like…
*Krona and Leon are passionately kissing, Syd sheepishly peeks in*
Sydney: Er, Krona, I hate to inter-
*audible POP as liplock breaks as Krona’s head whips around*
Krona: OhmyGOD HER ORBS ARE DOING THAT THING AGAIN I NEED TO WRITE
*pulls out sharpie, starts to write on nearest available surface*
Leon: Uh, that’s my face-
Krona *scribbling madly*: SHUT UP YOU’RE CONVENIENT
until Dave proves otherwise, I move that this be declared cannon.
panel under the comic, Krona is a JigglyPuff, doing the same thing
I can totally see that happening
There are only three genders: people who like boobs, people who like butts and people who get triggered by this remark.
sorry, your list is short. there are: leg people, foot people, abs people, people who like fat people, people who like furry things, and several more. may you be inundated with links.
Rule 34 means that any natural number is insufficient, if attempting to use “gender” to describe sexual preferences.
There’s exactly 10 types of people.
Now the only difficulty is figuring out what base that number is in.
Clearly it’s base 34.
Please don’t talk about feet people. I read a long abnormal psych article about foot fetishism in China and what and how it led to and how people were treated. OMG, it was (and is, though illegal) far worse than sex trafficking in children or the Eunuch custom. Seriously. Just never go there. There are levels of yuck that even I can’t stand, and if you knew me you’d know that’s a damned strong statement.
We’re wearing our hearts on our sleeves now? Okay.
There’s a TREMENDOUS difference between Chinese foot binding (an archaic and largely discarded practice nowadays, by the way) and hot oil foot massages with shrimping, sole-kissing and arch-licking; one is misogynist and systematic torture implemented for the purpose of squeezing women into an awful and otherwise impossible ideal (with women needing to constantly lean on men and depend on their support — thus robbing them of their independence — as a questionable fringe benefit), the other is often a usefully seductive prelude to coitus (as long as the foot fetishist knows when it’s time to set the fetish aside, move up from the feet and focus on the more intimate parts of their lover’s body) which doesn’t damage or mutate anyone’s body — permanently or otherwise — in any way.
So I’ll thank you to refrain from equating me and MY foot fetish with Chinese foot binding. Hot oil foot massages and toe-sucking help people get laid. Chinese foot binding doesn’t (…or if it DOES, it’s probably more like rape or sexual assault than a romantic tumble in the sack).
I always wonder, when Westerners start talking about Chinese foot binding, if they know what the actual usage of that “perfect lotus” foot shape was, or if they missed that part.
I always wonder, when non-Westerners — and/or Westerners trying to pass themselves off as non-Westerners — start talking about what Westerners do and do not know yet won’t mention any specifics of what Westerners do and do not know, if THEY THEMSELVES don’t know what they’re talking about and are just hoping that we “ignorant Gaijin” won’t call them out by demanding that they divulge their “super-secret ninja insights” with us.
I saw a lady on YouTube who had her feet bound when she was a young woman, they are permanently disfigured.
What about people who like abs? I like abs.
Also, what’s up with Pixel’s spine in that vote incentive?
It’s that weird spiderman thing that artists do, they try to show both T and A at the same time, but that requires viewing opposite sides of a flat plane, and a wide angle lens, or, as we see here, torsion.
Considering the overall drawing quality of the image, it’s not jarringly out of place.
It’s… not that difficult to do if one is even mildly fit, and simply posing for a short period (do it every time use the kettle and refill it: the kettle is behind me when standing at the sink, and, rather than move fully around, keep the feet set facing the sink and twist the upper body around to pick up and set down the kettle)
Pretty sure your hips tend to turn when you do that.
Yeah, just like Pixelicious’ (not how you can just make out that one of her legs is bent, to help in that pose)
Again, it’s a few second pose, not a long-term stance
It’s not hard to *do* it’s hard to *see* properly. What I’m saying is that the amount around the sides of her that we can see is what’s making it look so weird. A quarter less boob and a quarter less ass and it would look normal, if weirdly drawn.
Your brain instinctively knows a wide angle lens looks different than normal viewing, and hence the uncanny valley, since none of the rest are using the same character studies, the lens angle is different for them.
Werecat. Enough said.
I like boobs and butts, does that mean I am non-binary?
Actually, you would be Bisexual.
That depends on what is referenced by “butts”.
Butts are gender neutral yet they are not species neutral.
I disagree, birthing hips can give more of a heart shape or wider peach shape to the buttocks, while men’s butts tend to have more of an inflated box shape.
so your specific butt shape preference can be based on the specific sex. or not, after all gender reassignment surgery rarely makes changes to hip structure *even with implants this is a very risky area to make too big of changes to…the hip part not so much the gat on the glutes),
and some thinner women can have that more square shape although that top outer curve is usually still different, but unless you are taking art classes that I can understand can be really hard to miss and not a factor in attraction.
Look, butts are are already split down the middle, there is no need to also split the hairs.
I like it when we discuss things like butts instead of politics in this forum.
I was, indeed, referring to female butts – and just jabbing at the OP’s definition of gender.
There are two kinds of people in this world, those who can extrapolate from incomplete data,
Most, get it incorrect!
Those are sexual orientations, gender is in your brain. 4, those of us,who are bisexual.
Preferences, really. They change over time, and there are an infinite number of them possible. Some people like redheads, some people like hairy ankles.
And, no “gender” is not in your brain… unless you are talking about the same way that language is in your brain.
There’s an idea…
… so leaving aside a million other questions, the mathematician part of my brain that remembers Cartesian products wants to know, which of those three categories would apply to someone who liked boobs AND butts but WASN’T triggered by that comment?
Intelligent?
Well, that rules you out.
And you.
You to.
Never claimed to be particularly smart
And thank you for agreeing that non-intelligent people are triggered by statements like that
these are non exclusive sets. so you can be in any, all, none, or some subset.
But that would make *nine* of these genders, and the specified number was 3.
I believe I pointed out that the Op’s list was incomplete. thus is count was off. then the thread derailed magnificently. and here we are.
(all of this is “So far as I am aware,”)
Strictly speaking, in English “gender” was originally the formal way to say “sex” when discussing physical attributes. (At least that’s how things were in the literature from the 1950s and ’60s and overheard at “shindigs” with adults when I was a kid in the ’70s and ’80s.) Sexual orientation was the way to describe what kind of humans you fixated on, based on my experiences as a teen and in the military; it was that or the crude mix of LGBN (with L/G becoming D/F in crude company). (N=”cis-“, by the way.) And there were transvestites (a.k.a cross-dressers) and nudists and swingers (either group-focused or wife-swappers). At least, that was the limit of what the public was exposed to by newspapers and gossips.
Nowadays? Groups use one word for generalizing physical equipment, another for mental orientation, and a third for kinks (ways people mix things up in physical relationships; some become the reason for those relationships). Unsurprisingly, some use “gender” for physical parts, and some use that word for mental parts, and some use it interchangeably. The same applies to “sex”, and occasionally to “kink”.
To DaveB: Choose your standard and stick to it until you find a better standard. Also: alien speak, when translated to English equivalents and phrasing, will not be required to be proper English, unless you prefer it. See “Grammar Lesson” from Larry Niven’s Draco Tavern, where an alien points out that their singular possessives are different words depending on importance, and why that matters.
Um… Am I the only one who thinks the current Vote Incentive makes Sydney and Co. look abit too much like kids?
Y’know, the art style, expressions and so on. I felt comfortable viewing it
EDIT: uncomfortable looking at it
That was a typo earlier
I’m more worried about Pixel’s spine. That kind of twist can’t be good for it.
A 90° twist is just a good stretch. Try it – feels good.
She is a werecat. Probably some carry over between forms.
Surrrreee XD
Please don’t even joke about that…
Depends on your perspective of what you consider “kids”. To some of us, 30 yos are still kids.
In this case, to me, Sydney looks to be mid-late 20’s and Pixel early 20’s
In most GrrlPower Art, they look like adults to me
In this particular Vote Incentive, they just seem more like… 12
To me, most of you are children, I am now 69 years of age.
You’re just a wee bairn.
Meh?
Personally I think Syd looks like a specifically unimpressed middle aged Japanese Auntie.
“…you really could try harder…”
It’s a body customization for a shell. You wouldn’t pick a “Gender” or a “Sex”, you would pick which body parts you want, where you want them, and then what you want them to look like.
It should be more like building a custom robot.
Yeah, but gender would be the baseline body for you to then customize.
And then there would be a whole special kind of bigotry for people who initially pick one sex and then manually change almost every body part to be the opposite sex (this actually happens in Second Life).
In essence, an “efficient” menu would have symbols for a number of baseline blanks that would make achieving common configurations easy. Most of those are redundant, since very little in the body is likely to be different between them.
I think gender was the correct term on the last page. I mean, the problems we have nowadays is that with more freedom, luxuries and time, people can more freely find and express themselves, and end up finding that their bodies dont quite match their gender in some way.
That’s not the case here, it is more of “tell us your gender, and we’ll make a body to match it”.
After all, with hundreds of species running around, the only gender acceptance problems would be biological ones, so “select gender” would not be incorrect.
I’d be curious if Dave B. just copies and pastes the skill tree and then tilts it as necessary with tools, or if he draws it every single time.
Hopefully copies and pastes using layers. Helps with consistency. He has enough to draw without something like that taking up his time.
Alternative explanation: She doesn’t get all of the experience from an event until she’s processed it. So in this case, she was close enough that the therapy session helped get her over the line.
I like this interpretation.
Especially if we take the theory that the ‘skill tree’ is unlocking existing capabilities based on how the novice user learns to use the Orbs, rather than on a traditional XP system. The learning doesn’t come when you gain the new Knowledge elements, but when you use Wisdom to extrapolate the general rule behind them – and that is when the next point becomes available.
Too bad there is no ‘Cost’ to using her orbs. Sidney would have to actually strategize which Powers to use whenever she went into a battle or at least a cool down so that she couldn’t spam attacks.
But there IS a cost; she can only use two orbs at a time, so using an orb means she can’t use a different one, which is an opportunity cost. Which two powers to use at any given time is a strategic choice.
That’s a limit, not a ‘cost’ in the gaming sense – she doesn’t have to burn mana or perform a time-consuming ritual. She doesn’t have to do anything to enable or recharge the orbs, they are limitless and always ready. Which makes the 2-hand limit and her need for sleep their only known constraints.
I’m still going with the “Once she’s mastered the previous upgrade, she gets a new one”
Or maybe when the orbs decide what you’re going through proves you’re in desperate need of an upgrade. What did she master here?
Just demonstrating that she could get separated from the orbs.
If she could properly read the skill tree, there’s probably a “teleport shield orb to hand” skill just begging to be selected.
What did she “master,” or what did she “achieve?”
How about, ‘Survive a lethal encounter w/o using Orbs?’
Maybe, ‘Maintain functionality & self-control under extreme duress?’
Or, ‘Survive Interrogation w/o compromising self, allies,or orbs?’
Even ‘Plan and Execute escape/rescue strategy while captured.’
Since when does she know how to manually pull up her grid? I remember once she tried by spinning the orbs herself, did that work? Or do I have to reread the whole series yet again? Oh no, anything but that! Don’t throw me in that briar patch!
Yes she figured that out during her space adventure.
did she? I thought she just figured it out that by flicking the orb that made it activate.
What’s wrong with re-reading the series? Okay, it takes up a bit of time, but otherwise, totally worth it. Done it myself a couple of times.
She tried it on Alar after escaping from the Kaiju battle, which was apparently good for two points.
As far as I’m aware, the only times that spinning the Orbs has successfully brought up the grid were when there was a point to place. I can’t remember offhand whether (and if so how recently) Sydney’s tried spinning the Orbs when there isn’t a point available, but if she has then the grid didn’t show up. It may be that the third point in the middle unlocked the ability to view the grid at will, but there’s no real evidence for that.
Someone creating alien gender/sex icons for lazy webcomics to grab in 5… 4… 3…
Some mushrooms have thousand of of mate pair types in a single species.
because there’s always mush room for expansion and alteration within the phylum. Also, no matter the gender or sex of a mushroom, they’re all fun guys.
Outside of a group that is vocal out of all proportion to its size, which is dot-upon-dot tiny, nobody really cares about this “gender” thing and “gender” just means “sex”. “Gender” gets used as a handy synonym because “sex” sooner refers to the act rather than the alignment. And you can’t do that in polite company.
So it’s well more than half of the people for whom the discussion just does not improve their lives. More like just about most, and even moreso outside the USA. It’s just that the vocal people who do care to impose their views on everyone else are over-represented in academia, media, and “HR” departments, for some reason. Me, I’ve seen their works and think it’s bunkum. So no, if you ask me, there need not be symbols for “gender”.
But of course, there will be people who will disagee with me here. Which is fine. What is less fine is if groups of people decide their beliefs are to be unassailable truth and that anyone who disagrees is just asking to be attacked, slurred, and cancelled.
*pulls up chair, unfolds it like Jason Momoa, sets it down, and begins monching on enormous supply of popcorn*
Look, you’ve just committed the first blunder, got into an ideology war in Asia.
You said too many things for people to just let it go, expect dozens of comments pushing up glasses and “um, actually” ing all over.
Hell, I said one very specific thing last page and got four or five people putting words in my mouth, imagine what they’re gonna do with all those topics for debate.
But yes, I agree, social media forcing people to all think and agree the same is bad, which is why free speech should be more firmly enforced.
How, exactly and explicitly, is “social media forcing people to think the same?”
Is it the vaccine microchips Bill Gates is using to track you everywhere you go?
Free speech doesn’t include verbal/emotional abuse.
The “forcing everyone to think the same” (which is an exaggeration, but does refer to a real problem) is due to connecting everyone into one big conversation. When chatting on social media, you don’t have small friend groups with which you can have discussions and come to well-reasoned conclusions; you have a vast, vast army of strangers with which you can try to avoid setting off a knee-jerk reaction of hating you. (Either, that, or you have a “small friend group” composed of precisely those people who have the same opinions as you, which isn’t necessarily better.)
It seems like the sort of thing that will be good for the species in the long run, but right now there are some serious growing pains.
For instance literally censoring all viewpoints that disagree with them.
“Censorship,” is something that governments do.
Let me flip the script on you.
Should private parties be forced to publish or otherwise transmit things they disagree with or find objectionable?
I’m not sure where you heard that lie about only governments censoring things.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censoring
censor transitive verb
: to examine in order to suppress (see SUPPRESS sense 2) or delete anything considered objectionable
// censor the news
also : to suppress or delete as objectionable
// censor out indecent passages
Any person or persons can censor something.
It’s just a fact. Social media sites engage in censorship all the time.
If you admit that self-evident fact, with whatever caveats you feel you need to add, then I’ll answer your “flip”.
The context of the entire discussion is “freedom of speech,” so yeah, governments are the only actor here.
Private entities aren’t obliged to platform anyone, collectively or severally.
Or do you want to argue that “compulsory speech,” is good, actually, when it serves your interest? X’D
So, you avoid admitting that the word :”censorship” does not require a government actor. So that’s one way you are disingenuous at best.
Then you pretend that the term “freedom of speech” was used in this thread, which it was not.
More deception.
To implicate the government, you implicitly import a straw man claim regarding the constitution, which again, no one has mentioned. More deception.
You could have just said that yes, it’s censorship, and private parties can do that, but you’re not honest enough for that.
Golly, that’s some impressive contortion, Contextual Obliviousness Man!
Literally the first reply to the op referred to free speech.
I never mentioned any constitution, either specifically or in general, either explicitly or implicitly.
I wasn’t “implicating the government,” I was explicitly pointing out that they have exactly zero to do with private tech companies deplatforming fascists.
Try harder. Please.
You’re boring me.
So you admit that it was not “freedom of speech”. That’s a start.
Welp, if you look at the post I was responding to, by WEAREGRID, you will see, as I already pointed out for you, that free speech was, in fact, one of the central themes of discussion.
A fact you tacitly acknowledged, when you decided to jump in with your assertion that private publishers refusing to circulate certain content constitutes “censorship.”
My question for you, then, is whether or not private parties can be compelled to host, publish, or otherwise transmit anything. Because if the answer is “yes,” then why is it wrong to compel everyone use a person’s preferred pronouns?
You don’t get to have it both ways.
And before you say it, yes, I’m perfectly willing to let fash post w/e they like. It makes identifying & tracking them so very, very much easier.
So, like the Republicans have done the last decade?
Speaking of, apparently Justice Thomas has changed his mind about “compulsory speech,” because now he thinks private social media companies have a right to deplatform fascists.
I have to say it.
The Cake was a lie.
*don’t have
Ruddy autocorrect…
Example, please, of a single item that Republicans have been able to censor “in the last decade”?
I’m not aware of anyone achieving near-complete censorship before the DNC/media/tech alignment in 2020, so I’d be happy to hear an actual example where the Republicans managed it.
How many witnesses were excluded during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing?
Seems relevant…
How about of the media to the point that Trump actually got hundreds of people willing to attack their own government?
Claiming media you don’t own is “fake news” IS Censorship.
How is calling something ‘fake news’ censorship?
Belittling, sure. Degrading, definitely. Dismissing, you betcha. But censoring? No fucking way, because people could still access that news, all of it, which is kinda the complete opposite of ‘censorship’
Behold! Reductio ad absurdum! Anything I don’t like is *ABUSE!*
Interesting assertion.
Based on what?
And to answer your other question, you silly man, corporations are not people, they do not have human rights.
A private access message board, like your personal direct messages, can’t be forced to say anything, any individual person can’t be forced to say anything, but section 230 clearly denotes a line between “publisher” and “platform” and that line is that someone *else* can say something on a *platform* and that *platform* not be held responsible, since it is tacitly understood that they do not endorse nor condone the actions or speech of their *users* merely provide a *service* what they do with the service is up to the user.
You have disingenuously attempted to make *censoring people* an act of free speech by implying that a corporation, or social media site, can say or not say anything it wants and no one can force it. Nobody said twitters official account had to be forced to say anything.
You want a false dichotomy, one that says “companies are responsible for everything on their platform, and therefore have to censor everything objectionable or be culpable” and you’ve missed the point. Anything illegal, like in the UK, is already a crime, and can be prosecuted fully. Harassment, for instance, is already a crime, and can be prosecuted fully. There is no need to restrict speech any further than it already is, because Twitter is not responsible for the actions of it’s users.
I can prove it too, wanna see?
By your logic, if everything on Twitter is said by Twitter, and not censoring evil abuse is tacit approval, then Twitter needs to be shut down for all the antisemitic threats perpetrated by Arabic Twitter.
So what is it, Twitter is a platform and not responsible for their users? Or Twitter is evil for allowing users to advocate for genocide of Jews? You can’t have it both ways.
Rules apply to everyone. And the rules are clear about speech.
1: Woman, thank you.
2: Where did I claim that tech companies were responsible for the content?
3: Why is anyone entitled to use any given platform, when they aren’t paying for its use?
And just to really cook your noodle, is a private party obliged, regardless of circumstances, to print & maintain all speech submitted to it, or to admit and retain all persons who seek membership? Because the first is that “compulsory speech” you’re all so afraid of, and the second is a violation of free association.
Have fun.
I agree. Asking for rational discussion about gender on the internet is almost as bad as asking for logic! (shudder)
Free speech is a good thing, but of course, far too many people think free speech = ‘I can hurt people with my words and get away with it!’ Which isn’t actually what free speech is supposed to be all about, by the way.
That is what it means. Here in America, we can say what we want as long as certain lines are not crossed.
That is because there is no right not to be offended.
And if there was, then the internet would have to be shut down.
Think on that.
You’re not in America. You’re online. You have no First Amendment rights here.
Just the ones Dave gives you.
So bear that in mind.
And the same goes for you.
I never had First amendment rights to begin with, I’m Canadian. XD
“Freedom of Speech,” gets used to justify a lot “whoopsie-doodles,” though.
Like telling outright lies, on air, like it’s illegal to do in Canada, despite the best efforts of Conservative former PM Stephen Harper to make legal, for his buddies at the Fox conglomerate.
Sure would be nice if we had a law like that in the United States. And maybe we could restore the Fairness Doctrine while we were at it.
Not being offended is one thing.
Not being abused is another.
The problems emerge, in part, from some fundamental disagreements over what constitutes which.
Define abuse.
Generally, specifically to the context of this thread, Dick?
(Good avi choice)
Then you have similar rights under Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Why is this the first time I have heard of this chair? Am I too young for this???
It’s a meme, available as a .gif.
tl;dr
“The trans’es need to stop demanding to be treated with equal respect, shut up, and get back in their closets. I can’t process anything more complex than binary. I am very normal, and so most people must think and feel as I do, because I can’t possibly be the outliner.”
*sigh*
War…War never changes.
Clearly you indeed didn’t read it, because that’s not what it says. You can sigh all you want, but you’re the one itching for a fight.
Well, happy itching on this easter monday.
Dude, you made a multi paragraph comment about how “nobody cares” despite clearly having controversial opinions on the subject and insulting the people that disagree with you.
The original doesn’t say what you’re pretending it says. If you find insult in “disagreement is fine”, that is on you. Dude.
One group of people want to be treated with respect & have their identities acknowledged.
The other wants that group to stop existing in the public sphere altogether.
“Disagreement is fine.”
Well, that’s the party line. Turns out, the reality of the thing is rather different. But do notice I’m not calling you names nor am I accusing you of all sorts of badness simply for disagreeing with me. This apparently is a novel idea that needs mention.
Then by all means, please, explain “the reality” for us.
I’m still willing to ride this carousel.
Not only THAT group, all groups. We’re all made of meat anyway.
“and have their identities acknowledged” is where you accidentally let the cat out of the bag.
Demanding that others join you in your personal imaginary thoughts about your identity that are contrary to the physical and biological facts of the matter is not a minor thing. It is forcing people in the public space to agree to a lie.
Your claims about the other group are flawed as well. There is a difference between “stop existing” and “stop demanding that we by law must memorize and obey everyone’s personal delusions.”
Your inability to understand & cope with something more complex than a cartoonishly simplistic binary really isn’t anybody else’s problem. As I said before, we can replace you with a calculator.
And you can be replaced with a piece of moldy cheese.
Those are words, alright.
You pretty blatantly said we just follow “vocal people who do care to impose their views on everyone” and called their work bunk.
I don’t know about you; but reducing what someone believes to “bunk from pushy academics” is pretty insulting.
Mr Nope didn’t actually express anything particularly controversial, unless you think it’s controversial that the people screaming on either side about this gender debate thing are a tiny minority.
Oh, hey, look!
You did a bothsidism!
Oh, hey look!
There ARE nuts on both sides of this issue, and the ones on one side are largely the ones the media expect everyone to believe and obey.
“The Media”
#Drink!
So, go ahead and explain how “please respect my identity, it costs you literally nothing,” identical to, “I will actively deny your identity, even though it’s abusive & demeaning,” are the same thing.
“please respect my identity, it costs you literally nothing,”
That’s not entirely true. Since it can create a dissonance between my initial impression and the reality for the other individual, in order to be respectful it requires me to think before I speak. And that can probably be quite painful if you’re not used to it.
*golf clap*
Carlin-esque. Bravo.
tl;dr Bharda can’t handle actual discussions about complex social things and therefore must reduce anyone who disagrees with her to incorrect cardboard stereotypes.
Lol.
There is nothing remotely complex about that post.
Nope asserts that gender is the same as sex; that’s a binary.
Nope asserts both that studies on gender are “bunkum,” and that even discussing it does not “improve people’s lives; that implies it shouldn’t be acknowledged or a part of the public discourse, I.e., being closeted.
Nope also asserts that those for whom gender is important are a tiny group, somehow forcing all others to conform to their agenda; that’s the positioning of themself as the standard, rather than the outlier.
This is called critical thinking, and analytic reading.
What you’re doing is not “critical thinking” but “finding reasons to fault”, the bread and butter of “critical theory”. There is no analysis in your reading, for if there was you’d notice that there’s quite a difference between the original and your list of assertions, to the point that your take is no longer accurate.
Dude, you’re doing the same fucking thing.
Projection much?
At this point I have to assume you’re being disingenuous because half of their comment is basically just quoting what you typed.
It’s almost like the facts are…somehow…subject to some form of internal, less-than-rational filter. Someth8ng definitely mental in nature, but not the super-smart-big-boy-brain “rational” part. Another part. One that deals, perhaps, with sensations, both physical and otherwise…a part of the mind that facts are, I am assured, not inclined to care about…
…I’m sure there’s a word for that. ^.^
“Critical theory.”
#Drink!
Oh, hey, you forgot to call me a “cultural Marxist,” while you were at it. Try to stay on script. X’D
However, for anyone actually interested in “critical theory,” here’s a handy yootoob link:
https: //youtu.be/6g5_tuXwOUg
>nobody really cares about this “gender” thing
Sure was a lot of negative comments on the other page for “nobody cares”.
I’d say at least a few care.
Well, you know, we’re not really “people,” so….
Sex, is between your legs; while gender is between your ears! For some of us, our sex and gender, are in conflict!
One is easily determined by a quick physical examination, the other sometimes takes a lifetime to process. The real problem is when the quick physical examination is wrong because of genetics, or hormones that got glitched in utero. There are a significant number of genetic males that have female genitalia because of hormones or lack of same during gestation. And other oddities like female skeletal development with male genitals (King Tut)…
I don’t expect it to happen any time soon, but I would be happy if gender and sexual identity just dropped out of common language except when it is really needed. Doctors need to know which bits you have, because it affects treatment and diagnosis. People need to know which bits you have, and what gender you identify only really insofar as it affects dating and/or marriage prospects.
Corrections –
A) Two groups, jerks that demand people be a certain way and jerks that demand others memorize their sexual behavior and belief quirks.
B) Sex is a biological category that has two divisions in humans, and an intersex category for rare incomplete presentations.
C) Gender is a language categorization method. For example, there are three genders in Spanish and roughly 8 in Swahili (rocks, immobile living things , mobile living animals and so on).
When applied to identity, it represents a meme-package of assumptions about sex and assigned roles. The gender “male” means a different thing in 1900s America than it does in 1940s Turkey than it does in 1830s Texas than it did in 300 BC Greece. “Male” is not even a single distinct thing in 2021 America.
Those meme-packages have been fought against for a half century by the same people who now want to enshrine them in culture and law.
I love the way the Stupid-American community makes fun of people who have actually studied things and know what the hell is what. Like bitching about “The Mainstream Media” – you know, the people who report facts instead of insane QAnon conspiracy theories. Or saying an opinion on something doesn’t count because “It’s just over-represented in academia.” You know, among people who spend a lifetime checking the facts so that they aren’t fucking ignorant.
Every time somebody starts an exposition of an idea with gobs of blather about why I should assume everyone who has spent their lives studying the subject is wrong, or about why I should take them seriously even though they have never studied the subject, it’s very painfully obvious that they are wasting my time.
It is smart to have some respect for people who spend their lives paying attention and keeping track of what actually gets results. If I hear that something is “overrepresented in Academia” I immediately conclude that it’s something I ought to at least consider very carefully. If I hear that something “won’t be reported in the mainstream news” — then I’m just about to hear some bullshit about UFOs or Bigfoot or something equally dear to the Wacko-American minority.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually read a whole lot of things that will never be reported in mainstream media. Some of them are even of groundbreaking importance. But those are mostly technical documents that wouldn’t interest anyone outside my somewhat esoteric technical specialty, and the groundbreaking news won’t even be explainable to most people until they start seeing technology developed from it. At which point it’ll be the new technology that’s the news, and not the fundamental physical properties that made it possible.
And even though those are legit important documents that won’t be reported in the mainstream press – absolutely NONE of them start by talking about the mainstream press. Even though at least one or two a year is from someone who hasn’t got a Ph.D in the field, or who has a degree in an unrelated field, not one of them starts off with a ‘why you should believe me even though I’m unqualified’ preamble. None of them denigrates existing knowledge as “that’s what they want you to think” or similar taglines.
Ignorance is not a virtue. The mainstream press ignoring something does not make it more credible. An opinion that’s overrepresented among people who reason about facts FOR A LIVING is likely to be a reasonable opinion based on facts.
So, no. Presenting something as ‘good’ because people who’d know better don’t believe it? That’s a hard No. Not buying it, not drinking that Koolaid, and probably about to laugh in your face.
Seriously. Being stupid is bad enough. Don’t try to tell everyone else we should be stupid too.
or materials relating to creative things that wouldn’t interest anyone outside my particular set of hobbies.
“What is less fine is if groups of people decide their beliefs are to be unassailable truth and that anyone who disagrees is just asking to be attacked, slurred, and cancelled.”
That’s a nice thought, if universally applied.
Did anybody else notice that Sydney’s hand is glowing after she gets the skill tree up?
Yes I saw it. It’s the “point” she now gets to spend on the skill tree. We’ve seen it before.
As she state
Their her “dings” she needs to spend.
So what does the spinning “Wheel of Fortune” action with her Halo mean? It she seem to knew what i mean but i don’t get it. – _ –
It’s telling her she’s got an upgrade coming. We’ve seen it before.
She leveled up.
Does anyone have a link to the Grrl Power wiki (or, alternatively, knows what happened to it)? I can’t seem to find it.
Ok, I finally found a link in the comments. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-447-grand-kawaii-seizure/comment-page-2/#comment-457362 It seems to be down or something. ☹️
https://grrl-power.wikia.com/wiki/Cast
Found this though, https://jcc10.gitlab.io/GrrlPowerSkilltree/ .
This should be updated. We can already see that center.unknown isn’t what Sydney purchased in #672 so she must have got center.PPO.
Dang, someone put a bit of work into that.
I am not terribly thrilled about today’s page. While it is a very ‘sydney’ thing to do, I feel it makes a bit much too light of the very real trauma and potential PTSD people experience who are in that situation.
While I understand (and like) that the tone of the comic leans towards ‘light’ and even ‘slapstick’, I think this is one of those issues that should have been handled with a bit more seriousness.
Sydney has been through too much in a very short amount of time that her ‘oh she has ADHD and a short attention span’ can be used as an excuse for ignoring the realistic condequences. Her behaviour at the start of the counselling session is about what I would expect from her, at the least. And the joke about asking for magical wisdom to make all the scary things go away is very Sydney, so there is still plenty of room for sillyness even while the story acknowledges that our heroine is currently somewhat messed up and will need quite a bit of help from both Dr Frost and Maxima (who she looks up to in a big way) to learn how to cope with what happened to her and how it affected her.
Any psychiatrist would be quite alarmed by Sydney’s behaviour and assume that she is attempting to suppress her memories and emotions. She would be on the phone with Maxima and tell her to pull Sydney off active duty and even off any conflict oriented training until the psychiatric staff can get her to sit still and listen to what they have to teach her. Not doing so is where PTSD lies, and you really do not want somebody starting to disassociate with the kind of powers that Sydney has available.
That’s a good take.
According to Dr Frost in a previous strip when talking to Maxim, Arianna and the doctor over sandwiches and tea, Sydney may simply be too excitable and distractable to remain traumatized for very long.
I would post the link but I am waiting in my car on my phone so I can file something.
it may not be the same with everyone or as immediate, but it will manifest and may not even make sense to her as she has an anxiety attack because some small thing was treated as the trigger by her subconscious like the mixed smell of gun metal and concrete, or sitting still while getting a shot in the same arm they drugged her, but the other arm nothing. Maybe some background sound she didn’t notice at the time like the wind hitting the plastic flaps. You could feel stressed all night and not know why till later when you undress and are alone and calmly realize some right bit of clothing or jewelry was rubbing up against a spot where you were held against your will , shot, or stabbed. Little things like that can do it even when you don’t seem like the type to focus on it.
Found the page and can post it now that I’m on a computer instead of a phone.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-753-a-civilized-abeyance/
According to Dr. Frost, Sydney is simply too … ah… distractible to fixate on the type of stuff that can give people PTSD. :)
I assure you, you don’t NEED to focus on it for it to affect you. The subconscious is an asshole.
I’m just saying what Dr. Frost said in the comic. I’m not a psychiatrist or psychologist. :)
People deal with things in different ways. This was only a requested emergency meeting, by sydney, to talk about how she felt right this minute. It does not mean she will not talk this out more later, or that she doesn’t need to spend time on it later as well.
What this scene really is, shows Sydney needed to vent a little, not that she wanted to get super deep into unpacking what happened. That will come in her own time, during the regular sessions with the doctor. And yes, it is very, VERY normal for people to just shove there thoughts and emotions down.
Lastly, Sydney isn’t suppressing her thoughts and emotions, she literally just talked to her therapist about them – who will now help Sydney to deal with them. But why would anyone have an issue with something that makes a patient happy? (if sydney had done the Ding Therapy instead of talking to the therapist, then you might be right)
I’m thinking Sydney is ecstatically glad to have an excuse to not have to think about all this for a bit. As it is, she’s miles ahead of many others by actually requesting some time to talk about it, and indeed talking about it, however briefly the actual talking turned out to be.
She will need to return to this or it will return to her, but as of yet I’m not worried she’s not on the ball. And she does have some great support available, which has also been made clear in the comic. Played for laughs, but it’s there.
Sydney is NOT a ‘normal’ person by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, few people truly are, no matter what they may think.
I understand this page on a deep level. I have very bad AD/HD and have had it most of my life that I remember. When I was 14, one of my eyes stopped working, so I lack depth perception. For an even better recipe for frustration, add a mix of bullying and idiot school systems in the 1980s to the mix. I have never been in a war unless you count constant unremitting emotional abuse from a sister with a personality disorder as such. I have been shot at. I worked as an EMT and saw a bunch of very bad stuff. I do know what trauma is but I think my AD/HD is a benefit in some ways, because the hurt doesn’t STAY with me. It comes back at odd times, so I am not healed and I may never be. Drugs work when they want to and not a moment longer. Small wonder I nearly ate a bullet several times. I am better, now, but it was a long road and it only gets rougher as I age.
Sydney thinks fast. She reacts fast. She changes from moment to moment. Dr. Frost is trying to help her but Sydney is Sydney. This one hits close to home and I can relate. Not the upgrading powers deal, but the flightiness and silliness that comes and goes as fast as the rage does. This is about helping Sydney cope with what happened. She is. Not well, but then again, She is Sydney.
It is not making light of PTSD. It is making light of Sydney’s reaction to hers. (And yes, I BET her therapist will need therapy after all this)
Definitely an understandable take, and I somewhat agree. though I would add this: a level up would probably be somewhat therapeutic on its own, since it represents an increase in power and increased ability to handle dangerous situations like th one she was just worrying about. probably not wholly sufficient, but something.
It’s also probably going to be a short lived therapeutic. I mean, she dinged, so she’s really happy right now, but she’s going to crash again after this.
That said, because she had this discussion, and possibly from the ding, she probably won’t crash as hard.
For what it’s worth, I’ve seen guys have the same sort of recovery due to a sudden and unexpected erection. To be fair, none of them had a gun pointed at them at some point in the prior day, as far as I’m aware. But going from suicidally depressed to happy and optimistic because an attractive member of the opposite sex walked by and they reacted to it like this is still a very stark turnaround.
(To be clear, none of the guys I saw have that reaction had any sort of long term relief in the time I knew them. To be fair, I think part of the problem was they kept having successful one night stands and otherwise super short-term relationships without any real emotional connection, and they didn’t seem likely to change on that note while they could still get it up and “score” without any real emotional connection.)
I was a little concerned about putting a psychiatrist in the comic, because it means either I take emotional trauma seriously and the comic drifts into a darker place while I show Sydney dealing with serious repercussions of her experiences, and people complain about the comic becoming too grim, or I at least show that Sydney isn’t entirely immune to harrowing experiences, but attempt to keep her psychological upkeep entertaining, and people complain about it not being taken seriously enough.
Obviously I erred for the later. The comic is going to have action and violence in it, but it’ll always be primarily humorous.
This isn’t to say that Sydney is fully “cured.” I don’t want to make her therapy seem trite, but also don’t want to bog the comic down in, well, a lot of therapy. Also I don’t think I’m particularly well equipped to write those pages even if I wanted to include them.
I’d say stick to your guns. I’m enjoying this comic for what it is and that’s its middle-of-the-road approach. It’s both funny and serious at times and that’s how it was when I first started reading it years ago. Even if people start making demands of what direction this comic should go, just leave those comments in the comment section and ‘stick to your guns’. You had a plan from the start when you conceived this comic. Don’t let others come along and demand you change it just because they don’t agree with you. There are way too many instances happening out there with that kind of thing and to be honest it really needs to stop (woke people, SJW people, leftist feminist people etc.). You’re telling a story that you created. If some don’t like it they can find some other sources of media to complain about. This is your story, own it.
Aside from the fact that you clearly think “the woke’s are ruining everything fun,” you’re right.
Well, he’s definitely Right-wing.
Reminds me of a Teamspeak Acquaintance I recently got into a shouting match with. Guy pretty much made the same jusitification aimed at me for getting angry about stuff, and I pointed this out: “If it was a situation that pissed me off to that degree, that ‘fun’ I ruined didn’t fit the definition of the word.”
Mostly because when I got pissed off, it was due to someone being an asshole and treating someone else like shit. Kinda like I did several times last page.
Mark, you’re entitled to your opinions, but Alt-right nutcases are just as much if not MORE responsible for censorship. I don’t disagree with the statement that Uber-SJWs and Straw Feminists are a problem. I mean, I find political correctness to be lazy AF (Actually LEARN the holidays someone celebrates), and I’ve gotten yelled at for HOLDING A DOOR OPEN OUT OF COMMON COURTESY by a Straw Feminist before.
But the blunt fact here is regardless of the political spectrum, This Webcomic is Dave’s intellectual property. He can do with it as he wills. Regardless of what any of us think, or where on the Political Spectrum we lie. We can complain or rejoice about his choices, sure, but at the end of the day, they’re HIS choices to make.
Just like it’s his choice to ban people from the comment section if they get too rowdy.
How have I never heard “straw feminist,” before? I love it!
Straw Feminists are basically what most guys assume all feminists are.
A real feminist wants equality. Straw Feminists want female superiority.
I’m fine with equality. i have a problem with people expecting utterly ridiculous amounts of special treatment.
I guess I mean “I’m okay with being equal to you. I’m not okay with you thinking you’re better than me.” But I think that’s pretty much common sense.
I love it.
I’m learning so much!
Never said I was right wing either. They too have issues as you’ve stated, but right now it’s the far left that’s rattling their sabers. If my earlier comment sounded right wing that was not the intention. I can’t exactly clarify things unless I’m speaking to said person face to face, which chat forums of any kind make difficult. All I can say to people who love what they do is ‘stick to your guns’. Others whom cause trouble deliberately for the rest of us need the Full Metal Jacket version of boot camp. That Drill Sargent will put them in their place.
I kind feel like you didn’t see how the first act ended.
Mark, to be blunt, they’re rattling their sabers right now because for the last four years the Right went on a murder spree, and ended with trying to an attempted coup. In the US.
Fun fact btw. There actually isn’t a left wing in the States if you compare it to nearly every other country right now. American Dems are actually Centre-Right compared to the rest of us. The GOP for the most part currently is far-right, to the point the CPAC Stage was an SS Othal Rune.
The reason why Republicans nowadays get compared to Nazis is they’re going down the same path. And people tend to forget that they got voted in for pretty much the same reasons, i.e. Blaming a specific group for their problems (Immigrants, Muslims, Asians).
The US is so freaking polarized right now no one there even knows where on the Political spectrum they actually are anymore.
Ehh… how did we go to talking about the government..? I wasn’t referring to them. Just ordinary folks like us who feel the need to tell the rest of us what we can and cannot do now because it’s “offensive” in their eyes. Kinda like your below post of your Creative Writing Instructor dictating what you can and cannot wright in terms of humor. Did you go along with him or did you stick to your guns and do what you wanted to do?
“Ordinary folks like us.”
What about ordinary folks who _aren’t_ “like you?”
Or do those even exist?
ROFLMAO. Murder Spree. Wow. The reason Republicans are compared to Nazis is because the left is lazy and vapid, that’s all.
I know where you got the bullshit “coup attempt”. That nonsense language was DNC talking points echoed by the media for months, without evidence, and long before anything happened that you could even stretch into pretending it was a coup.
However, realistically, if Trump had told his audience that day to go lynch the Democrats and take over the government, they would have been lynched. That was not Trump breaking into the Capital, any more than it was Biden burning stuff down in Oregon and Washington.
The inability to use the same standards for one side as the other is the evidence that the brain has been turned completely off by most Americans on both sides.
Tell the hundreds of police officers injured on the 6th that. The only reason it didn’t succeed was them, and the National Guard.
I dare you.
There ISN’T a Left in the States anymore. There’s Center, and there’s Right. And then there’s the GOP that’re so fucking right they need a telescope to see the other members of their party. I’m not an American. This is how the rest of the world sees you idiots. And there are disturbing parallels to both pre-American Civil War AND 1930s Germany.
So take off your fucking blinders. Or there won’t BE a US inside of two decades because the polarization point you guys’ve hit’ll cause the country to implode. This isn’t doomsaying. It’s blunt fact. When someone tells you that everyone else is wrong, and only he and his supporters are right? Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, HE’S TRYING TO BE A FUCKING DICTATOR, not a president.
And Asian-Americans are dying because of shit he’s said. Because he made them a target. The GOP as it is needs an enemy, because they don’t know how to do anything OTHER than attack people.
https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2017/10/05162647/10-05-2017-Political-landscape-release.pdf
You think the whole world is in the same place while the U.S. is shifting to the right… Not according to an actual study. According to Pew; the U.S. has shifted left.
I ask you; how do you think the Germans were tricked into supporting mass murder? Hmm?
You’ve already lost your ideological baseline and haven’t yet realized.
Before one of you jokers comments “but that’s 2017!” here’s the 2019 UBI propaganda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNtFhrqNRdo
Then, in 2020 Donald Trump, a Republican, instituted this socialist program.
How that for right-wing?
I see.
So, why are Democrats compared to Soviet Communists?
I think it’s because in politics, there are two axes.
1) The Left/Right Axis – which has to do with progressive (pushing ahead/experimental/exploratory) and conservative (remaining grounded/traditional/tried and true methodology). Both are necessary btw for a truly functional society and usually when a society breaks down, it’s because one of these sides winds up having too much power instead of some sort of balance or back-and-forth.
2) The libertarian/authoritarian axis – which has to do with the amount of power a government has on the individual. The more centralized the government is, the further it is from the individual, and more authoritarian it is. ie, the further the government is from the People, the more authoritarian the government is likely to be, because they become less directly accountable to the people.
So whatever quadrant your belief structure comes out on tends to be a reason for the grouping. It’s the reason for most political stereotyping.
Soviet Communists were left authoritarian, so Democrats can often get compared to soviet communists because a significant enough number of elected Democrats are also left authoritarian. It depends though, both parties have variety, but we’ve become very partisan in the last 30-40 years throughout our entire society.
Yeah, stick to it. People will get upset. Many people will get upset. That is one of the main things humans do well as a species.
Courtesy is not derogatory unless you make it so. I too have been yelled at for holding a door for a lady who was in her third trimester. Another lady came along and yelled at me for being a sexist jerk. I looked her in the eyes and said ‘I didn’t do it for you. I did it for her. She deserves more respect than you will ever get form me.’
She tried to slap me and the pregnant lady got her on video. No one said a thing, but the expecting lady and I shared both a facepalm and a nod afterwards.
This is to all the creeps of either gender out there-
You will not change me unless I let you and I won’t.
Back in the 80s, a friend of mine opened a door for one of them. She attempted to kick him in the private parts.
He was trained in Taekwando, so his response was instinctive to the assault. He blocked and counterpunched in a single motion.
Thankfully, most martial arts training does NOT practice with full contact, so his instinctive response halted with his fist hovering millimeters from her face.
Dave, you need to relax.
You do just fine.
*hug*
In my opinion humor is your strongest talent so please keep doing that. Joking about serious matters like emotional trauma can of course be risky but I think you handle it well.
Seconded.
Comedy & Tragedy are separated by the thinnest of margins, and Comedy can often help us get a handle on Tragedy. As someone who has various trauma-related issues, I want to say, Dave does a good thing here, and does it well.
Thirded.
Humor is also incredibly subjective anyways. It’s why i hated my Creative Writing Instructor for my Special Topics: Humor course. Guy was gay, vegan and had an agenda that he needed to push both those things (As well as push his own books) down your throat, so natch, if you wanted a good mark, you had to share HIS sense of humor. You weren’t allowed to have your own.
I didn’t hate him for being Gay or Vegan, mind you. I had a problem with being told what I was allowed to find funny or not, especially since the mark really shouldn’t been for how we used specific techniques we were taught in the class, not the content.
An occasional oblique reference is all that is needed. Most boring and repetitive stuff should happen off screen, and most actual therapy sessions are boring and repetitive.
True story.
Yeah, therapy is rarely ever the way it is portrayed in media. Once in a while you get to see one of those big breakthroughs but mostly it is pick a issue to work on and grind it down. It doesn’t seem like you are making much progress and then hopefully one day you realized that things are a little better.
The biggest problem is that she has yet to face any consequences of her actions. Sidney’s grasp on Reality is already dubious at best. Remember, this is the same girl that got tricked by hand puppets in the bathroom. The time she died because she used an unknown power and came back due to a save point would have been a big eye opener for Sidney, IF she hadn’t got distracted by Pixel Hacking Reality comes to mind. It really does justify the Jangling Keys doodle if you think about it.
Speaking of MeatBlanks, are the bodies considered, like, mobility aids or something? Are they defined as medical equipment for purposes of regulation and insurance coverage?
Also, at least on iOS Safari, the vote incentive only shows one image—the impression I got is that it’s supposed to show nine, with a tenth available on patreon? But I may have misunderstood.
Wait, reread the vote incentive text, never mind that bit.
MeatBlanks could be used for a lot of things. The ultimate in spare body parts after space shark accidents, full body replacements, etc, but I primarily thought of the site as being mostly specific to the flame demon race. It’s possible there are other races in the galaxy that could make use of ready to go mindless bodies.
Not for nothing, but assuming a complete identity-personality consciousness transfer is feasible, I can easily imagine this service becoming instantly popular, even culturally integral, right here on Earth.
Especially if various neurological conditions/damage could be corrected in the blank, allowing the person occupying it to resume/develop normatively (again.)
that would be one of the on-going plot themes in Ghost in the Shell with prosthetic bodies.
Ikr?
Love that franchise…
Setting trans folk like myself aside a moment, imagine the demand in the furry community. Or fantasy fans. Or just people with weird body modification & experimental biology fetishes?
on the fetish side that reminds me.
When looking up robotics I came upon “real dolls” and the growing sex/companion doll market. What really struck me aside from the prices and the growing demand for heated bodies and the more expensive ones trying to incorporate Alexa like parts and all that “companion” type stuff was just how…plain they were.
Yes many variations on hair color, body proportions, eye color, and a handful *not well made and kind of cringy on the less than four foot height* anime style ones.
yet aside from RealDoll having elf ears and some non-human skin tones (blue, green), there isn’t on average much variety. No tails or cat ears, no embracing the robot side and making them look like Cyberpunk robot wives, these sorts of things exist but are really far and between *and often from loess than trustworthy dealers, might well drill a hole in a mannequin levels of poorly made from what I hear*.
But yeah, in the actual fetish and sex robot markets you don’t see cyberpunk and furry stuff as much as you’d think. considering how much they spend to make it at home, it just feels like money being left on the table for companies to say, “we make sex robots” but not actually make some that appeal to that crowd. Same with furry, surely someone with deep pockets would be willing to buy a custom design cat girl realdoll that vibrates while purring with a wall jack to charge up the internal heaters, ect..
Speaking on that, that reminds me that in EVE Online, the Gallente Federation actually has a whole body modder subculture. Course, this is also the Gallente Federation we’re talking about, where pretty much everything is legal. Unsurprisingly, this also means a fair amount of Roleplayers who’re Body Modders either are Gallente, or got whatever procedure was done visiting there.
There’s actually a good look into said subculture in the EVE Novel “The Burning World.” Unsurprisingly, a large amount of it is “Ferals” (Furries, obviously). Multis are alluded to (people with extra parts), and there’s some folks that’re literally just gone the extra mile and are basically turning their bodies into modern art pieces. But then, this is EVE, where Transhumanism doesn’t just exist, it’s par for the course everywhere, even in the incredibly religious Amarr Empire.
It’s probably a question of economics more than technical feasibility.
A ‘Baseline Human’ doll is relatively easy to define, and while there may be myriad combinations of options they’re all still within a relatively small number of variables that can all use ‘real’ Humans as a template. Once you start getting into the exotic options, such easy definitions and available examples no longer exist, so the builder would have to create from scratch rather than being able to base their work on what already exists.
There’s also the question of market size. If you’re going into the customisation market to a meaningful extent, you pretty much have to be able to match whatever the customer asks for. That’s hard enough when they’re (implicitly) restricted to ‘Baseline-Human’ parts, which can be kept in stock even if certain combinations need more work than others to make them match up. But once you get into hard-customisation, the options increase beyond imagining. Instead of being able to mass-manufacture parts to stock and then pick the combination for each build, you’d have to allow for every order to be a complete custom job from blank paper.
(Say customer A wants a 7-foot dragonkin. That custom design isn’t much use for customer B’s 5-foot Bowman’s Wolf. Nor is it even a reliable starting point when customer C asks for a dragonkin, if A and C have been inspired by different artists and therefore have very different ideas of what a ‘dragonkin’ should look like.)
“Customers of Dolls” and “Hard-exotic preference” are already very small markets, in terms of economic viability. It’s probably reasonable to assume that the overlap between those is even more miniscule, to the point that the likely sales would not support the investment needed to serve it effectively. And if the makers know from the start that they wouldn’t be able to serve the market effectively, they may well decide that it’s better not to make themselves hostage to excessively optimistic expectations.
for the pre-fab market or too extreme of variation that would require completely different endo skeletons, I can see the problem.
thinking about it even the more robot like may present some problems given all the effort to make human like texture and here someone wants a stiffer for plates feel or parts to go over it like that.
the pre-made parts is an issue, although i think some of the more expensive ones don’t keep too many pre-made parts out other than unpainted torsos and what not, so have invested in some mold variations like shemale bodies or pointed elf ears.
the idea on the furry would be three simpler market testing.
1: Animalo ears (cat, fox, bunny, ect…) for either the side of the head or put on the head. Although if they try to go full robotics like the head turning and blinking really expensive models these ears could get a tad more complicated. Otherwise just buy some costume ears and stick them on the real doll.
2: tails. Like ears I suppose unless its an interchangeable slot in the back, or they put mechanical parts in so it moves like some expensive costume tails; one supposes the customer could again just tie a costume tail on.
3: fur sleeves. typing this I realized the buyer has that cheap option of just modifying the doll using costume parts, and the benefit of not being permanent. Although fur build on, mechanical tail, and twitching ears would be ideas for testing if people would be willing to buy that.
Much like they don’t need to have ones that talk or have something like Alexa built into them or blinking eyes, but the more expensive custom made ones have the options. the cheaper pre-fab market would likely linger behind to see if it sells well enough and then jump in with *we have it cheap*.
not unlike other businesses and their off brand competitors.
on the original body modification side of this, the cost of healthcare, what insurance covers, and general capitalist’s restrictions on advancements in prosthetics is why despite it being the year 2021, cybernetics never got as big as it could have.
that and cyberpunk being an allegory always had the reverse view somehow that the poor were the ones with all the cybernetic parts and the wealthy more biological. Even if we as a culture got prosthetic body modifications and other cyberpunk ideas as common place, something tells me these “i want to look like a robot, or furry” would still be so fringe you’d be hard pressed to find anyone able to give you those parts that wasn’t a risk or a scam “this isn’t a spinal extension prosthetic fox tail…its just a butt plug with windshield wiper motor in the tail” sort of problem.
Plus, there is “fictional” tech that allows it.
I was thinking like, if these flame demons need bodies, and they can’t (or at least, aren’t supposed to) possess unwilling people, is a MeatBlank something you can pay for with medical insurance (like a CPAP machine or certain other medical devices) or is it treated more like purchasing a car (you’re on your own, get a loan if you need it and you can) or home (the same, but with some government assistance programs out there)?
Hey, maybe the reason the orbs are giving Sydney her level up now is because they have a basic AI that can sense her need. And in this case her need was a emotional pickmeup.
Sydney had discovered that she can “spin up” the orbs to get into the skill tree back on the alien planet, after she blew up a couple of the giant tentacle walkers.
Now, whether this works at any time, or only if Sydney has enough “experience” to get another skill orb is the question – we haven’t seen Sydney open the skill tree when she doesn’t have a skill orb to spend.
The reason for the delay is obvious. Sydney earned roleplaying XP.
Jangle Keys? What is this supposed to be about?
Family Guy reference.
Its also the term for what people do to distract kids or pets with something shiny – you hold the key ring and jingle jangle the keys to make a shiny and noisy distraction that gets your target (the kid or pet) to stop doing what ever its doing.
Probably already know that, but just in case that is not knowing an English idiom
Ah, thanks, I probably should’ve just searched for the translation for “jangle”, but, I didn’t know that this was a “real” English term. :D
Hmm, I’m aware of the shows existance, but, google search for “family guy jangle key/keys” doesn’t return anything helpful to understand what Dr. Frosts strategy with Sydney might be.
Jingle jangle,
it is an old term for ringing small bells, keys make something similar in terms of sounds. saying Jangle is unusual now a days, it is usually shortened to just jingle.
unless one is referencing Christmas bells.
1:13, two elves say their names as Jingle Bells and Jangle Bells
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzHjukaXIKY
Playing a bit on the Attention Deficit … Ooh, Shiny! trope. Warning: the link is to TvTropes.org!
You did just fine, Dave. ^_^
When those old Greek signs were brought into use, originally, they were used to represent the planets Mars & Venus, and their affiliated Greco-Roman deities. Everyone understood what you meant, and no trans people were offended by your chart that you made.
And, For What It’s Worth, “gender” is the descriptive noun, while “sex” is the noun describing the act of binary reproduction. Of course, English being what it is, and people just being people, “sex” is often treated as a descriptive noun alongside but more popular than “gender”. Which is why whenever I see the word “sex” on a profile questionnaire I always put “Yes, please”. Even on my tax returns.
“Sex” is the accurate descriptive noun, and was for centuries. “Gender”, the word used to describe language forms, picked up the slack in the last century when polite people were unable to talk about sex.
The language forms follow from ideas that were shared before they were codified as grammar. Masculine & feminine traits were presumed to exist in inanimate objects, but nobody has ever been able to satisfactorily explain why a table (una Mesa) is “feminine.”
tl;dr, you are, imnsho, playing semantic games.
Well, her name IS “Ms Pedantic.”
She lives up to it XD
Thank you.
Hey, least you’re honest about it.
I can respect that. might not agree, but I can respect it.
So Sydney can role-play for XP? https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html
As long as the stakes are high enough.
I like my “stakes” medium-rare.
Will you be having a sallet with your stake, sir?
I’d like to point out that given how incredibly important and classified the orbs levelling up is, it doesn’t matter if this was a mandated therapy session, the higher ups would want Sydney to come to them IMMEDIATELY before she chooses something stupid. So they’d clear her to leave post-humorously.
Actually, your right, but Sydney also had been under orders to have dabbler, pixel, and maxima look at itthe next chance she got, she just hasn’t been in a situation where she could until now.
is she still in the secure part of the building? wouldn’t do to waltz by a bunch of uncleared people showing off top secret skill tree
Walking by uncleared people with a bunch of sparkly stuff following you would tell them nothing, and they can’t take pictures or anything.
The skill tree hasn’t been classified top-secret, I don’t think. In any case, it’s already been shown to a whole kilogaggle of reporters, who might not have been able to snap pictures of it but who nevertheless have memories and, for that matter, notebooks.
I suspect Dr. Frost would have an office within the secure area, if only to avoid any security headaches about what topics might be touched upon and who might overhear them. Not that there aren’t varying levels of clearance even within ARC, but it at least cuts out the Joe-Public category of passer-by with lowest clearance and highest number.
Note that the existence of the skill tree may be at one level of clearance, but any information about its contents will probably be much higher. Sydney doesn’t appear to be under any time pressure to spend her point, so she doesn’t necessarily need to avoid personnel at ‘existence’-level-clearance while waiting for the analysis group to assemble in a suitably secure briefing room to contain ‘contents’-level discussion.
“Look at the shiney, shiney!” I can live with that being Sydney’s therapy, for now.
I would really like to see a montage sequence of Maxima having to deal with the Aftermath of one of these occurrences.
Especially if it’s right before she uses the frustration/anger from it to help her do something, heroic.
@DaveB; If I remember it correct, Sex in relation to reproduction and the physical parts necessary for it, is a subset of Gender.
That’s why there are instances where the terms are interchangeable.
And instances where they aren’t. Usually in reference to the act of reproduction and “adult fun-time”.
You cannot conflate the two, Gender is who you are, sex is what you are!
Sex is what parts your body has.
As currently modeled, “Gender” is a package of what, because of cultural training, you assume or imagine that means (about yourself or others).
Identity is who you are, and does not need to be shoehorned or labeled by specific gender words.
yay, new power
” terms psychologists use a lot?”
Psychopath is just fine and means a violent remorseless felon to the LE/Mil community. I hope Frost’s background is also from that community because Elite OPs members really don’t want blank stares when they talk details.
on the subject of terms and the APA, they love to come up with new terms and conditions because of all the negative baggage they have created. Example Downs, MPD (multiple Personality Disorder), Sociopathy
Always remember American Psychs are the worst at diagnosis , they label DiD and Gender related diagnosis’ at a rate 10X higher that those in the EU; because it pays.
Having been a psychologist and having worked in a maximum security/forensic setting I can say that psychologists do use the phrase “psychopath”. We also use other phrases. When you work in the milieu day in day out and you need to explain the subtleties of dangerousness and competence for trial to courts and review boards you end up seeking precision in your descriptions. Off the clock I have seen someone whom I would regard as one of the top experts in their field refer to someone as “bug fucking crazy”.
I was lucky enough to work in a facility that didn’t have to deal with insurance companies so much but I witnessed a lot of it indirectly and there is a lot of pressure to bend the diagnosis to fit certain categories. I saw a lot of teens who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder because insurance would pay for inpatient treatment that they wouldn’t get otherwise.
I was in the business long enough to see terminology change. It was before my career but there was a time when terms like “Cretin” and “Moron” had a specific clinical definition. The words creep into common usage and come to be seen as pejorative. Prior to retiring the term “Retarded” was replaced with “Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled”.
Reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the psychiatrist is writing “Just plain nuts” in his notebook.
Sydney just needed 1 more XP to level up and the discovery of “infinifear” put her over the top.
Sydney makes me wonder at what point does relentless optimism turn into denial.
Though I guess upgrading the orbs directly correlates to getting scared less.
we never got to see the end of the first conversation which either sucks because as new characters they would have needed a kickstart on development, or sucks that it was there to begin with if they aren’t coming back.
we never got to see the setup or start of this conversation, which isn’t the end of the world admittedly, but would have given us some indication of time and tone, and would have given you more space to setup the end joke without it being super jarring.
But not only that, the actual transition was possibly the worst it could have been. we went from what seemed to be an aside in a two-person convo for a joke, to a text-wall panel (not always a bad thing but…) in a *different* two-person convo, *with the characters at the bottom of a long panel*. this would have been poor page design imo even if you *hadn’t* just cut through time and space. it requires a mandatory double-read/check ahead to understand whats going on, and even then leaves us feel like we’re missing pages. “jarring” is a huge understatement
now to be clear I love the comic, and can obviously look past this and continue to enjoy it, and the page itself was still decent (once I read it twice and checked the previous). but after you lightly lampshaded it in your commentary and seeing nobody talking about it I felt the need to outline what I felt went wrong in the hopes you fix it for future readers.
if ever there was a page you were going to majorly rework, or a spot to insert extra pages, this is where it should happen.
About the vote incentive – I agree with comments above about the body being over-twisted to show both sides.
However, it’s good to see some girls with nearly normal chest measurements. The Grrl Power standard is “cow udders for boobs”, and that’s a bit off-putting at times.
From experience, real women vary hugely, from walnut to melon size. A small number of women naturally have mega ones, and most of them find that size is a serious life problem. They get in the way of everything, and cause a lot of body pain. A good friend had an operation to reduce hers substantially, and all she misses is the back pain she suffered from the time she was a teenager.
Online porn has led a whole generation to believe that absurdly big is normal. Or even that it’s normal to prefer absurdly big. And yes, dear, that applies to both male and female bits.)
For me, it’s the faces that are seriously munched up
As for the breast sizes, you are forgetting: all Supers have the ‘ideal’ body shape (including the larger breasts), these three ladies? None of them are the typical ‘Super’: Pixelicious is only a Super in her hybrid-form, Sydney is more of a ‘tech-hero’, and Kronachrome is… what ever she does with the Universal base-code
And if you believe online porn has ‘led a whole generation to believe that absurdly big is normal’, then you simply haven’t been looking at enough real porn
I guess it’s all a matter of opinion or personal taste.
I enjoy the comic, and follow it, but I don’t see the Grrl Power super-ladies as “ideal body shape”. The excessive boobage is a bit jarring at times, and adds no value for me.
I love Sydney for many reasons, but one is that she’s nearly normal in appearance. (But not in behaviour.)
I’m not sure what you mean by your last sentence. It’s worth noting that commercial porn sites list normally built women as “petite”. Indeed, I have often seen comments suggesting that women with small boobs must be underage.
The ‘ideal body type’ is the in-universe explanation for why all Supers are well-toned, buff, with zero-body hair and the women have a minimum of a D-cup
K-Puff is clearly a Virtual Adept, of the Reality Hacker school. ^_^
As a counselor, I can attest that we definitely let ourselves go when off the clock. We say a lot of things that we wouldn’t say in front of a client. But the way we say things doesn’t change that much in my experience. You say something a certain way often enough and it just becomes part of your vocabulary. It’s why doctors are so famous for talking above their patients’ heads. The medical jargon isn’t really jargon to them anymore. It’s the best way to describe what is going on. After a while it takes actual effort to say things the way a layperson would.
True, The jargon exists because it serves a purpose and it is not just in the medical field. I would say that any field that involves some level of expertise develops its own jargon. Working in a large psychiatric hospital it often fell to me to act as a translator, explaining a lot of terminology to patients, family members and representative of the community. We had some M.D.s and Ph.D.s who had difficulty explaining things because they couldn’t let go of the need for precision.
VOGON CAPTAIN: Zaphod Beeblebrox.
GAG HALFRUNT: Ahhh-hhh-hh. Zis iz most regrettable.
VOGON CAPTAIN: A personal friend?
GAG HALFRUNT: Ah no, in my profession ve never make personal friends.
VOGON CAPTAIN:Ah, ‘professional detachment’!
GAG HALFRUNT: No, ve just don’t ‘ave ze knack. But Beeblebrox you zee, iz my most profitable client.
I would much rather choose to believe that Sydney was just a few XP short of a level up, and she got a token amount of XP for “good roleplaying” when she made the Infinifear comment.
Where’s the discussion of what she should buy? Is that the next installment?
A ‘Low’ or ‘Stun’ setting for Pew-Pew would be useful.
Right now it’s only suitable against battleships.
It seems like she has ‘Flight’ down. An autopilot? ACAS?
Forcefield… Spherical seems to be the default. Is any other shape really needed?
Airball…. I think it can create other gasses too. Helium? Is Tear gas actually a gas?
CommBall… Now that it’s also a teleport I’m not sure what else it needs.
Lighthook seems OK as is.
Would the current non-emergency be the best time to activate the unknown orb?
Holding it back as an Omega 13 in the final episode?
> “Is Tear gas actually a gas?”
Yes although it’s stored in liquid form, which got me thinking – if she could create *any* gas, not just specific ones, she could manifest *any element at all* in its gaseous form, and potential any combination of elements. That could be both incredibly profitable and incredibly dangerous.
Used to make my DM insane by conjuring liquid hydrogen balls on top of enemy energy sources. o.o’
I actually built a table to correspond the volume to damage ration.
That reminds me of Order of the Stick Elementals that Redcloak comes up with. Because he’s not letting himself be bounded to Earth, Air, Fire, Water. He’ll have a Chlorine Elemental because he understands chemistry. :)
I think Redcloak and Deus would get along like a house on fire. It would be fun to see some more crossover stories.
My personal guess on the orbs dinging is that she was close to the threshold of a level up, and something Dr. Frost said connected enough to give her something like 1 XP, and that was enough to put her over. It may not be combat experience, but it is experience, and it feels pretty unrealistic to have all XP be from combat.
Anyone catch what Dr. Frost wrote in the last panel!? Anyway will she agree with Dr.Chevy that Sydney is indeed a flighty nutcase…!?
Also,how would a female version of this costume would look on Dr. Frost:
https://www.yojoe.com/images/resize/w/MAX/cardback/87/images/psyche34fridgefront.jpg
“Therapeutic Strategy: Jangle Keys”
I think Frost agrees with “flighty”, but I’m pretty sure she’s got too robust of a vocabulary to go with “nutcase”.
Bugs Bunny PhD, on the other hand, would just draw a doodle of a screw and a baseball on his notepad.
I think Frost is mainly saying that Sydney gets distracted so easily that it’s unlikely that most things can fixate in her mind long enough for her to develop any sort of memory that she’s going to keep going back to over and over again because when she suffers from something that, for other people, would be long-term traumatic, you just need to show her something shiny or interesting and she’ll be on to the next thing and focus on that instead. And so on and so on. :)
What the fuck did Sydney do that deserved her balls being levelled up?
Or is Sydney simply being Sydney and forgetting that she can ‘jump-start’ the interface?
My initial thought was that she had some sort of personal revelation concerning her own mortality and fallibility and that counted as psychological growth that earned her enough experience to hit her next level up.
Her life was threatened, and she learned something about herself. Emotional development apparently is considered XP by the orbs.
Maybe the orb levelling is based on the orb-wielder’s actions, not the use of the orbs themselves.
Sort of like when if you’re playing an RPG and you gain a lot of points from using your fists or grinding, you can still use those points for something else, like on power armor use or swords or toaster repair or something.
“Gender” and “Sex” social definitions have been diverging ever since people started giving so much weight to what people “feel like” as opposed to what they physically ARE. Then diverging even more when they try to mandate 3rd party acknowledgement of their feelings via changing their “legal” gender and imposing custom pronoun usage.
That’s what xe said.
so… Sydney is Edward Ellington Humpty Hump Humpheries III
can’t wait to see the rest of the Humpty Dance
You look like M.C. Hammer on crack, Sydney!
“Sydney does have mandated time with Frost, but this visit was by request, not her normally scheduled session, which is why she can pimpwalk out early.”
It’s standard procedure in most modern law enforcement and militaries, especially those of the USA at least, for personnel involved in combat and other life threatening situations to have mandatory counseling afterwards. This obviously gets frequently delayed for practical reasons in an active war zone but in a situation like this Sydney would definitely be required to be cleared by her shrink before returning to active duty. You want to make sure your soldiers and/or police don’t panic, freeze up, freak out and start blazing away indiscriminately, etc the next time something similar happens. I would expect this to be especially firmly enforced with superpowered personnel who have the ability to lay waste to entire city blocks in short order like Sydney can.