Sinfest

I don't know, this seems rather new for Tats. It seems highly unusual for him to even depict Nique this way. I'd say it is a major turnabout in characterization.

I think it makes sense to treat feminism and prostitution separately in this comic, because Tats keeps the two issues separate through use of his character types. Note that all overtly feminist characters are children or older women, and thoroughly desexualized, with the very notable and recent exception of Auntlers.

The various prostitutes and strippers, meanwhile, consist of Devil people and fembots. These characters do not show overtly feminist ideals, instead they are there to be lectured/freed by (human) feminist characters. Two notable exceptions are Nique, and to some extent, Slick. Note also that these two have been singled out to be "demonified" by having distinctly demonic shadow halves.

Also, Tats' commentary on pornography and sexuality goes back much farther than his feminist commentary. He could be critical of these even without the radfem angle he later applied, pointing out hypocrisies and double standards. But even then, he was much more sex-positive back then than he is now (just look at Nique pre-Sisterhood). While radfem has influenced his thinking on sexuality, it clearly was present before radfem showed a clear influence on him. Also consider that first wave feminism mainly focussed on the political side of things, and largely left the sexual subjects alone.

Like, for example, racism and slavery, the two can go together in certain situations, but that does not mean the one cannot be discussed without the other, because both subjects can occur without the other.

I'd say it is a major turnabout in characterization.

Perhaps. But there have been other opportunities for reconciliation that Fate (i.e., Tats) has ruined. Remember when Slick tried to send e-mail to Monique telling her he was happy for her and he hoped her new relationship worked out? And then Sleaze somehow inserted anti-lesbian insults into the message ...

So I wouldn't count on it. In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar, "It's a trap!"

Personally I'm in the camp that I hope this arc ends with Slick realizing Monique is NOT worth it. And telling her to go fuck off when she tries to "reconcile".

... I'm of the camp that hopes Monique will have a My God, What Have I Done? epiphany, pull a Heel–Face Turn, apologize to Slick and Squig for being such a radfem-obsessed bitch, and from then on try to strike a balance between "Old Monique" (whom she started to regret being even before she converted to the Sisterhood's RadFem ideology, over the many men she unwittingly damned to Hell by tempting to give in to their lusts) and a saner kind of feminism. In other words, become a sex-positive nonradical feminist.

Call me a cynic but I doubt this will lead to a significative change in Monique's behaviour.

This is either gonna be a pleasant surprise or a disheartening, but expected double-downing.

Or it's gonna be dropped in favor of entirely unrelated things for a week or two before either of the two events happen.

An alternative interpretation of events — I make no claims that it's true, just that it can't be ruled out:

Monique is a big success. Her performances (of whatever the heck she does) have sellout crowds, she has adoring fans, she seems to have made her reputation as the world-famous "It-Girl."

But when she dumped Slick as a friend, she was a miserable failure who was being pelted with garbage by the audience. She had a tin ear as far as tuning her message to what the audience wanted to hear.

So why is Monique so successful? What changed? Well, Absinthe came into her life, and Monique seduced her.

Abby is a devil girl ... one who works directly for Big D himself. She seems sweet and innocent and harmless, but if that's her true nature then how did she acquire the horns and tail? Why is she working for Satan? Why would a devil girl be nice?

My answer: Because she's a succubus — a demon who specializes in seduction. A smart one.

And Monique is a success because Abby has been pulling strings to help her career. But not to Monique's benefit.

El Diablo has been trying to get Slick to sell his soul since the early days of the comic, and the Author Avatar supposedly sold his own soul for fame and fortune. So why wouldn't the Devil try to get Monique's soul by whatever means he can?

I'm not saying this will ever be revealed as the cause of Monique's success and recent events, but it's something that Tats might be keeping in his back pocket in case he ever decides to break from radical feminism.

edited 26th Aug '16 8:06:39 PM by Hexapodia

New comic: http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2016-08-27

Has Tats ever explained the relationship of those two? Where did she come from and what powers does she have?

The man does not take criticism well, does he?

Figured as much. *sigh*

Seriously, tats you want this crap to stop, reboot the world, have monique go to the devil or hecate and have her do something that would grant her to get "the world they need". Then the world conforms to the new standard, Slick is not an ex-friend, but rather a fan that takes his 'love' for monique too far, he's friends with squig but no realitionship was ever there. The sisterhood is around forever, and the devil is abducting women to turn into fembots to serve his male chauvenism. Monique has no recolection of the old world, and also means that we have nothing to stand on, so when they say "monique used to be fun" in the comic, we have no clue if this is true or not because it's a new world.

Is it a cheap copout, yes it is, but it's better than just deciding that any criticism on your story is just males being assholes to your feminist masters.

So we have another Take That, Audience!, with Tats saying that anyone who likes the old Monique is a chauvinist. Really, this is just immature; instead of taking the criticisms as a means to better his comic, he goes and whines about how no one likes what's become of things.

Dood, bro, Guy, Man, Male, Daddieo. Aren't you subtle Tats?

You want to know something though Tats? Something that should really keep both you and Monique up at nights?

None of them are wrong, and you know that.

@ Hexapodia: No. Tats hasn't explained shit about Demonique. She just showed up one day. As for powers, she can interact with the real world without possessing Monique like Evil-Slick has to with Slick.

edited 26th Aug '16 10:11:13 PM by Metalix

No. Because that's letting Monique off and removing any wrong doing on her end.

I really,really don't get why he's giving everyone these "demon" personas. Slick got his from something that actually happened. You think that'd make that important or unique. But then the others just get demon things because "crappy metaphor that makes no sense" and "hug your demon bro".

THIS.

Honestly I still see this as a good sign. Not the BEST that you could imagine but you can't ask for miracles. Nique is not only remembering Slick and Squid fondly and thinking about them in the present, but reading this criticism of how she's changed and "restraining her demon", making an effort to not overreact to it. If Nique is symbolic of Tats here, that read to me as him remembering his old fanbase fondly and trying not to be too upset about the criticism they now levy. Combine that with Squig's "hug your inner demon" and this looks like it may hint at an attempted fusion of old and new Sinfests. We can at least hope.

I would have taken it as a better sign if Tats hadn't used Dood, Bro, Guy, Man, Male, and Daddio as the names of Monique's critics. (By the way, Tats, if you want to be hep you should spell it "Daddy-O.")

Its pretty simple, actually. Tats wants to depict all sexual characters as demons in his comic, but three of his main characters are not demons while still showing sexuality. So he gives them demon shadows instead. Squig was the last holdout until a few days ago.

As for today's comic, note that Nique is implied to NOT agree with Demonique's reaction to these posts, and is trying to calm her down. Nique is basically telling her demon form that the comments are not worth getting upset over, and definitely not getting the pitchfork out for.

Also, those posts could very well reflect Tats' own feelings as well. After all, Tats is male as well. He, like no one else, should know how interesting and fun Nique was to write for when she was still carefree and being herself. And he clearly enjoyed drawing her that way. Part of him must still feel like that, or why wouldn't he have put her on a bus altogether? Or stopped her being It-girl?

My take on it is that the first seeds for the demonic selves existence were sown on the day the characters began indulging in their sins (porn for Slick; porn, food and crack for Squig; and being a boy-crazy sexual Attention Whore for Monique), and they grew over time ever since then; that's why you see demon!Squig at the Hell's Hole in that one strip, along with a demon!Sam (his sin being obviously supposed to be his actions as an exploitative superpower).

What happened to Slick, IMO, is that the Nameless Green Devil Girl's bomfing of him made his demon self even worse by making him more autonomous, with the ability to affect reality a lot more than is typical for a demon self.

Missing from comic: URL:tvtropes.org

Why Tats still after all these years keeps obsessing about her ass is beyond me. No one ever said they miss her ass. The other things mentioned? We did! Her ass? Not even once!

He's just pining for the past like us, he just won't admit it to himself.

Because he's the only person who thinks people hate current Monique because she's not showing her ass anymore. Instead of you know....her personality which rivals Emo Dante in levels of unlikeable asshole.

edited 27th Aug '16 8:58:54 AM by yamiblade

Who is Emo Dante? Was he really that unlikable in the Divine Comedy?

The Dante in the reboot to Devil May Cry, Dm C: Devil May Cry. He was regarded as being an unlikable Douchebag.