Questionable Content

author-twitter has been going on all about diversity the past few months and it's been gr8. i think this tweet sums it up best for the people in the back: not being inclusive is already a political choice

Everyone is at least a little bi, except for one dude, but he has two dads so we can have this scene:

Yeah, that's about the response I expected from Jacques.

Pretty much, yeah.

For the record, "everyone is a little bi" is a shit response that devalues the bisexual identity.

But not unexpected from a straight dude I suppose.

Or simply "in this universe, everyone is a little bi".

Meh, it's Jeph's world and this is not a pain point for me.

Always hilarious when people see creators writing same-sex relationships because that's what interests them and what they believe in and accusing them of pandering.

Oh wait, no. The other thing.

Like I've said before, I have no issues with LGBT stuff, it only bothers me because Faye has given no indication of being gay or bi in the past.

So if a character's sexuality isn't stated in their introduction, they must be 100% straight forever?

I'm not sure if the better example of evolving sexuality in comics is Robin Desanto (slowly coming to realize that she's been a terrible friend to her lesbian accessory Leslie and through that realizing how important Leslie actually is to her) or the autobiographical comic Erica Moen wrote about the process of discovering "I'm a lesbian, no wait, I wanna date this guy now, I guess I'm a lesbian with an exception? No, you know what? I'm not gonna bother labeling myself."

edited 5th Nov '17 1:56:37 PM by TParadox

Don't put words in my mouth. Before Bubbles, Faye never showed interest in girls. She did show interest in guys. Compare to Dora, who was open about her bisexuality from the start.

I do think Robin in SP was handled much better though.

edited 5th Nov '17 1:55:17 PM by Yinyang107

It's a slow burn. I don't think Faye really knows what she's feeling yet.

Also, as per discussions in the El Goonish Shive forums, it doesn't have to be sexual, either.

Oh she looks cute.

Who's ready for the next hundred page arc focusing on a brand new female character Jeph gets a fixation on?

And if Jacques's recent outburst (and history of this comic, really) is to be used as a indicator of things to come, she'll be the one to finally work Hanners through her people problems and teach her to love.

edited 6th Nov '17 5:58:14 AM by Xeroop

Nah. He knows therapy doesnt work like that, amd to be honest Hanners has been working through a lot of her neuroses on her own, and in one case has just been too tired from working food service to acknowledge them.

Jeph does generally seem to avoid the "you just have to meet the right person" way of dismissing sexuality.

Faye and Bubbles?

Oh good. A Jeph Jacques outburst and then character introduction in quick succession.

I don't disagree with him politically, but god do I find him exhausting as a person and artist. Like, he has no ability to focus whatsoever, does he.

Is it better to write a cast you've grown tired of or introduce new characters at the expense of the old ones? Even Claire and Marigold, formerly his big breakout stars, are sidelined.

I don't disagree with you but I think it's a cool thing to think about.

And, yeah, there's nothing tackier than a middle aged man going on a big SJW rant, and I say that as a raging SJW myself.

edited 6th Nov '17 10:54:19 AM by Mr.Badguy

I mean he was provoked.

Yeah but then deciding he's going to use queer identity issues to make this guy mad is also, I dunno, childish.

Why can't he just say "I include queer characters because I want to and it is the right thing to do." Why do these middle aged straight guys always gotta sing about how progressive they are instead of just doing it because representation of marginalized groups matters?

Well, that's what he was doing until someone asked why he was doing it.

Albeit, he then reacted with a little too much vigor but before then he was just putting in queer characters w/o much comment?

Rrrrright? I haven't been super paying attention.

Yeah, he was one of the first established webcomic writers to include a trans character, at least as far as I can remember, and definitely the first to have them in a relationship with the main character of the comic (at least at the time).

I wouldn't call it brave, because I don't think a middle aged, straight white guy with an established base of leftists who want trans representation was taking a risk, but he did it, and people were happy. I think you could say that he showed his peers you can have trans representation and a popular comic, but I don't know if that's giving him too much credit.

He clearly isn't doing it for credit, or else he'd be making a big announcement every time he introduced a character. Now he's specifically making a point of doing it out of spite, which does resonate with a lot of marginalized identities.