Dumbing of Age

Dang I was so sure Carol would be selling the house for some more normal reasons (such as "spent all of her savings on bailing out a gun toting crusader and needs to downsize") but no, she's literally repeating the same nutty things Willis' mother did.

• raises hand* yo professor I gotta go my girl just misspelled "help" four times

As a religious person, I firmly believe that, if God truly wants me to do something, I will get a clear sign. Things in dreams, I assume could be from the Enemy or a bit of bad mustard. The more momentous, and long-term, the more I question it. If I get a voice in my head telling me to duck, I duck. And that has served me in good stead.

Edited by FuzzyBoots on Jun 1st 2023 at 7:50:39 AM

I've had divine experiences and they've sat wrong with me for most of my life, because the idea that g-d can just rock up and tell me to do things feels honnestly like overstepping. I don't have the mortal ability to interpret if I should do what I'm told simply because of the authority involved, and most of the religious institutions I talked to seemed to struggle with the task of scrutinizing my experiences as well.

It's further complicated by me having a history of psychosis. I've been told "no g-d would allow Himself to be imitated" but that's still not very comforting.

Does Carol know if Joe's Jewish? It doesn't strike me as past her to say something anti-Semitic when he shows up, should his and Joyce's relationship become known to her.

Or just even before she knows of either Joe's religion or relationship with Joyce.

Our house in the middle of our street... which is apparently a Welsh turn of phrase? (At least, Fry poked fun at Brydon saying "in England we live in houses.")

"I don't know any transgenders?" I swear I can hear rollerblades out here in the Wistah hills...

(Genuinely, though, I'm kind of wondering why we're doing a title based on parents being surprisingly cool when the arc thus far has been, um, not that.)

Edited by TwinBird on Jun 2nd 2023 at 4:57:41 AM

You know, it occurs to me, we haven't met them, but Carla's parents are probably among the healthiest in the strip, even if they might be a bit enabling. (Them and the Sarazu.)

I think the majority of the cast still assume Carla is cis.

The majority of the cast don't really know Carla that well.

Regardless of Carla, this is proving tension for when a certain Brown family secret gets out. (The transgenders, they're coming from inside the family!)

I mean... no? I feel like if you were stupid enough to call her "cis," she'd knee you. She strikes me as very, very, very, very, *VERY* out and proud.

(Of course, Carla's not really the important one, is she?)

Edited by TwinBird on Jun 2nd 2023 at 5:55:21 AM

How many of the main cast have had reason to call her cis to her face? Carla is out and proud, but to the majority of the cast she is pretty much just a neighbour they see scooting about.

And for a lot of the cast they don't see enough of her to question their assumptions.

I genuinely don't believe Joyce is lying about Carla here, I think Joyce actually thinks she hasn't met any transgender folk yet. (Hillariously wrong)

Edited by Whowho on Jun 2nd 2023 at 10:59:54 AM

She doesn't go around waving an I AM TRANS sign. She just has an I AM CARLA sign.

If you know what to look out for, you can figure her out. If you're only passingly familiar with trans people existing and aren't a nosey person it is entirely possible to miss it.

Mary knows because she's an obsessive bigot and LGBTQ+ people are The Enemy. But Joyce was 100% unaware on arrival, only knows some basics from the gender studies and doesn't have the need to obsessively transvestigate everyone she meets.

This is true, and it has been pointed out to me that we've only ever seen Carla explicitly talk about being trans with Ruth.

Joyce is still just quietly baffled why that tall girl gets a dorm room to herself.

I think it's not uncommon recently for people to come to their own conclusions and just be too polite to gossip about it. Some of the cast could probably see Carla in their gay-dar, but that doesn't mean it's going to be public knowledge.

It's stranger to me that Joyce has forgotten about Booster, who is explicitly out as non-binary to Joyce. Though Booster hasn't been a big deal in Joyce's circle since.

I think Joyce may just consider them as separate categories. Trans people are the one that go from boy to girl or vice versa, Booster is just neither, stuff like that.

She also may just consider them a boy with a quirky preference for addressing them because they live in the boys' side.

That might well be true.

...honestly I'm still wondering why DW decided to do an arc about lousy parents and name it for unexpectedly cool parents.

I've never actually considered what that song by Cheap Trick is actually about.

...I mean, it's less than subtle.

Huh? Honestly I don't even remember that. What I do remember is - I can't actually find it, but Sal says "you're tall [so she'd be good at roller derby]," Carla says "there's a reason," and Sal responds "ah know; they won't care."

Edited by TwinBird on Jun 2nd 2023 at 7:08:59 AM

In short I'm saying people know and for the most part don't care that Carla is trans. (And also are fans of Cheap Trick.)

Edited by TwinBird on Jun 2nd 2023 at 7:16:57 AM

Even that example shows Carla being less than explicit.

It doesn't surprise me that Sal would be able to recognise Carla as trans but Joyce wouldn't.

Sal spends more time in Carla's circle.

It is kind of surprising to me that Carla is so in your face about a lot of her identity, but her gender identity not so much. I can think of a dozen good reasons as to why that might be the case however.

I do have to think that when Joyce drew erect penes on every door, Carla very loudly said it would've been a hate crime if it'd just been hers.

Edited by TwinBird on Jun 2nd 2023 at 7:22:20 AM

...the word is third declension.

As I said, though, if it hadn't been the case than Joyce had been drawing dicks on every door, Carla woud've told all the world she was the victim of a hate crime (and but for Joyce drawing dicks on every door, she wouldn't have been wrong).

EDIT: Thinking about it, strictly speaking, it would've been a hate "incident" rather than an actual crime; those of you who spend enough time here know I'm a bit to the right of this forum's general vibe, but I hope we can all agree that to draw a penis on a trans woman's door is an odious act, but I don't think it's an actual crime, although I assume it's expulsible.

Edited by TwinBird on Jun 2nd 2023 at 7:53:25 AM

I mean, Carla did openly yell out during the "Ding Dong Bandit" incident that drawing a dick on her whiteboard would constitute a hate crime before realizing it wasn't just her whiteboard it was drawn on causing her to admit it's Actually Pretty Funny, so I think some of the floor has a good idea she's trans without having outright confirmation.

But yeah, Joyce seems to have always been in the dark about Carla being trans, as far back as when Becky first showed up she said Carla gets her own room for "some reason" And it was established that, for a long time, the only ones who definitively knew were Ruth, due to being the Resident Advisor, Billie, due to overhearing what happened, Mary, due to being a general bitch who figured it out on her own, and Sal, Malaya, and possibly Marcie, due to Carla nominally being their friend.

EDIT: I got 'd. This is what I get for taking so long.

Said establishment also stating that Carla's entire "asshole" routine is her way of sticking it to people who expect her to be "perfect" and "nice" just cause she's trans, even though it's partially a Jerkass Façade and that, when left to her own devices, she's more likely to help out for no personal gain. Like:

• Amber getting glass shards in her head and her helping to remove them
• Keeping an eye on Ruth for Billie which prompted her revealing to everyone Ruth was suicidal when she saw how bad it really was and keeping it a secret got to be too much
• Making Joyce proper shower shoes when she didn't even know Joyce at that point and later helping with her busted toe
• Giving some advice to Malaya when they start having gender identity issues
• Letting Sarah use her corporate Zoomer account to take Liz home, and while she frames it as doing it so they'll annoy eachother, Joyce rightfully points out it was just her being helpful.

She just doesn't want people to know she cares.

She was sick of being overlooked and ignored in general, for people hating her for things beyond her control, for people being "sleeper agents" that could hate her the moment they learn she's trans, or only being noticed because she made the papers, so she figured she'd make everyone pay attention to her by acting like an asshole, give them a reason to see her and not her gender first, when beneath it all, she's not a genuine asshole. She's just someone desperate for attention after being denied it properly for so long, and figured the only way to get it was by acting like an asshole. And she's much preferable to everyone else as a result compared to the genuinely horribly people like Mary.

Billie: I do hate Carla, but I'd rather fifty of her than you.

She also somewhat knows when to stop, as she didn't push the envelope with Ruth following her suicide attempt. And it's shown that when dealing with people she knew before college, she drops the facade entirely, like when she runs into Harrison again since he was her family's lawyer, or when she drops telling Joyce that Becky and Dina had sex when Ruth says she'll tell Carla's parents about her antics.

Overall, she's just an Attention Whore who wants people to notice her for reasons she decides, and can get lonely otherwise all while denying it. It's why Charlie seemingly ignoring her got to her so much, it's her once again being overlooked and ignored when she wants nothing more than to be acknowledged.
Commenter "Doctor_Who" was absolutely right in their comparing Carla to Whirl from Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, since she really is a womanchild acting like an asshole for attention and coping with her own issues, when at her core she's at worst a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.

Edited by RebelFalcon on Jun 2nd 2023 at 7:32:42 AM