Questionable Content

Eh, things like "exotic" are more based off of the fact that it wasn't that long ago that most people never left their home town, let alone visited foreign nations. I mean, Jenny Lind was basically as "exotic" as any "Nubian princess" that Barnum exhibited.

Where we get into trouble are people who are just ticking off a checkbox or only considering people for their foreignness. That's the other sort of "exotic", the "this person is different from what people see around here and that is what is important about them", and it happens all over the world without imperialism.

And the award for the least surprising QC strip ever goes to...

Yep. Though honestly, a little exoticisation isn't a huge problem (and geeks have very little right to criticise other people for that vice). World music festivals and exhibitions of African art are all about the foreign-and-therefore-exotic. The specific reason why this guy's jerkassery is a problem is that he's othering people who have as much right to live in that place as he has.

I mean, even when I was growing up in small town England half a century ago, I was aware that there were people with brown skins around. I'll be passing their grandkids on the street every day today. But they apparently still get white people asking them where they're "from". That's just dumb. And this guy is that flavour of dumb-racist.

As to the influences of the past on thought patterns... Well, yes. My own thinking is, I'm pretty sure, Aristotelean-Roman-Feudal-Enlightenment-Romantic-Gothic-Victorian-Marxist-Positivist-Geeky, among other things. Not a huge amount to be done about that.

He was doing it on purpose.

Or not.

"It's just a joke" is a super common dodge for scumbags, racists, etc.

Yuup. I had run into quiite a few.

It's one of two things: he was saying that as a dodge, which makes him come off as a racist prick, or he was actually joking, which makes him a racist prick.

He's a prick even aside from racism. As Renee points out, he was negging her after sex for his own amusement. Technically, it was a joke, at her expense, and this is where the "take a joke" gets even worse.

Yeah its just layers upon layers of dickness.

I don't get it. I thought the issue was that he was being a racist jerk to Brun, not that he didn't care about Renee which... he's a booty call. Of course he doesn't. The way this page frames it it's like it's about how he hurt Renee rather than getting kicked out for being an asshole to Brun.

Well, Renee is someone who doesn’t even bother to remember her booty calls’ names accurately. She may not be as bad as him, but I wouldn’t say that she was faultless herself.

Well that's not really the issue. If they didn't remember each other's names then who cares, it was just a casual fling.

What I don't get is that the last strip was about him racially fetishizing Brun in a fairly overt way, and this strip Renee claims that he was deliberately trying to hurt her and that that was the issue rather than what he was trying to pull with Brun.

Renee is a bad friend and a shitty person. What else is new?

And the sad thing is, I’m not sure she’s supposed to be? Like, I think we’re mostly supposed to agree with her and find her likeable, but I really don’t.

It's kinda both, hitting on Brun to diss on Renee, and doing it in a shit way for extra points.

Edited by Adannor on Feb 11th 2019 at 6:12:34 PM

Or it might just be that Renee knows that Brun isn't going to get this — her being somewhat neurodivergent — and is simply shutting down the conversation in a way that provides closure. Although I think it's more likely that she's saying that the root issue is that this guy is getting off on being an asshole, and him hitting on Brun and calling her "exotic" was part of his assholery. Which, yes, is positioning this as her problem, not Brun's. Which... I don't know if that's kind or not.

Nah, one-night stands insulting you and hitting on your roomies in front of you to make a point is totally a thing that happens. Y'all saying Renée is a bad friend for pointing it out are being a bit weird.

Very bizzare that you guys are setting up Renée as the bad-guy here. Her fling happened to act like a douchebag to Brun (because of his racist comments) and Renée (because of the blatant negging and insulting comments)

He didn't insult Renee, though. He's said two phrases to her in the last three strips. Renee just decided that her hookup was deliberately trying to hurt her instead of trying to score with Brun and racially fetishizing her as exotic. Unless I'm missing something, Renee absolutely didn't factor into his actions at all.

Yes. She’s barely involved in this interaction, and yet she’s making it all about herself.

Yeah, you're missing that this is a not-infrequent thing that assholes in the dating circuit do. I know a couple of folks who've described precisely this happening to them. The very fact that he's completely ignoring the person he had sex with last night is itself significant - yeah, I know it was a very casual thing, but there are certain minimal standards of politeness.

I suppose I just don't see that as a big deal, especially since Renee from the first strip involving this guy couldn't be bothered to remember his name. Not saying Renee is a bad person for that but it was established right there that this was sex with the barest of strings attached.

Edited by RodimusMinor on Feb 11th 2019 at 1:05:52 PM

There was also that time she kept griping at Martin for, and I quote, "having thoughts."

She did what?

I think it's mainly just that there's no need to be that much of a jerk about it. And there's definitely no need to imply that you only slept with someone because you've got a fetish for non-white girls and another one has already crossed your radar.

Well yeah he's a jerkass but that was directed at Brun. My confusion over this strip stemmed from the fact that Renee said he was doing all this to deliberately hurt her when Brun was the actual target.

Again, as she points out, and several other people here confirmed, this is a common specific thing to do, to be an asshole to the one-night stand after getting it. This guy also was an ass to Brun on top of that.

Renee just explains things Brun has missed out on.