Can we please stop defining copyrights by countries? In this day and age, it’s stupid. Either you hold a copyright or you don’t, end of story.
–Hell, a hundred years ago copyrights only applied within the country it was published in; and to anyone outside that country, the copyright didn’t exist. It also used to be for a far shorter period. Although I would probably feel differently about it if I were actually the copyright holder of anything successful, lol.
As somebody who has flirted with creating content, I wholly approve of the idea of replacing copyright by country with universal copyright. No just get China and North Korea to play along and we’ll be set.
The reason for the “different countries” copyrights is that not every country has the same copyright laws. Something you can do with someone else’s work in China isn’t something you can legally do in the US. Thus the need for different copyrights. Different countries also have different time span.
However, will that be enough to make Ruth protect her if Mary threatens to go to her superiors about both that and her relationship with Billie?
Sadly, Mary has blackmail material on Ruth. 🙁
Unless Ruth finds some blackmail material on Mary, too – then they’re all-square as neither would be likely to reveal the other’s secret for fear of having their own revealed too.
Former RA: The hall director would likely attempt to assist Becky, especially if she enrolls in school and would absolutely assist Carla as Mary took the spat too far. Ruth would be fired. No question. Literally, “don’t sleep with the residents” is rule no. 1.
Also, all Mary has to do in this instance is initiate cause for an investigation and whether they think Mary is a total jerk face or not the Resident Manager would likely at least investigate the claim on Ruth and Billie. At best, Billie keeps a tidy home and they don’t find anything easily/quickly and it passes. At worst they find a bunch of stuff that doesn’t belong to Ruth and alcohol bottles. Also, not sure how many camera are in the hall but that could also be used in an investigation. I’m definitely not rooting for Mary, just saying things don’t look good for Ruth either way.
All that to say, I’m sure this whole thing is going to go sideways real quick because that’s the Willis Brand guarantee!
Huh, at my school the rule is just don’t sleep with residents in your jurisdiction, or if a relationship is forming/likely to form, the CL (RA) can be moved to a new jurisdiction.
i was an RA for 4 years and any sleeping with residents in your building was grounds for termination. but i would have been rooting for mary the whole time other then damaging carla’s skates she has been in the right. carla has been a constant shit, Disturbing mary while she was trying to study and endangering all of the people in the hall by skating. ruth is complaining about mary’s language instead of the glaring rule breaking skates and excessive noise disturbance from the jumping. mary’s actions are only affecting carla. carla’s actions are affecting the entire hall and anyone that may be living below. at this point mary should go down to the supervisor for both ruth and carla.
So, I’m not eager for an argument, but both Carla and Mary have some things that need to be addressed. Carla was breaking rules, and that needs to be addressed. Mary; however, can’t go responding to that by slinging slurs or derogatory remarks. That’s not okay and should also be addressed.
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Does she? Is Ruth going “Wh-what?” because she is surprised at what Mary know about that Ruth already knew about, or are there things there that Ruth didn’t know about at all?
The Becky thing is new to her. She knew Mary knew about her and Billie. But the Becky thing? Everyone’s been deliberately hiding Becky from her and Ruth was implied to be hermiting for most of this week. So that’s definitely new information and could put her a little off balance especially given her pride in running a tight ship.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I think Ruth is/has been fully aware of Becky being in the dorm. Just seeing the difference in Dina over the past week (DoA-time) would be a tip-off (not to mention thatsomeone screaming “I’m a lesbian!!” in the lobby at the top of her lungsisn’t particularly easy to overlook). It’s just that, as I implied before, that up to now dealing with Becky was not worth the time or the effort. However, now that Mary is forcing the issue….
I know it really seems like that, but I was an RA and it’s not easy to keep tabs on everybody’s life unless you’re actively snooping, which Ruth clearly doesn’t care enough to do even if it were in her job description. My job was just to report on any events I may happen to witness that might be affecting any of my resident’s wellbeing and resolve conflicts. Both of which I think I rarely if ever actually did.
The RA’s at my school mostly take a “if I don’t see it and no-one complains a lot, it didn’t happen” attitude. Otherwise there is a butt-ton of paperwork for the RA and the housing to do. No-one likes paperwork.
That said, I don’t think Mary has as much bargaining power as she thinks. A lot of what she said is stuck in “She said, she said” territory with no real proof and most likely no-one to back her up with her claims. And colleges take hate speech very seriously. So going there with the report that she has been harassing a trans student (who the school has obviously taken steps to make sure she feels safe) will make anything she says seem like an attempt to discredit. Said harassed student also filing a report and no-one in the dorm verifying that Becky is living there means Mary is just a bongo without any boing.
Agreed. Honestly, everything else that’s been happening around Ruth has nothing on the previous vandalisation of said cheerleader’s belongings. In her own words, they love her down there. Ruth is extremely good at poker facing legitimate complaints, complaints much more damning than anything Mary pulls out of her ass. To “walk away” is to admit that these things are an actual issue, so all Ruth really has to do is play it off. If she can do the same in this situation and call Mary’s bluff, then she will be fine. Especially with the hate speech.
And honestly, Mary might be seriously overestimating Ruth’s desperation to keep the job as RA in the first place. Sure, being RA had been Ruth’s sole passion in the beginning, but it seems like her priorities might have changed a bit lately. She’s had more important things on mind. Is keeping the title of RA more important than protecting the actual students, Billie and Carla included? Probably not. So better and more logical/emotional for her to stand her ground.
But the whole hardass-Ruth-the-RA storyline has always been a bit stupid, as RAs don’t really have much power, and have a lot more to lose if it comes down to a real physical confrontation.
Even if Mary didn’t have any dirt on Ruth, Ruth’s threats would still be little more than hot air….
Yes, those arguments are sound and make good points, But you seem to be overlooking a crucial fact. You used logic, everybody knows logic and comics/TV don’t mix.
Yeah, but we all make snap judgements based on complex reasoning. I guess I’m just hoping Ruth will make the right one, and I’m not sure her personality can allow her to walk away anyhow.
In the original Walkyverse Carla was “UltraCar”, a sentient hatchback that decided to move ‘his’ consciousness into a female robot body. I didn’t process it as a trans parallel at the time but I am also somewhat oblivious, and we were dealing with, yanno, a car…
There’s been several indirect hints dropped during this series, too.
1: Carla thinking a penis drawn on her whiteboard was a ‘hate crime’–until she saw that the entire hallway had been hit by the vandal.
2: In her conversation with Sal about joining the roller derby team, Sal says that her extra height would give her an advantage. Carla replies, “There’s a reason for that,” to which Sal responds that it wouldn’t make any difference to them.
There was one other I can’t think of right now, but those are the ones that stick out in my memory.
The comic recently went out of its way to spotlight Becky hiding (being hidden) from Ruth and that Dina looked genuinely scared to see her, so I’m fairly sure we’re meant to infer that she still doesn’t know. Plus there’s drama potential when she finds out that Billie not only knew but is currently letting Becky stay in her room, and hasn’t told Ruth about it.
Mary really does have solid blackmail material and is clearly prepared to use it – I’m waiting to see whether Ruth does a Huck Finn in defence of Carla & Becky (“fuck it, I’ll do the right thing and damn the consequences”, or in Finn’s words, “All right then, I’ll go to Hell”).
“Never show your hand unless you hold all the cards.” Mary doesn’t hold all the cards, but she does have a full house to bluff with. While she is prepared to escalate, escalation could go either way in this case, considering recent events. I’m sure housing knows of Ruth’s underlying issues, which grants her some leeway as long as she continues to keep the peace in her domain.
Mary may not have mentioned it, but she still might know about the booze. Just that there were so many other things she was complaining about that she already had more than enough to cause Ruth some major problems.
I’m no mind reader, but it looks to me like Ruth is thinking “Wow, just, you’re a perfectly awful human being, how do you even justify your own existence to yourself, or is that it, you can’t, you actually hate yourself so much you want to end it all, this is some suicide attempt, you want me to smash your brains in with your own femurs, damnit, my mouth didn’t work that whole time”.
I don’t think Ruth is scared. I think she is surprised. How many people have ever gotten in her face like this, and lived to talk about it?
Mary is in deep shit, she just hasn’t discovered that fact yet.
Nice!! I forgot Becky’s sleeping space is on the line. Oh yeah… She totally called her a pervert too. I hope Ruth doesn’t let Mary get away with these hate speech >:O
I like to think Ratigan wouldn’t care if one of his minions were trans or into mice of the same gender, as long as they did his bidding and avoided the ‘R’ word.
I’m really not used to the idea of “villains” without aspirations (as far as we can see so far) to take over the tri-state areathe worldthe universe Cleveland.
No, no she isn’t. She’s arrogant enough to assume there’s no way any of this could go wrong for her. She’s an idiot who gives proper villainy a bad name.
Carla is legitimately living in the female dorms. Unless someone was particularly clueless, this leaves me thinking that all Ruth needs to do is explain just what Mary said to Carla to make anything Mary says come across as bigoted bullshit.
It might be bigoted, but they’d still have to kick Becky to the curb (against dorm rules) and would probably kick Ruth out of the RA position and cost her any pay or room comp she’s getting (abuse of authority; authority figures don’t get to have relationships with students). The latter would also likely up Ruth and Billie’s drinking, which would inevitably lead to them getting caught, and facing the repercussions of being caught drinking on a dry campus.
Ruth might lose her job, but I suspect Becky would almost instantaneously acquire a new place to stay from a very friendly and helpful teacher. And if this event leaked out to the media, so soon after the incident with toedad, it would be impossible for the media to not link Mary’s vile behavior to the same kind of extremism that just caused a freaking armed kidnapping.
It’s entirely possible that the backlash from that will cause the university to drop any complaints at all against ruth, just to avoid being caught up in it.
You give university administrations way too much credit, friend. They want to avoid hassles and they want to avoid lawsuits.
1: Becky is gone immediately – having someone staying in the dorms without all the proper paperwork is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
2: Ruth is dismissed from her RA position for violating dry campus rules and for fucking one of the students she is directly responsible for. Depending on university policy, she could be banned from the dorms or even expelled.
3: Billie ends up in similar hot water re: dry campus.
4: Carla prrrrobably comes out okay unless the DOA version of Bart O’Ryan decides to scream about her on his TV show or whatever he’s up to, at which point the university has to put up or shut up on its policy w/r/t trans students in student housing.
It’s far, far more likely that Mary wins, given how conflict-averse university administrators are these days.
SOURCE: i have worked at multiple universities – they will let shit slide until their hand is forced and then they go ballistic on everyone.
Actually, the only person I’m giving credit to is Leslie, who will doubtless extend her home to Becky immediately. I’m assuming the University will take the most media friendly path possible, which isn’t backing the fundamentalist spewing hate speech. Ruth might lose her position, Becky will be quietly encouraged to leave, but in the wake of the toedad incident the university isn’t going to want to present any hint that they might be punishing people for being gay. It doesn’t matter what’s actually going on with Ruth, there are too many hotbuttons in play.
But how long can a non-student legitimately stay with a friend in the dorms? Over a weekend, right? At least? But not much longer. And Becky hasn’t been here that long.
So, Becky stayed with her friend Joyce for a few days, then was going to leave, but decided to visit with her friend Sal a little while first, instead.
I don’t see the problem. 😉 So long as they can claim it with a straight face and stick to it.
Three days in the dorm if a weekend, overnight during the week, period, on our campus – didn’t matter what room you were staying in. It kept couch surfers from befriending a whole floor and bouncing between rooms for extended stays.
When I was in college we had friends stay as long as 2 weeks on our futon or in our extra bed. They weren’t homeless or anything. Just had the time to stay with us that long and hang out with all their other friends on campus as well. Our R.A. knew about it and everything.
hoop: Re: #4, I think it’s more cut-and-dried than that. Carla has already been identified (by Joyce) as having ‘a room of her own for some reason’. Given the obvious housing policy of having people have roommates, and the fact that Ruth obviously was aware of Carla’s trans status (based on her reaction), it’s pretty clear the school already is on the right side of that issue. Mary’s looking at expulsion if this blows up, regardless of what consequences hit the others, and Carla’s in the clear.
Maybe I haven’t spent enough time in a dorm, but I’m really not seeing what part of this couldn’t be solved better by Carla herself going to whoever’s responsible and bypassing Mary’s ridiculous pseudo-blackmail. What, if anything, would be done about it is practically speaking up to the rules and the personal morals of the person in charge, anyway; as far as I know we have no idea whether this Resident Manager is the sort of person to take “resident is bigoted asshole” as a serious complained.
(And honestly, I doubt this will get Mary too far. One of the very few benefits of being self-destructive is that it’s kinda hard to threaten you into not doing the right thing, usually.)
From personal experience, the “nothing to live for” element might be an unreliable indicator for what a person is and isn’t willing to risk. Especially since Ruth is slowly finding something to care about.
Aside from the fact that Carla doesn’t seem the type to go to an authority figure, she would 100% have the RD on her side if she took off the skates, put on regular shoes, took that skates to the RD, and told the RD “Mary destroyed my personal property and made transphobic hate comments toward me.” Mary has no proof that Carla was skating in the halls and Carla has the destroyed skates as evidence.
Yeah, but that first factor will likely trump. Carla does not have any truck with authority figures (probably having been burned by her fair share of them growing up given her background). She’s really not the type to go running to them and expecting them to solve things in any way that’s positive for her.
Sadly if Ruth backs off, a much more likely situation is Carla just eats the transphobia, commits even more strongly to avoiding people, and tries to replace her skates… again.
It’s what I would do. Telling admins and drawing attention could just get you targeted even worse. Best sometimes to keep your head down and count your good fortune to be in the girls’ dorm at all.
What? No. Think of the poor janitor who’d need to clean the blood out of the hall carpet! Rather, how about she says “So you want the biggest deviant in the dorm kicked out right now?” and then defenestrate her.
For what, being a bigot? The max you can prove is that she said something very mean while in an argument with someone who was deliberately antagonizing her and following her around to harass her.
Mary’s a terrible and spiteful person, and it’s human nature to wish ill fortune on her for it, but she hasn’t done anything to earn expulsion in a formal, disciplinary sense. Ironically, she’s the person in the scene who has broken the fewest university rules.
Ruth does not have clean hands, she’s abused her authority as a representative of the university, and believed she could get away with it because she intimidates the other students, while ignoring her real duties. Becky is trespassing on the school property, taking advantage of facilities that she isn’t paying for, which Ruth either didn’t know about or was willing to allow to continue. The fact that Mary is unpleasant doesn’t clean the slate of the bad things Ruth and the others have been getting away with, and just because you like them doesn’t make what they’ve done acceptable.
I’m afraid, esteemed colleague, that you seem to be mixing up “things that are against the rules” and “bad things.”
We do not content that there is nothing wrong with granting accommodations to Becky, an abuse victim. Granted, she should be trying to find a more permanent place to live, and does not appear to be doing so. However, staying with friends for a little when one has nowhere else to go is is not wrong, and most schools allow for guests. (It is possible that she is scamming the cafeteria, but that’s not something that’s in Ruth’s purview. For all she knows, Becky’s friends are paying for her meals.)
It is indeed possible that Ruth could be abusing her authority with Billie, we argue that she has not done so. Ruth terminated her relationship with Billie, and Billie chose of her own free will to return.
Ruth has her problems. We cannot deny this. But her problems are not those that your client has brought forth. They may be against the school’s rules, but we answer to a higher authority.
hah, I wish. I literally go to one of the most trans-friendly schools in the country and when someone tried to start a “trans critical” group on campus they didn’t do shit about it.
Sadly, this. Hate speech may be against the rules and the law of the city, but I’ve not seen a school or city or state yet actually enforce said rules to the point where those who go against it actually worry about social or legal consequences.
If Carla’s parents made a fuss, it could have reverberations or if there was a student protest, but otherwise, Carla is just chalking it up to her regular diet of bullshit and transphobia.
Yeah, Mary hasn’t thought this through. She’s one person, and if a good chunk of her floor decide to screw her, well, it’s her word against 8 people’s about what actually happened. Hell, all it’d take is Roz planting something in her room, Ruth “finding” it, and then all her claims about Ruth being a bad RA come across as sour grapes.
She would’ve made it so Becky left even earlier (and many things would have been much better, except Joyce and Dina probaby not being ready for her, so the things would have started out much worse… I wanna read that fic now shit)
Normally, in this situation, my go-to response is to threaten to rip the person’s balls off and feed them to him… But Mary is female. She has no balls to rip off. Suggestions?
To be precise, in humans, usually the gonads take the form of either testicles, or ovaries. If you can’t threaten to remove the testicles, threatening to forcefully remove the ovaries is roughly an equivalent threat.
On a moral note, I want to say that physical threats are wrong, but…. this is Mary we are talking about…. I wouldn’t mourn her if physical violence was enacted against her.
Hey, if it’s the escalation game you want, why not just go back in time (obviously using a conveniently placed, genius-level briefcase) and make her trans at birth?
…
I’ve been told I’m too good at the escalation game.
Amazi-girl could probably use an outlet. Is she far gone enough to pummel Mary?
…is she lawbound enough for Mary to turn her against the redheads? …Shit.
Willis. I am laying down a demand. Mary needs to DIE. Preferably in a fire of some sort.
I KNEW she was going to do this, but it does not make it any less loathsome. Please.
The happy corner of my mind is picturing Billie walking up behind them in her lingerie (which is the real reason for Ruth’s expression in that last panel) and proceeds to bap Mary over the head with the strapon she bought Ruth.
Mary knows less about Ruth than she thinks she does. She doesn’t know how bad Ruth’s current state is, or that Ruth herself probably can’t predict what she’s going to do.
wait…… oh wow yesterdays comic makes so much more sense now. I am kind of oblivious or maybe I forgot. It never clicked that she might be transgender. I just assumed it was something like “if you are going to act like a boy stay with them” and couldn’t figure out why it was such an extreme reaction.
For those of us that read Shortpacked as well, the hints were there, but for people specifically reading DoA it makes sense that you wouldn’t have known. I think I saw it confirmed somewhere prior to Carla actually having any DoA lines.
Well in my case the friends i have who happen to be transgender I never realized until I was told point blank about it. I’m pretty oblivious about a lot of stuff. *shrug* worse things out there than not realizing stuff like that though.
Well that never clicked as a reason why it could be a hate crime. I just kind of assumed she was over reacting thinking she was targeted specifically instead of everyone being hit.
Because Willis has two baby boys to take care of and doesn’t have the time, will, or energy to sift through transphobic commentary and get rid of it before someone gets hurt.
Well, Mary only gave three reasons there for Ruth being a terrible RA.
1. That Ruth is having lesbian sex.
2. That Ruth is having sex with one of her charges.
3. That Ruth is allowing (or is ignorant of) a non-student to live on school property.
I doubt the Resident Manager will really care about that first one, but the second two are kind of in Terrible RA territory.
Also just adding this in so that no one misunderstands. Mary is being terrible here, but her Terrible RA argument holds water. Of course, allowing a resident to spew transphobic statements at another resident would also be pretty bad form for an RA, so Ruth ain’t gonna let this stand.
It’s not, but it’s one of Mary’s reasons. That’s why I said only the second two are things a Resident Manager would care about. Just because it’s one of the reasons Mary gave doesn’t mean it’s valid.
Really, only the alleged sex with Billie would be a problem for Ruth, but what proof does Mary actually have of that? It would be a case of a bigot’s word against the RA. As far as Becky goes, I think Ruth legitimately thought Becky was Joyce’s friend from a different floor, which is a reasonable assumption.
I… I really hate Mary. Like, a lot. Like, on the same level of “please jump in front of a bus” hate that I harbor for Toedad and Blaine. Maybe even more; those guys are in the hospital and out of the story right now, we’re stuck with Mary.
I… I don’t know how to react to this. I’m just… furious.
That’s the thing. I hate both Blaine and Ross, but they were impulse villains. One big burst of being a dick, then out of the picture after taking it too far and getting themselves hospitalized or arrested (or both). They did a lot of damage in a short time (and Blaine even more through years of off-screen abuse), but their time in comic was brief and terrible before being removed for a long time.
But Mary has been sitting on this for weeks, just waiting for the right moment. She lives a few seconds away from the people she’s hurting, and isn’t likely to take things to the point where she’s thrown in jail or carted off to the hospital for the next several years. (Blackmail beats punches and guns in that regard)
So she definitely warrants more hate than those two. Before, I just thought she was a bit of an asshole. After the last two strips, it’s clear that she’s a BIG problem. One that I don’t see being easily dealt with. The problem that leaves the next day is far less threatening than the one that will be standing over your shoulder for the next several weeks/months.
I’m still hoping that this leads to Ruth losing her job(because she’s an asshole/bully/complete monster) but Mary gets thrown out along the way for creating a hostile environment for her fellow residents. Carla gets promoted to floor manager because she never actually has gotten caught causing trouble, and while I’m wishing, I get a pony.
“complete monster” are strong words. Especially when the justification you give for Mary getting thrown out is “creating a hostile environment for her fellow students” – I’d think that all the lording her moral superiority over people, transphobia, and homophobia are signs that Mary’s quite vile too. If Ruth is, categorically, a bully, what does that make Mary? Not a bully, when she calls a trans student a boy and verbally harasses Ruth for being a gynophile?
Ruth physically and emotionally abused someone she had power over until that person entered into a relationship with her. I mean, Mary’s horrible, but Ruth needed to be fired long ago.
The thing about dropping bombs is that most countries have silos and fleets of their own.
I don’t think Mary is remotely prepared for any effective retaliation.
No, and it won’t be for the reason timemonkey gave. But that also means that Ninja Rick won’t appear in any capacity that contradicts my headcanon, and I have a ready explanation for the fact that he never appears as janitor.
Just sitting there all alone in his office, obliviously proud that his mere presence makes the students so psychologically healthy that they never even need to see him.
And, I believe, we once saw the professor who teaches Danny and Amber’s programming class? He’s the alt-universe version of that guy from Roomies and It’s Walky! who got drafted into SEMME because he broke into their system.
Ruth knew that Mary knew about her and Billie so she had to have expected that one to come up sometime. I don’t even know if Ruth herself knows about Becky living in Billie’s room so I suspect that is what threw Ruth off her game.
At least she will be able to see Windstriker… (Realizes that Mary doesn’t have an equivalent to Windstriker). She has less friends than Miko. That’s impressive.
This. Her whole raison d’etre is that Mary is better than everyone else. That Mary will show herself to win. That Mary will triumph and outshine the deviants and the sinners and prove herself over all.
That Mary will personally win and gloat over that win. It’s why she hold on to information until she can play it to her advantage. It’s why she escalates so intensely when she doesn’t get her way (the transphobia and the glueing of the skates with Carla, the calling Ruth the c-word when she wouldn’t drop everything to solve a non-emergency problem).
The threat itself is bad enough. It’s the fucking language she’s using that makes me see red. Defiling, perverted…it’s dehumanizing and disgusting and Mary is just the fucking worst.
Yup, it’s that proud deliberate ignorance and bigotry that really hammers home that she doesn’t actually view other people as people. They’re just set pieces for Mary to prove how good she is against.
I was thinking something along the lines of a freak automotive accident flipping a truck to punch a bumper right through the wall and Mary’s occupied bed without harming anyone else or their possessions, but I think more mundane comeuppance will be more satisfying if it comes.
Well, here’s where it gets interesting, because how things proceed from here comes entirely down to how self-destructive Ruth is feeling.
Because if she’s in full “fuck it, let me burn and get it over with” mode, then she’ll shut this shit down in a nanosecond though at utterly immense personal cost ending in at minimum, losing her job and possibly being suspended from the school (at maximum, she could face legal consequences for sleeping with one of her charges or the underaged drinking).
But if not, oof, that might actually end worse for her in the long run, because it basically means that Mary will now own her ass and that’s going to come with a humiliating regimen of being her personal servant until eventually she hits the “fuck it, let me burn” mode later.
The thought comes to mind that Mary may not have the leverage she assumes she does. She knows things that are a threat to Ruth, but being an RA Ruth may know things that are a threat to Mary.
Yeah, at the end of the day, what does Mary really have? That Becky’s staying here (bad for Becky) and an accusation of gross misconduct on the part of Ruth (which will trigger an investigation). But she’s also Mary and everyone, even Joyce dislikes her. I’m not sure anyone would be willing to back her up during the investigation and could definitely point to her obsession with queer individuals as backed up by this instance of transphobia.
If she really did pull the trigger, there’s a fair chance that Ruth could get away with her various transgressions, though Billie would have to very quickly move back to her room.
That being said? That would be a ginormous risk and if wrong, the consequences for both Ruth and Billie would be severe. So yeah, it’s a shitty situation all around.
As far as I remember Mary only knows that Billie was in Ruth’s room one morning/afternoon. She didn’t see what happened in the room. For all she actually knows that was an instance of a resident going to talk to her R.A. about something that was bothering her and the R.A. giving her the time of day to listen. Mary is intuitive enough to know that isn’t the case, but can she PROVE anything more?
Ooh, that’s a point. Why would anybody take Mary’s word over Ruth’s? For one, Ruth’s the authority here, and second, Mary doesn’t really have any friends on the floor. I can’t see anyone vouching for her.
I feel bad about relying on an abuse of power to deal with Mary, but I’m not going to be worried too much about her feelings.
As awful as Ruth can be, there’s enough of a decent human being in her that i really hope that she can pull out of that spiral somehow.
mary on the other hand? I really REALLY hope something DESTROYS her over this. The more painful and drawn out it is, the better, because she has just shown what a monster she really is.
I think she’s better off taking Mary to the R.M. for hate speech, and facing the music for the charges against her. The only thing I can see holding her back is that Billie would be hurt as well. However, given their ‘suicide pact’, Billie’s already agreed to go down with the ship, essentially (though, I suppose it would be rude to assume that includes exposing their relationship in order to deal with a misbehaving resident).
Ruth could face legal consequences for sleeping with Billie?
(I’m asking because I genuinely don’t know what the charge is, and I’m curious. This post is overall excellent.)
Sexual Harassment at the least, potentially rape if they want to push it further. It’s due to her station of power over Billie having a potential effect on Billie’s ability to freely consent without potential personal consequences. It’s part of the rules that prohibit staff in general from sleeping with students due to the power imbalance (and why Jason and Penny’s little stunts are hella illegal).
They definitely could. The rape one probably wouldn’t happen. And maybe the Sexual Harassment wouldn’t either, but what Meghan said is true, she’d be super fired and possibly banned from on-campus housing, meaning she could be needing to suddenly come up with a lot of money very quickly.
Unless joe is a student of Penny’s her actions are not even against the rules at all. Questionable? Sure, but that’s it.
Jason’s actions are against the rules, but considering that Sal was the initiator there would be no legal consequences. He would lose his post, however. Once the semester is over, however, he and Sal can do whatever they want as far as IU is concerned (and yes, I was told as much when I went through TA orientation there).
Ruth, like Jason, could lose her job, but unless Billie pressed any charges there would be no legal issues.
Not those specific rules, yes, but there are usually rules in place regarding any staff member, teacher, or TA having sexual relationships with students as a general safeguard against this kind of stuff, even if they don’t have direct charge over that student. Penny, if caught, would definitely lose her position at the least.
Jason not being the instigator would not matter given his position as being directly responsible for Sal’s education and grades. He would be in even bigger trouble. Ruth, ditto, but less so because expectations for students of similar ages isn’t as high as for those who are being trained as teachers (and TAs tend to be PhD students for whom this is treated as training for being labeled ready to teach anywhere). Though Ruth would definitely be out on her ass and probably lose her housing in the process.
Now, given overall school responses to things like sexual assault or sexual harassment, the school would probably try to bury the situation at first until there were multiple complaints or media attention was called, but legally, they’d all be pretty fucked if caught.
Again, I went through this orientation at IU, the school in this webcomic. The rules are a little ambiguous regarding relationships between staff and students, especially for staff who are also students like Penny, Jason, and Ruth. Remember, we are talking about adults here, so unless that student is in some way under that staff member they are not going to act on it. They may frown like hell at it and that may affect them down the line, but they will not fire them over it.
Let me put it to you this way. I, for a brief period of time, was in an open relationship with a student at the school that I was a faculty member for. This is because my wife, who I had been married to for 12 years at the time, started taking classes at the school. She was not allowed to actually enroll in any of my classes, but outside of that there were no issues with the fact that I was involved with a student because at no point in time could that relationship have had any affect, good or bad, on her academic advancement.
So I repeat, unless Joe is a student in Penny’s class (a distinct possibility since it seems to be an entry level math course that all COAS students have to take), she is in the clear.
Jason would get canned and deported over his relationship with Sal.
Ruth would get fired as RA, have to move into a different room (which she has to now pay for), and a new RA would get assigned to the floor (hire Carla!).
Ah, makes sense. I was mostly wondering if there was some law specifically banning relationships with that kind of power imbalance that would apply here automatically (like how the drinking age of 21 automatically criminalises Ruth’s alcohol use), but that is consistent with everything I know.
Billie would probably refuse to press charges though, which would effectively change the consequences from a criminal offense to an administrative one (RA/student relationships being against the rules/code of conduct resulting in Ruth losing her job and probably housing, though the latter could also be a consequence of the alcohol use).
Does what Ruth and Billie are doing break the law? No.
At first I was going to say it depends on whether Billie is 18 or not. Because there is a law in Indiana called “Child Seduction,” which forbids anyone employed by a school from having sex with anyone under them who is over 16 but under 18.
However, the real law has a specific exception: The person must be at least four years older and not a student of the school in question. (Indiana Code – Section 35-42-4-7(b)(3)(D))
So there is no way this can be illegal. Though, of course, that has no bearing on what the school can do.
And of course, Ruth is in fact guilty of assault and intimidation. But so is Mary.
I think it says in the about section that since Joyce comes from a fundie Protestant background she doesn’t have one since that is (and I can personally vouch for this) a very Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) practice.
Protestants still tend to have crosses. What we don’t tend to have are crosses with Jesus still on them. That what’s really more of a Catholic thing. But, at least in the movies, either form of cross seems to work.
(And, yes, there are have been some denominations who make a big deal of this. “Our Jesus is no longer on the Cross. He’s alive!” 🙄 [roll eyes emoji])
As I recall… She was standing in sunlight when she ranted to Joyce about how no one would bother with evil if it wasn’t nice.
Fortunately, most things stop moving once you put a stake through their heart. It’s a wonderful general solution.
So, we put a stake through her heart and if that doesn’t work, we cut her head off.
That covers all the bases.
After ripping out her femurs, so she can’t get away.
If you listen closely, you can hear the hatred for Mary increase at an alarming rate. That and the sound of me burning down the soft serve factories out of sheer anger and a need to express it.
Yeah, yesterday, I thought it just a couple of tit for tit instances of two girls baiting each other, that went WAAAAAAYYYYYYY too far. Today it is obvious Mary has a general hate on for everyone. I assume even even Joyce would fail to meet here exactling “standards.”
This is Mary’s true face.
She has always acted as though she has a right to get her way, and then stoops to any method to get even with those who don’t grant it: insults, harassment, innuendoes, and trying physical injury with the glue.
Today she outdid herself. And think Ruth is going to make her very sorry.
Yup. She gets her way and gets what she wants when she wants it. Otherwise she’ll wait and plot and prepare for a moment when she can escalate to a point that she intimidates or abuses the other person into following her way.
And if someone is a sexual or gender minority, then that just paints an even bigger target on their back, because “those people” are “sinners” and so God will clearly smile on any action that is in opposition to them.
I’m just happy that the automatic gravatars do not seem to include Mary. I’d hate to be stuck with her face on my posts.
(And, yes, I know I could set up my own gravatar. But I don’t like the idea of having the same avatar on every site, and creating new emails has become a huge pain now that everyone asks for your phone number.)
(A well-endowed person you aren’t dating anymore, getting cut off in the middle of a request for testing, and illness or injury for the guy who runs your Dungeons & Dragons-type game, respectively.)
Honestly, Mary’s position here isn’t as strong as she might think.
1: She doesn’t seem to know about the drinking (surely she would’ve mentioned it, probably using terms like ‘boozer’ or ‘lush’ in her little diatribe). This is key.
2: The Becky situation, oddly enough, is solved by the fact that Ruth can actually say honestly that she’d been lied to by an extensive cover-up by several of the residents. The lack of complaints mean it’s not even the usual situation where a boyfriend/girlfriend ‘moves in’ and the roommate has to deal with it–the roomies were invariably cooperating in the violation. So Ruth’s in the clear; Becky will need to go, unless she can be quickly enrolled/transferred to the school, in which case she might be able to move into a room. If not, I suspect Leslie might be able to step in and find someplace for her to stay in town.
3: Speaking of finding housing, the situation with Billie is actually easily addressed. Find a willing cohort on another wing; make a formal request to swap rooms, giving a (heavily) edited account that boils down to, “We know the relationship is against the rules, that’s why we’re trying to make it right.”
At that point, Mary becomes guilty under the school’s hate-speech rules, and has nothing to hit Ruth back with. She could easily end up kicked out of the dorm, if not expelled, and might also be forced to quit any classes she and Carla share.
And this is roughly how I’m hoping things go down. What I’m hoping Willis avoids is the ‘hypocrisy’ trap, where Mary goes down because of something like getting pregnant. While it’s an understandable and easy plotline, it inevitably raises the question, “So it would’ve been fine if she hadn’t been a hypocrite?” She needs to get her comeuppance because of the horrible things she does, not because she fails to adhere to the standard she wants to inflict on others.
My stomach sank reading yesterday’s comic. Now I’m expecting AnaziGirl to assist Ruth in the femurectomy. Hmm, my spell check didn’t flag “femurectomy”.
Here’s hoping Ruth sticks to her guns. I’d assume the RA thing isn’t essential to her continued education and, let’s be honest, the floor could probably do with having a better RA.
……Okay, the Becky thing is a point, but it’s not like Ruth had any real knowledge that she was *living* in the residence hall. Sure, she could get in trouble for it but considering that the other students have actively been conspiring to keep Becky’s presence hidden, I can’t imagine Ruth would be punished too severely. And, shit, it’s not like Mary said anything about the situation except now that she can exploit it. I’d ask Mary why exactly, if she had knowledge of the situation, she chose not to report it. You know, since she’s clearly SO CONCERNED about it.
And what solid evidence does Mary have that Ruth and Billie are sexually involved? Would that actually be a problem (i.e. does IU have specific regulations concerning relationships between residents and RAs?)?
As usual, Mary seems to think her words carry much more weight than they actually do.
Well, Any time one person has authority over another (EG resident/RA) the idea of consent gets pretty grey and murky, and it’s pretty universally against Da Rules.
I think either one of Mary’s threats alone wouldn’t be too big a blemish on Ruth’s record, I think, especially if Ruth beats Mary to the punch and comes clean herself. Both together would make a stronger case for her removal, though.
The REAL issue is whoever blabs about Becky pretty much ensures her ejection from the college. Here’s hoping that can at least wait until she has a steady job…
Plus, on the Becky thing it could very well turn into a case of Mary’s word against the hall’s word that Becky is even living there. They floor is willing to hide Becky, I think they’ll be willing to lie for her.
Some guys in my dorm tried to pull that off first semester of freshman year. And it almost worked until our (admittedly quite oblivious and crappy) RA got busted smoking weed with a bunch of other guys. The replacement RA was much better, and much more observant.
All of this is absolutely correct, but with Ruth’s psyche the way it is right now, I don’t think she’ll be able to figure this out right away. She’s clinging to Billie as her only reason to not commit suicide. Just the threat of taking her away is going to throw her off her game.
I read once that some RMs also teach. Wouldn’t it be Mary’s bad luck if the RM is Leslie or Daisy?
M: this boy needs to be removed from the dorm.
L: she’s not a boy, and I will kick you out for anymore hate speach.
Sierra and Marcie already hate each other enough after the whole Amber and Joe incident. Now because of this Walky and Amazigirl’s marriage will have to be postponed!
Mary needs to be punched in the face. Well, what she needs is to get some basic compassion and human dignity, but I really want to punch her in the face. Ooh, how about Ruth and Amazi-Girl ganging up on her? I’d watch the hell out of that show. The entire first season could be Mary getting owned. They would then move on to systematically destroy their other enemies, such as Amber’s Dad and Crippling Depression. With their fists.
And then Mary gets hit by a truck. One that appears out of nowhere and mows her down while she’s crossing the street, and then disappears, never to be seen again.
She is not missed.
Would it be too much to expect that everyone then starts claiming Mary’s full of crap when she does go to report Billie and Mary just completely loses it?
Also hey guys here is a friendly reminder that transpeople read these comments, and Willis isn’t on much sleep. Can we please take extra care not to say things that are remotely anti-trans or hurtful? For example, nothing that Carla remotely deserves this, or that Ruth is overreacting. If you think “hey maybe this might not be received well”, then maybe just don’t say it here today. Cool?
How are we defining “opinions” here? Is this the definition where we let hateful bigots fall under the same label as people who don’t like chocolate so we can pretend being mean to the former is just as wrong as being mean to the latter?
Basically what I’m saying is, who, exactly, is your comment defending?
A quote from it: “The LGBT community has long counted on our non-LGBT allies to stand beside us in the fight for equality,” Kylar W Broadus, executive director of TPOCC said in a statement. “And right now, the transgender community needs allies more than ever as we fight for our very survival.”
Ruth has a dorm full of girls who have seen her and Billie fight constantly and are willing to hide Becky when necessary.
All Carla has to do is warn Billie or Becky that they need to move their clothes. By the time the manager come up to check on things there will be nothing to see.
No idea why Mary thinks just her word on this will be sufficient or that anyone is going to rat Becky out after what happened.
Like I said, she has absolutely no evidence to back up whatever claims she wants to make. And frankly, I’m sure the manager would be much more interested in why Mary chose not to report an illegal resident until she could use it as leverage to hurt Ruth.
Well, we’re ASSUMING she doesn’t have proof. Its possible that she’s made at least some attempts to collect evidence… perhaps videoing Billie leaving Ruth’s room.
We are also assuming that the rest of the floor would be willing to support Ruth over Mary. I doubt Mary has any friends on the floor, but its possible that some of he residents might be just as annoyed at Ruth.
Billie leaving Ruth’s room is meaningless considering she alleges to have an “open door” policy. Heck, Billia wouldn’t even be entirely dishonest in claiming she was visiting Ruth for help coping with her depression.
In short, because Mary doesn’t need the RA Manager to believe her. All Mary needs is for Ruth to be scared of her, and the threat suffices for that. Especially because Ruth is a vulnerable person, and threatening something that Ruth would imagine could get Billie taken away from her is going to make her feel extra vulnerable.
If Ruth calls out her bluff, she’s probably not going to get what she wants though the resulting investigation may fuck over multiple students depending on how it goes.
But by openly defying Ruth in this manner and targeting the ways she is vulnerable and desperate, she does a good job attacking emotional weak points in order to create a climate of fear in her target. Get Ruth hyperanxious about losing the Billie that is right now the only thing she’s using not to kill herself and you might knock her off balance enough to get what you want.
She doesn’t have to prove anything. Just by triggering an investigation, she can just make everyone else’s lives difficult or even have their misdeeds exposed.
Also, literally what the fuck is she getting out of any of this, other than just being a shit-stirrer? Does it fuel her stupid need to feel superior? A power-trip, I guess? Still, jesus, what a bongo.
Mary seems to need everyone else to live by her rules. Not unlike some other characters we have seen who were brought up to follow restrictive, hateful religions instead of deciding anything for themselves. She’s just more smug and less trigger-happy.
I have a lot of difficulty understanding how this makes her feel superior. But then again, I’m having difficulty understanding how she can even manage to maintain those mental blocks against five minutes of rational thought, which she’s bound to do at least at some point during her day.
She’s reacting, not enacting a diabolical plan. Carla pushed her buttons, so she’s lashed out in the nastiest way she could. Then Ruth came down on her for it, so she hit low again to get the upper hand. She’s not thinking — just venting bile.
I’m not sure I agree with that. Like, I don’t think she planned this moment. But she’s definitely been storing all these facts for a moment such as this for awhile in the intent of gaining one hell of an upper hand when she did.
It’s really one of the big things that makes her so dangerous, because she can protest and hide behind being “forced” to do these horrendous actions, while deliberately setting herself up to them for her own advantage.
I don’t think we’re necessarily in that much disagreement here. Clearly, she’s been bottling up and stewing on it. Maybe she even rehearsed that little speech in her head a few times.
But I don’t think she’s acting strategically here. I think Mary would have just quietly kept judging each of them until her anger got the better of her.
I tend to think it was a bit more calculated than that. But regardless, there are some things you just Don’t Say, no matter how mad you get, and Mary’s just checking every box here.
Yup, she revels in her power over others. Especially social power. She’s the type to exploit privilege deliberately and she’s definitely been doing so in the last two comics.
And sadly that has a lot of real world analogues. There’s no shortage of assholes who, for instance, turn to organized sexism and racism and the ability to hurt those lower on the totem pole than them to get a rush of self-satisfaction.
I think it’s about making her immediate surroundings conform to her comforts. Or as she’d probably say it from her warped sense of justice; set the world right.
Ruth can possibly claim ignorance about Becky, but there’s definitely rules in IU’s health and safety about discrimination policy about harassment due to gender identity. And sexual identity. Which Mary’s breaking.
So double reports filed AND drop a piano on her head!
Billie, listening in, was unsure how to feel: on one hand, Mary was being a horrible, horrible person, but on the other hand, Mary had described Billie as a cheerleader.
It was never actually said but implied in some of the older comics very subtly. I didn’t really realize until Willis made a post on which was the best transgender character and identified carla on his tumblr
That Carla is trans has never been explicitly stated in the comic. But there have been several clues. Also, Willis has explicitly said on Tumblr that DoA Carla is trans and asexual.
I actually took the ‘There’s a reason for that’ in the second one as referring to why she wasn’t in roller derby (and a reference to the cissexism of some women’s groups/spaces) as opposed to her height, but either would make sense.
I was just looking for you in the comments to say thank you so much for linking these to me yesterday! I didn’t have a chance to do so before comments were closed on that page.
I was amazed that I had apparently been oblivious to these clues. I don’t follow Willis regularly so I wouldn’t have caught on from the tumblr statement, but I should have from those pages. Thanks again!
It’s definitely been hinted at, especially strongly if you’re very familiar with Shortpacked – and I did see Willis confirm it on his Tumblr a while before Carla had a speaking role on DoA.
Nah, that one’s actually a callback to UltraCar in Shortpacked. Who had a stomach compartment with extendable arm/hand. Often used for precisely that purpose.
I believe the later will happen.
Ruth is not afraid of Mary I think. She is just not used to having anyone get in her face like this, so she’s a bit startled.
I think maybe Mary’s finally picked the wrong person to threaten, hassle, insult and attempt to intimidate.
I’m sorry, I lied. There is a third way. Ruth bluffs. And bluffs hard about taking Mary down with her. And what would her fundie parents think about their “good little Christian” daughter being expelled from college?
But like….
Committing microagressions (like Mary just did) is against University Policy (at leas4 at my school).
She can’t avoid expulsion if she keeps it up “because my RA isn’t doing her job!!”
I’m pretty sure that Ruth could lose her job if this stuff came to light. Mary would get in trouble too, so I think she’s banking on Ruth not doing anything. If she does, then Mary at least gets to take Ruth down with her.
You know, with this level of blackmail, you could get away with some serious stuff. But Mary uses her blackmail leverage to try to… get away with being a transphobic piece of shit. My vote goes to the Roomies’ truck making a cameo for Mary.
At least she can’t exactly prove her blackmail to the residence manager, as she only has her own word. Meanwhile, the dorm will cover for Becky (just claim to be Billie’s visiting cousin or something) and I have the distinct feeling that Carla will help out Ruth and Billie. In which case, it will be the unsubstantiated word of a freshman against an RA that the residence office “loves”.
It really only ever has one ending if it’s successful. And that’s murder. While Willis promised no deaths, Mary might end up in a precarious position if she makes Ruth genuinely believe she has no options and no way out. Extra precarious given that Ruth is already in a headspace where she is very prone to believing that she’s out of options and there’s no way back to happiness.
You know, accidents happen. Also, something I just thought of, we haven’t factored Roz into this. She’s had to put up with Mary’s bullshit for a while now (don’t know how) and is either going to go into full on crusader mode or just snap if she finds out what Mary said to Carla. At the very least, she’s gonna make Mary’s life as difficult as possible. At the worst….well, let’s just say it might not be Ruth who ends up pushing Mary down a set of stairs.
Ooh, now that’s an interesting point. If Roz finds out about this (and what’s the over-under on Mary deciding to brag to anyone she can find if she gets away with this), she’s definitely going to have more than a few words to say and will probably be of a mind to bring them up at the floor meeting.
Does Mary even have proof of anything, though? The entire floor would deny the entire thing, and considering she just said something horribly transphobic, following it up with “and there’s LESBIANS* who are breaking RULES!” isn’t going to make her look all that credible to the authorities.
*and bisexuals but I doubt Mary cares about the distinction
Also first time commenting despite reading this for over a year, let’s see if I get a decent gravatar haha
Well, if she is in the closet and holds to those fundie beliefs, then her hateful and spiteful actions are probably to make other people feel as crappy as she does. If this where in fact the case, I might actually pity her.
Would they all? Or would someone actually want to see the back of Ruth and back Mary…after all Ruth has physically threatened everyone and everyone has seen shes capable of carrying out her threats
Yes, I’ve been reading quite a few comments about “nobody vouching for Mary” and thinking “but Ruth’s pretty unpopular on the floor too”. AFAIK only Billie has our perspective on her; nobody else has seen her vulnerability.
This is why I keep reading this comic, the tension build ups are excellent, the out of right field revelations just keep on coming and the drama, oh the drama
The issue for me is Mary is right in that Ruth is a terrible RA (and not much better as a person though she has her moments) but I sort of kinda hoped that maybe she’d see the error of her ways and start to make amends
Hopefully Ruth gets replaced, Mary gets transferred and Carla takes on board a lesson about picking your battles (but a new pair of skates would be good as well)
Floor meeting tonight, do a Commandant Spangler punishment. “Mary has been making transphobic comments. As such, the showers on your floor will be locked for two weeks. You may thank the cadet after I leave.”
Agghhh, I had a feeling this was the way the wind was blowing. We know that Mary’s been collecting intel on Ruth and Billie, so that one wasn’t hard to see coming. I didn’t see Becky being thrown in there. We’ve seen the girls on that floor pulling together to hide Becky from Ruth. They should have been making more effort to hide her from Mary.
Apparently, Mary knows everyone’s secrets, then saves them up to use as weapons. She’s a snoop, and she’s malicious.
I have a bad feeling that this will get so, so much uglier.
To think, she just wanted to study. Also I really don’t get the previous comic. I mean, it’s a modern comic so I’m assuming it is some kind of rape/sexual orientation/gender identity awareness kind of thing?
It’s Mary being a d-bag and saying that Carla isn’t a woman, she’s her birth gender that doesn’t match up with who she really is. (I’m trying to word this correctly, apologies if I make mistakes it. It’s putting Carla in an enormously unsafe situation by outing her as a MTF trans student, and it’s a hugely douchey thing to do)
It’s been noted in previous comment sections that there are designated quiet rooms on each floor, and that it’s not exactly reasonable to expect perfect quiet in a living area in the middle of a Friday afternoon.
It just seems really odd that students should be expected to leave their own rooms if they want peace and quiet. I can understand if you have a bit of a noisy roommate, but if it’s disturbances happening outside in the hall-
You know what why didn’t Mary just call someone? Like Campus Security.
….
Does this place even HAVE Campus Security?
Even if she has a right to quiet in her room (which really shouldn’t be your expectation in a dorm tbh, regardless of how importantit may be), this is beyond reasonable retaliation. And yeah, reporting her woud have been the sensible step if it bothered her that much, but the RA would be the actual step to report it to as far as I can see, and she doesn’t exactly respect Ruth (of course, again, why she ignored security or student services remains a question (if we didn’t know by now that she’s on a power trip))
It seems a lot weirder that people should be expected to levitate when trying to get to and from their rooms.
Because that’s the only way Mary’s going to get her sacred perfect quiet.
Dorms are living spaces. Living involves noise. There are reasonable limits that can be put on that noise, but ‘the sound of travel is absolutely verboten in the middle of a school day in the second month of school’ is not a reasonable limit.
My opinion is Carla was absolutely in the wrong and bullying Mary. Then Mary become a disgusting bigot and is now a blackmailer. Which just goes to show you can be a jerk and still be a victim of a genuinely evil and vile person. Mary’s behavior is beyond the pale and is to Carla’s behavior what [insert hate-monger of your choice] to Newman from Seinfeld. People should ditch any sympathy they had for Mary as the situation is no longer about making noise. It’s about abuse, hate, and hate mongering.
Skating in the halls wasn’t bullying. Continuing to skate in the halls just to annoy Mary, even jumping over Mary and risking hurting her, was getting pretty close to bullying. Loudly jumping up and down in roller-skates outside Mary’s room was definitely harassment, even if she did have a good reason to be angry at Mary.
THAT SAID, none of this excuses what Mary is doing right now. Carla was being an asshole, but so was Mary. Then Mary crossed the line from “asshole” to “completely vile person”, so I don’t really care who started it. Carla was in the wrong, but Mary is MORE in the wrong. Like, WAY more.
If it was bullying, it’s only by the kind of pedantic, zero-tolerance definition that lets bullies turn accusations back on their victims. As long-term persistent behavior it could turn to bullying, but as a one-shot deal it’s just an annoyance. If you’re dealing with a bureaucracy that has a list of bullying behaviors with no nuance, then this kind of thing could be on there. And that would be dumb.
Mary is a total idiot. Either that or she has a death wish.
I don’t think that she has faced Ruth down at all. Ruth has the look of someone seeing a bunny taking on a tiger. And is just waiting to see what happens next.
I think Mary is an angry person who has always seemed like someone who will stoop to any level to get her way: nagging, harassment, insults, and now blackmail. Tell her no, and she will make your life Hell.
A while ago, when Roz was getting snarky at Joyce, people kept calling her that word, and Willis got sick of it. As far as I know the only word it is for is the b-word.
The weird thing is, a good number of us are now aware of it and make jokes about it, so you can’t tell who originally wrote bongo and who tried to say the other word and got censored.
Do “country matters” get censored? Because even though I have never used that word (look up the tvtrope “country matters” to find out what I’m talking about), but Mary is sorely tempting me to.
Carla’s transgender, so Mary’s comment was meant to imply that Carla isn’t really a woman. It’s really, incredibly out of line regardless of the situation.
And also I was waiting for a comments section post-transphobia to say that, to avoid having my comment about him bringing it up and getting either myself banned or my comment deleted.
yeah but joyce is(/was?) a fundie too, and even from the same circle as toedad (while mary isnt) and even before she started changing i dont remember her ever saying things like this
Well, Joyce seems to be a good person at her core. Joyce has been brainwashed pretty bad, and when she first started college she would have been scandalized to find out Carla was transgender, but it would have been from “a place of love” and she probably would have decided it’s “not her place to judge”. And, after the whole thing with Becky and Toedad, I don’t think she would care at all. (Although with her rigid adherence to gender roles right now, I’m not sure.) Joyce has a conscience and her Dad, at least, seems to encourage her to make her own decisions and do what she thinks is right. Plus there’s the fact that she said she thinks her parents switched churches so many times is because of people like Mary, so I’m guessing even her parents wouldn’t have encouraged her to act like this.
Mary, on the other hand, gets upset at people for being “wrong” and decides they need to be “punished” for it. Of course, she doesn’t actually do anything about it until it can benefit her. (She didn’t say shit about Carla being transgendered until she knew it would really hurt her, and she didn’t bring up all the things Ruth has been doing until she could use it to her advantage.)
TL;DR: Joyce freaks out because she cares about people, but always decides that they should do what’s right for THEM. Mary freaks out because she judges people, and she always decides that they should do whatever the hell she wants them to do.
Isn’t it just heresy until she has some solid evidence that she fuckin Billie? And is there actually some rule against that? And if there is, why is the relationship between two consenting legal adults the business of the upper people? You know what is without a doubt a punishable offense though? HATE SPEECH.
Hate speech absolutely. However, if Mary reported Ruth and Becky, any investigation would find Billie’s and Becky’s stuff where they’re not supposed to be. Also, it is indeed against the rules for staff members (including RAs) to have relationships with students, since the power imbalance makes it difficult to discern whether the student consented or was coerced.
True, it’s probably against the rules (the relationship part). But then again, threatening the members of your dorm with physical violence and defacing their property are all also probably against the rules. And the actual law. So if Mary’s ploy actually works, I’ll be surprised. Them again, we need another plot to latch onto, and this one seems ripe.
“But then again, threatening the members of your dorm with physical violence and defacing their property are all also probably against the rules. And the actual law.”
And yet Ruth did exactly that early on. Hopefully no one’s still nursing a grudge.
1) I’d say she is guilty of heresy
2) she probably wouldn’t care about such an accusation because, to quote an old roommate who made conversations very uncomfortable, “only filthy papists use that word”
Well, there are often rules against people having relationships with people under their authority (such as teacher/student, or boss/worker), possibly to prevent situations where the subordinate is either unduly pressured (i.e. doesn’t want to date but has to or risk the consequences) or unduly benefits (i.e. a student gets higher grades.)
Now, I don’t know if an R.A./Resident relationship would have quite the same restrictions as a Teacher/Student, but I can see the university having rules against it for similar reasons.
Mary is terrible- but clearly a product of her environment, who needs help learning to bring forward her faith in a suitable fashion.
Try referring her to Luke 18:9-14, maybe, Ruth?
With your fist and knee if necessary.
This. I’ve always thought of Mary as the contrast to Joyce: they basically grew up in the same environment, but Joyce is a fundamentally good person while Mary is a demagogue-in-training.
Thus, Joyce struggles to overcome her fundie programming when she discovers that ‘those people’ aren’t actually evil after all, while Mary doubles down on her prejudices because she knows she’s better than them (and if they weren’t evil then she’d have to face some uncomfortable truths about herself – I suspect we’re being set up for a reveal of Mary’s personal demons at some point).
The difference is that Mary was a princess who could do no wrong. She was repeatedly told that she was the saved and everyone else was the sinner. Joyce was told she was a sinner and needed to atone, so she never developed the ‘only I’ mentality.
I personally believe Mary was an only child and spoiled, whereas Joyce had siblings and wasn’t made as much of a pet by her parents. Also, monkey see, monkey do? Joyce said her parents kept switching churches because of b-words, whereas Mary and her parents WERE the b-words. Different environments.
And sometimes people are just different. You could argue that Joyce would likely be spoiled as the youngest child and only (apparent) girl.
Also, as far as we know, Becky was an only child and likely raised in at least as fundy an environment and turned out completely different.
We don’t actually know anything about Mary’s family. I’d definitely be interested in more development for her background. Something to give us more of an idea where she’s coming from and maybe make us more sympathetic, while still leaving her the bad guy mirror for Joyce.
The grandma defence does have some validity though. Not ethically, but historically. Change takes time and often not until everyone who cling to the old ways have died.
And there are only so many horrendously offensive emails about Obama you’re willing to receive before you call them on their ridiculous bullshit, ‘respect for the elderly’ be damned. Respect for humanity is a thing too ffs.
A great many ‘born again’ Christians, particularly of the American fundamentalist variety, are basically raised from birth in the subcultural bubble and insulated from the outside world. It’s not like an adult conversion; it’s very likely that when Mary made her ‘choice’ she had virtually no experience of anything outside the evangelical tribe. Her particular prejudices will have been firmly instilled and reinforced by her environment.
Other than that, I agree with the thrust of your point; at some point “it’s not my fault, I was raised this way” does stop being a defence, and I’m generally a big proponent of the argument that religion doesn’t make assholes, it just makes assholes more obnoxiously self-righteous.
Joyce and Mary were apparently raised in very similar circumstances and absorbed very similar prejudices. Both are “born again” (Has Joyce actually used that language? Can’t recall.)
The difference is that Joyce is a good person and Mary is a bully. Joyce said some horribly offensive things early on, but in ignorance and confusion and never with intent to hurt. That doesn’t necessarily make them less painful.
She’s learned better.
I suspect even now, if suddenly confronted with Carla being trans, she’d react badly – babble offensively, say some very hurtful things.
Mary on the other hand, doesn’t. She learns about it. Doesn’t react with shock and horror. Saves up the secret. Then deliberately uses it to hurt Carla when she’s mad at her.
Like you said, it’s not just the religion. That just normalizes it. Makes Mary feel even more justified in her bullying.
I see Al Bundy escorting one of Kelly’s toys to the door by the collar and ‘accidentally’ running him into the door frame.
Lather, rinse, repeat for Mary.
So, this is where Ruth could sit Mary down and calmly help her figure out if this is what she wants out of her life; to look down on people and try to ruin their lives for not fitting in the tight little boxes of what she thinks they should be allowed to do, or be.
It’s tough to figure out what action to root for because Ruth, Billie, and Becky are all really vulnerable right now. Becky’s peril is obvious and I’m concerned about the effects on Ruth and Billie’s mental health if Ruth loses her job or her place in the dorm or something. So even though I do hope Ruth and Carla report Mary for hate speech and she gets expelled and we never see her in the comic again, it’s hard to feel all “rah rah destroy the bigoted piece of shit yes” about it.
I’m leaning towards believing that Ruth will take action, since Ruth doesn’t know enough about Becky to feel sympathetic to her (although Mary referring to her as a “perverted vagrant” might be enough) and she may not value self-preservation because she feels as though she’s committed to a suicide pact.
Other comments have correctly pointed out that Mary doesn’t seem to have proof to back up her statements, so this seems to be an empty threat, but I do think Mary is cunning and vile enough to have gathered evidence. If nothing else, I think she could get enough eyes on the dorm that it would screw over Becky.
If only Joyce had opened up to Leslie. Then she probably could have helped to set Becky up with the information of a women’s shelter, especially since she went through a similar situation herself.If Becky gets discovered, the absolutely worse case scenario is that she’s asked to leave, if that, and that’s a minor problem if she has someplace to go.
Also, Becky was kidnapped on campus at gunpoint in broad daylight, forced into a car, and nearly died in a crash. There is no way on earth that a University wants to be seen in any way as unsympathetic to that person. They might even let her stay, or at least help her find the resources she needs in this situation.
Earlier strips made a big point out of the dorm meeting Ruth’s holding about Ross’ rampage. I figure that Ruth will take the opportunity to say something to blunt the edge of Mary’s blackmail-knife.
For a second I thought that said: “Joe, talk about misreading signals.”
It would end with him saying: “They can never misread THIS signal!” Then pointing towards his penis.
but… her “standing up” to ruth was nothing but unsubtle lesbophobia. “youre awful cause youre having sex with a girl and are letting a homeless lesbian live here”. that is literally what she said. she didnt bring up any of the bad things ruth has actually ever done. how are you interpreting this as her standing up to a bully
Well, the first, while Mary states it in the MOST OFFENSIVE WAY POSSIBLE, is a problem in that it’s a relationship with one of her charges. While it’s not always a firing offense, it’s strongly discouraged, and it is grounds for dismissal at SOME universities.
But not an expulsion offense – just a “you lose your job” offense.
As for the issue of Becky – honestly, it’s tough to know how that plays out. EVERYONE else in the wing knows – but they’re ALL working to keep Becky a secret from Ruth. Ruth could conceivably have plausible deniablilty in not knowing about Becky – “how could I know when every other resident is actively working to hide her, and specifically hide her from ME? That’s a pretty high bar to hold me to.”.
Interestingly enough, Mary doesn’t mention (possibly not knowing about) the atom bomb in the room – 90 KAZILLION BOTTLES OF BOOZE between Ruth and Billie.
Meanwhile, Mary’s got straight-up harassment charges on her, with a witness present. I get that she’s playing brinksmanship here, but she has less room for wiggling out of this – both in terms of being found in violation of guidelines (being caught dead to rights harassing someone) and in terms of punishment afterwards. Ruth might lose her position, but Mary might get expelled.
(And as for Carla, she gets conduct write-ups. Not much to that one. “Don’t skate in the halls again. Got it?”)
Yeah, that’s the whole problem with the ‘Mary’s got a point’ argument.
While Ruth is breaking rules, and Carla was until her skates got ruined, those rules (and the good reasons for them) aren’t what Mary’s statements (and actions) tell us that she’s bothered by.
She clearly wasn’t bothered by Carla’s skating qua skating or the safety issues that lead to the rule – she was bothered by non-rule breaking noise, and then became a safety hazard herself to get back at Carla refusing to assent to what she saw as an unreasonable request. (She probably wouldn’t have stopped if Mary HAD cited the good reason, either, because kids are dumb and Carla’s not exactly considerate, but Mary never even tried to claim the high ground.)
Ruth shouldn’t be banging one of the students under her charge, and Becky being there is technically a rules violation (though one that really should be overlooked under the circumstances), this is all true, but…Mary never mentioned the threats or the actual violence (which should be bigger deals than either of those), but she DID mention Billie’s gender and that Becky was a lesbian, so the queer aspect is clearly awful high in her thoughts.
LOL SPOILARS
…hopefully? =C
I think the real question is, if you put Ruth in a room with Mary, Blaine, and Toedad, whose femurs would she go for first?
Depends, is Faz watching from outside the window?
Faz is just annoying. Those people are evil.
Don’t hurt Faz – who shall I ship with Dina otherwise?
anyone else.
Faz should only be shipped in a small container to a completely isolated island, where he can no longer do harm.
how about being shipped to Abu Dhabi? He’d make lots of cat friends….
Apparently he’s able to make a lot of lion friends, too.
Or shipped with Mary. She deserves him.
Faz is the boyfriend Mary needs, and the one she deserves.
Ninja Rick disagrees.
Faz should only be shipped… in several pieces. Each in their own box. That arrive separately. And one gets lost.
Certainly not Toedad!
Toes don’t have femurs.
The ones that make the best weapons?
Like that one Tony Jaa movie.
Noooo, blocked in Australia for Copyright reasons…
Also blocked in the UK also for copyright reasons
Ditto. But I guess I could watch it on a site.
Note to self: stop using YouTube for this stuff.
OR
edit relevant clips for uploading to GFYCATWho am I kidding, I don’t have the energy for that at 12:00 in the morning.Also blocked in Canada for copyright reasons.
Can we please stop defining copyrights by countries? In this day and age, it’s stupid. Either you hold a copyright or you don’t, end of story.
–Hell, a hundred years ago copyrights only applied within the country it was published in; and to anyone outside that country, the copyright didn’t exist. It also used to be for a far shorter period. Although I would probably feel differently about it if I were actually the copyright holder of anything successful, lol.
But corporations are people now and can hold copyright for life plus 80 from the author who needs those residuals to keep creating more content.
Also of note – anybody can block anything with a bogus take down notice for copyright. There are no repercussions for lying.
As somebody who has flirted with creating content, I wholly approve of the idea of replacing copyright by country with universal copyright. No just get China and North Korea to play along and we’ll be set.
hahahahahano.
And I honestly can’t say their way is worse than “Steamboat Willie (and anything made since) never ever goes out of copyright.”
No just get China and North Korea to play along and we’ll be set.
I wonder if that could happen before the U.S. switches to metric.
The reason for the “different countries” copyrights is that not every country has the same copyright laws. Something you can do with someone else’s work in China isn’t something you can legally do in the US. Thus the need for different copyrights. Different countries also have different time span.
She would take Mary’s femurs and beat both Blaine and Toedad to a pulp with them.
I’d like to think Ruth has the skills to extract the femurs from all three of them simultaneously.
I APPROVE
This plz
Mary you are seriously the worst
10:1 odds Ruth nips the possibility of it being taken higher up by caving Mary’s face in.
Mary, you give bongos a bad name.
Frankly, I think percussion instruments would like an apology for the comparison.
I spent last Sunday working at a sporting event, and a nearby idiot was pounding on a bongo drum all freakin’ day. Trust me, the comparison is apt.
I think the species of antelopes called bongo, and drunkards from the 1940s would also like an apology.
Maybe we should refer to Mary as a conga rather than a bongo.
Congas are like bongos on steroids.
…Just…FUCK you, Mary. No more, just…FUCK you.
in the words of carla’s tanktop: damn.
Yeah, her expression and shirt now totally match.
No thanks. I wouldn’t want to touch Mary with a ten foot pole. Beat her with it, yes.
Yep this is pretty much exactly what I figured would happen
same.
I wished she didn’t see that much.
Yup. Now we see if she gets to follow through. Or if, happily, someone wandering past has any dirt on her. *starts scanning the horizon for Roz*
How about the fact she just committed blackmail, which is a crime.
OH SHIT RUTH’S SCARED
…OH SHIT MARY KNOWS ABOUT BECKY
…OH SHIT RUTH KNOWS ABOUT BECKY
Bah. I’m sure it will be fine.
Hopefully she’ll be okay with Becky out of pure spite towards Mary.
However, will that be enough to make Ruth protect her if Mary threatens to go to her superiors about both that and her relationship with Billie?
Sadly, Mary has blackmail material on Ruth. 🙁
Blackmail material is hard to use after you’ve been fed your own femur. Not that I’m hoping for that or anything.
Mary could still drag herself to the manager’s office and scrawl it on his desk in her own blood. And then she dies with a smile.
Naaa, don’t see Ruth being that sloppy, she’d make sure to immobilize Mary 1st…
Unless Ruth finds some blackmail material on Mary, too – then they’re all-square as neither would be likely to reveal the other’s secret for fear of having their own revealed too.
@Yet_One_More_Idiot: So we’re playing ? Because I think Ruth’s kinda into that…
Very good point, TheGrammarLegionary. 🙂
Everyone knows, to play Mutually Assured Destruction, you have to be MAD. 😉
Former RA: The hall director would likely attempt to assist Becky, especially if she enrolls in school and would absolutely assist Carla as Mary took the spat too far. Ruth would be fired. No question. Literally, “don’t sleep with the residents” is rule no. 1.
Also, all Mary has to do in this instance is initiate cause for an investigation and whether they think Mary is a total jerk face or not the Resident Manager would likely at least investigate the claim on Ruth and Billie. At best, Billie keeps a tidy home and they don’t find anything easily/quickly and it passes. At worst they find a bunch of stuff that doesn’t belong to Ruth and alcohol bottles. Also, not sure how many camera are in the hall but that could also be used in an investigation. I’m definitely not rooting for Mary, just saying things don’t look good for Ruth either way.
All that to say, I’m sure this whole thing is going to go sideways real quick because that’s the Willis Brand guarantee!
Huh, at my school the rule is just don’t sleep with residents in your jurisdiction, or if a relationship is forming/likely to form, the CL (RA) can be moved to a new jurisdiction.
That’s kind of what I was getting at but didn’t quite articulate! Yeah, Billie really ought to swap dorms if possible!
i was an RA for 4 years and any sleeping with residents in your building was grounds for termination. but i would have been rooting for mary the whole time other then damaging carla’s skates she has been in the right. carla has been a constant shit, Disturbing mary while she was trying to study and endangering all of the people in the hall by skating. ruth is complaining about mary’s language instead of the glaring rule breaking skates and excessive noise disturbance from the jumping. mary’s actions are only affecting carla. carla’s actions are affecting the entire hall and anyone that may be living below. at this point mary should go down to the supervisor for both ruth and carla.
I think telling a transgender woman that she “really” belongs in the boys’ wing is a pretty serious issue.
So, I’m not eager for an argument, but both Carla and Mary have some things that need to be addressed. Carla was breaking rules, and that needs to be addressed. Mary; however, can’t go responding to that by slinging slurs or derogatory remarks. That’s not okay and should also be addressed.
Yeah, pretty much my take on this whole thing. Up until that came out of her mouth, I was entirely on Mary’s side.
OH SHIT, BECKY KNOWS WHAT KIDS LOVE ABOUT CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH!
Of course. Ross was the quality control chief at the cereal factory.
more like cinnamon TOES crunch amirite
If that scene had gone differently, he would’ve been a cereal killer.
Cereal killers should get Life.
This thread took a most wondrous turn.
Cheerio!
We get our Kix from puns.
Commenter tested, Willis approved!
A grrreat one!
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Parallel Bits, beats cereal every time.
Training your cereal palate is yet another benefit of dating Dina.
Lesbians?!
[boxquote=Boxquote]Yes[/boxquote]
I still dont know how to do it :c
Gotta use the “greater than” and “less than” brackets. These ones, if they show:
When you’re writing your comment, there’s examples of the HTML codes you can use just below. 🙂
How about now?
><
Could you show me how to do it, like an example, I know to use <, but how do i do it, could you use [] to show me please. Ill just replace it when I do it.
Does this work?
I think this’ll work:
Woo! Here’s the pastebin: http://pastebin.com/y5jESVCp
Yes, just yes
Ruth? Scared?
HA!
Does she? Is Ruth going “Wh-what?” because she is surprised at what Mary know about that Ruth already knew about, or are there things there that Ruth didn’t know about at all?
Also, how has Mary missed the boozing?
Maybe her sense of smell is terrible?
The Becky thing is new to her. She knew Mary knew about her and Billie. But the Becky thing? Everyone’s been deliberately hiding Becky from her and Ruth was implied to be hermiting for most of this week. So that’s definitely new information and could put her a little off balance especially given her pride in running a tight ship.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I think Ruth is/has been fully aware of Becky being in the dorm. Just seeing the difference in Dina over the past week (DoA-time) would be a tip-off (not to mention that someone screaming “I’m a lesbian!!” in the lobby at the top of her lungs isn’t particularly easy to overlook). It’s just that, as I implied before, that up to now dealing with Becky was not worth the time or the effort. However, now that Mary is forcing the issue….
I dunno, that moment of surprise looked genuine, but I’m fully prepared to be wrong on this.
I know it really seems like that, but I was an RA and it’s not easy to keep tabs on everybody’s life unless you’re actively snooping, which Ruth clearly doesn’t care enough to do even if it were in her job description. My job was just to report on any events I may happen to witness that might be affecting any of my resident’s wellbeing and resolve conflicts. Both of which I think I rarely if ever actually did.
The RA’s at my school mostly take a “if I don’t see it and no-one complains a lot, it didn’t happen” attitude. Otherwise there is a butt-ton of paperwork for the RA and the housing to do. No-one likes paperwork.
That said, I don’t think Mary has as much bargaining power as she thinks. A lot of what she said is stuck in “She said, she said” territory with no real proof and most likely no-one to back her up with her claims. And colleges take hate speech very seriously. So going there with the report that she has been harassing a trans student (who the school has obviously taken steps to make sure she feels safe) will make anything she says seem like an attempt to discredit. Said harassed student also filing a report and no-one in the dorm verifying that Becky is living there means Mary is just a bongo without any boing.
Agreed. Honestly, everything else that’s been happening around Ruth has nothing on the previous vandalisation of said cheerleader’s belongings. In her own words, they love her down there. Ruth is extremely good at poker facing legitimate complaints, complaints much more damning than anything Mary pulls out of her ass. To “walk away” is to admit that these things are an actual issue, so all Ruth really has to do is play it off. If she can do the same in this situation and call Mary’s bluff, then she will be fine. Especially with the hate speech.
And honestly, Mary might be seriously overestimating Ruth’s desperation to keep the job as RA in the first place. Sure, being RA had been Ruth’s sole passion in the beginning, but it seems like her priorities might have changed a bit lately. She’s had more important things on mind. Is keeping the title of RA more important than protecting the actual students, Billie and Carla included? Probably not. So better and more logical/emotional for her to stand her ground.
But the whole hardass-Ruth-the-RA storyline has always been a bit stupid, as RAs don’t really have much power, and have a lot more to lose if it comes down to a real physical confrontation.
Even if Mary didn’t have any dirt on Ruth, Ruth’s threats would still be little more than hot air….
Yes, those arguments are sound and make good points, But you seem to be overlooking a crucial fact. You used logic, everybody knows logic and comics/TV don’t mix.
Logic and people in general don’t mix. It’s not just limited to fiction.
Yeah, but we all make snap judgements based on complex reasoning. I guess I’m just hoping Ruth will make the right one, and I’m not sure her personality can allow her to walk away anyhow.
She’s trans? This is either something I’ve grossly overlooked or some continuity wink from all those other works I’ve never read, right? Man…
In the original Walkyverse Carla was “UltraCar”, a sentient hatchback that decided to move ‘his’ consciousness into a female robot body. I didn’t process it as a trans parallel at the time but I am also somewhat oblivious, and we were dealing with, yanno, a car…
See my comment downthread for evidence: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/leverage-2/#comment-955095
There’s been several indirect hints dropped during this series, too.
1: Carla thinking a penis drawn on her whiteboard was a ‘hate crime’–until she saw that the entire hallway had been hit by the vandal.
2: In her conversation with Sal about joining the roller derby team, Sal says that her extra height would give her an advantage. Carla replies, “There’s a reason for that,” to which Sal responds that it wouldn’t make any difference to them.
There was one other I can’t think of right now, but those are the ones that stick out in my memory.
I fear when it comes out that Billie knew. Becky is in Billies room.
The comic recently went out of its way to spotlight Becky hiding (being hidden) from Ruth and that Dina looked genuinely scared to see her, so I’m fairly sure we’re meant to infer that she still doesn’t know. Plus there’s drama potential when she finds out that Billie not only knew but is currently letting Becky stay in her room, and hasn’t told Ruth about it.
Mary really does have solid blackmail material and is clearly prepared to use it – I’m waiting to see whether Ruth does a Huck Finn in defence of Carla & Becky (“fuck it, I’ll do the right thing and damn the consequences”, or in Finn’s words, “All right then, I’ll go to Hell”).
“Never show your hand unless you hold all the cards.” Mary doesn’t hold all the cards, but she does have a full house to bluff with. While she is prepared to escalate, escalation could go either way in this case, considering recent events. I’m sure housing knows of Ruth’s underlying issues, which grants her some leeway as long as she continues to keep the peace in her domain.
The campus isn’t actually dry. or she’s abusing prescription meds.
the receptionnist specially said that it was a dry campus on day 1.
Mary may not have mentioned it, but she still might know about the booze. Just that there were so many other things she was complaining about that she already had more than enough to cause Ruth some major problems.
She didn’t before.
She knows now.
I’m no mind reader, but it looks to me like Ruth is thinking “Wow, just, you’re a perfectly awful human being, how do you even justify your own existence to yourself, or is that it, you can’t, you actually hate yourself so much you want to end it all, this is some suicide attempt, you want me to smash your brains in with your own femurs, damnit, my mouth didn’t work that whole time”.
What Mary told her is not quite accurate, so she couldn’t know all of it.
I don’t think Ruth is scared. I think she is surprised. How many people have ever gotten in her face like this, and lived to talk about it?
Mary is in deep shit, she just hasn’t discovered that fact yet.
Ruth’s not scared, just surprised. Though, really she shouldn’t be.
Why do I get visions of this scene running through Ruth’s mind right about now?
“She knows how to play!”
Don’t worry, Willis has said that no one’s going to die in DOA.
…
Wait, why are you all glaring at me like that?
That is kind of sad when you think about it here. Like, Mary WON’T die. And that sucks.
Okay Willis fine I hate Mary now
Just what Willis wanted all along.
Only now?
You didn’t hate the malicious, homophobic, transphobic, vindictive asshole already?
Dislike; yes. Downrigh hate; no.
But I’m quickly getting there.
Better late than never I suppose. xD
Report to Roz so she can bongo you out for being late.
Damn man, that Mary is something. $5 Ruth doesn’t back off!
if she doesn’t becky might end up living with that one teacher……. I wouldn’t be opposed that that specific outcome if it comes to blows so to speak.
I thought they’d live as lovers at first. I hope Leslie has more morals then that.
Haha XD
That’s Jason’s department!
Nice!! I forgot Becky’s sleeping space is on the line. Oh yeah… She totally called her a pervert too. I hope Ruth doesn’t let Mary get away with these hate speech >:O
Go find the media who did the story on Becky, Mary’s hate related threats will make an excellent follow up.
^This. Pretend to back down and then DOUBLE DOWN. And get Carla in on it while you’re at it, under the pretense of telling her not to bug Mary again.
This. So much.
Indeed, you might say there’s something about Mary…
She’s gone full Ratigan!
Excellent reference! Where’s Toby when you need him?!
Even meaner?
You mean it?
Worse than the heathens and witches you drowned?
You’re the best of the worst around!
Oh Mary! Oh Mary!
You think you’re never wrongo!
To Mary! To Mary!
To Mary the World’s Greatest Bongo!
aaahahaha this is great, I’m doing a search for bongo just to see and now you’re USING it, amazing!!!
Despite all the horrible things Ratigan does in that movie I still would rather spend time around him than Mary.
I like to think Ratigan wouldn’t care if one of his minions were trans or into mice of the same gender, as long as they did his bidding and avoided the ‘R’ word.
Ratigan himself was trans-species.
Who had folks who misidentified him eaten alive.
I support this approach for Mary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjGi3s8P3FA
Mary has no chill!
The die is cast….
W-woah. She’s… an actually competent villain? That’s rather more than I expected… ._.
She actually be the most competent villain so far (minus Mike)
She’s actually some what subtle, unlike Blaine and Ross who are just loud violent idiots
I’m really not used to the idea of “villains” without aspirations (as far as we can see so far) to take over
the tri-state areathe worldthe universeCleveland.Is it ever JUST Cheeto dust?
If the store sells it, then yes it is. If only the Just Store wasn’t fictional, because I could go for some “Just Oreo Filling.”
Blaine was sutble enough to lure Danny off campus as leverage.
I actually kind of like Danny and I’ll be the first to say that there are Mack trucks subtle enough to lure him off campus.
…you make a fair point.
“whoa that one looks like Optimus Prime. I should take a picture to show Joe…”
In this continuity it would be to show Ethan
and have an excuse for himself to hang out with himNo, no she isn’t. She’s arrogant enough to assume there’s no way any of this could go wrong for her. She’s an idiot who gives proper villainy a bad name.
So she is the false front for the real evil mastermind?
Carla is legitimately living in the female dorms. Unless someone was particularly clueless, this leaves me thinking that all Ruth needs to do is explain just what Mary said to Carla to make anything Mary says come across as bigoted bullshit.
It might be bigoted, but they’d still have to kick Becky to the curb (against dorm rules) and would probably kick Ruth out of the RA position and cost her any pay or room comp she’s getting (abuse of authority; authority figures don’t get to have relationships with students). The latter would also likely up Ruth and Billie’s drinking, which would inevitably lead to them getting caught, and facing the repercussions of being caught drinking on a dry campus.
Ruth might lose her job, but I suspect Becky would almost instantaneously acquire a new place to stay from a very friendly and helpful teacher. And if this event leaked out to the media, so soon after the incident with toedad, it would be impossible for the media to not link Mary’s vile behavior to the same kind of extremism that just caused a freaking armed kidnapping.
It’s entirely possible that the backlash from that will cause the university to drop any complaints at all against ruth, just to avoid being caught up in it.
You give university administrations way too much credit, friend. They want to avoid hassles and they want to avoid lawsuits.
1: Becky is gone immediately – having someone staying in the dorms without all the proper paperwork is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
2: Ruth is dismissed from her RA position for violating dry campus rules and for fucking one of the students she is directly responsible for. Depending on university policy, she could be banned from the dorms or even expelled.
3: Billie ends up in similar hot water re: dry campus.
4: Carla prrrrobably comes out okay unless the DOA version of Bart O’Ryan decides to scream about her on his TV show or whatever he’s up to, at which point the university has to put up or shut up on its policy w/r/t trans students in student housing.
It’s far, far more likely that Mary wins, given how conflict-averse university administrators are these days.
SOURCE: i have worked at multiple universities – they will let shit slide until their hand is forced and then they go ballistic on everyone.
Actually, the only person I’m giving credit to is Leslie, who will doubtless extend her home to Becky immediately. I’m assuming the University will take the most media friendly path possible, which isn’t backing the fundamentalist spewing hate speech. Ruth might lose her position, Becky will be quietly encouraged to leave, but in the wake of the toedad incident the university isn’t going to want to present any hint that they might be punishing people for being gay. It doesn’t matter what’s actually going on with Ruth, there are too many hotbuttons in play.
Also, just once I want one of my predictions to not be soul crushing.
@Julez: Becky arrived on campus the Thursday of the previous week. This is Friday of the current week – her 9th day on campus.
But how long can a non-student legitimately stay with a friend in the dorms? Over a weekend, right? At least? But not much longer. And Becky hasn’t been here that long.
So, Becky stayed with her friend Joyce for a few days, then was going to leave, but decided to visit with her friend Sal a little while first, instead.
I don’t see the problem. 😉 So long as they can claim it with a straight face and stick to it.
At this point, I believe Becky has been there for at least a week and a half, maybe a bit more.
Three days in the dorm if a weekend, overnight during the week, period, on our campus – didn’t matter what room you were staying in. It kept couch surfers from befriending a whole floor and bouncing between rooms for extended stays.
When I was in college we had friends stay as long as 2 weeks on our futon or in our extra bed. They weren’t homeless or anything. Just had the time to stay with us that long and hang out with all their other friends on campus as well. Our R.A. knew about it and everything.
Yup, this. Sadly.
hoop: Re: #4, I think it’s more cut-and-dried than that. Carla has already been identified (by Joyce) as having ‘a room of her own for some reason’. Given the obvious housing policy of having people have roommates, and the fact that Ruth obviously was aware of Carla’s trans status (based on her reaction), it’s pretty clear the school already is on the right side of that issue. Mary’s looking at expulsion if this blows up, regardless of what consequences hit the others, and Carla’s in the clear.
Maybe I haven’t spent enough time in a dorm, but I’m really not seeing what part of this couldn’t be solved better by Carla herself going to whoever’s responsible and bypassing Mary’s ridiculous pseudo-blackmail. What, if anything, would be done about it is practically speaking up to the rules and the personal morals of the person in charge, anyway; as far as I know we have no idea whether this Resident Manager is the sort of person to take “resident is bigoted asshole” as a serious complained.
(And honestly, I doubt this will get Mary too far. One of the very few benefits of being self-destructive is that it’s kinda hard to threaten you into not doing the right thing, usually.)
From personal experience, the “nothing to live for” element might be an unreliable indicator for what a person is and isn’t willing to risk. Especially since Ruth is slowly finding something to care about.
Aside from the fact that Carla doesn’t seem the type to go to an authority figure, she would 100% have the RD on her side if she took off the skates, put on regular shoes, took that skates to the RD, and told the RD “Mary destroyed my personal property and made transphobic hate comments toward me.” Mary has no proof that Carla was skating in the halls and Carla has the destroyed skates as evidence.
Yeah, but that first factor will likely trump. Carla does not have any truck with authority figures (probably having been burned by her fair share of them growing up given her background). She’s really not the type to go running to them and expecting them to solve things in any way that’s positive for her.
Sadly if Ruth backs off, a much more likely situation is Carla just eats the transphobia, commits even more strongly to avoiding people, and tries to replace her skates… again.
It’s what I would do. Telling admins and drawing attention could just get you targeted even worse. Best sometimes to keep your head down and count your good fortune to be in the girls’ dorm at all.
She has to finish rebooting first. marybigotry.exe caused the jerkass service to overflow into the system heap.
I wondered about that. But if Ruth is her only witness, it’s still a problem.
There is one major thing Mary has forgotten; Ruth does not like to lose, and may either take Mary down with her or bluff about doing that.
Well, about what was expected really. I hope Ruth still has some edge over her.
Yeah, I also saw it coming. Didn’t say anything on yesterday’s comic because ____.
Can you complete the above statement? (Yes.)
Because comments were disabled?
See parentheses above.
Hopefully that edge will be a knife.
Wow I didn’t think ruth would have a look like that from one of the students. I had no strong opinion of mary before but now……. yeah not a fan.
Femurs. I want to see femurs, out of body, next strip. I demand.
….aaaaaaaand the “Mary knows about Ruth/Billie” pays off in the worst way.
Also an industrial woodchip.
Hey, Rodimiss – check out Ana Chronistic’s post up top if you haven’t already~
I saw that after I made my comment and I was extremely pleased!
What? No. Think of the poor janitor who’d need to clean the blood out of the hall carpet! Rather, how about she says “So you want the biggest deviant in the dorm kicked out right now?” and then defenestrate her.
So, in that other universe we know Blaine slept around and fathered multiple illegitimate children.
You don’t suppose? The psychotic grin and assholeish behavior are pretty similar.
Does poor Amber really need more reasons to feel tormented?
“Hey, I now realize I have a crush on Faz”.
She’s a superhero. The more villains with personal connections to her we have, the better the drama.
Well, Amber is kind of an experiment in “let’s pile all the possible issues on one person”…
… Naaaaaah, too obvious.
Most likely.
Obviously, Mary will crush on Amber beforehand.
Plays a good chess game, this Mary does
Mary is still likely to get expelled, no? Even if getting Ruth in trouble does happen.
For what, being a bigot? The max you can prove is that she said something very mean while in an argument with someone who was deliberately antagonizing her and following her around to harass her.
Mary’s a terrible and spiteful person, and it’s human nature to wish ill fortune on her for it, but she hasn’t done anything to earn expulsion in a formal, disciplinary sense. Ironically, she’s the person in the scene who has broken the fewest university rules.
Hate speech is a possibility- maybe more likely whee I am than Indiana- but blackmail is still a felony.
she did destroy/damage another students property. not likely to be suspended over but something.
Ruth does not have clean hands, she’s abused her authority as a representative of the university, and believed she could get away with it because she intimidates the other students, while ignoring her real duties. Becky is trespassing on the school property, taking advantage of facilities that she isn’t paying for, which Ruth either didn’t know about or was willing to allow to continue. The fact that Mary is unpleasant doesn’t clean the slate of the bad things Ruth and the others have been getting away with, and just because you like them doesn’t make what they’ve done acceptable.
CptNerd Esq., Advocatum Diabolus
I’m afraid, esteemed colleague, that you seem to be mixing up “things that are against the rules” and “bad things.”
We do not content that there is nothing wrong with granting accommodations to Becky, an abuse victim. Granted, she should be trying to find a more permanent place to live, and does not appear to be doing so. However, staying with friends for a little when one has nowhere else to go is is not wrong, and most schools allow for guests. (It is possible that she is scamming the cafeteria, but that’s not something that’s in Ruth’s purview. For all she knows, Becky’s friends are paying for her meals.)
It is indeed possible that Ruth could be abusing her authority with Billie, we argue that she has not done so. Ruth terminated her relationship with Billie, and Billie chose of her own free will to return.
Ruth has her problems. We cannot deny this. But her problems are not those that your client has brought forth. They may be against the school’s rules, but we answer to a higher authority.
trlkly, Argumentum Angelus 😛
hah, I wish. I literally go to one of the most trans-friendly schools in the country and when someone tried to start a “trans critical” group on campus they didn’t do shit about it.
Sadly, this. Hate speech may be against the rules and the law of the city, but I’ve not seen a school or city or state yet actually enforce said rules to the point where those who go against it actually worry about social or legal consequences.
If Carla’s parents made a fuss, it could have reverberations or if there was a student protest, but otherwise, Carla is just chalking it up to her regular diet of bullshit and transphobia.
Ruth just kill her. Carla won’t see anything
Hell, Carla will have a tarp and a shovel over here in five minutes if you ask.
Hell, the whole floor would pitch in.
A fresh-dug grave might attract unwanted attention, as might the chemicals to render the remains unrecognizable.
Just find a wood chipper and a whale shark. Hannelore’s mom had the right idea, I feel.
“What grave? We just decided to plant a tomato garden as a community-building exercise.”
“Not much is growing yet because we salted the earth here. For reasons.”
Not with those gunked up wheels, she won’t.
No jury on earth would convict her.
I’m calmly waiting for Ruth to lose her shit.
Yeah I knew this would happen. 🙁
No way this person I don’t want to use that specific word to refer to is going to get what she deserves. Not so soon.
But when she does…
F5 F5 F5….
she’s not exactly wrong but
wuddabongo
I’ve been waiting for that shoe to drop.
I bet Sal and friends won’t be so easily blackmailed though.
Yeah, Mary hasn’t thought this through. She’s one person, and if a good chunk of her floor decide to screw her, well, it’s her word against 8 people’s about what actually happened. Hell, all it’d take is Roz planting something in her room, Ruth “finding” it, and then all her claims about Ruth being a bad RA come across as sour grapes.
You mean like all of Billies and Ruths empty bottles suddenly ending up under Marys bed?
I hope mary dies in a fire. no joke.
Don’t wish that on fire. The fire didn’t do anything wrong. 🙁
Fire cleanses indiscriminately.
And it is painful
Mary, Mary….why you bugging?
Good name. Great reference.
Stick to your guns, Ruth! You gotta!
Maybe after taking a look at Carla’s crestfallen expression, there.
Don’t back down!
Mary you are going to make so many enemies. You should have gone to Anderson.
I think the results would have been the same.
She would’ve made it so Becky left even earlier (and many things would have been much better, except Joyce and Dina probaby not being ready for her, so the things would have started out much worse… I wanna read that fic now shit)
I think Liberty University would be an even better fit for Mary.
Y’know that feeling you get when someone says something ostencibly true, but is still totally wrong about every part of it?
That’s what a villain does.
That’s what a *well-written villain does. ;3
People who want to be on the top tend to have lots of enemies and not care at all. “Let them hate me, so long as they fear me” is their motto.
Normally, in this situation, my go-to response is to threaten to rip the person’s balls off and feed them to him… But Mary is female. She has no balls to rip off. Suggestions?
What floor are they on again?
rip off he breasts?
Femurs, clearly.
To be precise, in humans, usually the gonads take the form of either testicles, or ovaries. If you can’t threaten to remove the testicles, threatening to forcefully remove the ovaries is roughly an equivalent threat.
On a moral note, I want to say that physical threats are wrong, but…. this is Mary we are talking about…. I wouldn’t mourn her if physical violence was enacted against her.
Wood chipper. I’ve been watching fargo.
In the name of cartoonishly violent escalation: use her ovaries as analogous.
Hey, if it’s the escalation game you want, why not just go back in time (obviously using a conveniently placed, genius-level briefcase) and make her trans at birth?
…
I’ve been told I’m too good at the escalation game.
Clearly the appropriate punishment would be to surgically attach balls.
I expect this drawing on my desk by sundown.
Best response.
Bravo.
High-five!
My go-to threat is “I will gut you like a trout.”
defenestration.
“You keep using that word…..”
Congratulations; it means exactly what you think it means.
The thought that always gets me is that it must have happened frequently enough somewhere for this to become a literary term.
Prague, 1618. It started a war.
Violence would just be more ammunition for Mary to use against Ruth.
Amazi-girl could probably use an outlet. Is she far gone enough to pummel Mary?
…is she lawbound enough for Mary to turn her against the redheads? …Shit.
‘It certainly was odd that the note Mary left to say she was leaving forever was in someone else’s handwriting and also covered in blood.”
I’m kind of wanting a piano to fall on Mary’s head right now. Should I feel bad about that?
Depends. Is it a good quality piano?
I’d feel bad for the piano.
Yes. What did the poor piano ever do to deserve that?
It must have struck the wrong chord.
Mmm. Diplomacy is key.
Nah, not a piano. The piano will take the brunt of the force of impact and break. Use an anvil. Solid steel.
You’ve never had to move a piano, have you?
Willis. I am laying down a demand. Mary needs to DIE. Preferably in a fire of some sort.
I KNEW she was going to do this, but it does not make it any less loathsome. Please.
The happy corner of my mind is picturing Billie walking up behind them in her lingerie (which is the real reason for Ruth’s expression in that last panel) and proceeds to bap Mary over the head with the strapon she bought Ruth.
“Oh I welcome the defiling~”
I’ve been binge-reading Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns because of this plot twist. Damn You Willis.
b
bo
bongo bongo bongo bongo bong–
Mary knows less about Ruth than she thinks she does. She doesn’t know how bad Ruth’s current state is, or that Ruth herself probably can’t predict what she’s going to do.
Never corner the wild animal. The lack of escape fills it with DETERMINATION.
No, Ruth, don’t give in to the hatemonger!
This is certainly blowing up nicely.
Thing is, Mary is right… Ruth was a terrible RA, but not for any of the reasons given.
On an unrelated note, does anyone know why yesterday’s comic had comments closed?
The comments were closed for the same reasons tonight’s will likely get closed, tbh.
Er, something tells me that after this not even the bigots will want to side with Mary.
(Wishful thinking. :p)
I have a hard time processing why they’d want to read this comic in the first place, unless they just want something to complain about.
They’re always looking for something to complain about.
I so so wish that was true. But sadly, there was a pretty bad flock of them last night. The worst of them were luckily banned, but still.
Because transphobic bigots would have shown up and made the comments a mess and Willis is too tired to deal with that.
wait…… oh wow yesterdays comic makes so much more sense now. I am kind of oblivious or maybe I forgot. It never clicked that she might be transgender. I just assumed it was something like “if you are going to act like a boy stay with them” and couldn’t figure out why it was such an extreme reaction.
For those of us that read Shortpacked as well, the hints were there, but for people specifically reading DoA it makes sense that you wouldn’t have known. I think I saw it confirmed somewhere prior to Carla actually having any DoA lines.
Well in my case the friends i have who happen to be transgender I never realized until I was told point blank about it. I’m pretty oblivious about a lot of stuff. *shrug* worse things out there than not realizing stuff like that though.
it was explicited but outside the comic (tumblr or twitter)
the hints we got in comic were minly that she had “a solo room for some reason”, and that thing about the Derby team.
And that she considered the dick on her whiteboard to be a hate crime until she found out everyone’s whiteboards had been dickified.
I think she also made a comment about how “there’s a reason” for her height.
Well that never clicked as a reason why it could be a hate crime. I just kind of assumed she was over reacting thinking she was targeted specifically instead of everyone being hit.
Because Willis has two baby boys to take care of and doesn’t have the time, will, or energy to sift through transphobic commentary and get rid of it before someone gets hurt.
He still had to, exept in the prior day’s comment where we all huddled up ;
along with spills over tumblr asks and twitter.
Exactly. He doesn’t need any more babies to clean up after.
Preemptive troll control.
Band name! Dibs!
I’d listen to Preemptive Troll Control.
I’m imagining heavy synths.
Because El Supremo realised that the comments for that strip were going to attract every transphobic webcomic reader in a thousand leagues.
It’s like chumming the water for sharks.
Well, Mary only gave three reasons there for Ruth being a terrible RA.
1. That Ruth is having lesbian sex.
2. That Ruth is having sex with one of her charges.
3. That Ruth is allowing (or is ignorant of) a non-student to live on school property.
I doubt the Resident Manager will really care about that first one, but the second two are kind of in Terrible RA territory.
Also just adding this in so that no one misunderstands. Mary is being terrible here, but her Terrible RA argument holds water. Of course, allowing a resident to spew transphobic statements at another resident would also be pretty bad form for an RA, so Ruth ain’t gonna let this stand.
uh, why is 1) any matter here ? ^^;
It’s not, but it’s one of Mary’s reasons. That’s why I said only the second two are things a Resident Manager would care about. Just because it’s one of the reasons Mary gave doesn’t mean it’s valid.
Really, only the alleged sex with Billie would be a problem for Ruth, but what proof does Mary actually have of that? It would be a case of a bigot’s word against the RA. As far as Becky goes, I think Ruth legitimately thought Becky was Joyce’s friend from a different floor, which is a reasonable assumption.
I… I really hate Mary. Like, a lot. Like, on the same level of “please jump in front of a bus” hate that I harbor for Toedad and Blaine. Maybe even more; those guys are in the hospital and out of the story right now, we’re stuck with Mary.
I… I don’t know how to react to this. I’m just… furious.
as a character she is interesting in some ways but as a “person” not someone I would want to spend time with……. ever.
I was confused by this because y’all have the same icon
Well, she may get to the hospital in a few pages, too.
That’s the thing. I hate both Blaine and Ross, but they were impulse villains. One big burst of being a dick, then out of the picture after taking it too far and getting themselves hospitalized or arrested (or both). They did a lot of damage in a short time (and Blaine even more through years of off-screen abuse), but their time in comic was brief and terrible before being removed for a long time.
But Mary has been sitting on this for weeks, just waiting for the right moment. She lives a few seconds away from the people she’s hurting, and isn’t likely to take things to the point where she’s thrown in jail or carted off to the hospital for the next several years. (Blackmail beats punches and guns in that regard)
So she definitely warrants more hate than those two. Before, I just thought she was a bit of an asshole. After the last two strips, it’s clear that she’s a BIG problem. One that I don’t see being easily dealt with. The problem that leaves the next day is far less threatening than the one that will be standing over your shoulder for the next several weeks/months.
I’m still hoping that this leads to Ruth losing her job(because she’s an asshole/bully/complete monster) but Mary gets thrown out along the way for creating a hostile environment for her fellow residents. Carla gets promoted to floor manager because she never actually has gotten caught causing trouble, and while I’m wishing, I get a pony.
hey can I get a pony too!
I like this notion. Here’s hoping!
“complete monster” are strong words. Especially when the justification you give for Mary getting thrown out is “creating a hostile environment for her fellow students” – I’d think that all the lording her moral superiority over people, transphobia, and homophobia are signs that Mary’s quite vile too. If Ruth is, categorically, a bully, what does that make Mary? Not a bully, when she calls a trans student a boy and verbally harasses Ruth for being a gynophile?
Ruth isn’t a monster. Just a really, REALLY shitty RA.
Ruth physically and emotionally abused someone she had power over until that person entered into a relationship with her. I mean, Mary’s horrible, but Ruth needed to be fired long ago.
Mary just dropped the BOMB! I know she isn’t liked, but damn, what a beatdown she just gave. This pleases me.
The thing about dropping bombs is that most countries have silos and fleets of their own.
I don’t think Mary is remotely prepared for any effective retaliation.
The only winning move is not to play. Unfortunately, Mary decided to play. And now everything’s going to blow up.
Empty threat. The only faculty are Leslie, computers teacher, the dean, and maybe a janitor. Also she probably won’t live that long anyway.
In my head, the janitor is Ninja Rick.
Is this canon. Because if it isn’t it should be.
Ninja Rick does not exist in DoA because he was based off a real person.
No, and it won’t be for the reason timemonkey gave. But that also means that Ninja Rick won’t appear in any capacity that contradicts my headcanon, and I have a ready explanation for the fact that he never appears as janitor.
We don’t see him because he’s a ninja.
Headcanon accepted. Headcanon approved.
In mine, he’s the student counselor/therapist that they never visit.
Just sitting there all alone in his office, obliviously proud that his mere presence makes the students so psychologically healthy that they never even need to see him.
They never see him because they never see him.
The one whose card Roz gave to Joyce?
Yep! He doesn’t actually run a coven, though.
There’s the Math professor that teaches the Calc class, but he’s like an inch tall.
I’d be more inclined to believe he exists if I could remember his face or if he even had one.
Professor Rees does in fact have a face.
And, I believe, we once saw the professor who teaches Danny and Amber’s programming class? He’s the alt-universe version of that guy from Roomies and It’s Walky! who got drafted into SEMME because he broke into their system.
Ruth knew that Mary knew about her and Billie so she had to have expected that one to come up sometime. I don’t even know if Ruth herself knows about Becky living in Billie’s room so I suspect that is what threw Ruth off her game.
Come on, Ruth, just bite her nose off. You know you want to.
Seriously though, that escalated quickly, from one rude act to another, getting worse and worse each time.
By this stage, I am wondering why Mary hasn’t just requested to trade with someone in another dorm.
Because that means the “perverts” win. Mary has to be right at all costs. She’s a bully who thinks herself a paladin.
Does that mean at some point Mary will be fatally wounded, and some ghost will tell her that redemption isn’t for everyone?
At least she will be able to see Windstriker… (Realizes that Mary doesn’t have an equivalent to Windstriker). She has less friends than Miko. That’s impressive.
Huh. I didn’t know that was even possible.
Miko at least had one genuinely wrong enemy.
Speaking of which, can we please hand over Mary to Xkyon?
Wait, but who is an adequate authority figure for her to kill beforehands?
Leslie seems roughly equivalent to Lord Shojo. They’re both wise, smart-alecky mentor types older than the main cast who it’d be a real shame to lose.
This. Her whole raison d’etre is that Mary is better than everyone else. That Mary will show herself to win. That Mary will triumph and outshine the deviants and the sinners and prove herself over all.
That Mary will personally win and gloat over that win. It’s why she hold on to information until she can play it to her advantage. It’s why she escalates so intensely when she doesn’t get her way (the transphobia and the glueing of the skates with Carla, the calling Ruth the c-word when she wouldn’t drop everything to solve a non-emergency problem).
I had forgotten all about the whiteboard bonering. And Mary’s aborted language. Thatbdoes add a fresh complexion to things.
She’s going to become a fallen paladin and STILL think she’s in the right, like that one lady in Order of the Stick.
like Toedad.
I see her more as the “You wronged me (the noise)”, so I’ll make you regret having ever crossed me”
The threat itself is bad enough. It’s the fucking language she’s using that makes me see red. Defiling, perverted…it’s dehumanizing and disgusting and Mary is just the fucking worst.
Yup, it’s that proud deliberate ignorance and bigotry that really hammers home that she doesn’t actually view other people as people. They’re just set pieces for Mary to prove how good she is against.
Don’t forget the generous dose of theology she justifies it with!
THIS. EXACTLY this. That anyone can claim she’s in the right is terrifying to me.
An instance where I somewhat wish Willis would revoke his truck rule.
Mary is terrible.
Next in Dumbing of Roomies: Ruth runs over Mary with a truck.
I was thinking something along the lines of a freak automotive accident flipping a truck to punch a bumper right through the wall and Mary’s occupied bed without harming anyone else or their possessions, but I think more mundane comeuppance will be more satisfying if it comes.
Well, here’s where it gets interesting, because how things proceed from here comes entirely down to how self-destructive Ruth is feeling.
Because if she’s in full “fuck it, let me burn and get it over with” mode, then she’ll shut this shit down in a nanosecond though at utterly immense personal cost ending in at minimum, losing her job and possibly being suspended from the school (at maximum, she could face legal consequences for sleeping with one of her charges or the underaged drinking).
But if not, oof, that might actually end worse for her in the long run, because it basically means that Mary will now own her ass and that’s going to come with a humiliating regimen of being her personal servant until eventually she hits the “fuck it, let me burn” mode later.
The thought comes to mind that Mary may not have the leverage she assumes she does. She knows things that are a threat to Ruth, but being an RA Ruth may know things that are a threat to Mary.
Yeah, at the end of the day, what does Mary really have? That Becky’s staying here (bad for Becky) and an accusation of gross misconduct on the part of Ruth (which will trigger an investigation). But she’s also Mary and everyone, even Joyce dislikes her. I’m not sure anyone would be willing to back her up during the investigation and could definitely point to her obsession with queer individuals as backed up by this instance of transphobia.
If she really did pull the trigger, there’s a fair chance that Ruth could get away with her various transgressions, though Billie would have to very quickly move back to her room.
That being said? That would be a ginormous risk and if wrong, the consequences for both Ruth and Billie would be severe. So yeah, it’s a shitty situation all around.
Also, if Billie moved back to her room, and higher-ups were investigating, that would mean Becky loses her home again.
As far as I remember Mary only knows that Billie was in Ruth’s room one morning/afternoon. She didn’t see what happened in the room. For all she actually knows that was an instance of a resident going to talk to her R.A. about something that was bothering her and the R.A. giving her the time of day to listen. Mary is intuitive enough to know that isn’t the case, but can she PROVE anything more?
Ooh, that’s a point. Why would anybody take Mary’s word over Ruth’s? For one, Ruth’s the authority here, and second, Mary doesn’t really have any friends on the floor. I can’t see anyone vouching for her.
I feel bad about relying on an abuse of power to deal with Mary, but I’m not going to be worried too much about her feelings.
The thing about people like Mary is that they usually have influential friends or relatives that enable them to keep pulling this shit on others.
I strongly suspect that is the case here. We’ll see sooner or later.
As awful as Ruth can be, there’s enough of a decent human being in her that i really hope that she can pull out of that spiral somehow.
mary on the other hand? I really REALLY hope something DESTROYS her over this. The more painful and drawn out it is, the better, because she has just shown what a monster she really is.
I think she’s better off taking Mary to the R.M. for hate speech, and facing the music for the charges against her. The only thing I can see holding her back is that Billie would be hurt as well. However, given their ‘suicide pact’, Billie’s already agreed to go down with the ship, essentially (though, I suppose it would be rude to assume that includes exposing their relationship in order to deal with a misbehaving resident).
Ruth could face legal consequences for sleeping with Billie?
(I’m asking because I genuinely don’t know what the charge is, and I’m curious. This post is overall excellent.)
Sexual Harassment at the least, potentially rape if they want to push it further. It’s due to her station of power over Billie having a potential effect on Billie’s ability to freely consent without potential personal consequences. It’s part of the rules that prohibit staff in general from sleeping with students due to the power imbalance (and why Jason and Penny’s little stunts are hella illegal).
I didn’t know they could do that if Billie refuses to press charges (or whatever is the campus equivalent.)
Even if Billie doesn’t press charges it wouldn’t stop Ruth from getting super fired.
They definitely could. The rape one probably wouldn’t happen. And maybe the Sexual Harassment wouldn’t either, but what Meghan said is true, she’d be super fired and possibly banned from on-campus housing, meaning she could be needing to suddenly come up with a lot of money very quickly.
Unless joe is a student of Penny’s her actions are not even against the rules at all. Questionable? Sure, but that’s it.
Jason’s actions are against the rules, but considering that Sal was the initiator there would be no legal consequences. He would lose his post, however. Once the semester is over, however, he and Sal can do whatever they want as far as IU is concerned (and yes, I was told as much when I went through TA orientation there).
Ruth, like Jason, could lose her job, but unless Billie pressed any charges there would be no legal issues.
Not those specific rules, yes, but there are usually rules in place regarding any staff member, teacher, or TA having sexual relationships with students as a general safeguard against this kind of stuff, even if they don’t have direct charge over that student. Penny, if caught, would definitely lose her position at the least.
Jason not being the instigator would not matter given his position as being directly responsible for Sal’s education and grades. He would be in even bigger trouble. Ruth, ditto, but less so because expectations for students of similar ages isn’t as high as for those who are being trained as teachers (and TAs tend to be PhD students for whom this is treated as training for being labeled ready to teach anywhere). Though Ruth would definitely be out on her ass and probably lose her housing in the process.
Now, given overall school responses to things like sexual assault or sexual harassment, the school would probably try to bury the situation at first until there were multiple complaints or media attention was called, but legally, they’d all be pretty fucked if caught.
Again, I went through this orientation at IU, the school in this webcomic. The rules are a little ambiguous regarding relationships between staff and students, especially for staff who are also students like Penny, Jason, and Ruth. Remember, we are talking about adults here, so unless that student is in some way under that staff member they are not going to act on it. They may frown like hell at it and that may affect them down the line, but they will not fire them over it.
Let me put it to you this way. I, for a brief period of time, was in an open relationship with a student at the school that I was a faculty member for. This is because my wife, who I had been married to for 12 years at the time, started taking classes at the school. She was not allowed to actually enroll in any of my classes, but outside of that there were no issues with the fact that I was involved with a student because at no point in time could that relationship have had any affect, good or bad, on her academic advancement.
So I repeat, unless Joe is a student in Penny’s class (a distinct possibility since it seems to be an entry level math course that all COAS students have to take), she is in the clear.
Jason would get canned and deported over his relationship with Sal.
Ruth would get fired as RA, have to move into a different room (which she has to now pay for), and a new RA would get assigned to the floor (hire Carla!).
Ah. Thank you for letting me know as I don’t have any experience with the enforcement of things like this.
Useful to know
Ah, makes sense. I was mostly wondering if there was some law specifically banning relationships with that kind of power imbalance that would apply here automatically (like how the drinking age of 21 automatically criminalises Ruth’s alcohol use), but that is consistent with everything I know.
Billie would probably refuse to press charges though, which would effectively change the consequences from a criminal offense to an administrative one (RA/student relationships being against the rules/code of conduct resulting in Ruth losing her job and probably housing, though the latter could also be a consequence of the alcohol use).
Does what Ruth and Billie are doing break the law? No.
At first I was going to say it depends on whether Billie is 18 or not. Because there is a law in Indiana called “Child Seduction,” which forbids anyone employed by a school from having sex with anyone under them who is over 16 but under 18.
However, the real law has a specific exception: The person must be at least four years older and not a student of the school in question. (Indiana Code – Section 35-42-4-7(b)(3)(D))
So there is no way this can be illegal. Though, of course, that has no bearing on what the school can do.
And of course, Ruth is in fact guilty of assault and intimidation. But so is Mary.
‘fuck it let me burn” is probably the best option here…you can’t tolerate this BS and keep authority.
Fraternizations? Defiling the cheerleader? Vagrants?
Mary DOES realize it’s the new millennia, right?
More importantly – who talks like that?
She’s really a 90 year old who can’t physically age.
She certainly has the same disposition as a b8tter, 90 year old crank.
She does study in the dark… like a vampire. And not get dressed until after 3 PM… like a vampire.
I mean, I’m not saying that she’s a vampire, but she’s totally a vampire.
Hopefully she doesn’t sparkle.
Hopefully she turns to dust in the sun… somebody toss some garlic. Find Joyce, she probably has a crucifix, right? Unless she’s a different sect?
I think it says in the about section that since Joyce comes from a fundie Protestant background she doesn’t have one since that is (and I can personally vouch for this) a very Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) practice.
No, Joyce isn’t Catholic–Catholics are the ones that have crucifixes. Joyce is some type of fundamentalist Protestant.
Protestants still tend to have crosses. What we don’t tend to have are crosses with Jesus still on them. That what’s really more of a Catholic thing. But, at least in the movies, either form of cross seems to work.
(And, yes, there are have been some denominations who make a big deal of this. “Our Jesus is no longer on the Cross. He’s alive!” 🙄 [roll eyes emoji])
Interesting fact; the apostolic catholics will have a crucifix during the Easter season, but will take Jesus down for the rest of the year.
As I recall… She was standing in sunlight when she ranted to Joyce about how no one would bother with evil if it wasn’t nice.
Fortunately, most things stop moving once you put a stake through their heart. It’s a wonderful general solution.
Vampirism might explain why she clearly doesn’t have a soul.
There can be only one!
So, we put a stake through her heart and if that doesn’t work, we cut her head off.
That covers all the bases.
After ripping out her femurs, so she can’t get away.
Super villains, mostly.
Super villain is what popped into my head for sure.
Tempt not yon hellassistant! ‘Tis a fiend..a fiend unholy…
Well… with regards to the defiling and perverts bit… my student council president in high school (grew up in Fundieville).
Does that make Mary and Ruth the only ones to remember Billie used to be in cheer?
More people than you think and there are more of them in positions of power in the US than you may realize.
If you listen closely, you can hear the hatred for Mary increase at an alarming rate. That and the sound of me burning down the soft serve factories out of sheer anger and a need to express it.
Yeah, yesterday, I thought it just a couple of tit for tit instances of two girls baiting each other, that went WAAAAAAYYYYYYY too far. Today it is obvious Mary has a general hate on for everyone. I assume even even Joyce would fail to meet here exactling “standards.”
This is Mary’s true face.
She has always acted as though she has a right to get her way, and then stoops to any method to get even with those who don’t grant it: insults, harassment, innuendoes, and trying physical injury with the glue.
Today she outdid herself. And think Ruth is going to make her very sorry.
Yup. She gets her way and gets what she wants when she wants it. Otherwise she’ll wait and plot and prepare for a moment when she can escalate to a point that she intimidates or abuses the other person into following her way.
And if someone is a sexual or gender minority, then that just paints an even bigger target on their back, because “those people” are “sinners” and so God will clearly smile on any action that is in opposition to them.
eh, *shrug*. I sure dislike her, but it’s just a comic. I get it hits close to home for other people tho.
I’m just happy that the automatic gravatars do not seem to include Mary. I’d hate to be stuck with her face on my posts.
(And, yes, I know I could set up my own gravatar. But I don’t like the idea of having the same avatar on every site, and creating new emails has become a huge pain now that everyone asks for your phone number.)
If you have Gmail you can create a “new” email that’ll still go to the same inbox by sticking a period in the address, so example@gmail.com becomes ex.ample@gmail.com or exam.ple@gmail.com (but not example@gm.ail.com).
(A well-endowed person you aren’t dating anymore, getting cut off in the middle of a request for testing, and illness or injury for the guy who runs your Dungeons & Dragons-type game, respectively.)
Also example+anything@gmail.com – this is common to a lot of email services (test it first, though).
And there is an automatic gravatar for Mary – see Zatar.
Honestly, Mary’s position here isn’t as strong as she might think.
1: She doesn’t seem to know about the drinking (surely she would’ve mentioned it, probably using terms like ‘boozer’ or ‘lush’ in her little diatribe). This is key.
2: The Becky situation, oddly enough, is solved by the fact that Ruth can actually say honestly that she’d been lied to by an extensive cover-up by several of the residents. The lack of complaints mean it’s not even the usual situation where a boyfriend/girlfriend ‘moves in’ and the roommate has to deal with it–the roomies were invariably cooperating in the violation. So Ruth’s in the clear; Becky will need to go, unless she can be quickly enrolled/transferred to the school, in which case she might be able to move into a room. If not, I suspect Leslie might be able to step in and find someplace for her to stay in town.
3: Speaking of finding housing, the situation with Billie is actually easily addressed. Find a willing cohort on another wing; make a formal request to swap rooms, giving a (heavily) edited account that boils down to, “We know the relationship is against the rules, that’s why we’re trying to make it right.”
At that point, Mary becomes guilty under the school’s hate-speech rules, and has nothing to hit Ruth back with. She could easily end up kicked out of the dorm, if not expelled, and might also be forced to quit any classes she and Carla share.
And this is roughly how I’m hoping things go down. What I’m hoping Willis avoids is the ‘hypocrisy’ trap, where Mary goes down because of something like getting pregnant. While it’s an understandable and easy plotline, it inevitably raises the question, “So it would’ve been fine if she hadn’t been a hypocrite?” She needs to get her comeuppance because of the horrible things she does, not because she fails to adhere to the standard she wants to inflict on others.
Please let Ruth decide ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ and proceed to slug Mary in the face since, what the heck, she’s going to get fired anyway.
Knock her in the head so hard she gets amnesia, all problems solved!
Shoot, even if that doesn’t work, just clock her cause she’s mean and has it coming.
Mary has waited so long for this moment
Her superiority complex is cackling so hard right now.
What, like a few weeks? (in DoA time)
No, she’s been building up to being beaten to death with her own still-technically-functional lungs for her whole life.
My stomach sank reading yesterday’s comic. Now I’m expecting AnaziGirl to assist Ruth in the femurectomy. Hmm, my spell check didn’t flag “femurectomy”.
Even your spellchecker wants to see Mary get what she’s working so hard for.
Well. Shit. That’s less than helpful.
Here’s hoping Ruth sticks to her guns. I’d assume the RA thing isn’t essential to her continued education and, let’s be honest, the floor could probably do with having a better RA.
Unfortunately, that leaves Becky…
Mary…more bongo than a Ricky Ricardo concert…
……Okay, the Becky thing is a point, but it’s not like Ruth had any real knowledge that she was *living* in the residence hall. Sure, she could get in trouble for it but considering that the other students have actively been conspiring to keep Becky’s presence hidden, I can’t imagine Ruth would be punished too severely. And, shit, it’s not like Mary said anything about the situation except now that she can exploit it. I’d ask Mary why exactly, if she had knowledge of the situation, she chose not to report it. You know, since she’s clearly SO CONCERNED about it.
And what solid evidence does Mary have that Ruth and Billie are sexually involved? Would that actually be a problem (i.e. does IU have specific regulations concerning relationships between residents and RAs?)?
As usual, Mary seems to think her words carry much more weight than they actually do.
Well, Any time one person has authority over another (EG resident/RA) the idea of consent gets pretty grey and murky, and it’s pretty universally against Da Rules.
I think either one of Mary’s threats alone wouldn’t be too big a blemish on Ruth’s record, I think, especially if Ruth beats Mary to the punch and comes clean herself. Both together would make a stronger case for her removal, though.
The REAL issue is whoever blabs about Becky pretty much ensures her ejection from the college. Here’s hoping that can at least wait until she has a steady job…
Plus, on the Becky thing it could very well turn into a case of Mary’s word against the hall’s word that Becky is even living there. They floor is willing to hide Becky, I think they’ll be willing to lie for her.
…and for a moment it felt like one of those wacky college things where an entire floor hid a student for a semester
Some guys in my dorm tried to pull that off first semester of freshman year. And it almost worked until our (admittedly quite oblivious and crappy) RA got busted smoking weed with a bunch of other guys. The replacement RA was much better, and much more observant.
#getrekt
All of this is absolutely correct, but with Ruth’s psyche the way it is right now, I don’t think she’ll be able to figure this out right away. She’s clinging to Billie as her only reason to not commit suicide. Just the threat of taking her away is going to throw her off her game.
I read once that some RMs also teach. Wouldn’t it be Mary’s bad luck if the RM is Leslie or Daisy?
M: this boy needs to be removed from the dorm.
L: she’s not a boy, and I will kick you out for anymore hate speach.
what the fuck?
I really hope dina and billie dont break up cause of this😥
Wait…what?
I think they meant Dina and Becky. Nice avatar – I like cat Tedd.
Catgirl Tedd is best Tedd.
I prefer Mad Science Tedd, or Pouting-while-being-double-hugged Tedd. Catgirl Tedd remains an excellent Tedd, though.
He is predicting the future.
Dina/Billie OTP
Sierra and Marcie already hate each other enough after the whole Amber and Joe incident. Now because of this Walky and Amazigirl’s marriage will have to be postponed!
Mary needs to be punched in the face. Well, what she needs is to get some basic compassion and human dignity, but I really want to punch her in the face. Ooh, how about Ruth and Amazi-Girl ganging up on her? I’d watch the hell out of that show. The entire first season could be Mary getting owned. They would then move on to systematically destroy their other enemies, such as Amber’s Dad and Crippling Depression. With their fists.
And then Mary gets hit by a truck. One that appears out of nowhere and mows her down while she’s crossing the street, and then disappears, never to be seen again.
She is not missed.
Doesn’t she have to move over to Something Positive first?
Where do you think she’s going to go after getting kicked out of the dorm?
Nope. That’s a red sedan.
Willis was hitting characters with motor vehicles way before Randy.
Behind the truck’s steering wheel, Ruth smiles. “No regrets!”
Would it be too much to expect that everyone then starts claiming Mary’s full of crap when she does go to report Billie and Mary just completely loses it?
Yeah, that is what I was hoping for. A general consensus of “everything is fine, nothing happening here” in the face of these accusations.
And they say honesty is the beat policy. Pshhhh
We might just be in luck… This comes close to the end of this storyline: http://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/132311008047/february-19-2016
Waiting for the pivot… there’s always a pivot.
Please, willis, let there be a pivot. Please…
Somebody really needs to push this bongo down a flight of stairs.
Can we all just collectively punch Mary? Please?
No.
Wow, I guess I shouldn’t be shocked that there are people who didn’t hate Mary yesterday, but do now.
Mary is the worst.
Also hey guys here is a friendly reminder that transpeople read these comments, and Willis isn’t on much sleep. Can we please take extra care not to say things that are remotely anti-trans or hurtful? For example, nothing that Carla remotely deserves this, or that Ruth is overreacting. If you think “hey maybe this might not be received well”, then maybe just don’t say it here today. Cool?
I just wanted to comment and say that this comment is very nice of you, and framed very politely.
I agree. Can we also, please, not advocate murdering people, even cartoon characters, over their opinions. Thank you.
*I agree [with Leorale]*
It’s not her opinions she’ll get murdered for, it’s her actions.
… over their actions as portrayed in today’s episode. Thank you.
How are we defining “opinions” here? Is this the definition where we let hateful bigots fall under the same label as people who don’t like chocolate so we can pretend being mean to the former is just as wrong as being mean to the latter?
Basically what I’m saying is, who, exactly, is your comment defending?
I think you’re confusing “not dehumanising people” with “defending bigots”.
+1
Those opinions kill girls like me, so fuck that. Deffo advocating she gets mowed by a truck.
Another option is directing people to information like this TIME article.
Another article, from the Guardian.
A quote from it: “The LGBT community has long counted on our non-LGBT allies to stand beside us in the fight for equality,” Kylar W Broadus, executive director of TPOCC said in a statement. “And right now, the transgender community needs allies more than ever as we fight for our very survival.”
I want to give you every single hug in the goddamn world.
Well said.
Thaaank yoouu!
<3
somebody finally stands up to Ruth…and it’s Mary? really? damn you willis
and it’s over this? really? finally somebody stands up to Ruth, but Ruth is 100% in the right here…and it’s fuckin’ Mary?
double damn you willis
Mary can’t prove shit.
Ruth has a dorm full of girls who have seen her and Billie fight constantly and are willing to hide Becky when necessary.
All Carla has to do is warn Billie or Becky that they need to move their clothes. By the time the manager come up to check on things there will be nothing to see.
No idea why Mary thinks just her word on this will be sufficient or that anyone is going to rat Becky out after what happened.
Like I said, she has absolutely no evidence to back up whatever claims she wants to make. And frankly, I’m sure the manager would be much more interested in why Mary chose not to report an illegal resident until she could use it as leverage to hurt Ruth.
Well, we’re ASSUMING she doesn’t have proof. Its possible that she’s made at least some attempts to collect evidence… perhaps videoing Billie leaving Ruth’s room.
We are also assuming that the rest of the floor would be willing to support Ruth over Mary. I doubt Mary has any friends on the floor, but its possible that some of he residents might be just as annoyed at Ruth.
Billie leaving Ruth’s room is meaningless considering she alleges to have an “open door” policy. Heck, Billia wouldn’t even be entirely dishonest in claiming she was visiting Ruth for help coping with her depression.
“willing to support Ruth over Mary”
No, I’m assuming that they’ll support Becky over Mary because we’ve already seen two non-regular characters help her hide.
As for the thing with Billie, the other residents have only ever seen them fight so there is no reason not to be honest.
I’m not quite sure Ruth would bother trying to be a good liar.
In short, because Mary doesn’t need the RA Manager to believe her. All Mary needs is for Ruth to be scared of her, and the threat suffices for that. Especially because Ruth is a vulnerable person, and threatening something that Ruth would imagine could get Billie taken away from her is going to make her feel extra vulnerable.
Sadly this.
If Ruth calls out her bluff, she’s probably not going to get what she wants though the resulting investigation may fuck over multiple students depending on how it goes.
But by openly defying Ruth in this manner and targeting the ways she is vulnerable and desperate, she does a good job attacking emotional weak points in order to create a climate of fear in her target. Get Ruth hyperanxious about losing the Billie that is right now the only thing she’s using not to kill herself and you might knock her off balance enough to get what you want.
She doesn’t have to prove anything. Just by triggering an investigation, she can just make everyone else’s lives difficult or even have their misdeeds exposed.
Also, literally what the fuck is she getting out of any of this, other than just being a shit-stirrer? Does it fuel her stupid need to feel superior? A power-trip, I guess? Still, jesus, what a bongo.
Mary seems to need everyone else to live by her rules. Not unlike some other characters we have seen who were brought up to follow restrictive, hateful religions instead of deciding anything for themselves. She’s just more smug and less trigger-happy.
Some people think self-righteous asshattery is how a Christian’s supposed to act towards other people.
Mary is one of these people.
Yep, need to feel superior. She’s all into righteous indignation.
I have a lot of difficulty understanding how this makes her feel superior. But then again, I’m having difficulty understanding how she can even manage to maintain those mental blocks against five minutes of rational thought, which she’s bound to do at least at some point during her day.
She’s reacting, not enacting a diabolical plan. Carla pushed her buttons, so she’s lashed out in the nastiest way she could. Then Ruth came down on her for it, so she hit low again to get the upper hand. She’s not thinking — just venting bile.
I’m not sure I agree with that. Like, I don’t think she planned this moment. But she’s definitely been storing all these facts for a moment such as this for awhile in the intent of gaining one hell of an upper hand when she did.
It’s really one of the big things that makes her so dangerous, because she can protest and hide behind being “forced” to do these horrendous actions, while deliberately setting herself up to them for her own advantage.
I don’t think we’re necessarily in that much disagreement here. Clearly, she’s been bottling up and stewing on it. Maybe she even rehearsed that little speech in her head a few times.
But I don’t think she’s acting strategically here. I think Mary would have just quietly kept judging each of them until her anger got the better of her.
back in Oct 15 2014 Mary had a very obviously Evil Villain calculating body language. she has been plotting to do this to Ruth for quite some time.
As much as I hate to admit, Mary’s playing this very well. Also, this semi-relevant article has an awesome name, and I thought it was worth sharing. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosSpeedChess
I tend to think it was a bit more calculated than that. But regardless, there are some things you just Don’t Say, no matter how mad you get, and Mary’s just checking every box here.
She’s making a list, checking it twice. Going to be a complete scumlord no matter if you’re naughty or nice.
Power; she’s wanted to rule the floor from the start.
Yup, she revels in her power over others. Especially social power. She’s the type to exploit privilege deliberately and she’s definitely been doing so in the last two comics.
And sadly that has a lot of real world analogues. There’s no shortage of assholes who, for instance, turn to organized sexism and racism and the ability to hurt those lower on the totem pole than them to get a rush of self-satisfaction.
I think it’s about making her immediate surroundings conform to her comforts. Or as she’d probably say it from her warped sense of justice; set the world right.
Ruth can possibly claim ignorance about Becky, but there’s definitely rules in IU’s health and safety about discrimination policy about harassment due to gender identity. And sexual identity. Which Mary’s breaking.
So double reports filed AND drop a piano on her head!
I like how you think!
When Ruth gets over her surprise, and amusement, she’s going to make Mary regret her nasty bigoted bullying behavior. I hope.
That piano did nothing wrong.
They exist, yeah, but good luck getting them enforced.
Billie, listening in, was unsure how to feel: on one hand, Mary was being a horrible, horrible person, but on the other hand, Mary had described Billie as a cheerleader.
yay
So wait…. Carla’s transgender? Is this a new development or did it come up before and I just not notice?
Its been hinted at, in that Carla said a wang drawn on her door was a hate crime.
I could’ve sworn it was addressed elsewhere – probably the tumblr, though.
IIRC, she also gets her own room.
I’m not sure if it’s actually been mentioned in-comic, but Willis has talked about it since before Carla made her DoA debut.
I was aware, but I don’t know how, so I checked the Carla tags. Only hints within the comic.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/permanent/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/purpleandskates/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/introductions/
It hasn’t been stated in so many words, but it’s been not-so-subtly hinted at.
It was never actually said but implied in some of the older comics very subtly. I didn’t really realize until Willis made a post on which was the best transgender character and identified carla on his tumblr
That Carla is trans has never been explicitly stated in the comic. But there have been several clues. Also, Willis has explicitly said on Tumblr that DoA Carla is trans and asexual.
Some of the clues about Carla:
Carla has a single room for some reason not know to Joyce.
There is a reason Carla is so tall.
Carla says a picture of a penis on her door only would be a hate crime.
I actually took the ‘There’s a reason for that’ in the second one as referring to why she wasn’t in roller derby (and a reference to the cissexism of some women’s groups/spaces) as opposed to her height, but either would make sense.
Both/and
Too late, I won the link race! Although I didn’t explain my links for lazy readers.
I was just looking for you in the comments to say thank you so much for linking these to me yesterday! I didn’t have a chance to do so before comments were closed on that page.
I was amazed that I had apparently been oblivious to these clues. I don’t follow Willis regularly so I wouldn’t have caught on from the tumblr statement, but I should have from those pages. Thanks again!
You’re welcome!
It’s definitely been hinted at, especially strongly if you’re very familiar with Shortpacked – and I did see Willis confirm it on his Tumblr a while before Carla had a speaking role on DoA.
There is also the hint in the alt-text of this strip http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/completelywithout/
Nah, that one’s actually a callback to UltraCar in Shortpacked. Who had a stomach compartment with extendable arm/hand. Often used for precisely that purpose.
Mary talks about perversion like it’s a bad thing.
Well, there are now only two ways for this to end. One, Ruth backs down. Two, Ruth decides “You know what, fuck it” and lays into Mary.
I believe the later will happen.
Ruth is not afraid of Mary I think. She is just not used to having anyone get in her face like this, so she’s a bit startled.
I think maybe Mary’s finally picked the wrong person to threaten, hassle, insult and attempt to intimidate.
You’re assuming this will remain a two-person fight.
The gravatar you have is oddly appropriate for your comment. I approve full heartedly, and am somehow filled with hope.
That grin, so evil.
I’m sorry, I lied. There is a third way. Ruth bluffs. And bluffs hard about taking Mary down with her. And what would her fundie parents think about their “good little Christian” daughter being expelled from college?
Either way, Mary arguably wins. Either she ends up with an advantage over Ruth or Ruth gets fired and maybe even charged with assault.
Destroy her. Evil like that should not be allowed oxygen.
In other news, I drew this
NSFW
This is the least NSFW thing dumbing of age I drew today and it’s the one people won’t get mad at me about probablyoh my.
Grazie! It is an excellent pic!
Don’t be surprised if you wake up tomorrow morning without your femurs.
But like….
Committing microagressions (like Mary just did) is against University Policy (at leas4 at my school).
She can’t avoid expulsion if she keeps it up “because my RA isn’t doing her job!!”
I’m pretty sure that Ruth could lose her job if this stuff came to light. Mary would get in trouble too, so I think she’s banking on Ruth not doing anything. If she does, then Mary at least gets to take Ruth down with her.
This is less “microaggressions” and more “hate speech”.
Yeah, it’s definitely her jumping into the deep end of the transphobia pool.
Also, that.
You know, with this level of blackmail, you could get away with some serious stuff. But Mary uses her blackmail leverage to try to… get away with being a transphobic piece of shit. My vote goes to the Roomies’ truck making a cameo for Mary.
At least she can’t exactly prove her blackmail to the residence manager, as she only has her own word. Meanwhile, the dorm will cover for Becky (just claim to be Billie’s visiting cousin or something) and I have the distinct feeling that Carla will help out Ruth and Billie. In which case, it will be the unsubstantiated word of a freshman against an RA that the residence office “loves”.
The thing about blackmail though is…
It really only ever has one ending if it’s successful. And that’s murder. While Willis promised no deaths, Mary might end up in a precarious position if she makes Ruth genuinely believe she has no options and no way out. Extra precarious given that Ruth is already in a headspace where she is very prone to believing that she’s out of options and there’s no way back to happiness.
You know, accidents happen. Also, something I just thought of, we haven’t factored Roz into this. She’s had to put up with Mary’s bullshit for a while now (don’t know how) and is either going to go into full on crusader mode or just snap if she finds out what Mary said to Carla. At the very least, she’s gonna make Mary’s life as difficult as possible. At the worst….well, let’s just say it might not be Ruth who ends up pushing Mary down a set of stairs.
Ooh, now that’s an interesting point. If Roz finds out about this (and what’s the over-under on Mary deciding to brag to anyone she can find if she gets away with this), she’s definitely going to have more than a few words to say and will probably be of a mind to bring them up at the floor meeting.
Does Mary even have proof of anything, though? The entire floor would deny the entire thing, and considering she just said something horribly transphobic, following it up with “and there’s LESBIANS* who are breaking RULES!” isn’t going to make her look all that credible to the authorities.
*and bisexuals but I doubt Mary cares about the distinction
Also first time commenting despite reading this for over a year, let’s see if I get a decent gravatar haha
“I took photos of all the women having sex. No homo”.
Seriously, though, maybe Mary’s in a thick closet.
I mean that’s what I’m rooting for, but that sort of applies to every other cast member, too.
I only touched myself 17…hundred times to these.
Well, if she is in the closet and holds to those fundie beliefs, then her hateful and spiteful actions are probably to make other people feel as crappy as she does. If this where in fact the case, I might actually pity her.
I wouldn’t. Otherwise I’d have to pity 4chan. And as a matter of principle, I am not going to do that.
Would they all? Or would someone actually want to see the back of Ruth and back Mary…after all Ruth has physically threatened everyone and everyone has seen shes capable of carrying out her threats
Maybe some chickens coming home to roost for Ruth
Yes, I’ve been reading quite a few comments about “nobody vouching for Mary” and thinking “but Ruth’s pretty unpopular on the floor too”. AFAIK only Billie has our perspective on her; nobody else has seen her vulnerability.
Some people are terrible liars.
Mary you piece of skin.
She’s a skin tag on Blaine’s butt.
Hey, let’s have Joyce pop up and tell her what she thinks of Mary being bigoted and talking crap about her friend after all the hell she went through.
Five bucks one Joyce-punch puts Mary through a wall.
And then Mary gets punched in the face. Oh noes… says no one.
This is why I keep reading this comic, the tension build ups are excellent, the out of right field revelations just keep on coming and the drama, oh the drama
The issue for me is Mary is right in that Ruth is a terrible RA (and not much better as a person though she has her moments) but I sort of kinda hoped that maybe she’d see the error of her ways and start to make amends
Hopefully Ruth gets replaced, Mary gets transferred and Carla takes on board a lesson about picking your battles (but a new pair of skates would be good as well)
Floor meeting tonight, do a Commandant Spangler punishment. “Mary has been making transphobic comments. As such, the showers on your floor will be locked for two weeks. You may thank the cadet after I leave.”
Agghhh, I had a feeling this was the way the wind was blowing. We know that Mary’s been collecting intel on Ruth and Billie, so that one wasn’t hard to see coming. I didn’t see Becky being thrown in there. We’ve seen the girls on that floor pulling together to hide Becky from Ruth. They should have been making more effort to hide her from Mary.
Apparently, Mary knows everyone’s secrets, then saves them up to use as weapons. She’s a snoop, and she’s malicious.
I have a bad feeling that this will get so, so much uglier.
This.
And if Mary wins here, we can expect her to escalate with that cause she’ll believe her bad behavior can pay off in the short term.
To think, she just wanted to study. Also I really don’t get the previous comic. I mean, it’s a modern comic so I’m assuming it is some kind of rape/sexual orientation/gender identity awareness kind of thing?
It’s Mary being a d-bag and saying that Carla isn’t a woman, she’s her birth gender that doesn’t match up with who she really is. (I’m trying to word this correctly, apologies if I make mistakes it. It’s putting Carla in an enormously unsafe situation by outing her as a MTF trans student, and it’s a hugely douchey thing to do)
Carla is trans. Mary was saying she wasn’t a woman, she was a man.
I mean, if she just wanted to study, she’d have grabbed her books and gone to a quiet room. What Mary wants is to crusade.
Yup.
Quiet room
Like…her own room?
It’s been noted in previous comment sections that there are designated quiet rooms on each floor, and that it’s not exactly reasonable to expect perfect quiet in a living area in the middle of a Friday afternoon.
It just seems really odd that students should be expected to leave their own rooms if they want peace and quiet. I can understand if you have a bit of a noisy roommate, but if it’s disturbances happening outside in the hall-
You know what why didn’t Mary just call someone? Like Campus Security.
….
Does this place even HAVE Campus Security?
That would’ve been the mature, adult thing to do. But here we are.
Even if she has a right to quiet in her room (which really shouldn’t be your expectation in a dorm tbh, regardless of how importantit may be), this is beyond reasonable retaliation. And yeah, reporting her woud have been the sensible step if it bothered her that much, but the RA would be the actual step to report it to as far as I can see, and she doesn’t exactly respect Ruth (of course, again, why she ignored security or student services remains a question (if we didn’t know by now that she’s on a power trip))
It seems a lot weirder that people should be expected to levitate when trying to get to and from their rooms.
Because that’s the only way Mary’s going to get her sacred perfect quiet.
Dorms are living spaces. Living involves noise. There are reasonable limits that can be put on that noise, but ‘the sound of travel is absolutely verboten in the middle of a school day in the second month of school’ is not a reasonable limit.
Not midday on a Friday it ain’t. But there’s one literally down the hall. LITERALLY.
My opinion is Carla was absolutely in the wrong and bullying Mary. Then Mary become a disgusting bigot and is now a blackmailer. Which just goes to show you can be a jerk and still be a victim of a genuinely evil and vile person. Mary’s behavior is beyond the pale and is to Carla’s behavior what [insert hate-monger of your choice] to Newman from Seinfeld. People should ditch any sympathy they had for Mary as the situation is no longer about making noise. It’s about abuse, hate, and hate mongering.
“Bullying” by skating in the halls? Your definition of bullying is broken.
Skating in the halls wasn’t bullying. Continuing to skate in the halls just to annoy Mary, even jumping over Mary and risking hurting her, was getting pretty close to bullying. Loudly jumping up and down in roller-skates outside Mary’s room was definitely harassment, even if she did have a good reason to be angry at Mary.
THAT SAID, none of this excuses what Mary is doing right now. Carla was being an asshole, but so was Mary. Then Mary crossed the line from “asshole” to “completely vile person”, so I don’t really care who started it. Carla was in the wrong, but Mary is MORE in the wrong. Like, WAY more.
If it was bullying, it’s only by the kind of pedantic, zero-tolerance definition that lets bullies turn accusations back on their victims. As long-term persistent behavior it could turn to bullying, but as a one-shot deal it’s just an annoyance. If you’re dealing with a bureaucracy that has a list of bullying behaviors with no nuance, then this kind of thing could be on there. And that would be dumb.
“Just to” is a strong statement. Seemed to me like she was just skating to skate.
“New skates!”
Mary is a total idiot. Either that or she has a death wish.
I don’t think that she has faced Ruth down at all. Ruth has the look of someone seeing a bunny taking on a tiger. And is just waiting to see what happens next.
I think Mary is an angry person who has always seemed like someone who will stoop to any level to get her way: nagging, harassment, insults, and now blackmail. Tell her no, and she will make your life Hell.
Youch
Wow. You are. Just a bongo arent you Mary.
And like a bongo, I can’t wait for her to be POUNDED REPEATEDLY 😀
Ohhh nicely done
It changes the words when I cuss? That’s so awesome! Can I have that function when children are around please
A while ago, when Roz was getting snarky at Joyce, people kept calling her that word, and Willis got sick of it. As far as I know the only word it is for is the b-word.
The weird thing is, a good number of us are now aware of it and make jokes about it, so you can’t tell who originally wrote bongo and who tried to say the other word and got censored.
Do “country matters” get censored? Because even though I have never used that word (look up the tvtrope “country matters” to find out what I’m talking about), but Mary is sorely tempting me to.
I tend to reserve that word for those I feel have disgraced the female gender. So far I just feel like Mary’s disgracing humanity as a whole.
Just that word. Comes from the ‘sweet lesbian facts’ confrontation between Roz and Joyce, where that word saw much use in the comments section.
Carla’s transgender, so Mary’s comment was meant to imply that Carla isn’t really a woman. It’s really, incredibly out of line regardless of the situation.
….and with that the war begins.
War? Huh! What is it good for?
Violently removing femurs.
I need to apologize to my roommate for my comment earlier today. Mary is way worse than him.
You mean she actually accomplished something of value? Wow. That’s a little scary.
I don’t know what you mean by actually accomplished something of value.
And also I was waiting for a comments section post-transphobia to say that, to avoid having my comment about him bringing it up and getting either myself banned or my comment deleted.
mary talks like toedad. like with the same unbelievable creepy vocab. what the fuck
I mean, they seem to belong to similar schools of thought, so it’s not really that surprising.
yeah but joyce is(/was?) a fundie too, and even from the same circle as toedad (while mary isnt) and even before she started changing i dont remember her ever saying things like this
Well, Joyce seems to be a good person at her core. Joyce has been brainwashed pretty bad, and when she first started college she would have been scandalized to find out Carla was transgender, but it would have been from “a place of love” and she probably would have decided it’s “not her place to judge”. And, after the whole thing with Becky and Toedad, I don’t think she would care at all. (Although with her rigid adherence to gender roles right now, I’m not sure.) Joyce has a conscience and her Dad, at least, seems to encourage her to make her own decisions and do what she thinks is right. Plus there’s the fact that she said she thinks her parents switched churches so many times is because of people like Mary, so I’m guessing even her parents wouldn’t have encouraged her to act like this.
Mary, on the other hand, gets upset at people for being “wrong” and decides they need to be “punished” for it. Of course, she doesn’t actually do anything about it until it can benefit her. (She didn’t say shit about Carla being transgendered until she knew it would really hurt her, and she didn’t bring up all the things Ruth has been doing until she could use it to her advantage.)
TL;DR: Joyce freaks out because she cares about people, but always decides that they should do what’s right for THEM. Mary freaks out because she judges people, and she always decides that they should do whatever the hell she wants them to do.
Attempted blackmail is a crime, Mary. Jussayin’.
Is it “attempted” only when it doesn’t work?
Isn’t it just heresy until she has some solid evidence that she fuckin Billie? And is there actually some rule against that? And if there is, why is the relationship between two consenting legal adults the business of the upper people? You know what is without a doubt a punishable offense though? HATE SPEECH.
Hate speech absolutely. However, if Mary reported Ruth and Becky, any investigation would find Billie’s and Becky’s stuff where they’re not supposed to be. Also, it is indeed against the rules for staff members (including RAs) to have relationships with students, since the power imbalance makes it difficult to discern whether the student consented or was coerced.
True, it’s probably against the rules (the relationship part). But then again, threatening the members of your dorm with physical violence and defacing their property are all also probably against the rules. And the actual law. So if Mary’s ploy actually works, I’ll be surprised. Them again, we need another plot to latch onto, and this one seems ripe.
“But then again, threatening the members of your dorm with physical violence and defacing their property are all also probably against the rules. And the actual law.”
And yet Ruth did exactly that early on. Hopefully no one’s still nursing a grudge.
Hearsay. Heresy is…something different.
Probably more effective to accuse Mary of committing, though.
1) I’d say she is guilty of heresy
2) she probably wouldn’t care about such an accusation because, to quote an old roommate who made conversations very uncomfortable, “only filthy papists use that word”
Well, there are often rules against people having relationships with people under their authority (such as teacher/student, or boss/worker), possibly to prevent situations where the subordinate is either unduly pressured (i.e. doesn’t want to date but has to or risk the consequences) or unduly benefits (i.e. a student gets higher grades.)
Now, I don’t know if an R.A./Resident relationship would have quite the same restrictions as a Teacher/Student, but I can see the university having rules against it for similar reasons.
Does Mary even have any sort of authority to “escort” Carla anywhere? At any rate, I hope she gets comeuppance’d real soon.
Of course not. Mary was off to find Higher Authority; she may have had that line running through her head and used it when Carla followed.
Carla was following her. Wherever she went, she was escorting Carla.
Mary is terrible- but clearly a product of her environment, who needs help learning to bring forward her faith in a suitable fashion.
Try referring her to Luke 18:9-14, maybe, Ruth?
With your fist and knee if necessary.
Joyce and Becky both grew up in a similar environment. It’s not that Mary is a product of her environment, it’s that Mary is just an asshole.
This. I’ve always thought of Mary as the contrast to Joyce: they basically grew up in the same environment, but Joyce is a fundamentally good person while Mary is a demagogue-in-training.
Thus, Joyce struggles to overcome her fundie programming when she discovers that ‘those people’ aren’t actually evil after all, while Mary doubles down on her prejudices because she knows she’s better than them (and if they weren’t evil then she’d have to face some uncomfortable truths about herself – I suspect we’re being set up for a reveal of Mary’s personal demons at some point).
The difference is that Mary was a princess who could do no wrong. She was repeatedly told that she was the saved and everyone else was the sinner. Joyce was told she was a sinner and needed to atone, so she never developed the ‘only I’ mentality.
I personally believe Mary was an only child and spoiled, whereas Joyce had siblings and wasn’t made as much of a pet by her parents. Also, monkey see, monkey do? Joyce said her parents kept switching churches because of b-words, whereas Mary and her parents WERE the b-words. Different environments.
And sometimes people are just different. You could argue that Joyce would likely be spoiled as the youngest child and only (apparent) girl.
Also, as far as we know, Becky was an only child and likely raised in at least as fundy an environment and turned out completely different.
We don’t actually know anything about Mary’s family. I’d definitely be interested in more development for her background. Something to give us more of an idea where she’s coming from and maybe make us more sympathetic, while still leaving her the bad guy mirror for Joyce.
I’m reminded of the Racist Grandma defense, where the lil ol’ lady is too set in her ways because she was “”just”” a “product of her time.”
Nevermind that learning and changing are Things anyone is capable of. Of course, they’d have to care. And not be a jerk.
You can only hide behind “product of environment” for so long before it starts to break down.
The grandma defence does have some validity though. Not ethically, but historically. Change takes time and often not until everyone who cling to the old ways have died.
I figure that the Racist Grandma lived through the Civil Rights movement, too. Grandmas are smart and should be a product of their whole lives.
instead of just being a product of their privilege BOOM
And there are only so many horrendously offensive emails about Obama you’re willing to receive before you call them on their ridiculous bullshit, ‘respect for the elderly’ be damned. Respect for humanity is a thing too ffs.
Isn’t Mary “born again” Christian which means she took it in by choice?
So it’s rather that she chose Christianity as a tool for being an hateful than being hateful because of her family’s brand of Christianity
A great many ‘born again’ Christians, particularly of the American fundamentalist variety, are basically raised from birth in the subcultural bubble and insulated from the outside world. It’s not like an adult conversion; it’s very likely that when Mary made her ‘choice’ she had virtually no experience of anything outside the evangelical tribe. Her particular prejudices will have been firmly instilled and reinforced by her environment.
Other than that, I agree with the thrust of your point; at some point “it’s not my fault, I was raised this way” does stop being a defence, and I’m generally a big proponent of the argument that religion doesn’t make assholes, it just makes assholes more obnoxiously self-righteous.
Joyce and Mary were apparently raised in very similar circumstances and absorbed very similar prejudices. Both are “born again” (Has Joyce actually used that language? Can’t recall.)
The difference is that Joyce is a good person and Mary is a bully. Joyce said some horribly offensive things early on, but in ignorance and confusion and never with intent to hurt. That doesn’t necessarily make them less painful.
She’s learned better.
I suspect even now, if suddenly confronted with Carla being trans, she’d react badly – babble offensively, say some very hurtful things.
Mary on the other hand, doesn’t. She learns about it. Doesn’t react with shock and horror. Saves up the secret. Then deliberately uses it to hurt Carla when she’s mad at her.
Like you said, it’s not just the religion. That just normalizes it. Makes Mary feel even more justified in her bullying.
Funnily enough, the only time I can recall Joyce using “born again” off the top of my head was in reference to Mary…
I like how you say things better.
Hey, Megs?
If you promise to use it on Mary, I’ll make you a new cannon.
It’s the least she deserves, really.
Well. This was bound to happen and we knew it.
So is this the part where she “accidentally” falls down the same set of stairs over and over and over again?
I see Al Bundy escorting one of Kelly’s toys to the door by the collar and ‘accidentally’ running him into the door frame.
Lather, rinse, repeat for Mary.
Huh, I see an Escher print.
So, this is where Ruth could sit Mary down and calmly help her figure out if this is what she wants out of her life; to look down on people and try to ruin their lives for not fitting in the tight little boxes of what she thinks they should be allowed to do, or be.
Or, which seems more likely, femurs.
It’s tough to figure out what action to root for because Ruth, Billie, and Becky are all really vulnerable right now. Becky’s peril is obvious and I’m concerned about the effects on Ruth and Billie’s mental health if Ruth loses her job or her place in the dorm or something. So even though I do hope Ruth and Carla report Mary for hate speech and she gets expelled and we never see her in the comic again, it’s hard to feel all “rah rah destroy the bigoted piece of shit yes” about it.
I’m leaning towards believing that Ruth will take action, since Ruth doesn’t know enough about Becky to feel sympathetic to her (although Mary referring to her as a “perverted vagrant” might be enough) and she may not value self-preservation because she feels as though she’s committed to a suicide pact.
Other comments have correctly pointed out that Mary doesn’t seem to have proof to back up her statements, so this seems to be an empty threat, but I do think Mary is cunning and vile enough to have gathered evidence. If nothing else, I think she could get enough eyes on the dorm that it would screw over Becky.
I say the best course of action is for Carla to file against Mary for hate speech.
If only Joyce had opened up to Leslie. Then she probably could have helped to set Becky up with the information of a women’s shelter, especially since she went through a similar situation herself.If Becky gets discovered, the absolutely worse case scenario is that she’s asked to leave, if that, and that’s a minor problem if she has someplace to go.
Also, Becky was kidnapped on campus at gunpoint in broad daylight, forced into a car, and nearly died in a crash. There is no way on earth that a University wants to be seen in any way as unsympathetic to that person. They might even let her stay, or at least help her find the resources she needs in this situation.
‘Sympathetic to Becky’ doesn’t mean not firing Ruth, though.
Earlier strips made a big point out of the dorm meeting Ruth’s holding about Ross’ rampage. I figure that Ruth will take the opportunity to say something to blunt the edge of Mary’s blackmail-knife.
http://i.imgur.com/1sxTED6.png
For a second I thought that said: “Joe, talk about misreading signals.”
It would end with him saying: “They can never misread THIS signal!” Then pointing towards his penis.
The twist is that she was right. Mary’s just REALLY bad at this.
Mary’s playing the Tsundere too hard and hasn’t gotten to the Dere yet.
Don’t worry she’ll get DERE….TSUNer or later!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa *points finger guns*
What are you doing man?! We just had someome waving a rifle around campus!
I promise they’re not loaded. And the safety’s on.
*puns*
oooOOOooooOoooh
You get a Pun Cookie.
All Tsun and no Dere makes Mary a total bongo.
the year is 2016, I think it’s time for an eject button for comment sections… like maybe for people defending actual hate speech?
This series is too good and I mean that literally.
I may have to take a week off, because I am so angry with Mary and so distraught that evil is winning that I can’t take it.
I hope Ruth doesn’t heed Mary and instead snap her in half.
but… her “standing up” to ruth was nothing but unsubtle lesbophobia. “youre awful cause youre having sex with a girl and are letting a homeless lesbian live here”. that is literally what she said. she didnt bring up any of the bad things ruth has actually ever done. how are you interpreting this as her standing up to a bully
this was supposed to be a reply what happen
im assuming the comment got deleted, which makes sense
That makes sense, there are several comments that all seem to be responding to something that isn’t there.
Well, the first, while Mary states it in the MOST OFFENSIVE WAY POSSIBLE, is a problem in that it’s a relationship with one of her charges. While it’s not always a firing offense, it’s strongly discouraged, and it is grounds for dismissal at SOME universities.
But not an expulsion offense – just a “you lose your job” offense.
As for the issue of Becky – honestly, it’s tough to know how that plays out. EVERYONE else in the wing knows – but they’re ALL working to keep Becky a secret from Ruth. Ruth could conceivably have plausible deniablilty in not knowing about Becky – “how could I know when every other resident is actively working to hide her, and specifically hide her from ME? That’s a pretty high bar to hold me to.”.
Interestingly enough, Mary doesn’t mention (possibly not knowing about) the atom bomb in the room – 90 KAZILLION BOTTLES OF BOOZE between Ruth and Billie.
Meanwhile, Mary’s got straight-up harassment charges on her, with a witness present. I get that she’s playing brinksmanship here, but she has less room for wiggling out of this – both in terms of being found in violation of guidelines (being caught dead to rights harassing someone) and in terms of punishment afterwards. Ruth might lose her position, but Mary might get expelled.
(And as for Carla, she gets conduct write-ups. Not much to that one. “Don’t skate in the halls again. Got it?”)
I’m wondering if Mary happens to drink, too.
Would they be keeping the empty bottles there though?
sure, thats true. but i think the way she said it all makes it clear that in her mind the problem is the same-sex aspect and not the actual rules.
also if mary was bringing up real complaints youd think shed mention the time ruth hit her in the face
Yeah, that’s the whole problem with the ‘Mary’s got a point’ argument.
While Ruth is breaking rules, and Carla was until her skates got ruined, those rules (and the good reasons for them) aren’t what Mary’s statements (and actions) tell us that she’s bothered by.
She clearly wasn’t bothered by Carla’s skating qua skating or the safety issues that lead to the rule – she was bothered by non-rule breaking noise, and then became a safety hazard herself to get back at Carla refusing to assent to what she saw as an unreasonable request. (She probably wouldn’t have stopped if Mary HAD cited the good reason, either, because kids are dumb and Carla’s not exactly considerate, but Mary never even tried to claim the high ground.)
Ruth shouldn’t be banging one of the students under her charge, and Becky being there is technically a rules violation (though one that really should be overlooked under the circumstances), this is all true, but…Mary never mentioned the threats or the actual violence (which should be bigger deals than either of those), but she DID mention Billie’s gender and that Becky was a lesbian, so the queer aspect is clearly awful high in her thoughts.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary….
…choke on a used dildo and die.
You could not have been randomly assigned a more appropriate avatar.
Save Carla, of course.
Right?I love my avatar. I’ll be sad if I ever lose her. <3
Which you probably will if Willis ever finds himself with reason to draw her as herself, rather than fronting as ‘Joshua’.
I think you’ll agree that’d be an acceptable loss. (And reason to get a permanent grav!)
That doesn’t rhyme at all. You are terrible at this.