Actually, I wonder if we were not MEANT to think that? Because that’s what I expected too, though I found it hard to believe Malaya had self-esteem problems. (And I know I’m not projecting, because I like myself fine.)
Daily Life with a Monster Girl, the character is a harpy named Papi (don’t actually watch it but an image search was somewhat helpful then I looked up the rest)
Rich people can identify as whatever they want because to themselves, and to the rest of the world, rich people typically identify first and foremost as rich people.
That said, I identify as a level 40 Archmage.
Which is to say, I identify awesomely.
Oh, wow, I’d completely forgotten about Malaya’s distorted self-image. Everyone thinks she’s a hot chick, she knows everyone thinks she’s a hot chick, but she sees herself as something very different. Like a girl with anorexia nervosa who imagines herself as being fat. Also, there’s enough of a delay between her saying “that’s stupid” and the last panel that makes me think the real reason she says it’s stupid is because she is so self-centered that it would be stupid for someone to be interested in her if she wasn’t interested in them. Then she got weirded out that Marcie thought of her as a woman.
In retrospect, the argument I have against “I must be a woman, bc I’m HOT” is that being “not cis” (to cover most of the bases) is like Quantum Leap, where Sam leaps into the body of a woman (or chimpanzee). Sure, everyone sees the body and says, yeah, that’s a woman (or chimpanzee), but there’s definitely a manly man’s brain inside. The difference is Sam puts up with it because he hopes it’s temporary, whereas real people may never reconcile the discrepancy.
I also wonder if Malaya doesn’t have the same problem I did, in that I appreciate the primary and secondary sex aspects of my body WHILE AT THE SAME TIME not feeling like a cis woman in it. “Well I’m not trans because tits are awesome”
Well, tits ARE awesome. Even my wife says so about her boobs even if she is tired of them. If she could take them off and have them on at will, she would be a very happy woman.
I never understood the concept of gender separate from your physical form. I have a man’s body. My mind doesn’t think “I’m a man’s mind”, so I’ve always considered minds genderless.
That would not be the correct way of thinking, but I suppose that it is not intuitive if you have never experienced anything outside of having your body match your mind.
As far as I recall, in Shortpacked Malaya only exhibited legitimate interest in Carla, and her intense sexuality derived from that. If my recollections are right, her gender identity was never in any way touched on, and her sexuality potentially fit to a demisexual label.
Either way, do make note of the difference between gender identity and sexuality.
She only has issues with Mary that we’ve seen. If people pick up on her trans status by looking at her or hearing her voice, it’s probably a problem for her really often, just less so on her apparently quite liberal college campus.
As much as we might assume everyone casually picks up on it except Joyce, the only two we’ve actually know who did were Sal – who spends a lot of time with her and Mary – who’s a compulsive snoop. I think Ruth and Billie are the only others of the main cast that we know know – Ruth officially and Billie through Ruth.
It’s possible more have guessed (or that some of the older girls found out last year) but there’s little to no evidence for it. That suggests she passes pretty well.
Dammit, Malaya, stop making me relate to you! (But also, I mean, if you’re gonna have an “I’m not sure I’m the gender I was assigned at birth” convo with someone, Carla ain’t a bad choice.)
On a somewhat related note, today I found a trans rights button at my local mall (in the frickin’ Bible belt) and bought it (which was the closest to being “out” in public I’ve ever really been, I guess), so yet again DoA is lining up with IRL.
Today a cashier in Whole Foods said to me, “Excuse me, miss, I can take you over here” and then when I got there they were like, “Sorry if I misgendered you.” And I was like, “Well, um. Yeah?”
Today wasn’t quite as obscure as the time Joyce and Jacob were having a conversation about communion on the same day my now-husband and I happened to bring it up for the first time, but still, the number of these coincidences is weird. How… How does he keep magically doing this??
Well, the strip is set at IU-Bloomington, which is located in the middle of about the reddest part of the Midwest but is pretty damned progressive. There are several places that not only fly the rainbow flag, but fly the trans rights flag.
I suspected this much, actually, but didn’t really want to say anything without more concrete evidence. So, I mean, cool if it helps Malaya be happier as themselves and get out of their weirdo feud with Sal that seems to be based on jack all in the way of actual reasoning.
Malaya’s feud is based on Sal being absolutely awful to her right from the start. Yeah, a lot of what Malaya thinks about Sal is off base but she’s very justified in not liking her at all.
We came in a little late.
They’re hanging out in the Walmart parking lot when we first meet Malaya. And yeah, Sal was awful to her from the start. OTOH, though it wasn’t directed at Sal, Malaya was already being a jerk.
My assumption is that Marcie initially befriended Malaya because she was attracted, Sal was reacting badly to the intrusion on their friendship and Malaya doubled down on that by being her usual abrasive self where someone else could have smoothed it over.
I’d blame Sal more if Malaya didn’t have a record of being a jerk to everyone. Except Marcie.
Gender’s coming up in all sort of unexpected ways for me today. Granted, this is less surprising than in the Whole Foods, but still not where I thought this was gonna go.
She might mellow out if she talks to someone person to person and might actually find the root cause of her bongoiness is her inner self fighting to come out, or she is just simply a bongo/bastard who is terrible with people and has no filter without someone keeping a tight rein on her leash…either way, Willis will make it funny even if it’s no joking matter
I don’t know that they do or not. Mary knew, but she’s also a nosy conniver, and Joyce does not/did not appear to know, so we don’t really have a lot to go on if, and I hate to put it this way, Carla is “passing” enough to get noticed by Malaya, who had thought Marcie was deaf for a period of time due to her not being able to talk.
I guess I don’t really know how often Carla’s trans status comes up, since she seems out enough to where she briefly mused about being unsure if she’d be more annoyed to be on Joe’s list or not, and opted to not even look at it, so I guess she’d have reason to think some people would be aware, in any case.
Sal also knows, and she and Carla have some sort of… weird friendship I guess. We never really picked up how the two met.
My guess is that if you live in the dorm, there are enough signs (Carla has her own room, and she showers in the evening when there’s less people) that you could make an educated guess. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if Rachel knows too, given that Carla and her are both sophomores (Sarah too but Sarah doesn’t care to know about anyone).
True, I think Rachel likely knows, and Ruth obviously knew already prior to the Mary incident. Carla and Ruth also seem to have some sort of friendship, or at least, mutual respect, though Carla prefers Ruthless to when Ruth’s confidence was busted. Dunno how Carla digs current in-between Ruth.
Then again, we’ve never actually seen Carla outright lie about it. It seems to be common knowledge enough in the dorms, and more likely that Joyce is oblivious.
Having one’s own room and showering in the evenings are pretty subtle, if you ask me. Personally I would never make the leap from those clues to ‘possibly trans’. But then I don’t have a very good radar for such matters. On the other hand (or perhaps the same hand), Malaya can be pretty oblivious to anything that does not immediately concern her, so she might not have made that leap either.
I loved this strip. Haven’t seen it in at least like 2 years, so thanks for posting it. It’s kinda wild to see how the art’s evolved over times, even in subtle ways.
There was also her reaction to the Whiteboard Ding-dong Bandit episode, where IIRC she openly started drawing a penis on the front of her door qualified as a hate crime, at least until she discovered that everyone got a door-dicking.
She mentioned it to Sal, but Sal already knew before then. I imagine it came up to Marcie and Malaya.
I do have a question. I don’t read the Slipshines (not that I am offended by them, but I prefer to give Willis money by buying his physical books, so I simply do not check them out). As a result, I do not know if Malaya and Joe really did have a real roll in the sack or not. I know it was seriously intimated at, but I don’t know for a fact. I just wondered in regards to Malaya’s potential gender confusion.
Malaya and Joe did have sex, yeah. I haven’t seen any of the slipshines yet, but the preview certainly implied as much, and both of them undressed, so they certainly did something hot and heavy.
Yeah, and that didn’t read to me like a reaction to Joe specifically, but like how she expected sex to be. She got what she wanted out of it – the validation.
Was she?
I guess it depends on when you think either of them became friends.
Sal knew Carla before Malaya did. Sal hung out and talked to Carla before we saw Malaya and Carla interacting without Sal and/or Marcie.
I’m just going to point out that, as the daughter and heir otlf one of the most influential companies on the world, Carla’s transition wis probably PUBLIC knowledge. Joyce jsut doesn’t know cause she is sheltered.
Also – damn it Willis! Stop making me reconsider my longstanding hatred of Malaya (from back in Shortpacked!). I was happier when she was just jerk I could hate. Making her all complex and human isn’t fair!
Don’t be sad. DoA Malaya had always been more human and complex than Shortpacked! Malaya. If anything, this strip makes her less likeable. It’s a gift from the Willis to us!
That’s always been the point of Malaya. She was created to be a well-rounded, fully-formed, completely unlikable human being of a various minority (asian in SP!, questioning in DoA[??]). Your minority isn’t a model, that’s what Malaya stands for.
Well, this’ll be a fun conversation. Oh, Malaya, honey, you’re such an asshole, but you’ve also got interiority and other stuff to do. It’s been a while since we focused on it but better late than never!
Malaya being who Malaya is, I actually can’t tell if that last panel is a serious moment of honesty, or if they’re being manipulative by trying to appeal to Carla’s personal history.
I don’t buy that Malaya is as dim as they make it appear, frankly.
It’s sad that Sal has a kneejerk response to immediately think she screwed up and apologize even when it’s something like: ‘set a boundary and not kissing my best friend because it makes me uncomfortable.’
It wasn’t even that she was uncomfortable, it was that it clearly wasn’t working (since Malaya went to ‘prove it’ rather than jumping to get with Marcie out of spite).
Her expression did not read to me as someone who was okay with the kiss, whether it was working or not. My personal read of the scene was Sal not being able to go through with it and just saying: ‘hey, this isn’t working,’ which is both true and a fortunately real excuse so Sal doesn’t have to do this thing she’s not enjoying.
It’s unfortunate, I agree, and I hope Marcie’s just upset and not angry at Sal, since yeah, Sal had plenty of reason to be uncomfortable with the situation, but I get that Sal’s priority right now is Marcie and her well-being. I hope the two can talk it out.
Still Malaya until Malaya says otherwise. I’d also say keep using the same pronouns until she says what she prefers, since it can turn into a mess if we try to guess off of limited info.
True. I am trying to go with they/them for the moment because it’s about as close as you can get to a neutral pronoun for the unknown, but sticking with she for now is valid, too.
I jumped to “they/them” as an “pronouns unknown” stance, but that’s a fair point, since whether or not Malaya is non-binary or another gender, she could still use she/her pronouns, or they/them, or other sets, and I think mandating a switch to “they/them” at least, could come off as if there’s one way to be non-binary or something.
I ran into an application form that -wonder of wonders – had w/m/d as the options for Gender… but still made that form field mandatory.
Why the fuck do they want to know anyway?
They only care if you are all of the above, because WMDs make people very nervous.
Honestly don’t have a good reason for them to ask that question. If you want to know how to address me, ask my title and pronouns. If it’s for diversity info or whatever, no point in asking until after you’ve hired whomever, because you can’t factor that in to your hiring choice anyway.
It’s actually somewhat useful even if they don’t hire you. There might be need to document what the applicants were. In the case of a discrimination lawsuit, it would be a defense to show that your hiring matched the applicant pool, even if it didn’t match overall demographics.
I can verify that at least at Ohio public universities, they have to prove that they considered a diverse pool of applicants when hiring. At the university my dad works for, a particular higher up IT position was unfilled for months because of lack of diversity in the applicant pool.
At the university I work at, there’s an equal opportunity/diversity form that must be filled out for an application to proceed, but that form goes to HR and then straight to EO&D. The hiring committee never sees it.
It’s odd. Marcie is the only person she actually seems to like and treat well. The only one she hasn’t been a jerk to and even went out of her way to get closer to – learning ASL.
Of course, the revelation that Marcie wanted sex from her and wasn’t being honest about that might explain her reaction. And that she might think Marcie’s only attracted to women while she’s not sure she is one might complicate it further.
Well Carla said “she likes you” which implies more romantic feelings than purely sexual, so it didn’t really come off as “she became your friend just to smash”. But, I can get not knowing how to react when your friend has a crush on you
I really like how Malaya’s exploring gender issues, it’s nice to have an AFAB possibly trans or nonbinary character in the setting, and I think it has a lot of potential.
Also, you know, I feel bad for Sal and Marcie that they need to get caught up in this sitcom plot.
Oh, and to those who missed this impulse fanfic thing involving Carla and a much more broken down and secular Mary, the link is here, I guess.
In the other ‘verse at least, Zaph and Rose were if I recall correctly (very heavily) implied to be results of some of Blaine’s numerous affairs; if either of them will have much relevancy to the near-future plot beyond with whatever’s going on in Billie’s circle, I’d guess it would have something to do with that.
Panel 4 Carla’s interesting, I’m trying to get a read on what that expression is. Is it a “wha?” face? A look of disappointment? (I mean, Carla thinks Malaya’s hot, but I don’t really know if she actually has any interest in dating Malaya)
Actually, come to think of it, I know Willis is seemingly avoiding relationship re-runs, outside of some teases, anyway. Billie coming onto Danny, Walky and Joyce sharing a mutual attraction that they don’t act on due to also finding each other extremely incompatible on a dating level, Rachel having a lot of acrimony towards Joe, Sal and Jason not being a thing minus the initial sex, etc.
Buuuuuut, Carla both is and isn’t Ultra Car. She’s a fan of Ultra Car in DoA as a franchise that exists, just like Dexter and Monkey Master being a franchise, not deadly enemies of humanity. So, if Willis did have Carla/Malaya be a thing, I guess he’s got an out on a technicality, though I dunno if I’d rather see that or see the pair date other people.
It’ll be a very, very tricky minefield to navigate if Carla falls into the ‘I’m less attracted to you now that I know your gender might not be what I assume’ bit.
Orientation is consistent across universes, so hypothetically, the fact that both Malayas are non-girl and Ultra-Car was attracted to Walkyverse!Malaya means that this won’t be a problem for Carla.
I think Willis has stated that he’s not doing couple reruns. Billie and Ruth are an exception because they didn’t get much time together I think (I didn’t actually read IW so I’m not sure)
I like that even villains have issues w their gender because i think there’s a set precedence that the majority of antagonists are cishet and I don’t know it’s refreshing
It should never be conditional, agreed, and I imagine if that becomes an issue, Willis will step in, kinda like people getting misogynistic about Roz and racist about Sal has had to be quashed before.
Prayer circle for NB Malaya. As an enby, I honestly take great pride in asshole enby characters that aren’t Perfect Examples of Queerness, and I want more of them in media.
I think that’s a big part of why I love Carla, bucking the Perfect Examples thing. I mean, I think Carla’s pretty awesome, but you get what I’m saying. If Malaya is NB (rather than trans man or otherwise), then that’s definitely applicable here, yeah.
In general the fact that Carla’s ace makes this complicated for me, as characters tend to be coded as ace through either aggressively antisocial or socially clueless behavior. But I like the spin Willis has put on it–that Carla is willfully a wrecking ball, partially because she takes a gleeful joy in being one, and partially to just barely cover for the fact that she genuinely likes people. It’s an interesting take that gets her away from the Sheldon Cooper/BBC Sherlock pit Ultra-Car could sometimes fall into.
Oh yeah. Carla’s way nicer than Ultra Car was. Like even with all of her sass and the pranks and stuff, we do also get some more heart to hearts and displays of compassion. Like, some of that is probably since DoA is less slapstick and cartoony than Shortpacked, but I think Carla’s also more adjusted than UC was.
Joining that prayer circle, honestly. I mean, as a trans guy, I’ll be happy either way, but for some reason I’d just really love to have canon enby Malaya. (And I second that motion, give us more imperfect trans characters!!)
Possible non-binary Malay outside, It’s good to see Sal more cautious of what effects and damages her choices have even though I wouldn’t say she did something wrong here. I feel like she’s grown in humility.
True. And what I said is not a well known fact, I think. I’m a little skeptical of it myself, but apparently that’s what it says in the official bisexuality manifesto.
Carla, stop messing things up. Whatever Marcie likes, we know that what she wants is Malaya’s body, and may well therefore consider Malaya’s gender to be completely irrelevant.
Of course, putting it that way would make for less drama, because if it was explained to Malaya that Marcie wanted her for her body, she’d just say “Well yeah, duh, who doesn’t?”
Eh, I don’t think Carla’s necessarily doing that. That, and Marcie seems to be bi or pan, anyway, given she was also checking out skateboarder guy whose name escapes me, the one who got a little play during the Ross storyline.
Though the idea of Marcie being attracted to Malaya bc she thinks the latter is a woman might not be so irrelevant to *Malaya*. (I mean, as mentioned, Marcie seems to be into more than just women, but still. Idk, *I* have a lot of issue with the fact that people are attracted to me bc they view me incorrectly as an attractive woman, so here’s me projecting, lol.)
Scene change to a temple in a volcano. Malaya’s restrained on some kind of frame. Marcie rips her vocal cords out with her bare hand, shoves them into her own throat, and utters her first words in five years: “KALI MA SHAKTI DE! MAARO MAARO SOOAR KO, CHAMDI NOCHO PEE LO KHOON!”
Ruth grabs the femurs before Malaya’s sacrificed to the lava.
We were going to, anyway, she’s a secondary cast member. Still, doesn’t mean it’ll be for a while, given we got revelations about Mike before he virtually disappeared, or how we’re still waiting on stuff with Joe and some other characters. This could be immediately explored, or a bombshell we won’t get much on for like 4-6 months.
I don’t really mind her, but there are many other characters I’d rather spend time with. I’m pretty “want more non-binary characters in general, but don’t want more Malaya specifically.”
…you find someone who’s kind of a petty jerk to be less redeemable than the guy who made a shopping list of ladies and backslid from treating women with respect after like a week?
Ehhh. I like Malaya more than they do, but we’ve at least seen Joe do things for other characters or show care, or remorse, etc.
I do not know that we’ve seen Malaya do something for another character’s sake yet, like, even once, outside of taking pains to learn sign language to talk to Marcie, which was genuinely pretty cool of Malaya. Granted, some of that is because Joe is a character we’ve seen more of who has more ties to other characters, while Malaya only seems to like Marcie at this point much.
I’d find the guy who made it his mission to sleep with as many women as possible, made an organized system to do it in the most efficient manner, attempted to make amends when informed how bad and possibly dangerous his system was, and then backslid into his bad practices after being told to his face that he was basically irredeemable and he should stop trying more redeemable than the asshole who’s derailed every plotline she’s come across, yes.
Yes I do find a piece of shit less redeemable than someone who’s struggling with their faults and trying to become a better person but slipping up along the way than someone whos shown no care or desire to improve themselves
Yes, this is exactly what happened. When Willis was drawing this, three months ago, he read the flight of birds and predicted you’d be around and how you’d feel, so he threw away all the storyline plans he’d already made and extended this arc juuuuust to spite you.
If I’m remembering correctly Malaya’s entire existence was born from spiting idiots who were bothering Willis about how you can’t deliberately create characters that were minorities, they had to happen naturally or some bullshit.
I mean. You can hate a genderqueer character, there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t like Carla because of her brashness. Just as long as you’re not hating the character *for* being genderqueer, cuz that’s fucked up
Aaaand toJBento, Malaya haters have been around since Malaya appeared in shortpacked years ago, so it’s not like Willis would need a time machine to know he could spite Malaya haters
Like it’s fine if this was the endgame. Have Malaya reveal as not knowing what her gender is (if she even has one) is absolutely a solid plan. I love it. I love the inclusion of it.
But to tack it on at the end like that seems like a way for us to want to forgive her.
I’m sorry that you don’t understand where you’re at Malaya, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re still a shit.
And we got like a whole story arc about how gender expression shouldn’t enter into how you treat someone which seems like a solid indication that forgiveness isn’t being aimed for here.
Right, it’s being made more explicit here, but it’s been alluded to, certainly.
I also doubt we’re meant to forgive Malaya for anything, given they aren’t exhibiting anything resembling remorse or contrition, so there’s not really any forgiving a character who doesn’t think they did anything wrong to begin with.
Woman, Trans, Nonbinary… doesn’t matter. I hope she isn’t using that as an excuse to be a horrible person.
Though, it does make more sense that she accuses Sal of being “Fake” so often… she’s just projecting because she herself feels like she’s being fake, and thinks everyone else is.
Agreed, there’s a distinction. I guess we don’t know yet how she sees Marcie, outside of that we know Malaya cares about Marcie to some degree, given she told Sal when Marcie missed Sal for her sake, despite not wanting to be around Sal at all.
I kinda take it more that they’re digesting what had to have been a bit of a weird interaction from their point of view. Whether or not the attraction is mutual at all, we’ve seen a few things to indicate that Malaya does genuinely care about Marcie to some degree, so I don’t think it’s pure indifference or anything.
That is the weirdest thing about this yeah, the way that its basically a way out for at least the comic to avoid addressing the topic thats presented in it? Which happened the last time too. Which is a big part of what makes it stand out to me, though not in a good way? I guess we’ll see if it actually goes somewhere this time instead of is just a one liner with hard to read tone out of the blue.
I think the fact that it came up again, even more obviously, means it’s actually going somewhere.
Mind you, might not be in the next strip or three. This comic plays the long game. This could just be another bit of setup for a real payoff further down the road.
For me, it’s because of the silent fourth panel (and my own self-loathing, I might be projecting). It reads as if Malaya thought “huh, I might want to clarify it’s not because I don’t see why anybody would like me…” rather than the last answer being the whole reason.
It just reads differently without that silent panel.
Then again, I might be projecting, and this silent panel may just be Malaya debating whether or not she feels safe to say it out loud in front of Carla.
Huh. This is the second time Malaya has expressed something that seems like gender dysphoria. Is she a a HE? Either way, of Malaya turns out to be a dude I would still hate him for being a jerkass.
In that scenario, would Carla and Mike team up — Lord! — or would they become locked in some kind of Doomsday Battle in which they both try to do their thing on the other & escalate infinitely, trying to find the ultimate weakness of the other?
I love how there are so many trans characters. If Malaya is trans which is a big possibility I love how there are enough characters to show that not all trans people are Mary Sue’s and that we can be assholes just like everyone else.
Indeed. One reason why I like Willis’ comics is that his characters range across the spectrum, and that saints and assholes are not restricted to any particular race, religion, gender or orientation.
It might still be a bit early to call Malaya trans though. She might be simply be non-binary or genderfluid.
Nonbinary people are still under the trans umbrella. The white stripe in the flag represents transitioning, genderless, neutral gender, or intersex people.
Did Malaya register that Sal and Marcie were pretending to hook up to try to get her to jump Marcie? Because doing so involves having the self-awareness to realise how much she reacts to Sal which I’m pretty certain she lacks, but without that piece of information the situation potentially makes no sense still (she might think Carla just shouted it out to get her attention then Sal didn’t want to back down and Marcie is hurt she was rejected in front of her crush)…
Honestly, in that context, Malaya is basically all the annoying boy shit Walky does with all the weaponized self-loathing Carla has (though I think Carla’s gotten over the initial self-loathing with help from having a loving family and just kept the defensive wall part). Maybe she really IS going out of her way to alienate people, be loud and obnoxious, and project an air of invulnerable assholery and just doesn’t have the self-awareness to get why that all seems like a good idea yet.
(And maybe never will. Just figuring out your gender doesn’t fix everything that your previously warped understanding of yourself caused.)
Wait – Carla has self-loathing? What’s your evidence?
I mean, she loudly proclaims that she’s awesome, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she really thinks she sucks. She might actually just think she’s awesome. Which, tbh, she is, in several ways.
…Are you assuming that all trans people have self-loathing? That seems unwarranted, and dangerous in a few ways.
so lotsa focus on the last panel but also, shoutout to Carla for addressing so much dumbing by getting to the point?
albeit with things that are technically not hers to say but like, happen to be things that we (or at least me) with our audience-sight wish that people would just communicate anyway
Okay so like, why take issue with Marcie being a person attracted to women yet have no problem with banging cishet men who definitely see Malaya as a woman and probably at best will nominally acknowledge it while still in their mind, banging a woman?
Wait no figured it out as I was typing this, its maybe cause Malaya actually cares about Marcie and wouldn’t treat her as a purely indulgent lay maybe
What exactly does Malaya mean in that last panel? Is she possibly more like Carla than we’ve known up til now? I’m sure we’ll find out, but waiting is hard sometimes!
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…I feel awkward now, identifying with Malaya =|
Panel the last: I feel awkward agreeing with her.
Ugh. Forget my post, which is rendered gibberish because I thought Malaya said “Sometimes I’m not very sure that I like myself”.
I was originally thinking that was what she was going to say, but that’s probably because I can’t imagine liking myself and I tend to project a lot.
Actually, I wonder if we were not MEANT to think that? Because that’s what I expected too, though I found it hard to believe Malaya had self-esteem problems. (And I know I’m not projecting, because I like myself fine.)
Okay, since I’m not alone on it, I feel better about my thoughts on that panel.
(I, too, like myself fine, I was just agreeing with Malaya that sometimes I don’t like her.)
Yeah, I had to re-read that too.
UGH
TIL Mally doesn’t want cock, she want a cock of her very own.
Dammit, is it time for another round of “Who the Hell is Plaz Using For An Avatar” already?
It’s not fair, I don’t watch anime anymore!
Daily Life with a Monster Girl, the character is a harpy named Papi (don’t actually watch it but an image search was somewhat helpful then I looked up the rest)
Isn’t that the hentai manga Monster Musume spun off from?
I will neither confirm nor deny this
Why not both?
Malaya identifies as a headache.
At least there’s no conflict between the way she identifies herself and the way others see her.
I mean, I REALLY identify with QC’s May, because I also would identify as a fighter jet if I had like a billion dollars
Rich people can identify as whatever they want because to themselves, and to the rest of the world, rich people typically identify first and foremost as rich people.
That said, I identify as a level 40 Archmage.
Which is to say, I identify awesomely.
..D&Ders’ll get the joke, I think. >.>
Paragon levels or a mashup of prestige’s?
Me? Servant of Mystra [ through three editions ]
I psionically Identify as a level 25 Psion/level 5 Wizard/level 10 Cerebramancer.
Well, I wouldn’t be rich after the transferral of consciousness, the billion dollars is what I would need for the chassis
Genderqueer Malaya! Genderqueer Malaya!!
Pretty sure that’s been mentioned before…
Off the top of my head, this is the closest we’ve gotten before: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/overwhelmingly/
Y’know, I always found that comic funny. That’s kinda how I feel about being male. Of course rather than confusion, my response has always been “Meh.”
You and me both, buddy. I’d say I clock in at about 5% girly, 15% masculine, 80% meh.
Oh, wow, I’d completely forgotten about Malaya’s distorted self-image. Everyone thinks she’s a hot chick, she knows everyone thinks she’s a hot chick, but she sees herself as something very different. Like a girl with anorexia nervosa who imagines herself as being fat. Also, there’s enough of a delay between her saying “that’s stupid” and the last panel that makes me think the real reason she says it’s stupid is because she is so self-centered that it would be stupid for someone to be interested in her if she wasn’t interested in them. Then she got weirded out that Marcie thought of her as a woman.
I still think running away from gender is the best response. Also yeah, I’m glad we’re getting more genderqueer stuff from her.
In retrospect, the argument I have against “I must be a woman, bc I’m HOT” is that being “not cis” (to cover most of the bases) is like Quantum Leap, where Sam leaps into the body of a woman (or chimpanzee). Sure, everyone sees the body and says, yeah, that’s a woman (or chimpanzee), but there’s definitely a manly man’s brain inside. The difference is Sam puts up with it because he hopes it’s temporary, whereas real people may never reconcile the discrepancy.
Aaaaaaand I’ve outed my age here
whee
Is a bad argument, but that doesn’t mean it’s not one that people could use internally.
It’s sure not one that anyone else should use.
Quantum Leap was a great show!
I also wonder if Malaya doesn’t have the same problem I did, in that I appreciate the primary and secondary sex aspects of my body WHILE AT THE SAME TIME not feeling like a cis woman in it. “Well I’m not trans because tits are awesome”
Well, tits ARE awesome. Even my wife says so about her boobs even if she is tired of them. If she could take them off and have them on at will, she would be a very happy woman.
I never understood the concept of gender separate from your physical form. I have a man’s body. My mind doesn’t think “I’m a man’s mind”, so I’ve always considered minds genderless.
That would not be the correct way of thinking, but I suppose that it is not intuitive if you have never experienced anything outside of having your body match your mind.
I’m barely over 30 and I’ve watched and rewatched that show.
It’s been alluded to and speculated on, but in a way that some people thought it was just over-speculation.
Yeah, I’ll cop to that. Read it as Malaya being sarcastic and braggy.
This’ll be interesting.
It’s definitely a different twist on Shortpacked!’s sexuality-queer Malaya.
As far as I recall, in Shortpacked Malaya only exhibited legitimate interest in Carla, and her intense sexuality derived from that. If my recollections are right, her gender identity was never in any way touched on, and her sexuality potentially fit to a demisexual label.
Either way, do make note of the difference between gender identity and sexuality.
I seriously hope Willis doesn’t take a comedic route with someone’s gender issues…but given his penchant for making fun of everyone, it’s inevitable
I guess Carla doesn’t have any issues as such.
Carla knows what she is, and is comfortable with it, it’s getting other people to respect what she is that gets her in trouble.
Carla just has issues with Mary.
She only has issues with Mary that we’ve seen. If people pick up on her trans status by looking at her or hearing her voice, it’s probably a problem for her really often, just less so on her apparently quite liberal college campus.
As much as we might assume everyone casually picks up on it except Joyce, the only two we’ve actually know who did were Sal – who spends a lot of time with her and Mary – who’s a compulsive snoop. I think Ruth and Billie are the only others of the main cast that we know know – Ruth officially and Billie through Ruth.
It’s possible more have guessed (or that some of the older girls found out last year) but there’s little to no evidence for it. That suggests she passes pretty well.
I imagine Willis will try and give it the same sort of care as Danny and Becky have had for their identity/discovery stuff.
There will be jokes, but Malaya’s gender will never be the punchline. Willis is good at punching up.
Dammit, Malaya, stop making me relate to you! (But also, I mean, if you’re gonna have an “I’m not sure I’m the gender I was assigned at birth” convo with someone, Carla ain’t a bad choice.)
On a somewhat related note, today I found a trans rights button at my local mall (in the frickin’ Bible belt) and bought it (which was the closest to being “out” in public I’ve ever really been, I guess), so yet again DoA is lining up with IRL.
Today a cashier in Whole Foods said to me, “Excuse me, miss, I can take you over here” and then when I got there they were like, “Sorry if I misgendered you.” And I was like, “Well, um. Yeah?”
In other words: Same hat
Today wasn’t quite as obscure as the time Joyce and Jacob were having a conversation about communion on the same day my now-husband and I happened to bring it up for the first time, but still, the number of these coincidences is weird. How… How does he keep magically doing this??
Well, the strip is set at IU-Bloomington, which is located in the middle of about the reddest part of the Midwest but is pretty damned progressive. There are several places that not only fly the rainbow flag, but fly the trans rights flag.
*thinking face emoji*
I suspected this much, actually, but didn’t really want to say anything without more concrete evidence. So, I mean, cool if it helps Malaya be happier as themselves and get out of their weirdo feud with Sal that seems to be based on jack all in the way of actual reasoning.
Malaya’s feud is based on Sal being absolutely awful to her right from the start. Yeah, a lot of what Malaya thinks about Sal is off base but she’s very justified in not liking her at all.
Did we see the start or come in a little later after they’d already met?
We came in a little late.
They’re hanging out in the Walmart parking lot when we first meet Malaya. And yeah, Sal was awful to her from the start. OTOH, though it wasn’t directed at Sal, Malaya was already being a jerk.
My assumption is that Marcie initially befriended Malaya because she was attracted, Sal was reacting badly to the intrusion on their friendship and Malaya doubled down on that by being her usual abrasive self where someone else could have smoothed it over.
I’d blame Sal more if Malaya didn’t have a record of being a jerk to everyone. Except Marcie.
I don’t think we have evidence of who started being awful first, do we? It’s very much been a mutual thing on-screen.
*plays “I’m Just A Girl” on the hacked Muzak*
Damn it, I just got this ship cleaned up from the last time someone played that song.
Muahahahahah!
Gender’s coming up in all sort of unexpected ways for me today. Granted, this is less surprising than in the Whole Foods, but still not where I thought this was gonna go.
So is Malaya going to be less of an asshole now?
Well the last time some butt (Mike) got something humanizing, they basically disappeared from the comic.
So uh, bye Malaya.
mike is a very limited character to begin with.
Malaya ain’t got that much going for her either…
I can dream.
Pfft, no. That’s just Malaya.
Hahahah, no.
Hell fucking no
Not likely.
She might mellow out if she talks to someone person to person and might actually find the root cause of her bongoiness is her inner self fighting to come out, or she is just simply a bongo/bastard who is terrible with people and has no filter without someone keeping a tight rein on her leash…either way, Willis will make it funny even if it’s no joking matter
Shouldn’t it be spelt “bonginess”?
The, uh, root word doesn’t lose anything when it’s used like that, so I think it’s correct to not remove anything here either.
Why would that be the case?
Hm, Malaya doesn’t know that Carla is trans, does she? Wonder if she admits this readily to anyone.
I don’t know that they do or not. Mary knew, but she’s also a nosy conniver, and Joyce does not/did not appear to know, so we don’t really have a lot to go on if, and I hate to put it this way, Carla is “passing” enough to get noticed by Malaya, who had thought Marcie was deaf for a period of time due to her not being able to talk.
I guess I don’t really know how often Carla’s trans status comes up, since she seems out enough to where she briefly mused about being unsure if she’d be more annoyed to be on Joe’s list or not, and opted to not even look at it, so I guess she’d have reason to think some people would be aware, in any case.
Sal also knows, and she and Carla have some sort of… weird friendship I guess. We never really picked up how the two met.
My guess is that if you live in the dorm, there are enough signs (Carla has her own room, and she showers in the evening when there’s less people) that you could make an educated guess. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if Rachel knows too, given that Carla and her are both sophomores (Sarah too but Sarah doesn’t care to know about anyone).
True, I think Rachel likely knows, and Ruth obviously knew already prior to the Mary incident. Carla and Ruth also seem to have some sort of friendship, or at least, mutual respect, though Carla prefers Ruthless to when Ruth’s confidence was busted. Dunno how Carla digs current in-between Ruth.
Then again, we’ve never actually seen Carla outright lie about it. It seems to be common knowledge enough in the dorms, and more likely that Joyce is oblivious.
Billie either knows or has a strong suspicion.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/permissible/
Having one’s own room and showering in the evenings are pretty subtle, if you ask me. Personally I would never make the leap from those clues to ‘possibly trans’. But then I don’t have a very good radar for such matters. On the other hand (or perhaps the same hand), Malaya can be pretty oblivious to anything that does not immediately concern her, so she might not have made that leap either.
Well, there is also the fact that Carla’s parents are really rich could also play into Carla getting special treatment like a room to herself.
Her reaction to Joe’s list and this strip http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/purpleandskates/ lead me to believe she’s pretty open about it. But otoh, Malaya’s wall of obliviousness to others is pretty strong…
I loved this strip. Haven’t seen it in at least like 2 years, so thanks for posting it. It’s kinda wild to see how the art’s evolved over times, even in subtle ways.
There was also her reaction to the Whiteboard Ding-dong Bandit episode, where IIRC she openly started drawing a penis on the front of her door qualified as a hate crime, at least until she discovered that everyone got a door-dicking.
Yup, which brought her around to finding it hilarious.
She mentioned it to Sal, but Sal already knew before then. I imagine it came up to Marcie and Malaya.
I do have a question. I don’t read the Slipshines (not that I am offended by them, but I prefer to give Willis money by buying his physical books, so I simply do not check them out). As a result, I do not know if Malaya and Joe really did have a real roll in the sack or not. I know it was seriously intimated at, but I don’t know for a fact. I just wondered in regards to Malaya’s potential gender confusion.
Malaya and Joe did have sex, yeah. I haven’t seen any of the slipshines yet, but the preview certainly implied as much, and both of them undressed, so they certainly did something hot and heavy.
I haven’t seen it either, but some commenters said Malaya didn’t like it much.
They did, but Malaya was at best bored and at worst, like, completely distracted and barely reacting to the fact that Joe was inside her.
Knowing that Malaya will pretty much hatebone anyone to, in her mind, annoy Sal, paints that encounter pretty differently.
Yeah, and that didn’t read to me like a reaction to Joe specifically, but like how she expected sex to be. She got what she wanted out of it – the validation.
Malaya was Carla’s friend before Sal became Carla’s friend. Malaya has friends, Sal doesn’t.
Kind of crazy to think about that.
Was she?
I guess it depends on when you think either of them became friends.
Sal knew Carla before Malaya did. Sal hung out and talked to Carla before we saw Malaya and Carla interacting without Sal and/or Marcie.
Malaya and Marcie are both part of the same Roller Derby group that Sal refused to be a part of.
I’m just going to point out that, as the daughter and heir otlf one of the most influential companies on the world, Carla’s transition wis probably PUBLIC knowledge. Joyce jsut doesn’t know cause she is sheltered.
Is.
Is this why Malaya’s so focused on what qualifies as “fake” vs. “real?” Does Malaya worry that Malaya is faking on some gender-based level?
Honestly, until she demonstrates actual depth, I chock all her attitudes up to “Malaya is an asshole.”
Wondering that myself.
Also – damn it Willis! Stop making me reconsider my longstanding hatred of Malaya (from back in Shortpacked!). I was happier when she was just jerk I could hate. Making her all complex and human isn’t fair!
You can still dislike her regardless of her identity.
I, personally, still don’t really care for Carla or Billie or Mike.
I have come round on Ruth, though.
Don’t be sad. DoA Malaya had always been more human and complex than Shortpacked! Malaya. If anything, this strip makes her less likeable. It’s a gift from the Willis to us!
That’s always been the point of Malaya. She was created to be a well-rounded, fully-formed, completely unlikable human being of a various minority (asian in SP!, questioning in DoA[??]). Your minority isn’t a model, that’s what Malaya stands for.
Well, this’ll be a fun conversation. Oh, Malaya, honey, you’re such an asshole, but you’ve also got interiority and other stuff to do. It’s been a while since we focused on it but better late than never!
And oh, Sal, sweetie. Back to grovelling.
I kid, I kid. I’m hoping this won’t be too bad.
Malaya being who Malaya is, I actually can’t tell if that last panel is a serious moment of honesty, or if they’re being manipulative by trying to appeal to Carla’s personal history.
I don’t buy that Malaya is as dim as they make it appear, frankly.
It’d be wild if Malaya’s whole anti-phony act was actually phony but I wouldn’t put money on it.
She’s hinted at it before, so it’s likely serious.
Malayas a dick but she’s not manipulative, just brash
It’s sad that Sal has a kneejerk response to immediately think she screwed up and apologize even when it’s something like: ‘set a boundary and not kissing my best friend because it makes me uncomfortable.’
It wasn’t even that she was uncomfortable, it was that it clearly wasn’t working (since Malaya went to ‘prove it’ rather than jumping to get with Marcie out of spite).
Her expression did not read to me as someone who was okay with the kiss, whether it was working or not. My personal read of the scene was Sal not being able to go through with it and just saying: ‘hey, this isn’t working,’ which is both true and a fortunately real excuse so Sal doesn’t have to do this thing she’s not enjoying.
That’s a valid read.
It’s unfortunate, I agree, and I hope Marcie’s just upset and not angry at Sal, since yeah, Sal had plenty of reason to be uncomfortable with the situation, but I get that Sal’s priority right now is Marcie and her well-being. I hope the two can talk it out.
Malaya is trans? New name? Malakai? Malloy?
They may keep their name, and either be nonbinary or trans male and keep the name, etc. There are options.
Still Malaya until Malaya says otherwise. I’d also say keep using the same pronouns until she says what she prefers, since it can turn into a mess if we try to guess off of limited info.
True. I am trying to go with they/them for the moment because it’s about as close as you can get to a neutral pronoun for the unknown, but sticking with she for now is valid, too.
I jumped to “they/them” as an “pronouns unknown” stance, but that’s a fair point, since whether or not Malaya is non-binary or another gender, she could still use she/her pronouns, or they/them, or other sets, and I think mandating a switch to “they/them” at least, could come off as if there’s one way to be non-binary or something.
I ran into an application form that -wonder of wonders – had w/m/d as the options for Gender… but still made that form field mandatory.
Why the fuck do they want to know anyway?
They only care if you are all of the above, because WMDs make people very nervous.
Honestly don’t have a good reason for them to ask that question. If you want to know how to address me, ask my title and pronouns. If it’s for diversity info or whatever, no point in asking until after you’ve hired whomever, because you can’t factor that in to your hiring choice anyway.
It’s actually somewhat useful even if they don’t hire you. There might be need to document what the applicants were. In the case of a discrimination lawsuit, it would be a defense to show that your hiring matched the applicant pool, even if it didn’t match overall demographics.
I can verify that at least at Ohio public universities, they have to prove that they considered a diverse pool of applicants when hiring. At the university my dad works for, a particular higher up IT position was unfilled for months because of lack of diversity in the applicant pool.
At the university I work at, there’s an equal opportunity/diversity form that must be filled out for an application to proceed, but that form goes to HR and then straight to EO&D. The hiring committee never sees it.
Nope, she’s still a piece of shit.
Why the fuck does she even hang around Marcie if she clearly does not care about her feelings?
It’s odd. Marcie is the only person she actually seems to like and treat well. The only one she hasn’t been a jerk to and even went out of her way to get closer to – learning ASL.
Of course, the revelation that Marcie wanted sex from her and wasn’t being honest about that might explain her reaction. And that she might think Marcie’s only attracted to women while she’s not sure she is one might complicate it further.
Well Carla said “she likes you” which implies more romantic feelings than purely sexual, so it didn’t really come off as “she became your friend just to smash”. But, I can get not knowing how to react when your friend has a crush on you
I really like how Malaya’s exploring gender issues, it’s nice to have an AFAB possibly trans or nonbinary character in the setting, and I think it has a lot of potential.
Also, you know, I feel bad for Sal and Marcie that they need to get caught up in this sitcom plot.
Oh, and to those who missed this impulse fanfic thing involving Carla and a much more broken down and secular Mary, the link is here, I guess.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/19480057/chapters/46370893
There is Zaph, but I don’t know how much relevance he will have to the main story.
In the other ‘verse at least, Zaph and Rose were if I recall correctly (very heavily) implied to be results of some of Blaine’s numerous affairs; if either of them will have much relevancy to the near-future plot beyond with whatever’s going on in Billie’s circle, I’d guess it would have something to do with that.
Panel 4 Carla’s interesting, I’m trying to get a read on what that expression is. Is it a “wha?” face? A look of disappointment? (I mean, Carla thinks Malaya’s hot, but I don’t really know if she actually has any interest in dating Malaya)
Actually, come to think of it, I know Willis is seemingly avoiding relationship re-runs, outside of some teases, anyway. Billie coming onto Danny, Walky and Joyce sharing a mutual attraction that they don’t act on due to also finding each other extremely incompatible on a dating level, Rachel having a lot of acrimony towards Joe, Sal and Jason not being a thing minus the initial sex, etc.
Buuuuuut, Carla both is and isn’t Ultra Car. She’s a fan of Ultra Car in DoA as a franchise that exists, just like Dexter and Monkey Master being a franchise, not deadly enemies of humanity. So, if Willis did have Carla/Malaya be a thing, I guess he’s got an out on a technicality, though I dunno if I’d rather see that or see the pair date other people.
My interpretation of panel 4 is that Carla sees Malaya’s previous statement as dumping on themself, and Carla isn’t about that.
Possible, I wasn’t sure if Carla thought Malaya was knocking wlm stuff for a moment there.
I’ll take “typos that completely alter the meaning of a sentence” for 1000, Pat
oh yeah, oops. wlw, of course. Sorry, in need of caffeine.
Yeah, Malaya shouldn’t be dumping on herself. Carla isn’t about that. She should be dumping on Carla.
It’ll be a very, very tricky minefield to navigate if Carla falls into the ‘I’m less attracted to you now that I know your gender might not be what I assume’ bit.
Orientation is consistent across universes, so hypothetically, the fact that both Malayas are non-girl and Ultra-Car was attracted to Walkyverse!Malaya means that this won’t be a problem for Carla.
Actually, it might increase the attraction.
I think Willis has stated that he’s not doing couple reruns. Billie and Ruth are an exception because they didn’t get much time together I think (I didn’t actually read IW so I’m not sure)
He said he wasn’t interested in reruns unless he can think of a new angle or he doesn’t like how he wrote it originally.
I like that even villains have issues w their gender because i think there’s a set precedence that the majority of antagonists are cishet and I don’t know it’s refreshing
Villain is a bit of a stretch, you can be a self centered prick without being flat out evil.
You can be a self centered prick without being straight is the message here, methinks.
I used the term “villain” loosely, but she’s def the antagonist for Sal.
She definitely makes the Top 3 Villains with Cute Noses.
I’m not sure what I was expecting but this wasn’t it.
I also note that i can see updates earlier on my PC, than on my phone
If anyone starts trying to litigate whether we need to treat Malaya’s gender with respect because she’s a shitheel, I’m gonna sock ’em in the jaw.
Didn’t we have that story with Carla already?
…I mean, this is the internet so…fair, yeah.
Carla isn’t even that shitty TBH, she just wishes she was
We did have that story with Carla and this place became a cesspit so now anyone who does that gets socked in the jaw.
I like it.
Malaya’s gender deserves infinitely more respect than Malaya’s stupid opinions and horrible personality
It should never be conditional, agreed, and I imagine if that becomes an issue, Willis will step in, kinda like people getting misogynistic about Roz and racist about Sal has had to be quashed before.
If you sock anyone in the jaw, I’m going to run all the way to your house and let my dog shit on your lawn.
Prayer circle for NB Malaya. As an enby, I honestly take great pride in asshole enby characters that aren’t Perfect Examples of Queerness, and I want more of them in media.
I think that’s a big part of why I love Carla, bucking the Perfect Examples thing. I mean, I think Carla’s pretty awesome, but you get what I’m saying. If Malaya is NB (rather than trans man or otherwise), then that’s definitely applicable here, yeah.
In general the fact that Carla’s ace makes this complicated for me, as characters tend to be coded as ace through either aggressively antisocial or socially clueless behavior. But I like the spin Willis has put on it–that Carla is willfully a wrecking ball, partially because she takes a gleeful joy in being one, and partially to just barely cover for the fact that she genuinely likes people. It’s an interesting take that gets her away from the Sheldon Cooper/BBC Sherlock pit Ultra-Car could sometimes fall into.
Oh yeah. Carla’s way nicer than Ultra Car was. Like even with all of her sass and the pranks and stuff, we do also get some more heart to hearts and displays of compassion. Like, some of that is probably since DoA is less slapstick and cartoony than Shortpacked, but I think Carla’s also more adjusted than UC was.
Joining that prayer circle, honestly. I mean, as a trans guy, I’ll be happy either way, but for some reason I’d just really love to have canon enby Malaya. (And I second that motion, give us more imperfect trans characters!!)
Possible non-binary Malay outside, It’s good to see Sal more cautious of what effects and damages her choices have even though I wouldn’t say she did something wrong here. I feel like she’s grown in humility.
I still don’t care… She can go down the drain of shit.
Also bisexuality can still include attraction to nb people.
Yeah, but Malaya might not know that Marcie’s likes extend beyond “women.”
True. And what I said is not a well known fact, I think. I’m a little skeptical of it myself, but apparently that’s what it says in the official bisexuality manifesto.
I…what? Bisexual people can absolutely be attracted to non-binary people. Non-binary people can also be bisexual.
Cool. I’m not here to argue about that though, although it may seem like I am. I was just voicing my thoughts into the air.
The purple stripe on the flag represents attraction to NB people
Carla, stop messing things up. Whatever Marcie likes, we know that what she wants is Malaya’s body, and may well therefore consider Malaya’s gender to be completely irrelevant.
Of course, putting it that way would make for less drama, because if it was explained to Malaya that Marcie wanted her for her body, she’d just say “Well yeah, duh, who doesn’t?”
Eh, I don’t think Carla’s necessarily doing that. That, and Marcie seems to be bi or pan, anyway, given she was also checking out skateboarder guy whose name escapes me, the one who got a little play during the Ross storyline.
Marcie is bi.
Skateboard guy is Sayid. Who is gay, so Marcie wouldn’t have much luck on that front, either.
Not sure Marcie was into him, though, but Sal was. (I think the blush was ‘OK, you’ve just admitted you missed me, but I’d really like to get my skate on, so do you mind?’)
Though the idea of Marcie being attracted to Malaya bc she thinks the latter is a woman might not be so irrelevant to *Malaya*. (I mean, as mentioned, Marcie seems to be into more than just women, but still. Idk, *I* have a lot of issue with the fact that people are attracted to me bc they view me incorrectly as an attractive woman, so here’s me projecting, lol.)
Marcie wants Malaya’s body, all right.
Scene change to a temple in a volcano. Malaya’s restrained on some kind of frame. Marcie rips her vocal cords out with her bare hand, shoves them into her own throat, and utters her first words in five years: “KALI MA SHAKTI DE! MAARO MAARO SOOAR KO, CHAMDI NOCHO PEE LO KHOON!”
Ruth grabs the femurs before Malaya’s sacrificed to the lava.
Hm.
This means we get more Malaya storylines.
Jooooy.
We were going to, anyway, she’s a secondary cast member. Still, doesn’t mean it’ll be for a while, given we got revelations about Mike before he virtually disappeared, or how we’re still waiting on stuff with Joe and some other characters. This could be immediately explored, or a bombshell we won’t get much on for like 4-6 months.
Good.
The less time with Malaya, the more time I’ll actually enjoy the comic.
Thus far, there is nothing redeemable about her. And I found Joe to be redeemable, so that should tell you my bar.
I don’t really mind her, but there are many other characters I’d rather spend time with. I’m pretty “want more non-binary characters in general, but don’t want more Malaya specifically.”
…you find someone who’s kind of a petty jerk to be less redeemable than the guy who made a shopping list of ladies and backslid from treating women with respect after like a week?
Ehhh. I like Malaya more than they do, but we’ve at least seen Joe do things for other characters or show care, or remorse, etc.
I do not know that we’ve seen Malaya do something for another character’s sake yet, like, even once, outside of taking pains to learn sign language to talk to Marcie, which was genuinely pretty cool of Malaya. Granted, some of that is because Joe is a character we’ve seen more of who has more ties to other characters, while Malaya only seems to like Marcie at this point much.
Wait, Malaya also told Sal that Marcie missed her, so that’s another good deed. Forgot about that for a sec.
I’d find the guy who made it his mission to sleep with as many women as possible, made an organized system to do it in the most efficient manner, attempted to make amends when informed how bad and possibly dangerous his system was, and then backslid into his bad practices after being told to his face that he was basically irredeemable and he should stop trying more redeemable than the asshole who’s derailed every plotline she’s come across, yes.
Yes I do find a piece of shit less redeemable than someone who’s struggling with their faults and trying to become a better person but slipping up along the way than someone whos shown no care or desire to improve themselves
Nooooo whyyy? Oh right it’s probably because David Willis wants to spite us haters.
What if I show gratefulness for the amazing representation? I’m so glad for the nb character who likes to harass other people.
Yes, this is exactly what happened. When Willis was drawing this, three months ago, he read the flight of birds and predicted you’d be around and how you’d feel, so he threw away all the storyline plans he’d already made and extended this arc juuuuust to spite you.
To be fair, Malaya haters aren’t new. They were definitely around three months ago.
If I’m remembering correctly Malaya’s entire existence was born from spiting idiots who were bothering Willis about how you can’t deliberately create characters that were minorities, they had to happen naturally or some bullshit.
I mean. You can hate a genderqueer character, there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t like Carla because of her brashness. Just as long as you’re not hating the character *for* being genderqueer, cuz that’s fucked up
Aaaand toJBento, Malaya haters have been around since Malaya appeared in shortpacked years ago, so it’s not like Willis would need a time machine to know he could spite Malaya haters
Look on the bright side: More Malaya = More Fuckface. Fuckface Forever! 100 consecutive Fuckface strips!
!!!!!
Come the FUCK on.
Like it’s fine if this was the endgame. Have Malaya reveal as not knowing what her gender is (if she even has one) is absolutely a solid plan. I love it. I love the inclusion of it.
But to tack it on at the end like that seems like a way for us to want to forgive her.
I’m sorry that you don’t understand where you’re at Malaya, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re still a shit.
This “reveal” was made back in January.
And we got like a whole story arc about how gender expression shouldn’t enter into how you treat someone which seems like a solid indication that forgiveness isn’t being aimed for here.
Right, it’s being made more explicit here, but it’s been alluded to, certainly.
I also doubt we’re meant to forgive Malaya for anything, given they aren’t exhibiting anything resembling remorse or contrition, so there’s not really any forgiving a character who doesn’t think they did anything wrong to begin with.
Woman, Trans, Nonbinary… doesn’t matter. I hope she isn’t using that as an excuse to be a horrible person.
Though, it does make more sense that she accuses Sal of being “Fake” so often… she’s just projecting because she herself feels like she’s being fake, and thinks everyone else is.
Malaya will use anything as an excuse to be a horrible person.
Being NB does not excuse you from being an asshole Malaya.
Okay, but. Malaya didn’t say “Well, I am not into Marcy”.
Malaya said “Marcy shouldn’t be into me.”
Agreed, there’s a distinction. I guess we don’t know yet how she sees Marcie, outside of that we know Malaya cares about Marcie to some degree, given she told Sal when Marcie missed Sal for her sake, despite not wanting to be around Sal at all.
That kind of feels like a weird response to someone telling you your friend has a crush on you. So non-emotional. Like she doesn’t care.
I kinda take it more that they’re digesting what had to have been a bit of a weird interaction from their point of view. Whether or not the attraction is mutual at all, we’ve seen a few things to indicate that Malaya does genuinely care about Marcie to some degree, so I don’t think it’s pure indifference or anything.
That is the weirdest thing about this yeah, the way that its basically a way out for at least the comic to avoid addressing the topic thats presented in it? Which happened the last time too. Which is a big part of what makes it stand out to me, though not in a good way? I guess we’ll see if it actually goes somewhere this time instead of is just a one liner with hard to read tone out of the blue.
I think the fact that it came up again, even more obviously, means it’s actually going somewhere.
Mind you, might not be in the next strip or three. This comic plays the long game. This could just be another bit of setup for a real payoff further down the road.
Well, this is Malaya. Of course she doesn’t.
She did seem to care about marcie. I mean, she learned sign language for her.
Did she do it for Marcie, or just to spite Sal?
Goddsmit Mal… Sa… Marcie
Regardless of whether Malaya’s trans or not, she’s still an asshole.
That’s her real gender.
Dude, same last panel Malaya, same
Way too late to make me care about Malaya.
I’m getting a strong subtext from Malaya of: “And I don’t like me very much either. Why should anyone else?”
For me, it’s because of the silent fourth panel (and my own self-loathing, I might be projecting). It reads as if Malaya thought “huh, I might want to clarify it’s not because I don’t see why anybody would like me…” rather than the last answer being the whole reason.
It just reads differently without that silent panel.
Then again, I might be projecting, and this silent panel may just be Malaya debating whether or not she feels safe to say it out loud in front of Carla.
I suspect that there was an element of: “Oh, and I’d better clarify before Carla concludes that I think Marcie is stupid.”
Also that, yes.
Huh. This is the second time Malaya has expressed something that seems like gender dysphoria. Is she a a HE? Either way, of Malaya turns out to be a dude I would still hate him for being a jerkass.
There’s a plethora of other genders to explore and choose from!
and Malaya can make all of them horrible! (I have faith.)
Huh. I expected Carla to ask for cookies first.
Special discount for her friends.
i never wouldve seen this coming
Carla, how can we keep having storylines based on secrets and misunderstandings if you’re gonna keep blurting it out.
Carla.
Carla why.
It’s in her self-declared job description: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/pleases/
Which is kind of worrying now that Malaya’s told her that.
As the alt text says, “someone stop her before she ends the whole webcomic”
I kind of want to see a (non Canon) strip or set of strips where Carla goes around gleefully ruining all the secrets and drama people are keeping
In that scenario, would Carla and Mike team up — Lord! — or would they become locked in some kind of Doomsday Battle in which they both try to do their thing on the other & escalate infinitely, trying to find the ultimate weakness of the other?
“the Truth, Opus, is that you look more like a puffin than a penguin””
Robosexual
I love how there are so many trans characters. If Malaya is trans which is a big possibility I love how there are enough characters to show that not all trans people are Mary Sue’s and that we can be assholes just like everyone else.
Indeed. One reason why I like Willis’ comics is that his characters range across the spectrum, and that saints and assholes are not restricted to any particular race, religion, gender or orientation.
It might still be a bit early to call Malaya trans though. She might be simply be non-binary or genderfluid.
As a genderqueer person I’m never sure whether to call myself trans as well tbh I kinda feel like they’re at least siblings in gender
Nonbinary people are still under the trans umbrella. The white stripe in the flag represents transitioning, genderless, neutral gender, or intersex people.
Thank you, I admit ignorance in that!
Carla’s going to be PISSED Malaya’s after her job.
Questioning or not, you’re being a satchel of Richards, Malaya.
Noooooooooooooooo!!! Don’t make me feel sympathy for Malaya!!!
Did Malaya register that Sal and Marcie were pretending to hook up to try to get her to jump Marcie? Because doing so involves having the self-awareness to realise how much she reacts to Sal which I’m pretty certain she lacks, but without that piece of information the situation potentially makes no sense still (she might think Carla just shouted it out to get her attention then Sal didn’t want to back down and Marcie is hurt she was rejected in front of her crush)…
I’m sorry for Marcie, but I totally have to agree with panel 3 Malaya. And that’s a first for me.
Ahh, I was right. Good.
Honestly, in that context, Malaya is basically all the annoying boy shit Walky does with all the weaponized self-loathing Carla has (though I think Carla’s gotten over the initial self-loathing with help from having a loving family and just kept the defensive wall part). Maybe she really IS going out of her way to alienate people, be loud and obnoxious, and project an air of invulnerable assholery and just doesn’t have the self-awareness to get why that all seems like a good idea yet.
(And maybe never will. Just figuring out your gender doesn’t fix everything that your previously warped understanding of yourself caused.)
Wait – Carla has self-loathing? What’s your evidence?
I mean, she loudly proclaims that she’s awesome, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she really thinks she sucks. She might actually just think she’s awesome. Which, tbh, she is, in several ways.
…Are you assuming that all trans people have self-loathing? That seems unwarranted, and dangerous in a few ways.
So Malaya’s transmale or non-binary? I’m thinking the latter.
That’s a few steps further down the line. Right now, she’s questioning her gender identity, that’s all.
So glad to see Sal go after her best friend, again and again. Carla seems really impressed by Malaya’s answer.
Genderqueer me is both thrilled for some more representation and annoyed it’s from one of the most punchable people in the cast but here we are
Isn’t Marcy not just into women? It should just be Malays personality that repels her.
Malaya doesn’t repeal Marcie. It’s only Sal who hates her and Sal has threatened her multiple times.
But does Malaya know that? Does she think, after this revelation, that Marcie’s into her only because she’s a woman, which Malaya isn’t so sure about?
Well Malaya still enjoys sexual attention from men or seems to. Would Marcie’s attention be different?
She enjoys something about it, though it doesn’t seem to be the actual sex.
I think that makes an assumption.
Cool, always great to see enby rep from someone who is literal human garbage but technically “representation” :/
No one commenting on the fact that Carla stays speechless for a full two panels?
I’m actually proud she didn’t make that part about her despite her powers.
oh man, are we gonna have a canon non-binary DOA character? And it’s one I happen to like? Thank you !!!
Saw (most) of this coming.
YAY!
I think Marcie needs a romance detective. Becky can probably relate to her situation in the first panel.
so lotsa focus on the last panel but also, shoutout to Carla for addressing so much dumbing by getting to the point?
albeit with things that are technically not hers to say but like, happen to be things that we (or at least me) with our audience-sight wish that people would just communicate anyway
I really appreciated her shouting, after outing Billie and Ruth, if there were any other band aids to rip off.
Okay so like, why take issue with Marcie being a person attracted to women yet have no problem with banging cishet men who definitely see Malaya as a woman and probably at best will nominally acknowledge it while still in their mind, banging a woman?
Wait no figured it out as I was typing this, its maybe cause Malaya actually cares about Marcie and wouldn’t treat her as a purely indulgent lay maybe
What a twist. What? A twist?
sometimes you make the THE FUCKING STUPIDEST COMICS IN THE WORLD
A NEW REVELATION
What exactly does Malaya mean in that last panel? Is she possibly more like Carla than we’ve known up til now? I’m sure we’ll find out, but waiting is hard sometimes!