While it’s possible that Joyce overheard since she was standing next to Joe and Joe heard it, I’d say it’s equally likely that Joe just has the ability to detect this sort of thing at a range of a mile or two.
I doubt it, Becky and Dina might be dealing with unresolved horniness but they are also smart cookies. I have no doubt they can work together and still get things done.
Yeah, but where’s the comedic drama in that? This situation seems tailor made for a storyline where they struggle to get work done because they can barely cope with the sexual tension. Plus Becky and Dina do “science” together feels like a perfect DoA brand slipshine title.
If they DO start banging, I’d guess it’s even odds that finishing their science projects will be their foreplay. In which case they’re DEFINITELY going to spend a lot of time on their projects.
“Do science together” is especially amusing to me since “Science” somehow became a euphemism in my friend group, which started with me and my spouse, and since it spread to the friends, my friend–>other partner and I also have it as a stupid joke now, lol
Hrmm. Another day, another BBCC quest for Sal on the grav roulette. Lets see what the fates bring for me in honor of your search! NO WALKY’S! NO WALKY’S! GO!
I think we’ve seen her turned on by Becky before on screen.
The phrase “Sudden rush of euphoria” isn’t how I would describe arousal, It’s a lot more uncomfortable than euphoric, but I do see that’s the popular read, so I might be in the minority there.
You may be in the minority, but you are almost certainly correct. Based on Dina’s dialogue and the timing of it in response to Becky saying something Dina would find very arousing, I think it’s clear that she is experiencing her first orgasm which is a totally new experience for her.
I think it’s less ‘O face’ and more ‘…huh. So this is my hot spot button.’ Like when you suddenly realise that you’re attracted to curly hair, or Scottish accents, or you discovered Chris Hemsworth.
“The Euphoria Is In My Pants” would make a great Book 11 title, and I’m very disappointed that, according to the alt-text, Willis probably won’t use it.
Because this comments section can be a way sometimes, I’m gonna point out a few things: Yes, people on the asexual spectrum can and do experience arousal and attraction. It’s a spectrum for a reason. Dina has specifically been identified on Twitter as grey-ace (damnyouwillis/status/1231987068718505985) which for many people means either attraction or arousal is infrequent or less pressing than it is for allo folks.
So there is absolutely no need to debate whether Dina’s ace or whether this strip changes anything about her orientation, okay?
And with out of the way I disappear back into the mists like a spooky ghost
Time to read up more terminology. I’m guessing from context i understand grey-ace and allo, but I’m off to the weeb stacks to learn something new. And it’s all thanks to you!
Well, you’re on the weeb, and the stacks are the main book shelves at the library, so… main sources of (aiming for reliable) information on the whirled why’d weeb. Does not that help to declarify?
One of the channels on my friends’-group discord is basically dedicated to writing down all of our “Hey, that random phrase you just said would be a good name for a band” moments.
It never occurred to me that I actually had somewhere I could *actually* be using those names! As someone who plays Civ, I’m ashamed that it didn’t occur to me until you said that just now.
We’ll see how smug Alexander is when his city flips because Booty Cramp put on such an awesome show that it showed his people how great my civilization is! Or maybe Barbarossa will have to acknowledge the superior guitar stylings of Distant Skunk. But, the best will be when Soup Noises and Arson For Good bring down Seondoek’s schemes and keep her from launching that rocket to Mars and foiling my plans.
Just to date myself, I don’t know if he originated it, but one of Dave Barry’s go-to phrases in his syndicated newspaper column was, “So-and-so would make a good name for a rock band.”
Long before Postmodern Jukebox appeared on the scene, I wanted to start a band that did covers of songs – not just in different styles of jazz – but in “wrong” styles. I played a tape of a cover of Stairway to Heaven but to the tune of Gilligan’s Island for band class, and one of the “rockers” said that it was sacrilegious, and I said, “I think you mean ‘sacrilicious.'” Sacrilicious would have been the band name, but then I found out that there had been a band named that – some local/area one but still.
Euphoria in my pants is my favorite New Wave band. Their hit single of their debut album “Euphoria in my pants” entitled “Euphoria in my pants” is a real banger.
Who says characters can’t have more than one book title? Walky got the title for both book 1 and book 8 (although he shared the latter with Amazi-Amber.)
Was anyone aware of such a rule being documented? And really, if the death rule can be bent, it would seem reasonable that ‘no consecutive titles’ could be more flexible.
So… Dina might be demisexual? I don’t want to get too bogged down in labels, but she’s moved from “people keep talking about sex, so even though I haven’t felt the same urges, I might want to try it, but I would have to take copious notation” to “I like Becky, and I might want to try the sex things with her, if she wants (and I know she finds me sexy)” to this comic, where Dina might be turned on for the first time in her life
It’s part of why I find umbrage with the super specific labeling when it comes to sex and sexuality. Insomuch that how you feel can change like the weather and trying to categorize it to such a pinpoint definition can definitely cause you to have to reevaluate and recategorize constantly. On one hand I get it, it gives you a sense of community and understanding of what exactly is going on with your desires and feelings and being able to say “oh that! That’s how I feel!” is great. But I dunno I think at a certain point we have to accept that a lot of this human experience shit is fucking NEBULOUS. We’re not robots that are just one thing performing one function and a bazillion factors can affect this ETHER that is the human mind and body. At the end of the day, know what you like, Know what you don’t and own it. Your experience, your tastes, your desires, they’re not a category, they’re YOU.
I think some of the value is in seeing the various dimensions/spectra as continuums. If you’re on the ace spectrum, deciding whether you’re gray-ace or light-gray-ace may or may not be useful – but knowing that ace is a thing and you’re somewhere between ace and allo can be very useful.
Just like I don’t have to know my exact Kinsey Scale number – simply knowing that there exists a number that describes my frequency of attraction to men vs. women, and it doesn’t have to be 0.0 or 6.0, can help the first time I’m attracted to someone that surprises me.
Whether I’m “mostly straight” or “straight-ish” or “bi” depends on the context, and I don’t care about the label. It does help to know “Oh, so for the first time in my life I was attracted to a guy (who had long hair and amazing cheekbones) and I don’t have to reassess anything because
I get that and it makes sense. Part of me just hates humanity’s insistence on quantifying everything in some sorta scale or chart. It can certainly help to open your mind to the spectrum of your orientation but I, personally, just am not a fan of going into great detail over those things? I’m definitely still figuring out what’s going on with me despite me still feeling like I’d fall under the blanket of “straight”. Personally just knowing myself means more to me than trying to put a name or number to how I feel. But I do get that at least opening someone up to the idea of a spectrum can at least positively effect how they feel about themselves. I just feel like at times we get caught up in the specifics and try to fit the dictionary definition instead of just letting ourselves…”be”. If I’m makin’ sense.
You’re right, but also when you’re very clearly *not* allo and straight, it’s sure nice to find a word or two that gets a bit closer to your general perspective.
Also sometimes understanding there’s a name for your type of experience is validating especially if you were brought up to think Allo and cis and het are the only options. It’s a “people like me exist!” Moment.
I honestly just thought I was really dense about some things before finding out that being demisexual is a thing (my husband and I were friends for 2 years before I realised I like-liked him… He is the third person I’ve really fancied. One of my best friends, as a teen, could easily be crushing hard on at least that many people at a time!).
I don’t know enough people from a wide enough spectrum of identities to properly define my sexuality beyond “bi”, otherwise.
Naming things is both something we do a lot of and, IMO, pretty much essential for any sort of advanced cognition. Imagine if we had to constantly, consciously evaluate every single object in our field of view to decide what it was. We’d never be able to get anything else done.
(I imagine that, somewhere out there in the annals of medicine, there’s at least one case file of someone with this exact problem.)
Yeah, this is a classic language problem. Using binary, concrete words to describe an analogue and changing world is like trying to draw a circle with straight lines. My computer is a computer and my desk is a desk, but that tells me nothing specific about them, just some general traits they share with other objects. You could add adjectives all day and still not be as precise as the real thing. Same concept applies to labels for human behaviours and tendencies. They may share some broad strokes similarities with other people, but you’ll never have enough adjectives to pin them down precisely. And you don’t really need to, either.
We do sometimes take it too far.
If you feel you don’t fit in the expected norms, it’s great to have a word and a community for how you do feel, but then the need to break down and finely categorize exactly what flavor of outside those expected norms you are gets to be a bit much. “Am I even the right kind of freak to fit in with these other freaks?”
I think there’s a certain amount of desire for categorization that’s some kind of natural for humans to want to do. I could of course be wrong about this, but we sure do seem to love putting things in categories. I don’t even think that’s bad per se, it can be useful and sometimes comforting. I think the too far that we can take it is in sometimes insisting that the categories are discrete vs continuous, and/or static vs dynamic.
Ooh, yeah. They’re rife with old people stuff too. Reverse mortgages, pills, mesotheleoma settlements, shitty pillows, catheters, knee braces, mobility scooters (billed to Medicare at no out-of-pocket cost, of course)… There’s untold riches to be made off aging boomers.
The further right on the spectrum they are, the higher the odds they’re also full of ads for “collectable” coins, snake oil dietary supplements, gold, prepper food buckets, and shitty pillows.
Like I said, the folks who sell ad time for TV aren’t fools. They know exactly who’s watching, sometimes better than the people actually producing the content.
Fun fact: Unless you’re a Nielsen family, what you watch doesn’t matter at all to your local TV stations and their networks. The capability to track everything is certainly there in your fancy, speech-recognizing, Internet-connected cable box DVR thing, but thanks to lobbying (coughNielsencough) and consumer privacy laws, they can’t do that.
Streaming services, on the other hand, track your viewing habits down to the second. It’s all in the ToS you scroll past when you sign up for an account.
I mean to be fair that one was pretty obvious. Joe shouldn’t saying it, sure, but given Joe is still Joe the writing was on the metahorical wall for that one.
Unless you have any plans on using your euphoria, be it by yourself or with a consenting party, it should always be kept in your pants. It is, after all, the only reason why we have pants.
Also, we have pants for a very large number of reasons:
– to protect ourselves from environmental conditions
– protect from more immediate physical damage
– provide comfort
– fashion
– identify faction affiliation (gender, sexuality, religion, politics, favourite company)
– meet requirements of religious and social modesty conventions.
Throw off your shackles. Don’t wear your pants for modesty. Wear them as a post ironic counter statement against the pantstriarchy!
Dorothy at her worst advising someone to be more tactful, … seems legit.
Although she isn’t one to shame a person’s sexuality, she is very aware of appropriate context. While it may seem like Joe was the one who went there, technically it was Dina who brought up her euphoria.
Is it time for that grand old marriage of faith and scientific experimentation called “let’s find ways to pleasure ourselves and each other that technically aren’t sex according to scripture”?
Huh, this is the first time a character being horny has come across as just cute somehow. (I’m an ace who usually gets squicked out by typical media trope horniness) I feel like I got to sample the allosexual experience through a more realistic/daily view and I really appreciate it. It explains so much and makes so much more sense. I hope this rambling weird compliment made sense. XD
Hopefully Dina and Becky can find a physical intimacy level they’re both comfortable with. They’re a cute pair and I think they’re good for each other.
Oh, trust me … MANY many people, serzly “usually gets squicked out by typical media trope horniness”. That’s one of the better things about Willis’ writing. Their characters are more realistic than 85-90% of the comics out there.
Fam you don’t get it. Even in media with well written and critically acclaimed romances squick me out with realistic, loving depictions of physical interest in a romantic partner. Dina is the first to not squick me out with a very blunt declaration of lust.
The really important bit (that got me to sigh and reply) is that I’m really tired of being told ‘oh most people feel like that’ when they really don’t. I’m a traumatized sex-repulsed asexual.
I appreciate your empathy/ trying to help me feel included as part of the majority ‘in-group’ but it is not desired or welcome. XD;;
This is an interesting sharing of a personal experience and perspective. I appreciate especially the clarity that was provided around the author’s feelings and reaction.
As for G’s attempts to understand and empathize … while it may not be welcome, it’s a bit naïve to share a personal experience or story in a public forum and expect to not have any responses. As free as a speaker is to share their opinions (and unwelcome of a response), equally free are those others to carry on a conversation on a topic in an attempt the understand and empathise, regardless of welcome. As is the freedom to maintain a certain level of politeness, or not. Very confusing is an appreciated but unwelcome.
I find the author’s rejection G’s attempt’s to achieve emotional understanding (empathy) just as interesting. I wonder if G’s experience, and the idea that “everyone gets squicky” to some degree to be a reflection of the allo/a-sexual spectrum. Where a fully sex-positive person may not be squicked out at all by a media portrayed scene of passion, others would be at various degrees of squickiness (from slightly squicked to completely squicked the fuck out) driven by (maybe revealing to them) a person’s own degree of allo/a-sexuality.
I found David Willis’ tweet about that B:TAS episode where Batman’s villains hold a mock trial to convict him and it ends with them ruling in his favour, because honesty mattered more to these literal cartoon supervillains than Republicans, on imgur and I for one would like to congratulate them on finally breaking into the mainstream zeitgeist after 23 rewarding years of webcomics.
It turns out that everyone who got hardcore nettled they stopped making Batman jokes by the time Shortpacked ended was right all the long.
So does everyone get the impression Dina’s sudden arousal might not stem from Becky’s proposition, but rather that Dina might be hot for teacher? I really hope I’m wrong, here. Isn’t it a little telling that Dina apparently did not feel arousal before this moment, even though she has been in a relationship with Becky for months? Only after she meets Professor Brock does she feel arousal.
“Everyone”? No, I’m pretty sure that’s not an impression “everyone”– or most, for that matter– got. Since she’s confirmed grey-ace, it makes sense. I also don’t know that she hasn’t felt arousal before, just not in this way.
Prof, if you dont want people making these comparisons to certain fictional scientists, maybe dont wear his exact watch and posing in such a distinct fashion?
I’m also really glad for the comments section so far today. I can remember when I was Dina’s age, being able to discuss the nuances of ace and gray-ace experiences was a pipe dream, and now here we are, with allo people learning the terminology and listening and understanding. I appreciate it.
If you’re in a class with cool safety glasses, wouldn’t you put ’em on for its own sake? I’ve never been to college, so I don’t have any first-hand experience, but it seems like a given.
In response to your tweet about which RPG character is getting into Smash, I can confirm that you made a slight miscalculation: there are two of them, Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
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Fisher-Price My First Lady Boner™
Dumbing of Age Book 11: Hey, Girlfriend, Y’Ready to Go Home an’ Do Science Together?
I like it.
Dumbing of Age, Book 11: The Euphoria Is In My Pants.
That should be the title for Season 2’s omnibus.
You mean the DoA Slipshine omnibus, surely.
Alt-text already e;fb’ed you
I’ve done my due diligence, but I can’t find what “e;fb” means. Help me out.
‘edit: fuck, beaten’ I think.
Thanks.
Book 11: Is [The Euphoria] In Your Pants?
dina gets horny (specifically in the manner of the ceratopsids)
Is that a Slipshine title?
…and they can get THREE TIMES as horny as anyone else.
As a grav of science, you should know that there were many types of ceratopsids, many of whom had fewer or far more horns.
True, but that doesn’t make for nearly as neat a joke.
For SCIENCE! – A Dumbing of Age Pornagraphique.
If it’s pink and sparkly, I’m in.
Not often I have the opportunity to reference this show these days, but damned if I’m gonna pass up the invitation.
OH MY GOD HARVEY BIRDMAN
THAT LINE HAD CURRENCY IN OUR HOUSE FOR LIKE FIVE YEARS xD xD xD
sorry for the all caps i got excited
it’s been so long
harvey birdman i have missed you so
I’m partial to the without my pants episode of Round the Twist.
Ha-HA! Cookies on dowels!
♥
Speaking of references, I’m surprised noone has commented on the ‘Back to the Future’ pose in frame 1. Fairly obvious nod.
Just offscreen, Joyce making a D: face
While it’s possible that Joyce overheard since she was standing next to Joe and Joe heard it, I’d say it’s equally likely that Joe just has the ability to detect this sort of thing at a range of a mile or two.
His Perv-sense is tingling?
. . .I feel like that would be both a fun and a really icky power to have.
It’s the best sense, verified.
https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-106-the-very-best-sense/
That is from 8 years ago, did you remember that page, or did you have to look for it?
Joyce D:
Joe 😀
Three threads and I’ve learned of two new cultural media to follow. Today is a much better day and I’ve not even slept yet.
Maybe today will be the day that Dina jumps Becky. Also Joe was correct, which is both shocking and not surprising at all.
But back to the important stuff, DinaxBecky slipshine when?
*soon*
When will then be now?
We missed it!
WHEN??
Just now.
Dina’s waiting on Becky. It’s more a question of when Becky jumps Dina.
She’s a young evangelical teenager in college convinced that not waiting until marriage is a sin, so, yes, the answer is most likely “soon”.
🤔🤭🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🥳
Never has my queer little heart been filled with such glee ^_^
Accurate avi is accurate <3
yikes big nope on mine
But then the second time was on point!
There’s a very good chance Becky and Dina are gonna fail this class.
I doubt it, Becky and Dina might be dealing with unresolved horniness but they are also smart cookies. I have no doubt they can work together and still get things done.
Yeah, but where’s the comedic drama in that? This situation seems tailor made for a storyline where they struggle to get work done because they can barely cope with the sexual tension. Plus Becky and Dina do “science” together feels like a perfect DoA brand slipshine title.
If they DO start banging, I’d guess it’s even odds that finishing their science projects will be their foreplay. In which case they’re DEFINITELY going to spend a lot of time on their projects.
“Do science together” is especially amusing to me since “Science” somehow became a euphemism in my friend group, which started with me and my spouse, and since it spread to the friends, my friend–>other partner and I also have it as a stupid joke now, lol
…okay, not to laugh at my own post, but my avatar coupled with what I said cracks me up
legit, it’s perfect
Haaaaaaa!
Don’t know how Willis timed it, but the reprint strip for “Joyce and Walky” today is entitled “Science Friday.”
Cue up the Thomas Dolby on the muzak. “Science!”
“Good heavens Miss Sakamoto, you’re beautiful!”
Magnus Pyke FTW.
Time for some intellectual discussions.
Joe and Dina interacting had untapped, yet terrible potential.
Oh MY. Looks like Becky said the magic words. XD
FUCK I keep forgetting to do my grav roulette.
Hrmm. Another day, another BBCC quest for Sal on the grav roulette. Lets see what the fates bring for me in honor of your search! NO WALKY’S! NO WALKY’S! GO!
Dina! Very relevant! Solid ☆☆☆☆☆ roll!
If my avatar hasn’t changed recently, it will be relevant to your avatar. Let’s see…
Indeed.
Walky is genetically as close to Sal as you can get, though, so a very solid second choice there.
Oh dang, this is *almost* the right number of words to be the “seven words that will make someone love you” from The Name Of The Wind!
‘Let’s Go Home and Do Science Together” is seven words
The euphoria is in my pants, actually!
So, is this canonically Dina’s O-Face in panel 2?
She’s turned on, not having an orgasm already.
I think we’ve seen her turned on by Becky before on screen.
The phrase “Sudden rush of euphoria” isn’t how I would describe arousal, It’s a lot more uncomfortable than euphoric, but I do see that’s the popular read, so I might be in the minority there.
You may be in the minority, but you are almost certainly correct. Based on Dina’s dialogue and the timing of it in response to Becky saying something Dina would find very arousing, I think it’s clear that she is experiencing her first orgasm which is a totally new experience for her.
I think it’s less ‘O face’ and more ‘…huh. So this is my hot spot button.’ Like when you suddenly realise that you’re attracted to curly hair, or Scottish accents, or you discovered Chris Hemsworth.
Chris Hemsworth with curly hair, doing a Scottish accent.
Frankly his Aussi accent is probably plenty for most north americans. Don’t know how it reads across the pond.
Nono probably just exploded.
*very dramatic ‘Back to the Future’ theme continuing to get louder*
Loving that pose in panel one!
*plays “She Wears The Pants With Me” on the hacked Muzak* (I don’t know who the artist was. I doubt it was Weird Al.)
All parodies are credited to Weird Al, at least that’s how it was on Limewire back in the day.
Sounds legit.
Becky gets a sudden jolt in her pants.
“I sense a great disturbance, in my pants…”
“I find your lack of pants disturbing.”
“You are unwise to lower your pants.”
“Your pants. You will not need them.”
“The more you tighten your pants, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”
…I could go on all day.
“And I see your Schwartz is as big as mine!”
*glance downward, then back to each other*
“Now let’s see how well you ‘handle’ it…”
I don’t know why but “The Euphoria IS in my pants” also feels how Starfire phrase it…
I don’t remember what Book 10’s title is from Dina, but not being able to have Book 11 be “The Euphoria Is In My Pants” is a tragedy.
”Reject Magical Thinking and Embrace Empirical Evidence”
Damn, that’s great too. This is Dina’s fault for being so awesome and having too many great quotes in a short time span.
Book 11: “Is it in your pants?”
Not quite as catchy, but it could work.
Yeah, screw you title-text, let Dina have two titles in a row! This one is better than all the others put together!
It’s time to simply surrender and let Dina have all of the book titles going forward, as she gets all of the best lines.
Guys, I think it’s more that this comic, where the quote originates, will still be in Book 10, and that book already has a name.
Naw, that book will end with the time-skip.
“The Euphoria Is In My Pants” would make a great Book 11 title, and I’m very disappointed that, according to the alt-text, Willis probably won’t use it.
If I ever buy Book 11 I’ll sharpie “The Euphoria Is In My Pants” over whatever lame title it has.
CHECKMATE WILLIS
I bet if you ask nicely he might even do it for you.
Because this comments section can be a way sometimes, I’m gonna point out a few things: Yes, people on the asexual spectrum can and do experience arousal and attraction. It’s a spectrum for a reason. Dina has specifically been identified on Twitter as grey-ace (damnyouwillis/status/1231987068718505985) which for many people means either attraction or arousal is infrequent or less pressing than it is for allo folks.
So there is absolutely no need to debate whether Dina’s ace or whether this strip changes anything about her orientation, okay?
And with out of the way I disappear back into the mists like a spooky ghost
Time to read up more terminology. I’m guessing from context i understand grey-ace and allo, but I’m off to the weeb stacks to learn something new. And it’s all thanks to you!
‘allo’ is for people near the middle of the bell curve.
‘weeb stacks’? ( google wants to tell me about web development )
Well, you’re on the weeb, and the stacks are the main book shelves at the library, so… main sources of (aiming for reliable) information on the whirled why’d weeb. Does not that help to declarify?
As one of those folks who thought stuff like that, I appreciate you laying it out for me so I can stop making that mistake.
Ah cool. I did know she was confirmed grey ace, i was just hcing her as demi
It tingles.
The goggles do add some cuteness enhancement.
Pants Euphoria would be a good name for a band.
*adds to list of names for use in applying to Rock Band units in Civ 6*
One of the channels on my friends’-group discord is basically dedicated to writing down all of our “Hey, that random phrase you just said would be a good name for a band” moments.
It never occurred to me that I actually had somewhere I could *actually* be using those names! As someone who plays Civ, I’m ashamed that it didn’t occur to me until you said that just now.
We’ll see how smug Alexander is when his city flips because Booty Cramp put on such an awesome show that it showed his people how great my civilization is! Or maybe Barbarossa will have to acknowledge the superior guitar stylings of Distant Skunk. But, the best will be when Soup Noises and Arson For Good bring down Seondoek’s schemes and keep her from launching that rocket to Mars and foiling my plans.
Shit, those are legitimately awesome names! i’m starting my own list right the F now
Just to date myself, I don’t know if he originated it, but one of Dave Barry’s go-to phrases in his syndicated newspaper column was, “So-and-so would make a good name for a rock band.”
Long before Postmodern Jukebox appeared on the scene, I wanted to start a band that did covers of songs – not just in different styles of jazz – but in “wrong” styles. I played a tape of a cover of Stairway to Heaven but to the tune of Gilligan’s Island for band class, and one of the “rockers” said that it was sacrilegious, and I said, “I think you mean ‘sacrilicious.'” Sacrilicious would have been the band name, but then I found out that there had been a band named that – some local/area one but still.
Euphoria in my pants is my favorite New Wave band. Their hit single of their debut album “Euphoria in my pants” entitled “Euphoria in my pants” is a real banger.
Fans debate whether their idiosyncratic style is best described as pantscore or euphoria-wave.
Do you mean “pant score”, as in “Don’t rate women’s arousal levels, Joe”?
I read it as pants-core, versus pants-alt, parachute-pants, and booty shorts.
Who says characters can’t have more than one book title? Walky got the title for both book 1 and book 8 (although he shared the latter with Amazi-Amber.)
I think the issue is more the same character getting two consecutive book titles
Was anyone aware of such a rule being documented? And really, if the death rule can be bent, it would seem reasonable that ‘no consecutive titles’ could be more flexible.
Ostensibly The Willis is aware of The Rules being documented in his head. Or at the general location of his whims.
He also could just be joking/trolling. This is frequently his way.
As with all dictators. 😀😶🤔🤫🤐
Why is this so funny and adorable I love Dinas wholesome hornyness Hornsomeness?? Poor Becky how will she cope with their hormones
Looks like she’s finally experiencing those inclinations.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/overstepped/
And Amber may soon learn she has to adjust her mental framing of Dina.
So… Dina might be demisexual? I don’t want to get too bogged down in labels, but she’s moved from “people keep talking about sex, so even though I haven’t felt the same urges, I might want to try it, but I would have to take copious notation” to “I like Becky, and I might want to try the sex things with her, if she wants (and I know she finds me sexy)” to this comic, where Dina might be turned on for the first time in her life
https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1231987068718505985
Per Willis’s Twitter, Dina is gray ace.
It’s part of why I find umbrage with the super specific labeling when it comes to sex and sexuality. Insomuch that how you feel can change like the weather and trying to categorize it to such a pinpoint definition can definitely cause you to have to reevaluate and recategorize constantly. On one hand I get it, it gives you a sense of community and understanding of what exactly is going on with your desires and feelings and being able to say “oh that! That’s how I feel!” is great. But I dunno I think at a certain point we have to accept that a lot of this human experience shit is fucking NEBULOUS. We’re not robots that are just one thing performing one function and a bazillion factors can affect this ETHER that is the human mind and body. At the end of the day, know what you like, Know what you don’t and own it. Your experience, your tastes, your desires, they’re not a category, they’re YOU.
I think some of the value is in seeing the various dimensions/spectra as continuums. If you’re on the ace spectrum, deciding whether you’re gray-ace or light-gray-ace may or may not be useful – but knowing that ace is a thing and you’re somewhere between ace and allo can be very useful.
Just like I don’t have to know my exact Kinsey Scale number – simply knowing that there exists a number that describes my frequency of attraction to men vs. women, and it doesn’t have to be 0.0 or 6.0, can help the first time I’m attracted to someone that surprises me.
Whether I’m “mostly straight” or “straight-ish” or “bi” depends on the context, and I don’t care about the label. It does help to know “Oh, so for the first time in my life I was attracted to a guy (who had long hair and amazing cheekbones) and I don’t have to reassess anything because
(didn’t mean to hit send yet)
…because it’s a continuum and I’m fine with “approximately mostly straight I guess.”
I get that and it makes sense. Part of me just hates humanity’s insistence on quantifying everything in some sorta scale or chart. It can certainly help to open your mind to the spectrum of your orientation but I, personally, just am not a fan of going into great detail over those things? I’m definitely still figuring out what’s going on with me despite me still feeling like I’d fall under the blanket of “straight”. Personally just knowing myself means more to me than trying to put a name or number to how I feel. But I do get that at least opening someone up to the idea of a spectrum can at least positively effect how they feel about themselves. I just feel like at times we get caught up in the specifics and try to fit the dictionary definition instead of just letting ourselves…”be”. If I’m makin’ sense.
You’re right, but also when you’re very clearly *not* allo and straight, it’s sure nice to find a word or two that gets a bit closer to your general perspective.
Also sometimes understanding there’s a name for your type of experience is validating especially if you were brought up to think Allo and cis and het are the only options. It’s a “people like me exist!” Moment.
I honestly just thought I was really dense about some things before finding out that being demisexual is a thing (my husband and I were friends for 2 years before I realised I like-liked him… He is the third person I’ve really fancied. One of my best friends, as a teen, could easily be crushing hard on at least that many people at a time!).
I don’t know enough people from a wide enough spectrum of identities to properly define my sexuality beyond “bi”, otherwise.
Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls is basically about this.
Naming things is both something we do a lot of and, IMO, pretty much essential for any sort of advanced cognition. Imagine if we had to constantly, consciously evaluate every single object in our field of view to decide what it was. We’d never be able to get anything else done.
(I imagine that, somewhere out there in the annals of medicine, there’s at least one case file of someone with this exact problem.)
Yeah, this is a classic language problem. Using binary, concrete words to describe an analogue and changing world is like trying to draw a circle with straight lines. My computer is a computer and my desk is a desk, but that tells me nothing specific about them, just some general traits they share with other objects. You could add adjectives all day and still not be as precise as the real thing. Same concept applies to labels for human behaviours and tendencies. They may share some broad strokes similarities with other people, but you’ll never have enough adjectives to pin them down precisely. And you don’t really need to, either.
We do sometimes take it too far.
If you feel you don’t fit in the expected norms, it’s great to have a word and a community for how you do feel, but then the need to break down and finely categorize exactly what flavor of outside those expected norms you are gets to be a bit much. “Am I even the right kind of freak to fit in with these other freaks?”
I think there’s a certain amount of desire for categorization that’s some kind of natural for humans to want to do. I could of course be wrong about this, but we sure do seem to love putting things in categories. I don’t even think that’s bad per se, it can be useful and sometimes comforting. I think the too far that we can take it is in sometimes insisting that the categories are discrete vs continuous, and/or static vs dynamic.
Euphoria in my pants is a term I’mma have to steal
Joe, eventually getting one right on sheer persistence.
A broken cock is right twice a day!
yes that was on purposeOuch.
Yeah, that just sounds painful.
Apparently it’s possible! I don’t really want to google for proof though.
Don’t have to – plenty of ads all over TV for “ask your doctor about Peroni’s Disease”
Yeah, I watch a bit of old-people TV…
Look for the off-beat stations that air nothing but 60s and 70s reruns, and you’ll fi d nothing but ads for drugs and reverse mortgages.
Those ad execs know their audience.
That and mainstream TV news…
Ooh, yeah. They’re rife with old people stuff too. Reverse mortgages, pills, mesotheleoma settlements, shitty pillows, catheters, knee braces, mobility scooters (billed to Medicare at no out-of-pocket cost, of course)… There’s untold riches to be made off aging boomers.
The further right on the spectrum they are, the higher the odds they’re also full of ads for “collectable” coins, snake oil dietary supplements, gold, prepper food buckets, and shitty pillows.
Like I said, the folks who sell ad time for TV aren’t fools. They know exactly who’s watching, sometimes better than the people actually producing the content.
Sometimes they know who’s watching better than the people watching.
It’s not just Google and FaceBook.
Fun fact: Unless you’re a Nielsen family, what you watch doesn’t matter at all to your local TV stations and their networks. The capability to track everything is certainly there in your fancy, speech-recognizing, Internet-connected cable box DVR thing, but thanks to lobbying (coughNielsencough) and consumer privacy laws, they can’t do that.
Streaming services, on the other hand, track your viewing habits down to the second. It’s all in the ToS you scroll past when you sign up for an account.
I mean to be fair that one was pretty obvious. Joe shouldn’t saying it, sure, but given Joe is still Joe the writing was on the metahorical wall for that one.
So, does this class meet on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays?
It’s still their first class. A cutaway to Lucy and Walky only gets you from the beginning of the class to the end.
Yeah I know Clif. But it’s Tuesday, and Doc’s saying the assignment is due on Wednesday. (Which Wednesday?)
Unless you have any plans on using your euphoria, be it by yourself or with a consenting party, it should always be kept in your pants. It is, after all, the only reason why we have pants.
also, pockets
Well, that and making sure our euphoria source doesn’t get infections from this gross gross world
prude
Free Euphoria! Free Euphoria! Down with the pants-igarhcy!
Also, we have pants for a very large number of reasons:
– to protect ourselves from environmental conditions
– protect from more immediate physical damage
– provide comfort
– fashion
– identify faction affiliation (gender, sexuality, religion, politics, favourite company)
– meet requirements of religious and social modesty conventions.
Throw off your shackles. Don’t wear your pants for modesty. Wear them as a post ironic counter statement against the pantstriarchy!
I was gonna make a counterpoint, but you make a compelling argument.
Good thing y’all are wearing safety goggles.
It is impossible for me to read this without hearing Christopher Lloyd’s voice.
Not quite the voice I’ve been imagining for Dina, but whatever floats your boat.
This is my favorite comment of today. My kingdom for a like button.
Aww, he’s helping!
Hey, Becky, careful there. You’re kind of channelling Dorothy at her worst in Panel 4 there.
Dorothy at her worst is a pointed comment about sexual appropriateness?
Dorothy at her worst advising someone to be more tactful, … seems legit.
Although she isn’t one to shame a person’s sexuality, she is very aware of appropriate context. While it may seem like Joe was the one who went there, technically it was Dina who brought up her euphoria.
Book 11 Has To Be “The Euphoria Is In My Pants”. IT HAS TO BE
And if not that then the “The title of our sex tape.”
Is it time for that grand old marriage of faith and scientific experimentation called “let’s find ways to pleasure ourselves and each other that technically aren’t sex according to scripture”?
If they have no intention of lying with each other the way they’d lie with a man I think they’re good.
well they can’t BOTH take all the goddamn blankets, then can they?
Get more blankets.
still they can’t both *each* take *all* the blankets. Sharing though…
GREAT SCOTT
This is heavy!
Welcome to the Horny Zone, Dina.
Science is “Highway to the Horny-Zone.” New filk by Kenny Logins?
Dina, pull the lever!
Wrong lever!
Why does she even have that lever?
“I can’t help it. I’m a born button pusher.”*
*Ringo Star, “Yellow Submarine.”
I saw that movie a couple dozen times as a kid, but the quote seems slightly off?
I’m about 90% sure it’s actually “I’m a born lever-puller”, which is especially ironic.
“Liver-pooler”
Why would you put a self destruct button on that!
‘Push the button, Max. Not that button!’ Jack Lemmon to Peter Falk “The Great Race”
If I had a Joe around asking me questions like that in high school I probably would’ve figured out I was bi a few months sooner
She wants the V!
Huh, this is the first time a character being horny has come across as just cute somehow. (I’m an ace who usually gets squicked out by typical media trope horniness) I feel like I got to sample the allosexual experience through a more realistic/daily view and I really appreciate it. It explains so much and makes so much more sense. I hope this rambling weird compliment made sense. XD
Hopefully Dina and Becky can find a physical intimacy level they’re both comfortable with. They’re a cute pair and I think they’re good for each other.
Oh, trust me … MANY many people, serzly “usually gets squicked out by typical media trope horniness”. That’s one of the better things about Willis’ writing. Their characters are more realistic than 85-90% of the comics out there.
Fam you don’t get it. Even in media with well written and critically acclaimed romances squick me out with realistic, loving depictions of physical interest in a romantic partner. Dina is the first to not squick me out with a very blunt declaration of lust.
The really important bit (that got me to sigh and reply) is that I’m really tired of being told ‘oh most people feel like that’ when they really don’t. I’m a traumatized sex-repulsed asexual.
I appreciate your empathy/ trying to help me feel included as part of the majority ‘in-group’ but it is not desired or welcome. XD;;
This is an interesting sharing of a personal experience and perspective. I appreciate especially the clarity that was provided around the author’s feelings and reaction.
As for G’s attempts to understand and empathize … while it may not be welcome, it’s a bit naïve to share a personal experience or story in a public forum and expect to not have any responses. As free as a speaker is to share their opinions (and unwelcome of a response), equally free are those others to carry on a conversation on a topic in an attempt the understand and empathise, regardless of welcome. As is the freedom to maintain a certain level of politeness, or not. Very confusing is an appreciated but unwelcome.
I find the author’s rejection G’s attempt’s to achieve emotional understanding (empathy) just as interesting. I wonder if G’s experience, and the idea that “everyone gets squicky” to some degree to be a reflection of the allo/a-sexual spectrum. Where a fully sex-positive person may not be squicked out at all by a media portrayed scene of passion, others would be at various degrees of squickiness (from slightly squicked to completely squicked the fuck out) driven by (maybe revealing to them) a person’s own degree of allo/a-sexuality.
Are you a fan of Booster, or not so much? This struck me as a very Booster-esque comment to post.
i’m sure most of us can relate to how hot it is when someone is nerdy about the same stuff as you, and suggests you nerd out together
*phew*
I found David Willis’ tweet about that B:TAS episode where Batman’s villains hold a mock trial to convict him and it ends with them ruling in his favour, because honesty mattered more to these literal cartoon supervillains than Republicans, on imgur and I for one would like to congratulate them on finally breaking into the mainstream zeitgeist after 23 rewarding years of webcomics.
It turns out that everyone who got hardcore nettled they stopped making Batman jokes by the time Shortpacked ended was right all the long.
Oh man, I don’t suppose you would share the link, please?
Here y’are
https://imgur.com/gallery/ozB2gUx
I am so glad that Dina’s hat didn’t look down, too. That would have wrecked it for me.
So does everyone get the impression Dina’s sudden arousal might not stem from Becky’s proposition, but rather that Dina might be hot for teacher? I really hope I’m wrong, here. Isn’t it a little telling that Dina apparently did not feel arousal before this moment, even though she has been in a relationship with Becky for months? Only after she meets Professor Brock does she feel arousal.
“Everyone”? No, I’m pretty sure that’s not an impression “everyone”– or most, for that matter– got. Since she’s confirmed grey-ace, it makes sense. I also don’t know that she hasn’t felt arousal before, just not in this way.
That would be just you, dude…
Stay calm Becky. Joe is the expert here.
Prof, if you dont want people making these comparisons to certain fictional scientists, maybe dont wear his exact watch and posing in such a distinct fashion?
I’m also really glad for the comments section so far today. I can remember when I was Dina’s age, being able to discuss the nuances of ace and gray-ace experiences was a pipe dream, and now here we are, with allo people learning the terminology and listening and understanding. I appreciate it.
Professor Brock was wearing that watch and doing that pose decades before BttF even came out!
[Some class later in the semester, Becky and Dina are working with some kind of test equipment with a bunch of lights on it]
Becky: “Hey Professor, what does a yellow light mean?”
Prof. Brock: *STARES DAGGERS*
Context
THERE IS SCIENCE IN MY PANTS
FURTHER DATA COLLECTION NEEDED BEFORE CONCLUSIONS MAY BE DRAWN
Flirting level: +[All The Levels]
Pants is where the euphoria is.
I’m trying to figure out what they’re doing on the first day of Bio 121 that would require safety glasses and I got nothing. Thoughts?
Introduction to lab safety?
Otherwise no idea.
If you’re in a class with cool safety glasses, wouldn’t you put ’em on for its own sake? I’ve never been to college, so I don’t have any first-hand experience, but it seems like a given.
acid/base titration? Did they do chemistry last semester?
Almost, but that’s what Becky’s afraid of.
Hah!
So great was Dina’s arousal that her jacket changed color.
they’re behind some sort of tinted pane
It’s the sneeze guard… OF SCIENCE!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Dear David Willis,
In response to your tweet about which RPG character is getting into Smash, I can confirm that you made a slight miscalculation: there are two of them, Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Honestly nothin’ wrong with just making all the titles be Dina quotes
Winking Dan is apt here.
The slight tilt by Dina’s head from panel 4 to panel 5 is incredible.
Becky found the exact combination of words. And like Dina’s double hat, it was both unexpected, and yet incredibly predictable.