Some people do it for compassion
Some people do it for the fashion
Some people do it to be funny
Some people do it for the money
Some people do it for enslavement
Some people do it on the pavement
But…
We’re going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We’re going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We’re going to do it
No matter how the wind is blowing
We’re going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We’re going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We’re going to do it
We just gotta keep going
I’m saying hi through here instead of Discord because I’m too low in spoons BUT. Holy shit I needed to comment on this strip. It’s almost 2 AM and I wanna yell and hi5 you and everyone here, because this is beyond perfect. I can’t even.
The full moon is a force of nature. And it pales compared to Dina.
Joyce, and Becky freaks out and pulls away reflexively, ashamed and full of weird Repressed Crush/Defining Herself By Christianity feels, deepening Dina’s feeling that she really is just a rebound.
Oops, you said funniest, not most likely. Uh, Carla. It’s always Carla. Or it’s, like, Agatha and the polycule, and they put up a blanket to conceal the horny fools.
Please let this lead to a slipshine. Please don’t tell me this is going to stop by the cliche of someone in the elevator steps out and ruins the moment.
I’ve chewed 5 gum. It’s not like this, you will be disappointed if you go into a piece of 5 gum expecting anything remotely near this. It’s just zesty spearmint people!
Technically Willis hasn’t “killed” anyone. Mike still lives in the heart of us all. Blaine and Ross not so much but uh that doesn’t prove my point as well.
Yeah. Personally-speaking, not such a big fan of “de-humanizing” people, even terrible people, for their actions; they’re still humans, and I think it does well to remember that.
Well, yeah. I suppose I agree. Still, I sometimes feel that while everyone’s born human some people make a real effort to stop being a human and become something you find under a rock.
Yeah, it’s tough to say. For some people, digital penetration of the vagina could be considered a loss of virginity — for others, it’s foreplay or even just “messing around”. For some people, oral sex is considered a loss of virginity, others don’t consider it that way. For some folks, clothes-on frottage — or anything that brings about orgasm — is considered “popping the cherry”. It just depends on the personal boundaries one sets for oneself. I know I shed several virginities over time, throughout my teen years.
I’ve always thought “frottage” was a really gross-looking word. It always reminds me of cottage cheese, a combination of textures and scents which should never coexist with any sort of sexy context.
Well, you gotta say it with a French accent. Or better yet, just use the verb form, “se frotter,” meaning “to rub oneself” or “to rub each other’s bodies together.” It gets incredibly hot when you think of it that way. “Fuh HOTT ay” would be the French pronunciation of the verb.
hm unfortunatrly, frottis is the word for a gynecologic examination, and frotter is mostly related in french people’s mind to cleaning, while the only sex-ralted occurence of the word of this family I know is “frotteur” which is a sexual offender.
The proper french word for would be “s’entrefriquer”, with or without clothes, but I haven’t met it in any text or conversation since 16th century.
To be honest, the actual terms – fellatio, cunnilingus, frottage, tribadism, sodomy, or buggery – are all far less sexy then the actions they describe. The one I hated most, though, was “sexual congress”, which made it sound like the government was fucking you over.
Come to think of it, after the so-called administration of POTUS #45…..
…ohgod ok so that was stupidly hot. Somehow hotter than all the other hot things Willis has drawn now (outside of a Slipshine, I’m poor hand haven’t read any TwT) – And I was a Ruth/Billie fan.
I do know Willis Giveth and also Willis Taketh Away but. Somehow. The entire prelude, more playful than erotic because Dina wasn’t responding meant that her AT LAST clicking with desire is beyond A+++. I hope they manage to get to the room. Like, come on! Becky has just gotten EXACTLY what she’d dreamed of, too??
As wonderfully sweet as this is, there’s no way it goes well, right? There’s no real winning scenario here, not really. The best case is probably they do really heavy makeouts until either Dina’s interest in activities peters off or Becky panics and shuts the whole thing down.
Dina’s interests aren’t going to peter off because she’s been showing an active interest in sex with Becky for a while, she’s just been waiting for Becky to feel okay with it. More likely Becky’s shame will catch up with her, BUT i bet that’ll be more of a post nut clarity thing
So, would Becky in a lab coat and safety goggles, and only those items, cause pants euphoria for Dina, or do you think the obvious contradiction of wearing safety equipment but still being susceptible to harmful chemicals due to lack of clothing cancel that out?
But I definitely feel the science props were helping.
“Oh Dina, I didn’t see you there. I’m just trying on my new periodic table themed dress. Why don’t you point to each of your favorite elements?”
Oh yeah, I ‘member that one. It’s not afraid to get a little bit dark on occasion too, as I recall. Lots of emphasis on personal safety with stuff like ropes and cuffs.
overanalyzing brain: I don’t get it? is it being lab partners? is it holding hands? is it in the elevator? is it just the Wondrous Alignment Of The Stars? why is dina horny NOW?
I don’t think it has to be said that what Dina’s doing here is bad, because in context it pretty clearly is. For posterity, though: I don’t think Dina’s thought about how this is a lot of pressure on an aroused Becky. “Not thinking” isn’t an excuse. It’s not an excuse Dina would accept for herself, either.
Yeah. Dina already said the wanted the challenge of seducing Becky away from her belief in rules set by a “fictional character” God. Kind of a screwy ulterior motive, to set oneself up in competition with one’s girlfriend’s beliefs.
I’ll say it again — choosing to wait before engaging in sexual activity is a valid choice, and a true partner should respect that.
That said, though, I know a few Christians who have found creative loopholes to get around the “no premarital sex” bar but still get their satisfaction. So if that is something Becky wants to do, I am sure she can find a way.
As someone that’s also been on the “It’s fine if Becky just wants to wait until marriage” train?
I read Dina’s comment about it more as it being a sort of fantastical kink than anything. It wasn’t something she was intensely pursuing as though it were a challenge to be overcome, it was something she wanted, but not needed, to achieve.
Even here, when she’s feeling overcome by arousal, she’s seeking affirmative consent from Becky, explicitly informing her about what’s going on and making it clear that she’s willing to ride it out (phrasing!). Dina’s dong nothing wrong here.
…….well, okay, aside from aspects of public sex that they really should be more careful about but sitcom antics have an inexorable momentum >_>.
Yeah, in adult relationship terms, Dina could be more understanding of Becky’s tangible struggle with her own boundaries, and the nigh-inevitable future state where she is traumatized and excoriating herself over this. If they had had more serious, adult conversations about this, Dina would probably be more tactful and more reluctant to goad Becky in this way, so to speak. But, she isn’t actually doing anything wrong.
Becky has this Christian-indoctrinated idea that not having sex, is supposed to be difficult, because sin is supposed to be tempting, and therefore she regularly rationalizes that she should be literally helpless to resist any advance from any girl, because that’s what she has been taught about femme-pursuant sexualities, that if you see a tiddy, you become Satan’s little fuck animal and all your goodness dissolves into sin, and preventing that from happening is a woman’s job, not the person who acts on women. It’s what the pastor would say, after his son was caught in impropriety with several girls; “boys will be boys, girls should know better that to tempt them.” Becky actually applies the shame of both parties to herself, which I think is a big part why it’s even harder on her than most young Christian lesbians in her position.
But, like I said, by normal human sexual standards, Dina communicated she was horny, communicated Becky’s agency, reiterated that Becky had zero responsibility to act in any particular way, and the reality is that Becky fucking wants this. I would give Dina hell, for, well, not being as deliberately un-sexy as possible, maybe? In passing this information to Becky? But as we’ve seen, Dina has near-zero experience actually experiencing physical sexual feelings, at all, and also has the legitimate fear somewhere within her that she would be an inadequate partner to Becky, if she couldn’t attain this feeling, so it’s hard to blame her for being excited to be, well, excited.
These are bloody twenty year old repressed lesbian girls. I hung around a lot of those, in my day. I think, in adult relationship terms, they should know better; they are ready to do this, but they aren’t 100% ready to cope with Becky’s ensuing trauma, and the fallout. But, the bad feelings that happen here, soon, are more the surrogate responsibility of Becky’s trauma, than it is an inexcusable failure of either girl’s interpersonal skills. Nobody is doing anything wrong here, but fucking near an open wound that’s gonna stretch and bleed a bit in the process. I wish they would be more proactive about preventing that, but they are literally new to this, and I don’t see how it’s reasonable to expect that they likely would under these exact circumstances.
It probably has to be said that Dina is doing something bad because she totally isn’t.
Becky repeatedly insists, at length, loudly and verbally, that she wants to be sexually enticing and reduce Dina to a quivering pile of ladygoo with her sheer, unbridled hotness. With massive amounts of open communication and repeat check-ins, Dina and Becky safely explored the latter’s boundaries and acclimated her to some sexual intimacy without threatening her chastity, a thing Becky agreed to right at the start after Dina explained that neither of them was going to attack the other (and that word is extremely loaded, because Becky’s stated more than once that she was hoping she’d be pressured into sex, so she could have it and tell herself she remained faithful), for the expressed purpose of finding out what makes Dina get pants euphoria.
Dina now has it, one of the first thing she tells Becky is that it’ll pass, that she can relax, but then she asks Becky if she wants to, and it takes all of one panel for Becky to go for it because, turns out, Becky actually totally wants sex but has thought of it as nightmarishly as possible because her fundie death cult upbringing instilled into her that it’d dirty her soul.
And Becky’s decision matters more than what Becky’s god thinks, because Becky’s god isn’t real and even if he were probably shouldn’t have any say over what she does with her vagina.
Seriously. What kind of world are we living in where someone can be constantly reaffirming consent, getting a fucking checklist and clipboard involved, stopping when asked, and then checking in again, and it’s still not enough for some people?? What do you want, a legally binding contract and a waiver acknowledging consent, signed in front of at least three witnesses? Sick and tired of everything being criminalized and side-eyed the second a Certain Category Of Person is involved.
Shoutout to that fucking braintrust who insisted Dina had no ability to understand that she was pressuring Becky into sex against Becky’s objections and discomfort Becky was totally expressing.
Baffles me that 75% of this chat is on the permanent “Dina is my perfect little neurodivergent fae creature UWU” high at all times, and yet those same 75% seem to think the average autistic person has the emotional complexity and agency of a big, slow dog. Like, if you like autistic characters so much, why do you have such a low goddamned opinion of them? Dina is literally in school to be a research scientist, she is in a relationship with a traumatized woman who possesses very complex boundaries, she jumped a dude with a shotgun for her girlfriend and risked her life. But, as soon as it comes down to questions of her agency between strips, you’d think her fucking mom still comes to the campus every day and pours her cereal and puts her pants on for her.
She’s a grown woman with all the complexities and brilliance that a grown woman in her position, has. She’s slightly socially awkward, but it is clearly shown in the text over and over that she fully grasps the broad strokes of nearly all social situations she witnesses, with very few subjective details wrong. It’s actually disgusting that some people will cheer her when she does anything perfectly correct in a situation, but as soon as there is any question that she might have done something wrong, the same people who constantly put her up on a pedestal, immediately code-switch to the kind of evaluation of her person, that I’d typically expect to follow a hard look left, then right, then a few whispered instances of the R-slur.
Oh, wow, I’m sorry — that discussion of how Dina’s social differences might play into this interaction just went “whoosh” right over my head. Wasn’t even thinking about that. More just thinking about how difficult it is being sensitive in a relationship where people are exploring emotionally and morally fraught boundaries together. Especially at age 18. It’s very tough, and nobody gets it 100% right. I know I was an idiot about sex until … well, OK, I’m still an idiot about sex! ;-D So brain variety didn’t even come into the picture for me.
But I am very sorry that my comment came across that away and had that unintended effect.
I just mean it’s good to have all the facts. Joyce told Ethan straight out that she was going to try to change him. Dina has told Becky straight out that Dina was going to try to change Becky’s beliefs about science, but
“But I am very sorry that my comment came across that away and had that unintended effect.”
For what it’s worth, you didn’t; all I read into yours, was that you were reading very literally into things both women had said, and relating to certain perspectives, where maybe more could be expected of Dina. Frankly, I don’t think Dina being ND has played into any part of this at all, other than her personality being informed by her lived experience of being ND. You felt bad for Becky, because from a certain perspective, it’s easy to read into Dina’s actions as being thoughtless or unfair to Becky. I just believe the broader context exonerates her, and that’s stuff you’ve taken into account. I just hate to see people alternate between “Dina is a precious cute girl who can do no wrong,” and “You gotta treat Dina with kid’s gloves, because I don’t actually respect people like her,” because it’s very telling what those readers thing deep down, right? But I don’t really include your post here in that, my response was more so subservient to the conversation that emerged in the replies to that post. Frankly, I wish that more people, weren’t even thinking, about those things you were embarrassed to miss. In this plot, I actually believe you were right, to miss them.
Oh, wow, that’s awful! I didn’t know that. Thank you for telling me. I’m sorry — I had no idea that my comment of agreement (for unrelated religious reasons) could also come across as playing into a stereotype. Stereotyping is wrong, and if my comments helped reinforce a stereotype, then I am truly sorry.
It’s all good. If ya don’t know, ya don’t know. Can’t expect everyone to know everything about everything, right? Plus, sometimes multiple unrelated factors co-exist and interact in the same context and it can be messy to untangle which parts are from which end.
The most amazing thing about this comment to me is that it puts culpability on Dina because not thinking because of arousal isn’t an excuse (despite the fact that she’s actively seeking affirmative consent) while at the same time removing all burden from Becky because *checks notes* she’s aroused.
What? What? What? This comment is breaking my brain.
In what universe is it considered bad and pressuring to tell your partner “hey y’know how we just spent like an hour trying to turn me on? I’m turned on now. I know you want to wait so it’s cool, it’ll go away. But if you don’t I’m down”
Open communication is bad now. What is this line of thinking?????
Ok — I mean I’ll try to make it make sense. What I saw as being wrong is that Dina says at the outset that she sees Becky’s deeply held beliefs as a “fictional character” and said that she would enjoy the challenge of proving herself superior to her beloved’s God. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/seducing/
I don’t agree with others here that Becky’s faith is all about a trauma response that Becky has to learn to overcome. It looks to me like her faith can be a real rock and shelter for her: a community (based on a set of shared expectations) to buoy her up and carry her forward.
I wouldn’t want to date someone who saw it as a challenge to convert me away from my beliefs, including beliefs about when to have sex.
It’s kind of like trying to get a vegetarian to eat bacon — not pressuring them but offering it enticingly after they have said they are OK with having it cooked in the kitchen but please turn on the fan so the smell doesn’t linger. Sure, maybe they really do want to eat bacon, but trying to tempt them off of their dietary regimen is a little mean anyway.
What I mean is that people have boundaries, and part of making an informed decision about whether and when and how to push those boundaries is knowing the other person’s motivations. Here, Dina is motivated not just by desire but also by the challenge of weakening her partner’s faith in a religion that Dina sees as irrational and silly. Becky doesn’t have all the information. I find that underhanded.
I agree to a certain small extent, but I’m also not sure if Dina is especially trying to de-Jesus Becky in an active way. We know she doesn’t super respect Christianity as a whole and has been repeatedly baffled by some of the weird shit Becky says about it. We also know she respects and outright adores Becky on a personal level, and has been able to reconcile those two things well enough for this relationship to last for several months. If Becky didn’t reciprocate that adoration and respect, well, she’s kind of a loudmouth and doesn’t beat around the bush when someone is actually upsetting her, and she also knows Dina is especially receptive to firm, direct communication.
I see this on about the same level as when I go out of town with my sibling and they don’t wanna stop to eat because they have food at home, but the second I suggest Steak ‘n Shake, they’re pulling into the drive-thru without hesitation. In this metaphor, the Steak ‘n Shake is a stand-in for having sex with a hot nerd. Something something eating out something something.
Becky’s faith is a rock and shelter and also it ingrained in her extremely harmful expectations of sexual purity she thought the best way to get around would be if her sexual partner would force her into sex.
Becky’s god is fictional to Dina, and so all Dina sees is that someone she deeply loves repeatedly guilts and shames herself for experiencing entirely normal desires that Becky feels anyway and loudly confirms as such, and so Dina proposed a scenario that would emphasize at length Becky’s boundaries for the purpose of provoking in Becky the reaction in Dina that Becky says repeatedly she wants Dina to have, where one of the first things Dina tells her is that her chastity isn’t going to be threatened and, now that Dina has that reaction, took Dina up on what was offered after Dina emphasized that she’ll only feel it temporarily and that nothing’s going to happen without Becky’s explicit consent and approval.
Both of them accept that the other is factually wrong about the origin of life and the universe, they just roll with it.
Yes, that makes sense Spencer. Thank you for spelling it out for me. Sometimes I don’t catch everything.
Like for example I’m not catching the reference where folks are saying Becky wanted to be pressured into sex? Which comic was that? I must have missed it. Seems like a big thing to miss, but I didn’t catch it.
More broadly, Becky’s expectation of sex, as in how she would be able to have sex at all, is by having Dina be so overcome with lust that she can’t stop herself from sexing Becky up.
Personally, I’m extra fond of her emphasis that it’s a temporary feeling, as you pointed out. Dina is somehow being more mature about horny feelings than a lot of allosexual people, which is just really neat.
I don’t write long comments but i actually got decent sleep for once and have an ounce of energy for thinking. Bear with me, I’m no Spencer and I’m on mobile.
Okay first, Dina never said she wanted to convert Becky. She was saying it would be hot/interesting if she were so sexy to Becky that in that moment, she won out over god. It’s a kink. One she didn’t even intend on acting on.
Second, no one has said Becky’s faith is a trauma response she needs to move past. Save for a couple reddit atheists here or there, everyone is fine with Becky’s relationship with her faith *for the most part*. What people aren’t okay with is the unhealthy manifestations of her faith, like her intense sexual shame and repression which, yes, are very much born from the trauma of a cultlike, abusive, fundimentalist upbringing. Becky wants to have sex. She said as much herself. She doesn’t want to wait until marriage because it’s simply a choice she’s made, it’s because she is terrified for her eternal soul. I don’t think i should have to say that that isn’t healthy???
The only reason Becky still clings to this toxic, misogynistic concept of purity when she could adapt her faith around other hurdles just fine is again, you guessed it, trauma!!! Her parents are dead, her entire childhood home save for maybe 3 people despises her, her best friend who was the last rock of safe normalcy she clung to has now severed the last biggest thing they had in common from her view (not healthy either but I’m not getting into that plotline). Her old life has been completely reduced to ashes. Shes only clinging to her purity because she feels that’s all she has left. Again, she’s said as much, she directly told Dina when sex was put on the table “everything is changing so fast, i need to keep at least this one thing” (not an exact quote but you get the gist).
It is of course purely up to Becky to decide when she’s ready, and it seems she has. No one has been disagreeing with that. But it’s disingenuous to say that trauma hasn’t been a massive factor in her beliefs around purity and sexual shame thusfar.
Well, if that’s a sincere question, I think I can take a stab at it; it won’t make it make sense, in the sense that you’ll think the take is correct; but, I think I can walk the shoes of those who are being hypercritical of Dina, here.
If I were in Dina’s position, I would be going out of my way to minimize my sexiness to Becky, in general. I would be thinking of her, like Becky stans think of her, as this traumatized woman who needs desperate micromanagement to navigate her boundaries due to her trauma. So, if we’re ignoring the prior context of the past few strips (and, in my frank opinion, when you’re seeing Godawful takes about any given strip or character’s conduct, a frequent pattern is that somebody down here got specifically triggered by the one aspect of one strip, and forgot all underlying context from the rest of the story, and has zoomed the entire picture in to work outward at rebuilding the context, from the one “bad” detail, and then never attempting to reintegrate that prior context, because they’re just venting their trauma), from these peoples’ perspectives, Dina should know that if Becky has sex, Becky will feel bad, and since that is a bad outcome, being good means selectively manipulating every aspect of your presentation and conduct, at all times, to prevent a bad thing from happening.
If you’ve lived among fundies or narcissists, it’s a pretty common substitute for a personality, and if you grew up that way, you tend to think that that is your responsibility as a partner, once you are in a relationship, and that any failure in that regard, means you are Bad and your partner is right to punish you or leave you.
So, if I were in Dina’s position, I super would not do what she did here, because I would be proactively trying to avoid the fallout of Becky running headlong into her trauma, because that’s what she has professed she wants from me, and I really, really prefer to do what my partners tell me when it comes to their boundaries. I would come at it from the position of, “well, I’m horny now, and I think Becky will in fact reciprocate, so even if I’m doing nothing wrong, I will conceal this information for now, because I think she will regret how she reacts to it, in the moment.”
Practically speaking, everyone who is excoriating Dina, is blaming her for not making that further leap in respecting Becky’s boundaries. They wanted her, to be so proactive in doing so, as to minimize herself to Becky’s needs and Becky’s boundaries, because this way, neither of them will feel hurt or wounded or traumatized, later, and that means it was the Good and Best thing to do, here.
Like I said, that is how I’d act, myself. But I also spent a good twenty-five years unknowingly tooling myself to be the ultimate accessory to a narcissist, and believing that was what it took for me to be a good and desirable person. I’m fucking 32 this year, I’ve had multiple serious adult relationships of all sorts, I’m used to navigating complex social boundaries around trauma, ’cause me and all my close loved ones have tons of experience with that. Dina and Becky are sheltered 20 year old lesbians who are literally under-socialized, by virtue of parts of their upbringings being isolated.
You have the basic sense to know that Dina is doing nothing wrong in the context of a normal human relationship, especially in the context of the past few strips, and you evaluate their relationship as such, and you are correct. The people who are after her, are themselves probably the type to expect huge amounts of persistent, proactive support for any and every trauma and need, at all times, both from their partner, and from themselves in favor of their partner. That, itself, is not wrong, either; but, it sure can be unhealthy, and very unfair in any partnership where both partners are not sharing this philosophy.
For me, I actually think Dina, young and inexperienced as she is, probably would have been much more tactful about this, if she herself had as much experience with being sexually excited as the average woman her age. But, as we’ve seen, she’s very demi, and so it stands to reason that what excites her physically simply does not come up for her very often, as to not be surprised by it, let alone to not be able to conceal it and extricate it from her immediate cognition on the fly.
But, like you said, her girlfriend spent a literal hour doing foreplay trying to make her horny, and she has legitimate internal angst about whether she can function as her partner’s partner, without being able to attain this state, and she suddenly had the breakthrough of attaining it, and was excited to share that in the moment.
Then, like you said, she did everything that a person needs to do, to reassure their partner that their boundaries are sacrosanct, and that they need informed consent for anything to happen, and you and I share the opinion, of “what the fuck more do you want from this woman?” She could have done better; but, this isn’t Counter-Strike or League of Legends, this is human interaction; the existence of a better play, does not designate all inferior plays, as “wrong.”
Basically, the people who are saying Becky was done wrong here, have internalized so much of Becky’s own bullshit, from their own lives, or from Becky herself, about her sexuality being an uncontrollable force of sin, which must be insulated from temptation. To be fair to them, I think they’re making this leap, less because of the actual ethics of the current scenario as it is playing out, and more so because they are predicting the traumatic, painful breakdown Becky has coming 10-50 strips from now because of this scenario, and empathetically reacting to their internal picture of that pain, and from feeling that pain, they are projecting a responsibility onto Dina, because she is the “smart one” who should “know better,” I guess.
But, that ignores the fuckin’ literal fact that Becky is her own person, and it isn’t Dina’s fucking responsibility to police her partner’s agency. But to those who are inflicting this quasi-empathetic psychic trauma on themselves over this strip, they aren’t thinking of Becky and Dina as two women, they’re thinking of them as a co-dependent unit, both of whom are directly responsible to one anothers’ every need and trauma, at all times, without fail. Which, to borrow my own words, again, is not an invalid way to view a relationship, but it can be a very unhealthy way.
Well, this made a certain kind of sense out of it, no mistake. I especially liked the comparison to Counterstrike, and you do seem to have more of an understanding of that mindset than myself.
Wow, that’s hella deep! Bravo! I mean that in all sincerity. I don’t know how to convey how very much I learn from these comments. It’s like taking a graduate class in literary analysis! I appreciate the deep dive into motivations and feelings. This is deep worldbuilding, what Dave Willis is doing, and what the commenters are building with Willis.
I don’t know how to cope with how this chapter started with finding out that Becky is deliberately trying to drag Joyce back to God, another character heard her describe this and had absolutely zero qualms or concerns, concluded that it’s not working because Joyce hates her, called her “my little baby apostate” after she had told her that becoming an atheist was like tearing her own organs out and we saw Joyce tell Walky that she’s having an emotional crisis because she doesn’t know what to do with herself on Sunday mornings anymore, all of this at the tail end of a fight she caused where she cut Joyce up some more every single time they spoke up to the end where Joyce had to play emotional punching bag for her again, and then the next two months is mostly about Becky having a great time with Dina where everything immediately works out to her best interests.
At this rate these two will be just about to start fucking when Joyce bursts into the room deciding that Rich Mullins converted her back and also made her realize she’s a polyamourous bisexual in love with Becky.
(Incidentally, Joyce being a polyamourous bisexual would be a great way to resolve a Joe/Joyce/Dorothy love triangle)
I’m definitely glad that Becky and Dina are happy together, but it also still bugs me that Becky so far has been unable to just accept that Joyce is an atheist now, and that she doesn’t need to be converted back to her former religion.
To be fair, Becky has certainly gotten the short end of the stick for much of the comic up until now. I think she’s allowed to get lucky (yuk yuk yuk) for one chapter.
(also I’m sure the Joyce atheism thing isn’t going anywhere, that’s not a closed matter at all)
I just wanted to thank you all for catching me up on all the references today! Sometimes I feel a little “out of it” (probably older and less up to date than many of y’all) and so I really appreciate y’all’s bringing me up to speed! Thank you!
And — hey — it’s kind of fun seeing how people can argue vehemently in the comments without coming to hate each other forever. It’s like a low-drama debate club. I really appreciate the camaraderie here where disagreement is acceptable and expected. It’s refreshing!
Literal people. Just in the thread. I apologize, I’ve been trying to write a reply to you and others for hours, but I have no interest in defending the homophobic strawman that I sounded like, and I’m not great at containing hurt. Like you said, let’s just move on to gayer thoughts.
Apologies if I came across pretty defensive about the subject. Coming back with a cooler head, it wasn’t really that serious, and it did end up going in an overall nicer direction. Gay thoughts it is, then.
I love how Dina’s hair just spontaneously falls out of her hat the moment she gets horny. By magic, or by the sheer force of the horny dislodging it???
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Some people do it for compassion
Some people do it for the fashion
Some people do it to be funny
Some people do it for the money
Some people do it for enslavement
Some people do it on the pavement
But…
We’re going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We’re going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We’re going to do it
No matter how the wind is blowing
We’re going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We’re going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We’re going to do it
We just gotta keep going
[Ruth walks up the hall]
😐
[Ruth walks down the hall]
Huh, I literally just watched that movie yesterday.
The sun always sets on those who ride into it!
NEVER sets. Oh farts.
Because chaos! And that’s gotta be a bloody fast horse!
I’m just happy to see other shocky fans
Me too. I thought I was the only one…
The funny thing is I’ve seen ST but NOT RHPC 🤔
DEEENTON DEENTON YOU GOT
NO PRETENTION,
YOU’RE WHERE THE HEART IS, YOU’RE OKAAAAAY
There’s no mistaking it — that right there is pure horny radiation.
That ENERGY!!!
Yes!!!! YEESSS!!!!
IT SHINES!!!
SO BEAUTIFUL!!!
❤️❤️❤️ 😍😍😍 😭😭😭 🤩🤩🤩
*plays “Unforgetting” by Devon Church on Hacked Muzak*
I’m saying hi through here instead of Discord because I’m too low in spoons BUT. Holy shit I needed to comment on this strip. It’s almost 2 AM and I wanna yell and hi5 you and everyone here, because this is beyond perfect. I can’t even.
The full moon is a force of nature. And it pales compared to Dina.
Pants euphoria is pink. Who knew?
I mean just going based on the actual coloration of the relevant body parts…
So, the elevator door opens right now, who is the funniest character to be on the other side of it?
kaitlin
they said funny, not cruel
It’s DyW. Don’t push them.
I nominate Faz.
What is DyW?
“Damn You, Willis!”
Thanks!
Comedy is pain.
And so is bread.
In France. But hey, I just made some excellent bread. Cornbread, to be precise.
France is bacon.
n’eggs
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Joyce. Except she’s in her room.
Sarah maybe? xD
some sort of large animal. perhaps a bear
bears are funny
I’m gonna go the opposite direction and say a swarm of bees. Bees are always funny.
Blowjob Cat!
It would certainly be unexpected.
Almost as unexpected as the Spanish Inquisition.
I’d say Joyce if she can still make one more of those freaked faces of hers one more time.
I dunno, how does Mary feel about “the gays”?
Y’know I’d rather not sift through all of Mary’s dialogue throughout this comic’s run but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say she’s not a fan.
She’s the fan that shit hits.
Very negative.
Ross.
Especially if he was still dead
Just falls out like a zombie in Resident Evil
He grabs Becky around the waist, and carries her under one arm as he shambles back in the direction of La Porte.
Is he on a break again?
Robin. In large part because there is no non-hilarious reason for her to be in the dorm.
The real Becky shouting “DON’T KISS HER, DINA. SHE’S AN IMPOSTER!”
Mary, in a crop top and short shorts. Hey, you said funny, not “likely”.
Chastity Churchmouse.
Rich Mullins, and he’s in there playing his hammered dulcimer.
Silently nodding and smiling, happy to provide a soundtrack.
BLOWJOB CAT.
YES.
It’s not even unlikely, tons of students nick roadside items for their dorms.
Joyce, and Becky freaks out and pulls away reflexively, ashamed and full of weird Repressed Crush/Defining Herself By Christianity feels, deepening Dina’s feeling that she really is just a rebound.
Oops, you said funniest, not most likely. Uh, Carla. It’s always Carla. Or it’s, like, Agatha and the polycule, and they put up a blanket to conceal the horny fools.
Dina.
Hank.
Rebecca St. James and she’s singing acoustic “Go and sin no moooore”
Pantsless Joyce
The stuffed T. rex from Dina’s room, with a hurt, “I thought I was your one and only” look on its face.
Batman of course.
Batman can make anything funny.
Fuckface… foreshadowing
Dina’s parents
And they deadpan give pointers
Aslan and the Soggies. Or the DAB.
Ninja Rick
Oooooo good one.
Slips on a banana peel while playing “Shiny” hacked Muzak
one of these days i will stop borking up hyperlinks
Just entering the URL will create a link, minus the descriptive texts.
These days, I always use the free HTML Code Editor site when embedding a link, specifically ’cause I too used to mess these things up all the time 😛
Oh shiiiiiiiiiii
Panel 5, Jesus Christ.
Right? I would be a puddle if a girl looked at me like that
Please let this lead to a slipshine. Please don’t tell me this is going to stop by the cliche of someone in the elevator steps out and ruins the moment.
WELP WHEN THE MOMENT HITS IT HITS.
How it feels when you chew 5 gum?
I’ve chewed 5 gum. It’s not like this, you will be disappointed if you go into a piece of 5 gum expecting anything remotely near this. It’s just zesty spearmint people!
So, like Soylent Green, then?
This is some serious blush
Wait, wait is this for real this time?
slipshine incoming
Didn’t Willis say previously that Becky and Dina were going to remain virgins?
Have you been talking to Anti-Willis again?
People say a lot of things.
I could be WAY off base, but didn’t he also say at one point that no one was going to die? If so, we see how that’s changed.
I thought about that, but I figured this was just Willis teasing us.
Further proof that Mike is in witness protection.
He said that no-one was going to die specifically because what is happening (with Ethan, Amber, and to some extent Walky) would happen.
No main characters, he said, and he never defined “main character”.
On the other hand, this has gone way further than I thought it would so I guess anything is possible.
He also said he wasn’t gonna kill- oh someone already pointed that out. Uh…damn you Willis?
Technically Willis hasn’t “killed” anyone. Mike still lives in the heart of us all. Blaine and Ross not so much but uh that doesn’t prove my point as well.
no people died. Blaine and Ross were monsters in human clothing
*edit “no people were killed” not “no people died”
Monsters are cool. Those two were just plain awful assholes.
Yeah. Personally-speaking, not such a big fan of “de-humanizing” people, even terrible people, for their actions; they’re still humans, and I think it does well to remember that.
Yup.
Not monsters. Not mentally ill. Arseholes.
Well, yeah. I suppose I agree. Still, I sometimes feel that while everyone’s born human some people make a real effort to stop being a human and become something you find under a rock.
Well, that depends on your definition of virginity. There are many different layers of virginity and sexual experience.
Oh, weird that ended up so far removed from the comment I was replying to. I was replying to the question about whether they would remain “virgins”.
Very true.
I once heard a lesbian asked what lesbians regarded as loss of virginity. She opined it was oral sex.
I mean, where do you even draw the line at virginity, for cis lesbians? I honestly don’t know where the bases are, and when a run has been scored.
If there’s a smoking pile of used-up jackrabbit vibrators afterward, that’s first base.
Yeah, it’s tough to say. For some people, digital penetration of the vagina could be considered a loss of virginity — for others, it’s foreplay or even just “messing around”. For some people, oral sex is considered a loss of virginity, others don’t consider it that way. For some folks, clothes-on frottage — or anything that brings about orgasm — is considered “popping the cherry”. It just depends on the personal boundaries one sets for oneself. I know I shed several virginities over time, throughout my teen years.
I’ve always thought “frottage” was a really gross-looking word. It always reminds me of cottage cheese, a combination of textures and scents which should never coexist with any sort of sexy context.
Omg I feel exactly the same way.
Well, you gotta say it with a French accent. Or better yet, just use the verb form, “se frotter,” meaning “to rub oneself” or “to rub each other’s bodies together.” It gets incredibly hot when you think of it that way. “Fuh HOTT ay” would be the French pronunciation of the verb.
hm unfortunatrly, frottis is the word for a gynecologic examination, and frotter is mostly related in french people’s mind to cleaning, while the only sex-ralted occurence of the word of this family I know is “frotteur” which is a sexual offender.
The proper french word for would be “s’entrefriquer”, with or without clothes, but I haven’t met it in any text or conversation since 16th century.
Wow, 16th century! how old are you?
To be honest, the actual terms – fellatio, cunnilingus, frottage, tribadism, sodomy, or buggery – are all far less sexy then the actions they describe. The one I hated most, though, was “sexual congress”, which made it sound like the government was fucking you over.
Come to think of it, after the so-called administration of POTUS #45…..
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY 🥰
Gay gay homosexual gay
yes
YES
the
tigerraptor is OUTFace it, raptor. You just hit the jackpot.
EXCUSE ME THIS IS A PUBLIC ELEVATOR.
Would you prefer if it was a Wendy’s?
Wendy’s has spicy nuggets. You can’t tell me any situation wouldn’t be improved by spicy nuggets being near.
Trust me, you don’t want ANY spicy foods nearby when you’re doing sexytimes.
Was gonna say
Upon the world I bestow this curse: Durex Sriracha & Personal Lubricant
I think Joe would be proud to know that he in some way was even minorly responsible for two people banging or even getting close to banging.
Normally, yes. Here, I think he’d be mostly relieved that any suspicions raised by his most recent exchange with them were immediately forgotten.
Going down?
premarital hanky panky
PREMARITAL HANKY PANKY
carry on, as you were
She’s got… Dina Saruyama eyes!
“Mama warned me about women like you! I was hopin’ she was right!”
Heheh Johnny Bravo.
MMMmmmm, Sassy!
SFX: Slap.
From my heart and in my pants
Why don’t people understand
My intentions?
(Queer)
Plastic tubes and pots and pans
Bits and pieces and the
Magic from the pants
We’re makin’
(Queer science)
Things I’ve never seen before
Behind elevator doors
Yeah Dina’s the top. Confirmed. Signed and Notarized.
I thought we knew that already
Forget tomorrow’s strip, how much longer do I have to wait for the Slipshine?
Now watch it be a troll and actually be that Mary/Galasso hookup he teased in the hovertext six years ago
I don’t think Willis is that cruel. At least not when a sizable portion of the audience would hunt him down with pitchforks and torches.
And then Joyce walks in. Oh please let Joyce be the one to walk in on them…
Going down in an elevator … how apropos’. Quick, hit the STOP button!
Are they actually gonna fuck in the elevator tho
I’d guess at least ONE of them will drag the other back to Dina’s room.
It happens on the giant plush velociraptor or it doesn’t happen at all.
…. What if Becky pressing to go up instead of down, from a couple days ago… ACTUALLY is a canon mistake, and they end up in Garbage Roof?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxOIxAZUJeA
I’ve been waiting for that to turn up on the hacked Muzak.
I’m kinda assuming either they’ll go back to one of their rooms, or be interrupted before things get very far. Probably the latter.
…ohgod ok so that was stupidly hot. Somehow hotter than all the other hot things Willis has drawn now (outside of a Slipshine, I’m poor hand haven’t read any TwT) – And I was a Ruth/Billie fan.
I do know Willis Giveth and also Willis Taketh Away but. Somehow. The entire prelude, more playful than erotic because Dina wasn’t responding meant that her AT LAST clicking with desire is beyond A+++. I hope they manage to get to the room. Like, come on! Becky has just gotten EXACTLY what she’d dreamed of, too??
What is TwT?
It’s an emoji meant to signify someone crying. Think of the Ts as closed eyes with streams of tears running down.
Twilight Town.
Oh, cool, thank you both!
Oh MAN.
As wonderfully sweet as this is, there’s no way it goes well, right? There’s no real winning scenario here, not really. The best case is probably they do really heavy makeouts until either Dina’s interest in activities peters off or Becky panics and shuts the whole thing down.
“I know this isn’t gonna end well, but the whole middle part is going to be awesome.”
— Nick Miller
Omg I need to remember that phrase
So many of my desicions work that way XD
Dina’s interests aren’t going to peter off because she’s been showing an active interest in sex with Becky for a while, she’s just been waiting for Becky to feel okay with it. More likely Becky’s shame will catch up with her, BUT i bet that’ll be more of a post nut clarity thing
“Euphoria in my pants“, the eagerly awaited spin-off of the hit HBO series, comin’ this summer to your home!
It’s not TV. It’s Euphoria. In your pants!
God: 0
Dina: 1
Becky’s Brain: OMG wait this is a sin in the eyes of g-
Becky’s Libido: SHUT. UP.
Becky’s Brain: Shutting up now, yes, sir.
Horny from hand holding? This is just like one of my Japanese animes.
Horny from handholding while planning to imminently do science together.
Oh, I think you nailed it;
When Euphoria comes along, you must whip it.
Whip it good.
Appropriate comic is appropriate:
http://dresdencodak.com/2008/05/02/copan/
I’m not sure I get the connection?
I WILL DO
SCIENCE
TO IT
Oh, yes, I see it now. 🙂
my partner is in fact ace, and let me tell you, holding hands with them does in fact make me squirmy in the pants
THE DAM BREAKS
This magic moment
So different and so new
Was like any other
Until I kiss you
Oh, yes!
So, would Becky in a lab coat and safety goggles, and only those items, cause pants euphoria for Dina, or do you think the obvious contradiction of wearing safety equipment but still being susceptible to harmful chemicals due to lack of clothing cancel that out?
But I definitely feel the science props were helping.
“Oh Dina, I didn’t see you there. I’m just trying on my new periodic table themed dress. Why don’t you point to each of your favorite elements?”
i’m not going to say that you’re wrong, but my guess is that partnership presses Dina’s buttons more specifically than Science.
I’m now thinking Becky needs to start cosplaying as Ms Frizzle.
Dina can be Liz. All she’d need to do is put on her ceratopsid hoodie and pretend to be smol.
LOVE IN AN E-LE-VA-TOR! 🎶
Livin’ it up when I’m go-in’ down! 🎵
LOVE IN AN E-LE-VA-TOR! 🎶
Lovin’ it up ‘til I hit the ground! 🎵
In the air 🎵
In the air 🎶
Honey, one more time now, 🎵
It ain’t fair 🎶
Here is the elevator, here are the lovers, when that opens, I hope Asma doesn’t show up
*plays an elevator version of Love in an Elevator by Aerosmith*
If Mary is in there she’s going to go off like fireworks, heh.
I feel like this is a good time to sign up for a slipshjne subscription
Between the lipbiting and domme Dina, are we Sunstone now? Cuz I’m kinda on-board with that.
Sunstone?
Girl-on-girl BDSM comic on DeviantArt. Well-written and well-drawn, worth checking out.
Oh yeah, I ‘member that one. It’s not afraid to get a little bit dark on occasion too, as I recall. Lots of emphasis on personal safety with stuff like ropes and cuffs.
Cool, thanks for the rec!
Becky is going to have some major regrets and/or feelings of guilt when the post nut clarity sets in.
overanalyzing brain: I don’t get it? is it being lab partners? is it holding hands? is it in the elevator? is it just the Wondrous Alignment Of The Stars? why is dina horny NOW?
gay brain: yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas
OMG panel 2, that rogue lock of hair popping out from beneath her hat – so sexxyy!!!
DINA used A CONTRACTION!
It’s super effective!
(And interesting!)
I don’t think it has to be said that what Dina’s doing here is bad, because in context it pretty clearly is. For posterity, though: I don’t think Dina’s thought about how this is a lot of pressure on an aroused Becky. “Not thinking” isn’t an excuse. It’s not an excuse Dina would accept for herself, either.
Yeah. Dina already said the wanted the challenge of seducing Becky away from her belief in rules set by a “fictional character” God. Kind of a screwy ulterior motive, to set oneself up in competition with one’s girlfriend’s beliefs.
I’ll say it again — choosing to wait before engaging in sexual activity is a valid choice, and a true partner should respect that.
That said, though, I know a few Christians who have found creative loopholes to get around the “no premarital sex” bar but still get their satisfaction. So if that is something Becky wants to do, I am sure she can find a way.
As someone that’s also been on the “It’s fine if Becky just wants to wait until marriage” train?
I read Dina’s comment about it more as it being a sort of fantastical kink than anything. It wasn’t something she was intensely pursuing as though it were a challenge to be overcome, it was something she wanted, but not needed, to achieve.
Even here, when she’s feeling overcome by arousal, she’s seeking affirmative consent from Becky, explicitly informing her about what’s going on and making it clear that she’s willing to ride it out (phrasing!). Dina’s dong nothing wrong here.
…….well, okay, aside from aspects of public sex that they really should be more careful about but sitcom antics have an inexorable momentum >_>.
Yeah, in adult relationship terms, Dina could be more understanding of Becky’s tangible struggle with her own boundaries, and the nigh-inevitable future state where she is traumatized and excoriating herself over this. If they had had more serious, adult conversations about this, Dina would probably be more tactful and more reluctant to goad Becky in this way, so to speak. But, she isn’t actually doing anything wrong.
Becky has this Christian-indoctrinated idea that not having sex, is supposed to be difficult, because sin is supposed to be tempting, and therefore she regularly rationalizes that she should be literally helpless to resist any advance from any girl, because that’s what she has been taught about femme-pursuant sexualities, that if you see a tiddy, you become Satan’s little fuck animal and all your goodness dissolves into sin, and preventing that from happening is a woman’s job, not the person who acts on women. It’s what the pastor would say, after his son was caught in impropriety with several girls; “boys will be boys, girls should know better that to tempt them.” Becky actually applies the shame of both parties to herself, which I think is a big part why it’s even harder on her than most young Christian lesbians in her position.
But, like I said, by normal human sexual standards, Dina communicated she was horny, communicated Becky’s agency, reiterated that Becky had zero responsibility to act in any particular way, and the reality is that Becky fucking wants this. I would give Dina hell, for, well, not being as deliberately un-sexy as possible, maybe? In passing this information to Becky? But as we’ve seen, Dina has near-zero experience actually experiencing physical sexual feelings, at all, and also has the legitimate fear somewhere within her that she would be an inadequate partner to Becky, if she couldn’t attain this feeling, so it’s hard to blame her for being excited to be, well, excited.
These are bloody twenty year old repressed lesbian girls. I hung around a lot of those, in my day. I think, in adult relationship terms, they should know better; they are ready to do this, but they aren’t 100% ready to cope with Becky’s ensuing trauma, and the fallout. But, the bad feelings that happen here, soon, are more the surrogate responsibility of Becky’s trauma, than it is an inexcusable failure of either girl’s interpersonal skills. Nobody is doing anything wrong here, but fucking near an open wound that’s gonna stretch and bleed a bit in the process. I wish they would be more proactive about preventing that, but they are literally new to this, and I don’t see how it’s reasonable to expect that they likely would under these exact circumstances.
Well said. Thank you.
Changing your mind when more information comes in is also a valid choice.
Nope. Only the first piece of information a person ever received can be considered valid and admissible in the court of public opinion.
It probably has to be said that Dina is doing something bad because she totally isn’t.
Becky repeatedly insists, at length, loudly and verbally, that she wants to be sexually enticing and reduce Dina to a quivering pile of ladygoo with her sheer, unbridled hotness. With massive amounts of open communication and repeat check-ins, Dina and Becky safely explored the latter’s boundaries and acclimated her to some sexual intimacy without threatening her chastity, a thing Becky agreed to right at the start after Dina explained that neither of them was going to attack the other (and that word is extremely loaded, because Becky’s stated more than once that she was hoping she’d be pressured into sex, so she could have it and tell herself she remained faithful), for the expressed purpose of finding out what makes Dina get pants euphoria.
Dina now has it, one of the first thing she tells Becky is that it’ll pass, that she can relax, but then she asks Becky if she wants to, and it takes all of one panel for Becky to go for it because, turns out, Becky actually totally wants sex but has thought of it as nightmarishly as possible because her fundie death cult upbringing instilled into her that it’d dirty her soul.
And Becky’s decision matters more than what Becky’s god thinks, because Becky’s god isn’t real and even if he were probably shouldn’t have any say over what she does with her vagina.
Seriously. What kind of world are we living in where someone can be constantly reaffirming consent, getting a fucking checklist and clipboard involved, stopping when asked, and then checking in again, and it’s still not enough for some people?? What do you want, a legally binding contract and a waiver acknowledging consent, signed in front of at least three witnesses? Sick and tired of everything being criminalized and side-eyed the second a Certain Category Of Person is involved.
Shoutout to that fucking braintrust who insisted Dina had no ability to understand that she was pressuring Becky into sex against Becky’s objections and discomfort Becky was totally expressing.
Absolute galaxy brain, universe brain, multiverse brain, possibly even beyond that.
Baffles me that 75% of this chat is on the permanent “Dina is my perfect little neurodivergent fae creature UWU” high at all times, and yet those same 75% seem to think the average autistic person has the emotional complexity and agency of a big, slow dog. Like, if you like autistic characters so much, why do you have such a low goddamned opinion of them? Dina is literally in school to be a research scientist, she is in a relationship with a traumatized woman who possesses very complex boundaries, she jumped a dude with a shotgun for her girlfriend and risked her life. But, as soon as it comes down to questions of her agency between strips, you’d think her fucking mom still comes to the campus every day and pours her cereal and puts her pants on for her.
She’s a grown woman with all the complexities and brilliance that a grown woman in her position, has. She’s slightly socially awkward, but it is clearly shown in the text over and over that she fully grasps the broad strokes of nearly all social situations she witnesses, with very few subjective details wrong. It’s actually disgusting that some people will cheer her when she does anything perfectly correct in a situation, but as soon as there is any question that she might have done something wrong, the same people who constantly put her up on a pedestal, immediately code-switch to the kind of evaluation of her person, that I’d typically expect to follow a hard look left, then right, then a few whispered instances of the R-slur.
Oh, wow, I’m sorry — that discussion of how Dina’s social differences might play into this interaction just went “whoosh” right over my head. Wasn’t even thinking about that. More just thinking about how difficult it is being sensitive in a relationship where people are exploring emotionally and morally fraught boundaries together. Especially at age 18. It’s very tough, and nobody gets it 100% right. I know I was an idiot about sex until … well, OK, I’m still an idiot about sex! ;-D So brain variety didn’t even come into the picture for me.
But I am very sorry that my comment came across that away and had that unintended effect.
I just mean it’s good to have all the facts. Joyce told Ethan straight out that she was going to try to change him. Dina has told Becky straight out that Dina was going to try to change Becky’s beliefs about science, but
Sorry, meant to delete that last paragraph. Apparently didn’t get it deleted all the way. Erase/rewind!
“But I am very sorry that my comment came across that away and had that unintended effect.”
For what it’s worth, you didn’t; all I read into yours, was that you were reading very literally into things both women had said, and relating to certain perspectives, where maybe more could be expected of Dina. Frankly, I don’t think Dina being ND has played into any part of this at all, other than her personality being informed by her lived experience of being ND. You felt bad for Becky, because from a certain perspective, it’s easy to read into Dina’s actions as being thoughtless or unfair to Becky. I just believe the broader context exonerates her, and that’s stuff you’ve taken into account. I just hate to see people alternate between “Dina is a precious cute girl who can do no wrong,” and “You gotta treat Dina with kid’s gloves, because I don’t actually respect people like her,” because it’s very telling what those readers thing deep down, right? But I don’t really include your post here in that, my response was more so subservient to the conversation that emerged in the replies to that post. Frankly, I wish that more people, weren’t even thinking, about those things you were embarrassed to miss. In this plot, I actually believe you were right, to miss them.
Thank you, Throwatron. I always appreciate your thoughtful comments. I’m grateful when folks make the time to really explain things in depth.
…And thank you, too, for your squee-able comment earlier about your own partner! I agree, handholding is super hottt!
Absolutely wild how many ways some people are avoiding the concept that Becky is making messy choices by deciding that it must be Dina tricking Becky.
What, you didn’t notice Dina’s eyes swirling like Kaa from that movie with the bear? Or the gun she frequently brandishes?
I thought Dina’s eyes were swirling like Sir Hiss from the animated Robin Hood movie, yo
Multiple swirly-eyed snakes in Disney movies? What a world.
goddamnit taffy stop making it sexier
No. 😐
What certain category of person? Sorry, I’m not catching most of the references today.
Neurodivergent people, especially of the autistic variety. There’s a lot of nasty stereotypes that rhyme with “Don’t leave them alone with a woman”.
Oh, wow, that’s awful! I didn’t know that. Thank you for telling me. I’m sorry — I had no idea that my comment of agreement (for unrelated religious reasons) could also come across as playing into a stereotype. Stereotyping is wrong, and if my comments helped reinforce a stereotype, then I am truly sorry.
It’s all good. If ya don’t know, ya don’t know. Can’t expect everyone to know everything about everything, right? Plus, sometimes multiple unrelated factors co-exist and interact in the same context and it can be messy to untangle which parts are from which end.
Yeah I’m gonna have to agree with this. I’m not seeing Dina doing anything bad here.
Lol okay
The most amazing thing about this comment to me is that it puts culpability on Dina because not thinking because of arousal isn’t an excuse (despite the fact that she’s actively seeking affirmative consent) while at the same time removing all burden from Becky because *checks notes* she’s aroused.
See, when Dina gets aroused after deliberate attempts by Becky to turn her on, that’s Bad, Actually. The octopus that lives in my brain said so.
What? What? What? This comment is breaking my brain.
In what universe is it considered bad and pressuring to tell your partner “hey y’know how we just spent like an hour trying to turn me on? I’m turned on now. I know you want to wait so it’s cool, it’ll go away. But if you don’t I’m down”
Open communication is bad now. What is this line of thinking?????
Make it make sense, someone, please??????
Ok — I mean I’ll try to make it make sense. What I saw as being wrong is that Dina says at the outset that she sees Becky’s deeply held beliefs as a “fictional character” and said that she would enjoy the challenge of proving herself superior to her beloved’s God.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/seducing/
I don’t agree with others here that Becky’s faith is all about a trauma response that Becky has to learn to overcome. It looks to me like her faith can be a real rock and shelter for her: a community (based on a set of shared expectations) to buoy her up and carry her forward.
I wouldn’t want to date someone who saw it as a challenge to convert me away from my beliefs, including beliefs about when to have sex.
It’s kind of like trying to get a vegetarian to eat bacon — not pressuring them but offering it enticingly after they have said they are OK with having it cooked in the kitchen but please turn on the fan so the smell doesn’t linger. Sure, maybe they really do want to eat bacon, but trying to tempt them off of their dietary regimen is a little mean anyway.
What I mean is that people have boundaries, and part of making an informed decision about whether and when and how to push those boundaries is knowing the other person’s motivations. Here, Dina is motivated not just by desire but also by the challenge of weakening her partner’s faith in a religion that Dina sees as irrational and silly. Becky doesn’t have all the information. I find that underhanded.
I agree to a certain small extent, but I’m also not sure if Dina is especially trying to de-Jesus Becky in an active way. We know she doesn’t super respect Christianity as a whole and has been repeatedly baffled by some of the weird shit Becky says about it. We also know she respects and outright adores Becky on a personal level, and has been able to reconcile those two things well enough for this relationship to last for several months. If Becky didn’t reciprocate that adoration and respect, well, she’s kind of a loudmouth and doesn’t beat around the bush when someone is actually upsetting her, and she also knows Dina is especially receptive to firm, direct communication.
I see this on about the same level as when I go out of town with my sibling and they don’t wanna stop to eat because they have food at home, but the second I suggest Steak ‘n Shake, they’re pulling into the drive-thru without hesitation. In this metaphor, the Steak ‘n Shake is a stand-in for having sex with a hot nerd. Something something eating out something something.
Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you for putting things into perspective! 🙂
Becky’s faith is a rock and shelter and also it ingrained in her extremely harmful expectations of sexual purity she thought the best way to get around would be if her sexual partner would force her into sex.
Becky’s god is fictional to Dina, and so all Dina sees is that someone she deeply loves repeatedly guilts and shames herself for experiencing entirely normal desires that Becky feels anyway and loudly confirms as such, and so Dina proposed a scenario that would emphasize at length Becky’s boundaries for the purpose of provoking in Becky the reaction in Dina that Becky says repeatedly she wants Dina to have, where one of the first things Dina tells her is that her chastity isn’t going to be threatened and, now that Dina has that reaction, took Dina up on what was offered after Dina emphasized that she’ll only feel it temporarily and that nothing’s going to happen without Becky’s explicit consent and approval.
Both of them accept that the other is factually wrong about the origin of life and the universe, they just roll with it.
Yes, that makes sense Spencer. Thank you for spelling it out for me. Sometimes I don’t catch everything.
Like for example I’m not catching the reference where folks are saying Becky wanted to be pressured into sex? Which comic was that? I must have missed it. Seems like a big thing to miss, but I didn’t catch it.
Most explicitly, in this one.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/signalling/
More broadly, Becky’s expectation of sex, as in how she would be able to have sex at all, is by having Dina be so overcome with lust that she can’t stop herself from sexing Becky up.
Oh, wow, yes, OK, I didn’t remember that one at all. Thank you, Spencer. Gosh, I don’t know how I could have missed that one. Mind kind of blown.
Ooh, foreshadowing!
Personally, I’m extra fond of her emphasis that it’s a temporary feeling, as you pointed out. Dina is somehow being more mature about horny feelings than a lot of allosexual people, which is just really neat.
i think its cause she’s kinda epic
I don’t write long comments but i actually got decent sleep for once and have an ounce of energy for thinking. Bear with me, I’m no Spencer and I’m on mobile.
Okay first, Dina never said she wanted to convert Becky. She was saying it would be hot/interesting if she were so sexy to Becky that in that moment, she won out over god. It’s a kink. One she didn’t even intend on acting on.
Second, no one has said Becky’s faith is a trauma response she needs to move past. Save for a couple reddit atheists here or there, everyone is fine with Becky’s relationship with her faith *for the most part*. What people aren’t okay with is the unhealthy manifestations of her faith, like her intense sexual shame and repression which, yes, are very much born from the trauma of a cultlike, abusive, fundimentalist upbringing. Becky wants to have sex. She said as much herself. She doesn’t want to wait until marriage because it’s simply a choice she’s made, it’s because she is terrified for her eternal soul. I don’t think i should have to say that that isn’t healthy???
The only reason Becky still clings to this toxic, misogynistic concept of purity when she could adapt her faith around other hurdles just fine is again, you guessed it, trauma!!! Her parents are dead, her entire childhood home save for maybe 3 people despises her, her best friend who was the last rock of safe normalcy she clung to has now severed the last biggest thing they had in common from her view (not healthy either but I’m not getting into that plotline). Her old life has been completely reduced to ashes. Shes only clinging to her purity because she feels that’s all she has left. Again, she’s said as much, she directly told Dina when sex was put on the table “everything is changing so fast, i need to keep at least this one thing” (not an exact quote but you get the gist).
It is of course purely up to Becky to decide when she’s ready, and it seems she has. No one has been disagreeing with that. But it’s disingenuous to say that trauma hasn’t been a massive factor in her beliefs around purity and sexual shame thusfar.
I hope this didn’t come off too aggressive, lockdown has ground my interpersonal skills into dust.
No, zee, that was perfect. You did a great job. I learned something new from your perspective and I am grateful for your insight. Thank you! 🙂
@Laura aw that’s great! I’m glad things turned out so smoothly
Beautiful responses. Everywhere.
If you hide under a rock that isn’t there aren’t you really just lying to yourself?
What is delusion but compounding self taught lies?
Well, if that’s a sincere question, I think I can take a stab at it; it won’t make it make sense, in the sense that you’ll think the take is correct; but, I think I can walk the shoes of those who are being hypercritical of Dina, here.
If I were in Dina’s position, I would be going out of my way to minimize my sexiness to Becky, in general. I would be thinking of her, like Becky stans think of her, as this traumatized woman who needs desperate micromanagement to navigate her boundaries due to her trauma. So, if we’re ignoring the prior context of the past few strips (and, in my frank opinion, when you’re seeing Godawful takes about any given strip or character’s conduct, a frequent pattern is that somebody down here got specifically triggered by the one aspect of one strip, and forgot all underlying context from the rest of the story, and has zoomed the entire picture in to work outward at rebuilding the context, from the one “bad” detail, and then never attempting to reintegrate that prior context, because they’re just venting their trauma), from these peoples’ perspectives, Dina should know that if Becky has sex, Becky will feel bad, and since that is a bad outcome, being good means selectively manipulating every aspect of your presentation and conduct, at all times, to prevent a bad thing from happening.
If you’ve lived among fundies or narcissists, it’s a pretty common substitute for a personality, and if you grew up that way, you tend to think that that is your responsibility as a partner, once you are in a relationship, and that any failure in that regard, means you are Bad and your partner is right to punish you or leave you.
So, if I were in Dina’s position, I super would not do what she did here, because I would be proactively trying to avoid the fallout of Becky running headlong into her trauma, because that’s what she has professed she wants from me, and I really, really prefer to do what my partners tell me when it comes to their boundaries. I would come at it from the position of, “well, I’m horny now, and I think Becky will in fact reciprocate, so even if I’m doing nothing wrong, I will conceal this information for now, because I think she will regret how she reacts to it, in the moment.”
Practically speaking, everyone who is excoriating Dina, is blaming her for not making that further leap in respecting Becky’s boundaries. They wanted her, to be so proactive in doing so, as to minimize herself to Becky’s needs and Becky’s boundaries, because this way, neither of them will feel hurt or wounded or traumatized, later, and that means it was the Good and Best thing to do, here.
Like I said, that is how I’d act, myself. But I also spent a good twenty-five years unknowingly tooling myself to be the ultimate accessory to a narcissist, and believing that was what it took for me to be a good and desirable person. I’m fucking 32 this year, I’ve had multiple serious adult relationships of all sorts, I’m used to navigating complex social boundaries around trauma, ’cause me and all my close loved ones have tons of experience with that. Dina and Becky are sheltered 20 year old lesbians who are literally under-socialized, by virtue of parts of their upbringings being isolated.
You have the basic sense to know that Dina is doing nothing wrong in the context of a normal human relationship, especially in the context of the past few strips, and you evaluate their relationship as such, and you are correct. The people who are after her, are themselves probably the type to expect huge amounts of persistent, proactive support for any and every trauma and need, at all times, both from their partner, and from themselves in favor of their partner. That, itself, is not wrong, either; but, it sure can be unhealthy, and very unfair in any partnership where both partners are not sharing this philosophy.
For me, I actually think Dina, young and inexperienced as she is, probably would have been much more tactful about this, if she herself had as much experience with being sexually excited as the average woman her age. But, as we’ve seen, she’s very demi, and so it stands to reason that what excites her physically simply does not come up for her very often, as to not be surprised by it, let alone to not be able to conceal it and extricate it from her immediate cognition on the fly.
But, like you said, her girlfriend spent a literal hour doing foreplay trying to make her horny, and she has legitimate internal angst about whether she can function as her partner’s partner, without being able to attain this state, and she suddenly had the breakthrough of attaining it, and was excited to share that in the moment.
Then, like you said, she did everything that a person needs to do, to reassure their partner that their boundaries are sacrosanct, and that they need informed consent for anything to happen, and you and I share the opinion, of “what the fuck more do you want from this woman?” She could have done better; but, this isn’t Counter-Strike or League of Legends, this is human interaction; the existence of a better play, does not designate all inferior plays, as “wrong.”
Basically, the people who are saying Becky was done wrong here, have internalized so much of Becky’s own bullshit, from their own lives, or from Becky herself, about her sexuality being an uncontrollable force of sin, which must be insulated from temptation. To be fair to them, I think they’re making this leap, less because of the actual ethics of the current scenario as it is playing out, and more so because they are predicting the traumatic, painful breakdown Becky has coming 10-50 strips from now because of this scenario, and empathetically reacting to their internal picture of that pain, and from feeling that pain, they are projecting a responsibility onto Dina, because she is the “smart one” who should “know better,” I guess.
But, that ignores the fuckin’ literal fact that Becky is her own person, and it isn’t Dina’s fucking responsibility to police her partner’s agency. But to those who are inflicting this quasi-empathetic psychic trauma on themselves over this strip, they aren’t thinking of Becky and Dina as two women, they’re thinking of them as a co-dependent unit, both of whom are directly responsible to one anothers’ every need and trauma, at all times, without fail. Which, to borrow my own words, again, is not an invalid way to view a relationship, but it can be a very unhealthy way.
Well, this made a certain kind of sense out of it, no mistake. I especially liked the comparison to Counterstrike, and you do seem to have more of an understanding of that mindset than myself.
Wow, that’s hella deep! Bravo! I mean that in all sincerity. I don’t know how to convey how very much I learn from these comments. It’s like taking a graduate class in literary analysis! I appreciate the deep dive into motivations and feelings. This is deep worldbuilding, what Dave Willis is doing, and what the commenters are building with Willis.
This is a good answer, and does help me understand more so bravo
A fine explanation, Throwatron. Very well-written and informative.
Omg! I didn’t notice that! -And- Becky answered her Without one! <3
I’m so glad you appreciated the observation and also noticed its complement in Becky. It’s like when couples wear each others jackets!
Becky: “*IM* HAVING CONTRACTIONS RIGHT NOW!!!”
Careful with the lip-biting, ladies, do it much more and you might chomp right through.
Becky, God has forgiven you from a lot of things. Fornication can be put in this list, don’t worry about it.
Show it, Gravatar.
As a frequent changer of Gravatars, sometimes it takes a few minutes to update.
I will blame WordPress, like I aways do.
oh no, they caught the horny
I don’t know how to cope with how this chapter started with finding out that Becky is deliberately trying to drag Joyce back to God, another character heard her describe this and had absolutely zero qualms or concerns, concluded that it’s not working because Joyce hates her, called her “my little baby apostate” after she had told her that becoming an atheist was like tearing her own organs out and we saw Joyce tell Walky that she’s having an emotional crisis because she doesn’t know what to do with herself on Sunday mornings anymore, all of this at the tail end of a fight she caused where she cut Joyce up some more every single time they spoke up to the end where Joyce had to play emotional punching bag for her again, and then the next two months is mostly about Becky having a great time with Dina where everything immediately works out to her best interests.
At this rate these two will be just about to start fucking when Joyce bursts into the room deciding that Rich Mullins converted her back and also made her realize she’s a polyamourous bisexual in love with Becky.
(Incidentally, Joyce being a polyamourous bisexual would be a great way to resolve a Joe/Joyce/Dorothy love triangle)
Joe and… Dorothy ? *raise eyebrow*
nope.
Well, it’d be more of a V.
through Joyce, I mean
I’m definitely glad that Becky and Dina are happy together, but it also still bugs me that Becky so far has been unable to just accept that Joyce is an atheist now, and that she doesn’t need to be converted back to her former religion.
It’s just like Becky said, God (Willis, in this case) loves lesbians
I’m still hoping getting laid mellows her out.
To be fair, Becky has certainly gotten the short end of the stick for much of the comic up until now. I think she’s allowed to get lucky (yuk yuk yuk) for one chapter.
(also I’m sure the Joyce atheism thing isn’t going anywhere, that’s not a closed matter at all)
Good thing Becky is able to change her mind during emergency situations.
She’s got some real good crisis-management instincts, ya gotta hand it to ‘er.
You better not do something awful right now, David. I still remember what happened with Billy and Ruth.
look it’s all a matter of perspective, i’m sure my parents would think what i’ve done is very awful
Science is sexy.
What a day for Patreon to mess up and send me an unearned early preview of tomorrow’s strip. WHAT. A. DAY.
I squeed, i actually squeed
Here’s hoping this does not end in disaster as Becky’s faith fucks everything up afterwards.
Hey folks,
I just wanted to thank you all for catching me up on all the references today! Sometimes I feel a little “out of it” (probably older and less up to date than many of y’all) and so I really appreciate y’all’s bringing me up to speed! Thank you!
And — hey — it’s kind of fun seeing how people can argue vehemently in the comments without coming to hate each other forever. It’s like a low-drama debate club. I really appreciate the camaraderie here where disagreement is acceptable and expected. It’s refreshing!
In 24 hours, people will have forgotten any silly shouting matches and replaced that information with newer, gayer thoughts.
Thank you for replying to people.
Oi, who you callin’ “people”?
Literal people. Just in the thread. I apologize, I’ve been trying to write a reply to you and others for hours, but I have no interest in defending the homophobic strawman that I sounded like, and I’m not great at containing hurt. Like you said, let’s just move on to gayer thoughts.
Apologies if I came across pretty defensive about the subject. Coming back with a cooler head, it wasn’t really that serious, and it did end up going in an overall nicer direction. Gay thoughts it is, then.
oh
oh my
Slipshine, here we go… maybe
As if Dina can be contained. She’s just too powerful.
I love how Dina’s hair just spontaneously falls out of her hat the moment she gets horny. By magic, or by the sheer force of the horny dislodging it???
Hey, new dinosaur!
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/17/world/yuxisaurus-kopchicki-dinosaur-species-scn/index.html
No wonder Dina is so euphoric! I’d be euphoric too if I had a new dinosaur to learn about!
Elevator pankey.
Not the worst place to pankey.
While I am by principle against public displays of affection: Yaaay!
Be prepared. That’s it.
Love in an Elevator ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Yrhv33Zb8
Where is Ruth? We need a fire hose right now.