Sorry to derail whatever topic we were going to have in this strip tonight but I I’m serious, I’m not even calling her this to be insulting. Recently I’ve been hearing multiple people mention behavior that can indicate someone as a sociopath I feel like She checks a lot of those boxes.
Yes her prejudice is a problem but I don’t think that alone makes since out of her action throughout the comic. I think back about how detached she was about Walkys kidnapping and the only thing she seemed to feel was a sense of vindictiveness and the minute she got what she wanted through someone’s death she was so nonchalant about it.
I’m not expert so I got to ask anyone here who more familiar with this. Does Linda Ironically portray the action of a sociopath?
Sociopath is no longer a valid diagnosis. Also, as someone who’s (elsewhere) in Cluster B–where people formerly labeled “sociopaths” would go–it leads to a culture of stigma against people with personality disorders to throw those words around and armchair diagnose anyone we don’t like.
Obviously this is a much greater issue when it comes to real people, e.g. the current problem of labeling anyone we don’t like as “sociopaths,” “psychopaths,” or “narcissists” when a lot of the time, they don’t even have a PD; they just have a shit-ton of privilege that’s never been pushed back against.
But the watering-down of that term, and suggesting (implicitly or explicitly) that anyone who has those PDs is inherently an evil person (fun fact: there’s no such thing as an “automatically bad person” disorder!) leads to people with PDs being unable to find resources, support, or help. Many of us don’t harm anyone, and even the ones who have, they still deserve resources and help.
(Also, PDs almost always manifest as a result of major childhood trauma. Which means blanket demonizing all PDs is just plain victim-shaming.)
Sorry, I know this devolved into a rant, but it’s hard trying to find resources to help live with a disorder that turns your emotions into the equivalent of sandpaper on 3rd degree burns, and then finding nothing but “all people with X are evil manipulators” and “10 reasons you should cut off people in your life with x!” and then you go onto one of your favorite webcomics and immediately find this in the comments. Shit sucks.
Anyway, I’d say Linda does just fall into the category I mentioned of “people who just have too much privilege and haven’t faced enough consequences in their lives.” She doesn’t seem to have a history of childhood trauma or exhibit *that* many signs of anything like ASPD. She’s just an asshole who chooses to mistreat marginalized people.
I feel like this comment needs validating backup, because it’s shit as hell to come in and find a top comment using decades-outdated/debunked pop psych analysis that insults actual sideways-wired people on the sideways-wired characters comic.
I don’t tend to avoid this comment section because it’s usually better than that. The chronological timing of the Yowch, *unrelated to anything going on in the current comic*, was uhh. Wow.
Exactly what I was thinking. She isn’t seeking help or therapy right now, she’s just a mean mom who’d rather cut off her kids than face her own shortcomings. She isn’t a war criminal or even a murderer in this timeline, just a jerk. We can just call her a bad person. Frankly despite Lucy’s experience I doubt Linda would be nice to Dorothy for more than a brief visit either. Dorothy being a liberal atheist intellectual and a jew would not sit well.
Yeah, I think it’s in general a mistake to think that people who do bad things list have some underlying disorder that makes them that way. Same thing happens when people argue that dictators and their torture bosses have to be psychopaths to do what they do or whatever – there is in fact plenty of evidence that such people are usually perfectly normal people. (Well, authoritarian leaders actually almost all seem to have a very particular personality profile and way of thinking, but that is NOT a personality disorder. Read Bob Altemeyer if interested.)
It’s 100% a mistake and ableist as hell to assume that people do bad things solely due to mental illness/disorders, or to look for those things to explain the bad stuff. The logical reverse of that is that all people who have mental illness/disorders do bad things. And I don’t think I need to explain why that in particular is a very dangerous conclusion to come to.
This. Once had a friend who told me he was sociopathic. Perfectly decent person, frankly, who put thought and effort into how he treated people and did his best by them, even if he was a bit vindicative when he felt justice needed doing. And, possibly tellingly? Not a guy with much privilege, who’d been fucked over by the system several times.
All of this. The way people with personality disorders are treated even by medical professionals, often, is abysmal. The very diagnosis of personality disorders as distinct entities is very much up for debate in the psychiatric community.
I say this as someone who has armchair diagnosed my mother as BPD. She was indeed abusive. She does indeed have incredible trauma, and she is a complex human being, not a caricature of a monster. I have seen other people with probable BPD (post horrific abuse) refuse to seek help because they’ve heard the doctors they work with say they’re “unfixable” – and in a sneering way. I have a friend with BPD who has been treated as an abuser by most people she’s admitted it to – and has been waiting to see a specialist for literally years because so few people practice it. The stigma is unreal.
As for Linda? She’s a racist arsehole who is obsessed with status. That is not a mental illness, nor particularly uncommon.
Yep, BPD’s the one I’ve got, and even the person who “soft diagnosed” it was like “listen, we’re not actually putting this in your file, bc it will make medical professionals treat you like garbage and take away a lot of your agency.” They apparently just write “mood disorder” for a lot of us instead.
And while I don’t generally like armchair diagnosing people with stuff, I do feel you as somebody else who’s like, “Hmm, my mom shows a lot of the same symptoms I do.” I feel for her, she did some really bad things, she’s been through some really bad things, she sucks, she tries her best, and she’s an incredibly complicated person. Sending you internet hugs if you want them
Yeah, most of the people who use BPD and other psychiatric terms to refer to jerks like Linda literally do not know what those words even mean, just that they are intensely condemning — in an English language/culture into which bigotries of all sorts has been interwoven in many MANY ways over the centuries.
This is the unfortunately common phenomena of the internet taking a word and running with it, if only because they cannot be bothered to think of any other words to express how much they despise her.
Honestly might as well just say “Linda is double plus ungood”.
I’m sure you won’t see this, but I’m glad your medical team has your back/sad it’s needed/also sympathy for the BPD. I have been “soft diagnosed” with C-PTSD and did ask about BPD – my psychiatrist says probably not. There is enough overlap between PTSD and BPD (even if it doesn’t turn out they’re actually different presentations of the same thing) that I can definitely relate!
Sadly, BPD or not (*certainly* PTSD), my mother is never going to get the help she needs because it hurts too much to dig into. (I know far, far more about my mother’s life and feelings than I ought to.) Unfortunately for her I cannot feel safe with her in my life, but I hope the rest of it can be OK.
One other thing, too. Racists like Linda tend to see things as “here’s the nice little in-group” and “here’s the outgroups”. And if you’re part of an “out-group”, you get used to dehumanization and mistreatment from just about everyone.
Her response to Walky being kidnapped is within the normal gamut of responses. She’s a lawyer, and likely a prosecutor. She sinks herself into work, and being on the offensive is part of her job. If your son gets hurt, your anger makes you want to watch the world burn.
This is her going full mama bear, as much as it can be seen as vindictive and callous. She’s not good with comforting and understanding others. That’s more in Charles’ wheelhouse.
Linda is far more like a lot of us all than we care to notice. I mean, if you look at the current state of politics, that kind of dehumanizing behavior exists in spades. Just look at the astounding lack of empathy undocumented immigrants, transgender people, and black people in America experience with discriminatory policies. It’s not a psychological disorder that causes these. It’s human prejudice and bigotry that enables them.
If you want a good fictional example of a “sociopath” (in this case, someone who literally is incapable of empathizing with others on an emotional level), I highly recommend the game “Shadowrun: Hong Kong” as the character, Racter, is a very intriguing/engaging one.
while sociopath is not a personality disorder, it still describes a set of personality traits that I think is meaningfully different from “just privileged”, and I think it makes sense to consider it something that’s wrong with them.
I had this little theory buzzing around in my head for a while and in a drunken haste last night I decided I didn’t want to wait till she was brought up again to talk about it.
Linda thinks other people, and especially her children, are props that exist to make her more comfortable, successful and respected. She thinks she knows better than everyone and she has no problem shouting and throwing money and favors at everyone her until she gets her way. She might qualify for a diagnosis of narcissism and whatever, but the thing is there’s plenty of narcissists who know better. Her problem isn’t that she’s ill; her problem is that she’s an asshole. Or rather, it’s everyone else’s problem.
“Old Universe” Sarah was Joe’s college girlfriend. So, yeah, you could say they’re compatible. He was already in love with Joyce by that point, but… (Door slam in face!)
I was kinda also imagining it was a threesome… nightmare. Joe does still seem a little shell-shocked by the newest version of Joyce, but I’m guessing he’s torn between being attracted to her new attitude and also being worried (probably rightly) that she’s putting on a front and will regret her choices later. it’s probably gonna be weird for a bit but…. I believe in them.
Lucy being able to drink whiskey straight is not something I expected. Also dear god don’t mix Sprite and whiskey, just use the soda as a chaser you don’t want any part of what you’re about to have, Joyce.
That she says she’s accustomed sure makes it sound like she’s had drinks with one or both of her roomies. Which is…neither one has ever been what I’d call friendly to Lucy, or interested is spending time with her. Jennifer I could see because she’s an entire high school’s worth of peer pressure and she likes to be the party girl, but Malaya? And I feel like this might have merited notice before, given the disdain both of them have for Lucy. I’m intrigued.
I’ve never understood people’s reactions to drinking whiskey straight. It’s a sipping drink, you just have little bits at a time and it’s no worse than any other drink.
Depends on the whiskey.
For instance, I find Jack Daniel’s to be incredibly offensive and gross.
But Mellow Corn, Baby Blue Balcones, Larceny, and the Irish and Scotch whiskeys I have tried are all fine.
Yeah same, I’m not into most whiskey but my favorite alcohol when I was 17 other than Smirnoff ice was the bottle of American Honey bourbon I’d sneak from the liquor cabinet at midnight
Jack Daniels is horse swill and I will never understand its prominence. If you want a burny, fiery whiskey just drink *actual* bourbon like Jim Beam or Evan Williams (bottled-in-bond >>>> and it’s also fucking cheap)
Some of us ain’t got time to be sipping on something for hours. My husband teases me because I chug all my drinks, water, milk, alcohol, it all has .02 seconds of time to exist in my cup before it’s gone.
Happy Birth Day, Schpoonman! I hop its a great one.
PS.
No, I’m not magic. Back in December you made a comment about the buffer being up to your birthday and I thought I would save the date. Mr. Willis said the strip of the day would be soul-crushing for someone. He did not lie!
Yeah, they get along nicely. I think it helps that Joe treats her pretty normally, and knowing now what we do about his mother, that she struggled to get her autism diagnosed, I imagine he gets it in a way most of the cast is still working on.
Yep, I forget what precipitated it, but Joe was offering an obligatory greeting before Dina said that such greetings are no longer obligatory, that the two are friends. Theirs has been a nice friendship to see develop over time.
He accepts Dina as she is, accommodates her idiosyncrasies, and gives her feedback without judgement. That’s a bar that sadly, few have cleared for her.
But the thing is– Joe also does it very naturally. It’s not a learned behavior he calls attention to like, “oh yeah I’m super inclusive of autistic people”: Being respectful and communicating clearly in an inclusive way is a part of who he is. It’s really charming.
He absolutely does. I remember Joe asking on ‘what are you really asking’ while Danny was grappling with bisexuality. Because if it’s just ‘have you ever been attracted to men?’ The answer is not, and if it’s something else Joe wanted to be aware that he was supposed to handhold and support.
He got castigate dfor it by the comments section, but I still think he was genuinely asking for direction on how to behave to be a good friend. He didn’t phrase it kindly, but it’s what he was asking.
Dina’s honestly probably fairly easy for him to interact with. She says what she means and asks for what she wants from him without having to be prompted or parsed.
We’re not enough attention to that ‘I’m accustomed” line from Lucy. Just because you room with an alcoholic wouldn’t make you tolerant of hard liquor. Lucy was seeking it out herself and just had easier access because of her roommate. Lucy is not that innocent, naive, girl she presents as most days. She gets compared to Joyce a lot, but she is not Joyce at all. I see you Lucy. Keep walking down the path towards darkness and power.
The implication isn’t that Lucy had easier access to it because of Jennifer (who’s also not drinking anymore), it’s that she’s drinking because her roommates were/are kind of a pain.
Jennifer was drinking when they first became roommates and I feel her line is open to interpretation. Even so, your read would prove my point more if Lucy as you describe is thus actively seeking out liquor as a way to tolerate a difficult roommate. That is even less innocent then consuming it because it’s more easily available from her roommate.
I read it the same way, that Lucy has had drinks with one/both of them. Jennifer makes sense, but Malaya…eeh, it’s a stretch, they’re so generally insufferable that it’s hard to imagine them sharing with anyone. But I too took Lucy’s comment to mean that this is not her first rodeo.
I think in this case it’s more of a joke because Lucy is the most mild-mannered, sweet-natured, peacemaking soul in the comic so the idea of her doing a heel turn/becoming Sydney Yus is a hilarious contrast.
Very funny Lucy, good job changing the subject while still feeling sorry for yourself. So they’ve been feeding her straight up hard liquor? Ouch. Or is she referring to their prickly and rude personalities? I’ve been drinking a lot of old fashions lately, and even this oldest of drinks adds some sugar, water, and bitters to the hard liquor. No one will be surprised when I say it’s best with the most expensive versions of the stuff. At least add some soda water to that hootch!
The funniest thing would be painful drama and recriminations but I do hope that Sarah and Lucy both are able to just let go of past trauma and have a nice time with friends. Lucy was never into dorky Walky himself as much she was into the whole idea of having a boyfriend anyway.
Oh, but we been knew that Dina was the bossest of bosses ;333 Seriously she only gets cooler I can’t even.
Until very recently on the other hand I thought Lucy bland. Nice but bland. She’s been steadily becoming more interesting, and her latest arc is like, a qualitative jump ahead.
As Booster said, Lucy is too good for Walky. She might not know it, but since she mostly wanted him for her first sexual experience anyway, she knows she can find someone else to fit that bill. (er, fit her bill…hurhurhur)
As poorly worded as it was, I think they hit the nail in the head. It’s not that Walky is actually Bad – It’s that Lucy’s particular flavor of Good Girl means a relationship between them would stunt them both. It’s easy for him to lose himself in his partners and let them lead – it’s what he learned at home, after all.
And Lucy deserves someone who is into her as much as she is into them.
I kind of wonder if Lucy is being literal, or if she means more that the taste of straight whiskey is not really anything special compared to being around toxicity.
If Billie (since this would have been before the switch) ever got her to try some booze, I guess it would not have been difficult to imagine. She did share her flask at Joyce’s party, so it’s not like she’s against spreading the love, as it were.
I don’t have much better specific commentary than “this is the funniest comic on the internet”.
Lucy having surprise gasoline booze taste tolerance due to past roommates is a particularly good punchline tucked into this train collision of at least four, maybe more.
She shines a lot put into the same room as Joyce, as a foil, with the vibe of a lot of potential similarities that went different paths or get treated different, and is downplaying it right next to someone who’s had a night of drinks touting being a Seasoned Boozer. I’d love to see more focus on her background and what makes her tick, like some of the other characters who’ve gotten more focus.
Yes, I would like to see some hidden deaths from Lucy! (Not that being able to down whisky straight is a hidden depth in itself, but her comment does suggest them.)
The inexorable passage of time feels spikier every year.
My joints grow rusty. My heart goes “oh noooo” every time i’m reminded. So I’m glad they’re in some nebulous northern hemisphere winter while it’s july downstairs here.
I’m a little worried that Joyce is rushing into this new, more mature personality too quickly.
I mentioned in the comments of a previous strip that Joyce wearing Joe’s coat was giving me that feeling. You ever see a child wear an adult-sized coat? How their arms are too short and the ends of the sleeves hang down? That’s what seeing Joyce reminded me of–a kid who’s trying too hard to act like an adult. She’d been underage drinking, her F-bomb filter was just uncapped, and now she’s started talking about doing the deed with Joe.
And now Sarah’s worried that her reservations are about to come true.
In fact, in previous strips it was already noticeable that this was growing little by little.
If this gets out of control, it will be more difficult now for Joyce’s friends to stop her, because it is more than obvious that Joyce will not want to listen and will be upset that she is not “allowed to be free.”
… Let the girl pick her own rhythm? Maybe? Everyone is always so worried about her “rushing into adulthood” like she’s not, y’know. 18. At university, which in the USA isn’t even a place you go during the day and then go back home with your family.
She’s been so repressed so far that it is now a reasonable a worry that she’s overdoing it, though, even at 18. (I’m European in a country with a low drinking age, for reference.)
18 is not magical age where you’re suddenly a worldly adult. You can still make terrible (= terrible for you and your psychological state) decisions at 18, including getting too drunk and trying to have sex in that state while your actually still afraid of it – and 18-year-olds do in fact make such bad decisions all the time, even if they’re not as green behind the ears as Joyce is, and it causes them avoidable pain, or worse.
I do trust Joe to slow her down, actually, especially on the first-sex-while-drunk part. He has shown that he’s pretty good with this already. So I’m not too worried
18 is not a magical age or a Sudden Adulthood Switch, agreed, and the stars know I made a ton of mistakes at 18.
It’s just– Maybe I’m not explaining myself right. It’s more about the tone these worries are being expressed? Not you in specific but generally, in the comments section. Something about it feels patronizing.
She is underage. The drinking age is 21 here, not 18.
You can disagree with our drinking age being 21 instead of 18, but according to the law she is underage.
I mean, she is not underage, law recognizes being a Legal adult as being over 18. This is more like Adult Limited, like how you can have limits on what and how you can drive but you Can drive. For everything not alcohol related Joyce is very much not underage
Meh. We ‘muricanz are some of the most puritanical types in the world. And the comic is set in Indiana, which is one of the mostest puritanical states here. 🙁
Regarding the alt text: I wouldn’t worry too much about her hate of Sierra Mist being anachronistic, I’m certain Joyce would hate Starry as much if not more then Sierra Mist
Joyce, like any other autist, does not half-ass anything. If she likes getting drunk she goes “YAY DRINKING!” and wants to do it all the time because good feelings go brrrr!!
TBH as someone who’s not from the US: The pearl clutching about Joyce experimenting is super weird. It’s not even about the alcohol, it’s… Ok so she’s cursing now? Wearing her two top blouse buttons open?
Is it that she’s decided she wants to fuck her boyfriend? Because she already spent like, +10 years deathly terrified of her sexuality. Maybe I’m too autistic for this but sometimes you do decide one day “hey y’know what, I’ll stop stopping myself from X” and do it.
Kill not the cringe but the part of you that cringes (for these are people in their first year of university and they’re going to be cringe as hell in so many wayssss)
I think it’s worry that she’s going to overcorrect and be unhappy with both her new and her old self. It’s not the behavior that’s scary so much as the rate of change. It takes time to renovate a self-image.
Yep! It takes time. And Joyce will need to try stuff for size before she learns what Joyce as she is now entails.
Come on, y’all. It’s like our protagonist hasn’t proven how adaptable and resilient she is. She had already changed enormously from the fundie from the start of the comic before this arc happened, trust her a little.
Right??? Someone said she’s going off the rails- is this not normal behavior for an 18 year old living away from their parents for the first time??? Like fundie or not (granted I am just now realizing that my sample pool is tainted as fuck because a lot more families are fundie here)
Like this is perfectly average college freshman behavior
It wasn’t the catalyst but what I meant is, USA kids are afforded an even greater degree of freedom when they start college by virtue of moving out of their parents’ home.
Either way, the move itself wasn’t – but it was certainly a requirement. She would’ve never been exposed to a world bigger than the whitest evangelicalest side of La Porte otherwise.
As long as she backs off the rails a bit after this. If she’s starting a pattern, that could lead to problems.
Getting thoroughly drunk a couple nights in a row in the middle of the week is a bit more than average college freshman behavior. It’s not like anyone else in the strip other than our two resident alcoholics has done that on panel. And they’d had practice and time to work up to it.
It’s her second time, it’s a spontaneous party, it wasn’t her idea, and someone having fun on a night of drinking and deciding they want to do it again with the rest of their friends instead of just their bff doesn’t mean they’re staring down to a path of alcoholism.
Naw, your sample pool is fine. I’m from LatAm, we don’t even move away from our parents; and this is perfectly normal for a teen transitioning into a young adult, who is starting uni, in a brown people’d country that’s actually quite agnostic – so, very different and yet.
Oh, Lucy actually managed to cut Dorothy off and let it rest. Just a small dig, done.
I am positively surprised (in this particular situation, I don’t generally expect bad things of Lucy), good on you, Lucy!
That would only be four-five months ago. Also Joyce is still a freshman and thats when the two of them met. its not like Joyce and Robin have this long complicated history. When the school year started, these two would have been complete strangers.
I’m all for Joyce trying new things but I wish she’d stop saying weird things about Joe. If he was also saying things it’d be one thing but all it does is give me weird objectification vibes because she’s trying too hard to appear like a mature sexual adult. Which would be fine if Joe didn’t always seem stunned/uncomfortable. I think they need to have a discussion
“Trying to appear”: aha, that’s part of what worries me. That, inside, New Joyce and Old Joyce are wrestling for control, with New Joyce currently having the upper hand, both rather oblivious to the context of the struggle.
I’m hoping they’ll soon call it a draw, learn to appreciate each other’s strengths, and New New Joyce will actually be mature.
I really do not see the “uncomfortable” look people appear to see in Joe in these moments, most of the time it seems pretty neutral with like a raise eyebrow like in here. Honestly plenty of time he seems to be pretty into her talking like this (biting his lips, blushing, glassy eyes).
Yeah I agree. I can’t see where people are getting any of the “Joe doesn’t like this” and “Joe is uncomfy” and “Joe doesn’t want Joyce to x,y,z.”
He’s a very upfront guy, if he didn’t like something he’d probably say so. All I’ve ever seen from him in these moments is A) Horny and B) Yep that’s the goober I chose to love.
You’re so right. A young enby in my brain that never fully died is going like “shots! shots! shots!”
Anyway, yeah! People are acknowledging her at last and I’m fucken PLEASED ok. The only thing that could’ve made “I’m… Accustomed” cooler is a pair of shades.
Will Joe actually partake in the alcohol, or will he decide to abstain tonight, to be a sort of “guardian angel” for Joyce to make sure she doesn’t to too far off the rails?
I’m surprised lucy would drink with jen, at the very least maybe not get blackout drunk, tho i can see it being like “ok, fine let’s have a couple drinks within the dorm room” to placate her and make sure she doesnt run off in a rampage or so lol
Sprite TM was the approved euphemism for alcohol in my college friend group. Not sure why, it came from previous members of the club.
Joe looks uncomfortable. Sarah and Dorothy also look uncomfortable. That’s nearly half the party. I bet Joyce gets super wasted and scares everyone and none of this previous drama matters.
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*plays “Easy Breezy” by Chelmico on hacked muzak*
Linda Walkerton might a sociopath…
Sorry to derail whatever topic we were going to have in this strip tonight but I I’m serious, I’m not even calling her this to be insulting. Recently I’ve been hearing multiple people mention behavior that can indicate someone as a sociopath I feel like She checks a lot of those boxes.
Yes her prejudice is a problem but I don’t think that alone makes since out of her action throughout the comic. I think back about how detached she was about Walkys kidnapping and the only thing she seemed to feel was a sense of vindictiveness and the minute she got what she wanted through someone’s death she was so nonchalant about it.
I’m not expert so I got to ask anyone here who more familiar with this. Does Linda Ironically portray the action of a sociopath?
Yes, and?
She was in the old universe, so we kind of expect it in this one.
at least tonight we got something perfect to wash that state cracker woman taste out of our mouths:
– Joyce dropping two more F-bombs,
– Finding out that goodie two-shoes Lucy has been drinkin before
– Dina tipsy for the very first time!!!! *^v^*
YIPPEE!!!!!
*stale cracker
Dina’s sparkles-to-bubbles ratio is very appealing high, yes.
*appealingly, dammit
Sociopath is no longer a valid diagnosis. Also, as someone who’s (elsewhere) in Cluster B–where people formerly labeled “sociopaths” would go–it leads to a culture of stigma against people with personality disorders to throw those words around and armchair diagnose anyone we don’t like.
Obviously this is a much greater issue when it comes to real people, e.g. the current problem of labeling anyone we don’t like as “sociopaths,” “psychopaths,” or “narcissists” when a lot of the time, they don’t even have a PD; they just have a shit-ton of privilege that’s never been pushed back against.
But the watering-down of that term, and suggesting (implicitly or explicitly) that anyone who has those PDs is inherently an evil person (fun fact: there’s no such thing as an “automatically bad person” disorder!) leads to people with PDs being unable to find resources, support, or help. Many of us don’t harm anyone, and even the ones who have, they still deserve resources and help.
(Also, PDs almost always manifest as a result of major childhood trauma. Which means blanket demonizing all PDs is just plain victim-shaming.)
Sorry, I know this devolved into a rant, but it’s hard trying to find resources to help live with a disorder that turns your emotions into the equivalent of sandpaper on 3rd degree burns, and then finding nothing but “all people with X are evil manipulators” and “10 reasons you should cut off people in your life with x!” and then you go onto one of your favorite webcomics and immediately find this in the comments. Shit sucks.
Anyway, I’d say Linda does just fall into the category I mentioned of “people who just have too much privilege and haven’t faced enough consequences in their lives.” She doesn’t seem to have a history of childhood trauma or exhibit *that* many signs of anything like ASPD. She’s just an asshole who chooses to mistreat marginalized people.
Good points.
I feel like this comment needs validating backup, because it’s shit as hell to come in and find a top comment using decades-outdated/debunked pop psych analysis that insults actual sideways-wired people on the sideways-wired characters comic.
I don’t tend to avoid this comment section because it’s usually better than that. The chronological timing of the Yowch, *unrelated to anything going on in the current comic*, was uhh. Wow.
Comments are sorted chronologically
Exactly what I was thinking. She isn’t seeking help or therapy right now, she’s just a mean mom who’d rather cut off her kids than face her own shortcomings. She isn’t a war criminal or even a murderer in this timeline, just a jerk. We can just call her a bad person. Frankly despite Lucy’s experience I doubt Linda would be nice to Dorothy for more than a brief visit either. Dorothy being a liberal atheist intellectual and a jew would not sit well.
Being a bigoted racist isn’t a psychiatric problem, it’s a choice.
It’s vital that you know I misread part of this as “who’d rather cut off her kids’ face”.
Yeah, I think it’s in general a mistake to think that people who do bad things list have some underlying disorder that makes them that way. Same thing happens when people argue that dictators and their torture bosses have to be psychopaths to do what they do or whatever – there is in fact plenty of evidence that such people are usually perfectly normal people. (Well, authoritarian leaders actually almost all seem to have a very particular personality profile and way of thinking, but that is NOT a personality disorder. Read Bob Altemeyer if interested.)
That said, there are people who have no sympathy for anybody and have no trauma whatsoever.
They don’t all do anything evil; by far. But the ones that do…
It’s 100% a mistake and ableist as hell to assume that people do bad things solely due to mental illness/disorders, or to look for those things to explain the bad stuff. The logical reverse of that is that all people who have mental illness/disorders do bad things. And I don’t think I need to explain why that in particular is a very dangerous conclusion to come to.
This. Once had a friend who told me he was sociopathic. Perfectly decent person, frankly, who put thought and effort into how he treated people and did his best by them, even if he was a bit vindicative when he felt justice needed doing. And, possibly tellingly? Not a guy with much privilege, who’d been fucked over by the system several times.
Preach it!
All of this. The way people with personality disorders are treated even by medical professionals, often, is abysmal. The very diagnosis of personality disorders as distinct entities is very much up for debate in the psychiatric community.
I say this as someone who has armchair diagnosed my mother as BPD. She was indeed abusive. She does indeed have incredible trauma, and she is a complex human being, not a caricature of a monster. I have seen other people with probable BPD (post horrific abuse) refuse to seek help because they’ve heard the doctors they work with say they’re “unfixable” – and in a sneering way. I have a friend with BPD who has been treated as an abuser by most people she’s admitted it to – and has been waiting to see a specialist for literally years because so few people practice it. The stigma is unreal.
As for Linda? She’s a racist arsehole who is obsessed with status. That is not a mental illness, nor particularly uncommon.
Yep, BPD’s the one I’ve got, and even the person who “soft diagnosed” it was like “listen, we’re not actually putting this in your file, bc it will make medical professionals treat you like garbage and take away a lot of your agency.” They apparently just write “mood disorder” for a lot of us instead.
And while I don’t generally like armchair diagnosing people with stuff, I do feel you as somebody else who’s like, “Hmm, my mom shows a lot of the same symptoms I do.” I feel for her, she did some really bad things, she’s been through some really bad things, she sucks, she tries her best, and she’s an incredibly complicated person. Sending you internet hugs if you want them
Linda’s just a garden variety kind of jerk.
Yeah, most of the people who use BPD and other psychiatric terms to refer to jerks like Linda literally do not know what those words even mean, just that they are intensely condemning — in an English language/culture into which bigotries of all sorts has been interwoven in many MANY ways over the centuries.
This is the unfortunately common phenomena of the internet taking a word and running with it, if only because they cannot be bothered to think of any other words to express how much they despise her.
Honestly might as well just say “Linda is double plus ungood”.
I’m sure you won’t see this, but I’m glad your medical team has your back/sad it’s needed/also sympathy for the BPD. I have been “soft diagnosed” with C-PTSD and did ask about BPD – my psychiatrist says probably not. There is enough overlap between PTSD and BPD (even if it doesn’t turn out they’re actually different presentations of the same thing) that I can definitely relate!
Sadly, BPD or not (*certainly* PTSD), my mother is never going to get the help she needs because it hurts too much to dig into. (I know far, far more about my mother’s life and feelings than I ought to.) Unfortunately for her I cannot feel safe with her in my life, but I hope the rest of it can be OK.
One other thing, too. Racists like Linda tend to see things as “here’s the nice little in-group” and “here’s the outgroups”. And if you’re part of an “out-group”, you get used to dehumanization and mistreatment from just about everyone.
Her response to Walky being kidnapped is within the normal gamut of responses. She’s a lawyer, and likely a prosecutor. She sinks herself into work, and being on the offensive is part of her job. If your son gets hurt, your anger makes you want to watch the world burn.
This is her going full mama bear, as much as it can be seen as vindictive and callous. She’s not good with comforting and understanding others. That’s more in Charles’ wheelhouse.
Linda is far more like a lot of us all than we care to notice. I mean, if you look at the current state of politics, that kind of dehumanizing behavior exists in spades. Just look at the astounding lack of empathy undocumented immigrants, transgender people, and black people in America experience with discriminatory policies. It’s not a psychological disorder that causes these. It’s human prejudice and bigotry that enables them.
If you want a good fictional example of a “sociopath” (in this case, someone who literally is incapable of empathizing with others on an emotional level), I highly recommend the game “Shadowrun: Hong Kong” as the character, Racter, is a very intriguing/engaging one.
Fun game. Loved that whole series actually.
while sociopath is not a personality disorder, it still describes a set of personality traits that I think is meaningfully different from “just privileged”, and I think it makes sense to consider it something that’s wrong with them.
i mean she is kinda a monster in walkyverse and even in the mellowed out (relatively) DOAverse thats gotta translate
There the fuck did this come from?? She isn’t even on panel and hasn’t for ages.
I had this little theory buzzing around in my head for a while and in a drunken haste last night I decided I didn’t want to wait till she was brought up again to talk about it.
Never a good idea to post while intoxicated.
Write drunk, Edit sober, Post only after re-vetting.
Well, that’s not the medical term any more, so no.
Linda thinks other people, and especially her children, are props that exist to make her more comfortable, successful and respected. She thinks she knows better than everyone and she has no problem shouting and throwing money and favors at everyone her until she gets her way. She might qualify for a diagnosis of narcissism and whatever, but the thing is there’s plenty of narcissists who know better. Her problem isn’t that she’s ill; her problem is that she’s an asshole. Or rather, it’s everyone else’s problem.
Oh no, Joyce is using the word “fuck” like a sentence enhancer!
OH YES >:D
it’s gonna be just like “Sailor Mouth” I ready with popcorn and malt liquor!!!!!
this the storyline that makes you go what?
OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
makes you go what?
OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
makes you go what?
OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
I thought of that Star Trek where Spock adds in swear words randomly to sound like an American of our century. Cringe!
Colorful metaphors, like ‘double dumbass on you’ and so forth.
lol thumb up exactly
I believe that was Kirk, trying out Spock’s method since boombox-guy was making it plausible.
Kirk did say that, but the specific quote was Spock asking why. 🙂
“They are not the hell ‘your’ whales.”
‘Oh, did they tell you that?’
‘The hell they did.’
Sailor Mouth was always my favorite Sailor Scout. I thought her “FINAL FBOMB ATTACK!” was really cool
Fighting evil by moonlight
Winning love by daylight
Never running from a real fight
She is the one named Sailor Mouth
As she should!
So, she’s using it correctly.
Fam that’s like the first thing one learns when you learn English
Dumbing of Age Book 14: I Say “Fuck” Now!
Team Joeyce: “No, WE’RE the ones saying ‘Fuck now!'”
…. is the recurring nightmare a Sarah/Joe/Joyce threesome?
(Also, Joe still doesn’t look happy about this.)
Joe does have a lot of physical traits we know Sarah is attracted to. Maybe it will happen.
Vice versa too, tho. Joe literally told her he was into her violent side, and got Imaginative when she threatened him with her bat :’DD
“Big boy”.
Ahem.
“Old Universe” Sarah was Joe’s college girlfriend. So, yeah, you could say they’re compatible. He was already in love with Joyce by that point, but… (Door slam in face!)
I was kinda also imagining it was a threesome… nightmare. Joe does still seem a little shell-shocked by the newest version of Joyce, but I’m guessing he’s torn between being attracted to her new attitude and also being worried (probably rightly) that she’s putting on a front and will regret her choices later. it’s probably gonna be weird for a bit but…. I believe in them.
My first thought was that it was a callback to Sarah’s imagination in this strip, but on closer inspection it doesn’t seem to match up.
Probably not it. But maybe it won’t take much whisky to get Joyce in that outfit anyway.
I’m afraid Joyce is gonna try to do it with Joe while intoxicated.
He’ll say no.
It’ll be awkward.
Probably Joyce getting drunk and sucking every cock in the room. granted that’s only like two right now
After that, there’ll still be like a billion to go.
Lucy being able to drink whiskey straight is not something I expected. Also dear god don’t mix Sprite and whiskey, just use the soda as a chaser you don’t want any part of what you’re about to have, Joyce.
Joe is picturing that one imagine spot Sarah had of Joyce when Jennifer said she was going to mold Joyce. You all know the one.
That she says she’s accustomed sure makes it sound like she’s had drinks with one or both of her roomies. Which is…neither one has ever been what I’d call friendly to Lucy, or interested is spending time with her. Jennifer I could see because she’s an entire high school’s worth of peer pressure and she likes to be the party girl, but Malaya? And I feel like this might have merited notice before, given the disdain both of them have for Lucy. I’m intrigued.
Agreed. I think Lucy is just casting aspersions.
+1 to being intrigued, and in special by mentioning Malaya.
Wonder if she tried to be more like her at the beginning, so they could be friends? And of course Malaya went “FAKEY” and it didn’t matter.
I would not be surprised if Malaya had tried to get Lucy drunk, actually. Just to see if in vino veritas or something.
I’ve never understood people’s reactions to drinking whiskey straight. It’s a sipping drink, you just have little bits at a time and it’s no worse than any other drink.
Depends on the whiskey.
For instance, I find Jack Daniel’s to be incredibly offensive and gross.
But Mellow Corn, Baby Blue Balcones, Larceny, and the Irish and Scotch whiskeys I have tried are all fine.
Yeah same, I’m not into most whiskey but my favorite alcohol when I was 17 other than Smirnoff ice was the bottle of American Honey bourbon I’d sneak from the liquor cabinet at midnight
Jack Daniels is horse swill and I will never understand its prominence. If you want a burny, fiery whiskey just drink *actual* bourbon like Jim Beam or Evan Williams (bottled-in-bond >>>> and it’s also fucking cheap)
Some of us ain’t got time to be sipping on something for hours. My husband teases me because I chug all my drinks, water, milk, alcohol, it all has .02 seconds of time to exist in my cup before it’s gone.
Happy Birth Day, Schpoonman! I hop its a great one.
PS.
No, I’m not magic. Back in December you made a comment about the buffer being up to your birthday and I thought I would save the date. Mr. Willis said the strip of the day would be soul-crushing for someone. He did not lie!
Happy Birthday, Schpoonman! 🍰
Ha ha ha, get shrekt, Sarah.
Happy Birthday To You!
The world is a zoo!
We wish you a great party!
And some sweet presents too!
🥳 🪅 🎉 🎂 🎈 🎊 🎁
Do we now know it’s whisky, or did Joyce just assume? Does Joyce even know the difference, and is every distilled alcohol whisky for her?
Joyce has arrived to solve the awkwardness by being distractingly even more awkward! she’s doing pretty good at it.
Okay but can we comment on how Dina and Joe are just saying ‘hi’ to each other now instead of ‘obligatory greetings’?
baww. Dina & Joe’s friendship might be the most wholesome. She seems actually happy to see him.
True. Adorable. Dina with buzzle bubbles and her hair askew, my gosh, her girlfriend must be delirious.
Yeah, they get along nicely. I think it helps that Joe treats her pretty normally, and knowing now what we do about his mother, that she struggled to get her autism diagnosed, I imagine he gets it in a way most of the cast is still working on.
Yep, I forget what precipitated it, but Joe was offering an obligatory greeting before Dina said that such greetings are no longer obligatory, that the two are friends. Theirs has been a nice friendship to see develop over time.
I didn’t expect them to become friends and now their every interaction warms my heart :33
He accepts Dina as she is, accommodates her idiosyncrasies, and gives her feedback without judgement. That’s a bar that sadly, few have cleared for her.
It’s so basic, and yet :(((
But the thing is– Joe also does it very naturally. It’s not a learned behavior he calls attention to like, “oh yeah I’m super inclusive of autistic people”: Being respectful and communicating clearly in an inclusive way is a part of who he is. It’s really charming.
His mom had her own years-long, fruitless pursuit of an Autism diagnosis for herself, and he witnessed at least some of her struggle, so he Gets It.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/hanging/
And probably he knows that, if his mother has some of those traits, then Joe likely does, too.
He absolutely does. I remember Joe asking on ‘what are you really asking’ while Danny was grappling with bisexuality. Because if it’s just ‘have you ever been attracted to men?’ The answer is not, and if it’s something else Joe wanted to be aware that he was supposed to handhold and support.
He got castigate dfor it by the comments section, but I still think he was genuinely asking for direction on how to behave to be a good friend. He didn’t phrase it kindly, but it’s what he was asking.
Dina’s honestly probably fairly easy for him to interact with. She says what she means and asks for what she wants from him without having to be prompted or parsed.
………You know, I remembered about his mom and yet it would’ve never occurred to me to turn it around, and that he might be neurodivergent too?
But now it’s truly something I’ll be pondering.
I do remember! And I still remark on it. My own family utterly fails at this… Frequently, I gotta admit.
Honestly his interactions with Dinah immediately made Joe appear like a better person. He’s genuinely natural and good with her.
Here’s a link:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/simulation/
True
That’s my favorite part! Dina reminds me of myself when I’m high!
Repost cause I used the wrong email.
Also I accidentally reported your comment. Sorry. Whoever does moderation here, please disregard.
God bless, Sarah
Flash forward to a doctor telling Joyce ‘Pornlord’ Brown at 35 that she has early onset diabetes.
We’re not enough attention to that ‘I’m accustomed” line from Lucy. Just because you room with an alcoholic wouldn’t make you tolerant of hard liquor. Lucy was seeking it out herself and just had easier access because of her roommate. Lucy is not that innocent, naive, girl she presents as most days. She gets compared to Joyce a lot, but she is not Joyce at all. I see you Lucy. Keep walking down the path towards darkness and power.
The implication isn’t that Lucy had easier access to it because of Jennifer (who’s also not drinking anymore), it’s that she’s drinking because her roommates were/are kind of a pain.
Jennifer was drinking when they first became roommates and I feel her line is open to interpretation. Even so, your read would prove my point more if Lucy as you describe is thus actively seeking out liquor as a way to tolerate a difficult roommate. That is even less innocent then consuming it because it’s more easily available from her roommate.
Lucy’s villain arc emerges. WoooOOOOooooOOOO
I think that is a stretch.
I read it the same way, that Lucy has had drinks with one/both of them. Jennifer makes sense, but Malaya…eeh, it’s a stretch, they’re so generally insufferable that it’s hard to imagine them sharing with anyone. But I too took Lucy’s comment to mean that this is not her first rodeo.
Man, nothing is clearer about madonna/whore than “you’re not an innocent, naive girl? You must be darkness and power. Those are the only two options.”
I think in this case it’s more of a joke because Lucy is the most mild-mannered, sweet-natured, peacemaking soul in the comic so the idea of her doing a heel turn/becoming Sydney Yus is a hilarious contrast.
Very funny Lucy, good job changing the subject while still feeling sorry for yourself. So they’ve been feeding her straight up hard liquor? Ouch. Or is she referring to their prickly and rude personalities? I’ve been drinking a lot of old fashions lately, and even this oldest of drinks adds some sugar, water, and bitters to the hard liquor. No one will be surprised when I say it’s best with the most expensive versions of the stuff. At least add some soda water to that hootch!
The funniest thing would be painful drama and recriminations but I do hope that Sarah and Lucy both are able to just let go of past trauma and have a nice time with friends. Lucy was never into dorky Walky himself as much she was into the whole idea of having a boyfriend anyway.
In what way if she felling sorry for herself here? Or changing the subject for that matter? Joyce just entered, asked her something and she responded.
I think both.
Oh look Lucy said a sentence so it’s time for someone to interpret it in the most malicious way possible
Without fail!
It’s whiskey. You can drink it straight. As long as it’s a whiskey you like.
It’s whiskey that comes in a jug labelled XX. Odds are it’s not high shelf stuff.
Comments section: You can’t be a respectable brand and sell alcoholic beverages marked with two X’s
The Most Interesting Man in the World: Porque no los dos?
The only thing I know about the most interesting man in the world is that he has something to do with a beer named Dose Aggies.
The name of the beer is Dos Equis, which is Spanish for “Two X’s”
Sh! I like my version better.
This seems … very non-soul crushing. Maybe yesterday’s was the soul-crushing comic? Maybe tomorrow’s is?
There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering “kaboom”!
Another confirmation that Lucy is the god damn boss. As if we needed it.
Yep, respect. She’s said her piece and now she’s staying. She was invited, goddammit. Drinking gasoline neat is small potatoes.
Respect
Dina did that too!!! *^-^*
up next, “When Dinosaurs Get Drunk” XD
Oh, but we been knew that Dina was the bossest of bosses ;333 Seriously she only gets cooler I can’t even.
Until very recently on the other hand I thought Lucy bland. Nice but bland. She’s been steadily becoming more interesting, and her latest arc is like, a qualitative jump ahead.
As Booster said, Lucy is too good for Walky. She might not know it, but since she mostly wanted him for her first sexual experience anyway, she knows she can find someone else to fit that bill. (er, fit her bill…hurhurhur)
As poorly worded as it was, I think they hit the nail in the head. It’s not that Walky is actually Bad – It’s that Lucy’s particular flavor of Good Girl means a relationship between them would stunt them both. It’s easy for him to lose himself in his partners and let them lead – it’s what he learned at home, after all.
And Lucy deserves someone who is into her as much as she is into them.
I kind of wonder if Lucy is being literal, or if she means more that the taste of straight whiskey is not really anything special compared to being around toxicity.
If Billie (since this would have been before the switch) ever got her to try some booze, I guess it would not have been difficult to imagine. She did share her flask at Joyce’s party, so it’s not like she’s against spreading the love, as it were.
Both probably
I don’t have much better specific commentary than “this is the funniest comic on the internet”.
Lucy having surprise gasoline booze taste tolerance due to past roommates is a particularly good punchline tucked into this train collision of at least four, maybe more.
She shines a lot put into the same room as Joyce, as a foil, with the vibe of a lot of potential similarities that went different paths or get treated different, and is downplaying it right next to someone who’s had a night of drinks touting being a Seasoned Boozer. I’d love to see more focus on her background and what makes her tick, like some of the other characters who’ve gotten more focus.
I hope Joe is a surprise lightweight sappy drunk, like a lot of big guys I’ve met.
Oh my god I want sappy tipsy Joe so much.
Have a manual upvote!! I love your analysis! :DD
Yes, I would like to see some hidden deaths from Lucy! (Not that being able to down whisky straight is a hidden depth in itself, but her comment does suggest them.)
Either you meant “depths” instead of “deaths” or you in fact meant “depths.” Either way, I agree with your first sentence. 🙂
I meant “depths” 😀
Typing on my phone always leaves so many mistakes…
Lucy knows how to hide the bodies!
Wait… six months?
September, October, November, December, January… are we in February already?
My college started in August, not September.
If theirs is the same, then we’re still in January.
The inexorable passage of time feels spikier every year.
My joints grow rusty. My heart goes “oh noooo” every time i’m reminded. So I’m glad they’re in some nebulous northern hemisphere winter while it’s july downstairs here.
Comic time is much slower than comic-server time. (but not by much…)
I’m a little worried that Joyce is rushing into this new, more mature personality too quickly.
I mentioned in the comments of a previous strip that Joyce wearing Joe’s coat was giving me that feeling. You ever see a child wear an adult-sized coat? How their arms are too short and the ends of the sleeves hang down? That’s what seeing Joyce reminded me of–a kid who’s trying too hard to act like an adult. She’d been underage drinking, her F-bomb filter was just uncapped, and now she’s started talking about doing the deed with Joe.
And now Sarah’s worried that her reservations are about to come true.
Joe also seems worried, as well he should. He doesn’t want to be having nice sexy times with Joyce but then have her be unhappy.
I’ve come to think that Joe could be the one to stop Joyce if she went too far with her “freedom.”
But it will also be difficult, because Joyce may not want to stop.
He doesn’t seem worried to me.
In fact, in previous strips it was already noticeable that this was growing little by little.
If this gets out of control, it will be more difficult now for Joyce’s friends to stop her, because it is more than obvious that Joyce will not want to listen and will be upset that she is not “allowed to be free.”
as someone who lives outside the USA, the “underage drinking” part always sounds so dumb to me. She’s 18, not underage.
+1 seriously. Plus…
… Let the girl pick her own rhythm? Maybe? Everyone is always so worried about her “rushing into adulthood” like she’s not, y’know. 18. At university, which in the USA isn’t even a place you go during the day and then go back home with your family.
She’s been so repressed so far that it is now a reasonable a worry that she’s overdoing it, though, even at 18. (I’m European in a country with a low drinking age, for reference.)
18 is not magical age where you’re suddenly a worldly adult. You can still make terrible (= terrible for you and your psychological state) decisions at 18, including getting too drunk and trying to have sex in that state while your actually still afraid of it – and 18-year-olds do in fact make such bad decisions all the time, even if they’re not as green behind the ears as Joyce is, and it causes them avoidable pain, or worse.
I do trust Joe to slow her down, actually, especially on the first-sex-while-drunk part. He has shown that he’s pretty good with this already. So I’m not too worried
18 is not a magical age or a Sudden Adulthood Switch, agreed, and the stars know I made a ton of mistakes at 18.
It’s just– Maybe I’m not explaining myself right. It’s more about the tone these worries are being expressed? Not you in specific but generally, in the comments section. Something about it feels patronizing.
I think some of us feel that jumping from ten to twenty in the space of a few months can be risky and are recommending caution.
She is underage. The drinking age is 21 here, not 18.
You can disagree with our drinking age being 21 instead of 18, but according to the law she is underage.
I mean, she is not underage, law recognizes being a Legal adult as being over 18. This is more like Adult Limited, like how you can have limits on what and how you can drive but you Can drive. For everything not alcohol related Joyce is very much not underage
Meh. We ‘muricanz are some of the most puritanical types in the world. And the comic is set in Indiana, which is one of the mostest puritanical states here. 🙁
Joyce, being a evil imp in last panel, together with Scary Joe. What year is it?
*plays “Tequila” by The Champs on hacked muzak*
She’s a big boy now.
Sarah isn’t kidding
She can keep the pigtails.
Regarding the alt text: I wouldn’t worry too much about her hate of Sierra Mist being anachronistic, I’m certain Joyce would hate Starry as much if not more then Sierra Mist
Why would she hate the same soda more?
Haven’t you heard? Starry has a new and improved taste that appeals to the modern sensibilities of soda enjoyers of today!
Because it’s pretending to not be the same soda, it’s trying to trick people who dislike Sierra Mist into drinking it
It’s a real shame Sierra mist the keg party…
How does one type the emoticon for “that was a terrible, terrible pun and I approve”?
Joe, you need to find where the breaks on your girlfriend are and hit them hard, she is going far off the rails.
(Is this important character development for Joyce? Yes. Is she also trying to speed run it? Also yes)
This is totes her “Baby’s First Freedom” part of deconverting/deprogramming.
The pendulum always has to swing as far as gravity allows it, on both sides, until finally finding its resting place in the middle. ‘Tis physics.
Yeah, the problem is that you can do yourself some serious damage while it corrects itself.
Used to it or not, I’d still take Joyce up on the sprite. Because she’s not wrong.
She’s definitely wrong to bring sprite to mix with whiskey 😬
Only if it’s really whiskey and not if it’s what it looks like from the packaging, the cheapest vodka imaginable being marketed as ‘moonshine.’
The “moonshine” stuff is usually unaged corn whiskey.
Just being clear doesn’t make it vodka.
It’s very funny how Joe does not want to be a sexed up party animal while that is all Joyce wants to be
yee, this whole scene… overflowing… >:D
YES EARTHLINGS GIVE ME YOUR ENERGY HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA*plays “Advice” by The Pillows on hacked muzak*
Man, Sarah’s face in the final panel is absolutely goddamn great.
So this is how it starts. Sarah’s gonna end up having to .
Hahaha I haven’t used a hyperlink in ages, hover over the period I guess.
Joyce, like any other autist, does not half-ass anything. If she likes getting drunk she goes “YAY DRINKING!” and wants to do it all the time because good feelings go brrrr!!
Sierra Mist Sprite!? I know it’s Joyce’s bev of choice while downing those pills, but cola’s the better option for hooch like these!
No boozles on Lucy somehow, I’d love to see who has the most tolerance with alcohol
TBH as someone who’s not from the US: The pearl clutching about Joyce experimenting is super weird. It’s not even about the alcohol, it’s… Ok so she’s cursing now? Wearing her two top blouse buttons open?
Is it that she’s decided she wants to fuck her boyfriend? Because she already spent like, +10 years deathly terrified of her sexuality. Maybe I’m too autistic for this but sometimes you do decide one day “hey y’know what, I’ll stop stopping myself from X” and do it.
I think part of the fear is that she’s going to be cringe about it.
Kill not the cringe but the part of you that cringes (for these are people in their first year of university and they’re going to be cringe as hell in so many wayssss)
Eh let her be cringe, it is through cringe that we learn
Preach!
I think it’s worry that she’s going to overcorrect and be unhappy with both her new and her old self. It’s not the behavior that’s scary so much as the rate of change. It takes time to renovate a self-image.
Yep! It takes time. And Joyce will need to try stuff for size before she learns what Joyce as she is now entails.
Come on, y’all. It’s like our protagonist hasn’t proven how adaptable and resilient she is. She had already changed enormously from the fundie from the start of the comic before this arc happened, trust her a little.
Right??? Someone said she’s going off the rails- is this not normal behavior for an 18 year old living away from their parents for the first time??? Like fundie or not (granted I am just now realizing that my sample pool is tainted as fuck because a lot more families are fundie here)
Like this is perfectly average college freshman behavior
But moving away from her parents wasn’t the catalyst. Consider start-of-comic Joyce with now.
It wasn’t the catalyst but what I meant is, USA kids are afforded an even greater degree of freedom when they start college by virtue of moving out of their parents’ home.
Either way, the move itself wasn’t – but it was certainly a requirement. She would’ve never been exposed to a world bigger than the whitest evangelicalest side of La Porte otherwise.
As long as she backs off the rails a bit after this. If she’s starting a pattern, that could lead to problems.
Getting thoroughly drunk a couple nights in a row in the middle of the week is a bit more than average college freshman behavior. It’s not like anyone else in the strip other than our two resident alcoholics has done that on panel. And they’d had practice and time to work up to it.
It’s her second time, it’s a spontaneous party, it wasn’t her idea, and someone having fun on a night of drinking and deciding they want to do it again with the rest of their friends instead of just their bff doesn’t mean they’re staring down to a path of alcoholism.
Naw, your sample pool is fine. I’m from LatAm, we don’t even move away from our parents; and this is perfectly normal for a teen transitioning into a young adult, who is starting uni, in a brown people’d country that’s actually quite agnostic – so, very different and yet.
Whenever Joyce is in front of a window, I imagine this Joyce peeping through, aghast at what she sees.
man cool confident joyce really does something to my basic sense of propriety. i trust her implicitly. she is a worldly woman
By saying so, you trust her explicitly…
They explicitly trust her implicitly. The English language drinks XX and will let you do that.
Oh, Lucy actually managed to cut Dorothy off and let it rest. Just a small dig, done.
I am positively surprised (in this particular situation, I don’t generally expect bad things of Lucy), good on you, Lucy!
Sorry…Six months? the seasons haven’t changed since this arc started.
Right, but they’ve changed since six months ago.
She’s been dreading Joyce’s discovery of alcohol since the school year started.
That would only be four-five months ago. Also Joyce is still a freshman and thats when the two of them met. its not like Joyce and Robin have this long complicated history. When the school year started, these two would have been complete strangers.
Joyce don’t call Joe a “Big Boy” while making that face. It’s the worst of all worlds
I’m all for Joyce trying new things but I wish she’d stop saying weird things about Joe. If he was also saying things it’d be one thing but all it does is give me weird objectification vibes because she’s trying too hard to appear like a mature sexual adult. Which would be fine if Joe didn’t always seem stunned/uncomfortable. I think they need to have a discussion
Agreed! (I think objectifying your boyfriend in front of others is a sucky thing to do even when it’s not directly in front of him.)
“Trying to appear”: aha, that’s part of what worries me. That, inside, New Joyce and Old Joyce are wrestling for control, with New Joyce currently having the upper hand, both rather oblivious to the context of the struggle.
I’m hoping they’ll soon call it a draw, learn to appreciate each other’s strengths, and New New Joyce will actually be mature.
I really do not see the “uncomfortable” look people appear to see in Joe in these moments, most of the time it seems pretty neutral with like a raise eyebrow like in here. Honestly plenty of time he seems to be pretty into her talking like this (biting his lips, blushing, glassy eyes).
Yeah he just thinks it’s cute and quirky.
Yeah I agree. I can’t see where people are getting any of the “Joe doesn’t like this” and “Joe is uncomfy” and “Joe doesn’t want Joyce to x,y,z.”
He’s a very upfront guy, if he didn’t like something he’d probably say so. All I’ve ever seen from him in these moments is A) Horny and B) Yep that’s the goober I chose to love.
People seem to be very uncomfy with Joyce, I think. There might be some projection going on.
Most of the time, yeah, Joe seems to be either A or B, as the sane people in this thread have said :33 I’d add in surprised, tops.
yeah.
this case is particularly mild.
he is big. large, even.
and he put work in to get there!
Sprite sound like it’d be taste awful for this but I think Joyce is the smartest one here.
I also fully believe Lucy is invited to drink by both of her roommates.
Welp, we have learned a valuable bit of information: it’s whiskey. We are now enlightened.
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I don’t know, Ana Chronistic doesn’t seem to go on tirades that often…
Excellent metacommentary! Have an upvote!
+1
Dina’s older than most of people here, right? I’m pretty sure she’s already tried booze some time ago…
Most of them did during Becky party where Billie spiked the drinks for them
I don’t think Dina did then though.
I wonder if after the first time Joyce and Joe finally do the deed if she’s going to go around telling everyone she fucks now and how to do it.
Oh, that does seem depressingly likely, doesn’t it.
Well, it’s kind of what Becky did.
Dina and Joe are friends \o/
Wait … has Sierra Mist been discontinued or something?
It’s been rebranded as Starry, which is more or less the same thing
I think Joyce always preferred Sprite anyway. Way back in their first off-campus party arc, she seemed annoyed when she got Sierra Mist.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/sprite
I imagine that the tsil on Dina’s hoody wags when she’s happy
Oh the gods below; first panel Dina is Sloshed and Cute!
Pepsi renamed it to “Starry”
LUCY POSITIVITY THREAD 👏👏👏 even though people are managing to not be toxic today which is mega cool
Fuckin QUEEN dude just tanking that shit raw. The power. Kinda wanna hand her some overproof white rum just to see how she’d handle it
You’re so right. A young enby in my brain that never fully died is going like “shots! shots! shots!”
Anyway, yeah! People are acknowledging her at last and I’m fucken PLEASED ok. The only thing that could’ve made “I’m… Accustomed” cooler is a pair of shades.
One thing I am wondering…
Will Joe actually partake in the alcohol, or will he decide to abstain tonight, to be a sort of “guardian angel” for Joyce to make sure she doesn’t to too far off the rails?
Well, I guess lemonade can’t make what they’re drinking much worse
well that’s one way to defuse the tension
I’m surprised lucy would drink with jen, at the very least maybe not get blackout drunk, tho i can see it being like “ok, fine let’s have a couple drinks within the dorm room” to placate her and make sure she doesnt run off in a rampage or so lol
Sprite TM was the approved euphemism for alcohol in my college friend group. Not sure why, it came from previous members of the club.
Joe looks uncomfortable. Sarah and Dorothy also look uncomfortable. That’s nearly half the party. I bet Joyce gets super wasted and scares everyone and none of this previous drama matters.