The gradient in the second panel is in the wrong direction (going by the highlights on the characters). Sorry, I couldn’t unsee it and now neither can you.
So, not particularly relevant to this strip in particular, but I’ve been thinking about the whole Walky-suddenly-acting-like-a-stereotypical-girl thing. And it occurs to me that Joyce isn’t mirroring that. She’s having issues with her biology suddenly swapping polarity, but she’s not going around belching and scratching herself and yelling about sportsball.
Walky’s gender identity has always been a very performative thing. We see more of this in DoA, where, for example, he insists that he can’t own more than one pair of shoes because he’s a dude, and even Joe is like, “What the hell? I own like half a dozen pairs.” And I think that’s because, as Joe suggests there, Walky isn’t as secure in his masculinity as he pretends, so to compensate he’s very vocal about how very, very masculine he is.
So, basically, if we want to give Past Willis the benefit of the doubt about this thing, it’s not that getting sex-swapped has made Walky suddenly want to be pretty and wear dresses and have Joe grab his ass… it’s that he’s always wanted to be pretty and wear dresses and have Joe grab his ass, and he feels that the sex swap gives him permission, or at least plausible deniability, for expressing things that don’t fit into his stereotypical masculine gender performance.
That’s an interesting take and I can totally see it. Though, it’s a question of how much he’s actually interested in the feminine things, versus how much he just feels like he has to live up to whichever set of stereotypes he thinks he’s supposed to- what he truly wants seems a bit obscured behind the drive to posture.
Ah! Yes, thank you. I tried to say something along these lines a bit ago and didn’t do so nearly so well (and entirely lacking evidence from DoA – I’d almost entirely forgotten that scene, great catch).
But yeah, Joyce demonstrates that much of what Walky is doing is likely performance (either previously, currently, or both) because she seems mostly normal.
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Joyce has a gun
Tony has his fists
Walky has dramatic posing
Yep, sounds about right
(yes I’m being sarcastic, shhhh)
Walky has dramatic posing WITH BREASTS.
Can’t forget the breasts.
Dramatic posing with a slight airflow to make his hair and skirt even more dramatic.
And the ribbon. The ribbon is the real clincher of the dramatic wind visual.
> Squad 128: Pose as a team, ‘cause shit just got real.
Did people get the “Blazing Saddles” reference the first time around? (R.I.P. Harvey Korman, who was still around when this comic was first published)
I got it, but I’m pretty damn old.
I got it just now but this isn’t really the first time around, except for me personally.
I don’t think I had the reference explained to me until I played Half Life 2 and met Lamarr the Headcrab.
Count de Money!
de MoNAY! de MoNAY!
“Charlie’s Angels” they’re not.
*Charlene’s Angels
I was waiting for so long for this reference.
Jayce doesn’t really get the whole dramtic entrance thing, huh?
Boof boof boof boof
I thought I sealed the roof
Boof Boof Seal the Roof
Talk Talk Like the Walk
Mace Mace Like the Jayce
The gradient in the second panel is in the wrong direction (going by the highlights on the characters). Sorry, I couldn’t unsee it and now neither can you.
So, not particularly relevant to this strip in particular, but I’ve been thinking about the whole Walky-suddenly-acting-like-a-stereotypical-girl thing. And it occurs to me that Joyce isn’t mirroring that. She’s having issues with her biology suddenly swapping polarity, but she’s not going around belching and scratching herself and yelling about sportsball.
Walky’s gender identity has always been a very performative thing. We see more of this in DoA, where, for example, he insists that he can’t own more than one pair of shoes because he’s a dude, and even Joe is like, “What the hell? I own like half a dozen pairs.” And I think that’s because, as Joe suggests there, Walky isn’t as secure in his masculinity as he pretends, so to compensate he’s very vocal about how very, very masculine he is.
So, basically, if we want to give Past Willis the benefit of the doubt about this thing, it’s not that getting sex-swapped has made Walky suddenly want to be pretty and wear dresses and have Joe grab his ass… it’s that he’s always wanted to be pretty and wear dresses and have Joe grab his ass, and he feels that the sex swap gives him permission, or at least plausible deniability, for expressing things that don’t fit into his stereotypical masculine gender performance.
That’s an interesting take and I can totally see it. Though, it’s a question of how much he’s actually interested in the feminine things, versus how much he just feels like he has to live up to whichever set of stereotypes he thinks he’s supposed to- what he truly wants seems a bit obscured behind the drive to posture.
Ah! Yes, thank you. I tried to say something along these lines a bit ago and didn’t do so nearly so well (and entirely lacking evidence from DoA – I’d almost entirely forgotten that scene, great catch).
But yeah, Joyce demonstrates that much of what Walky is doing is likely performance (either previously, currently, or both) because she seems mostly normal.
Yay! Guessed right, spelled it wrong.
“What… WHO PROGRAMMED YOU WITH MOVIE NERD JOKES?!?”