Wednesday, April 2, 2008

DYTWOF & Me...a happy tale

Dykes to Watch out For - Episode 525!

Couple-a things:
1.) Courier is too hard to read. I'm switching to Georgia.

2.) I have always loved comics. I can remember (sappy thing!) sitting on my grandfather's lap (no fucking kidding...prolly one of the most traditional domestic memories I have) while he read me "the funnies." And it just sort of evolves from there. In the last year I've gotten really into Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch out For. I'm going to post a link here every time there's a new epsiode...or a new post on the blog that I am interested by...but I totally recommend exploring on your own. I have a lot of problems with most domestically themed, "realistic", atlernacomix, but I like DTWOF a lot because (a) I find it very witty and (b) it deals with a group of lesbians and their lives in a way that I can really relate to. I find that Bechdel's characters don't fall into the butch-femme binary that I am so ardently opposed to. I think she does a good job of expanding the defination of what and who a lesbian is. I also think she leaves room for queerness in lesbian culture, most notably with the character of Sparrow, but in a lot of less obvious ways as well.
EDIT
: Re: my usage of "queerness" in the preceding sentence: Being queer, to me, means that I identify with a lot of the elements of a homosexual and lesbians lifestyle, but that I am still open to having sex with members of a different gender from my own (I identify as female), but that I don't feel comfortable calling myself bisexual. More on this later, but I felt a need to clarify.

Thanks, Alison. Your work really means a lot to me.

6 comments:

richard.fredric said...

gender or sex? You said gender, in which case you mean you're still interested in similar body parts.

People used to say 'semantics, bah'. It was an effective way to dismiss provocative thought in high school. And perhaps this indicates a certain destructive solipsism yes, shutup of the American projection. Regardless, the more we obsess over trans folk the more your diction becomes crucial when describing biological lust preference.

Oh sensitive, nervey-fleshy masses, you provide such tricky and interesting fodder for discussion of late.


Remember that excellent disagreement over the nature of comics?

Risa Shoup said...

but i've begun to wonder about the social construction of sex insofar as it applies to doctors/parents who decide the ultimate sex of an intersex baby.

but you're right, i should have been more clear about my terms.

i never said "semantics, bah" -- did you?

i had a dream about high school people and darryl hell.
blargle.

richard.fredric said...

I had a dream last night that I was hanging out with a friend and a guy who is contemplating becoming a priest. We were walking and chatting, and I mentioned some ethicless decision I had recently made. He huffed and said "see that's why I want to be a priest" and walked ahead of us in that angry sort of way. I did not know how to respond. What should I have said, Risa? Should I apologize to dream priest tonight? I think he's gay anyway.

Empathy is really tough to conjure when it's a religious thing. And when it's a dream.

Risa Shoup said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Risa Shoup said...

1.) I don't see an inextricable link between being empathetic and being ethical. I think you can still be empathetic and be selfish. For example, a friend of mine is ill. I understand that this friend is not deathly ill, but is very scared. I also become scared when I am ill, for much the same reason this friend is - because being ill represents a total lack of control. And so this friend is asking to be surrounded by other friends, myself included, in order to feel a greater sense of control over his/her life. I am not submitting. I am not changing my life around to do what he/she wants. I could, but I won't. I have my reasons: I feel I need to be a dedicated presence in the office this week, I have a lot of homework, etc. But if understand why my friend is so deeply disturbed by his/her illness, shouldn't I go to his/her side and say "You're not alone in this?" But here is the cold hard truth about people: we do what we want to do.

2.) You feel abandoned by religion. By Catholicism, the dream suggests. Or maybe you're searching for a god. We all are. It's uncomfortable to embrace the space, but that's all there is up there IMHO (today).

3.) When do we turn comments into posts?


4.) Rich! I just learned you can't edit comments that you have authored. I guess I knew this. But if you make an egregious error in spelling, you have to delete the whole thing and repost it. Argle. That's what I just did.

Risa Shoup said...

Upon further contemplation: I am willing to entertain the argument that says what I just posted is actually a display of sympathy and that empathy demands action - therefore revealing the otherwise missing link between empathy and being ethical.