Gender Roles

by Mandy Seley
Mandy\'s avatar

 I don’t think I’ve actually seen anybody, ever, who really does behave 100% “masculine” or “feminine” all the time. Except 2-dimensional sitcom characters. Gender roles are bullshit — but poking fun at ’em is still amusing.

41 comments on “Gender Roles”

    1. Still need to get those back in place, disappeared with my last WordPress update. oops. 😛

    1. Thank you! I was pretty pleased with our simultaneous smugface. Usually only Fox gets to do that face. 🙂

      2. My smug face is like a challenge to people. I dare people to call on me or ask me to do something. It’s pretty great.

  4. Yeeeah, gender roles are silly.

    Love the smirks in this one. xD

  6. It has been my experience that the woman(ish) person or that one is is more in the female role, still “makes the rules”.

    1. You can say that without gender just by saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.

  7. I think I’ve read somewhere that people prefer to be with the “opposite” of what they behave as. Such as, a “feminine” man would prefer to be with a “masculine” woman and vice versa.

    I personally LOVE really cutesy “feminine” women but I never thought myself as someone really “masculine.”

    But that’s just me. <_<

    1. That just sounds like someone trying to twist around the ‘opposite’s attract’ concept. And, I can tell you that there are plenty of times where it just doesn’t hold up, both in works of fiction and reality.

  8. The important question – while you were sprawled on the couch, with a beer, scratching yourself, were you watching TV?

  10. I feel the same way with racism. Actual racism pisses me the crap out, but racist jokes and just being silly is fine.

    1. I’m mixed regarding racist jokes. It depends a lot on who tells the joke and how they tell it. Being mean or spiteful just for laughs tends to piss me off more than most other forms of racism, sexism, elitism, and just about any other type of negative -ism like them.

      1. I feel the same way. It’s really about the intent. If your doing to slander and hate on someone, that is unacceptable. I don’t do them often for that exact reason. Offending someone is the last thing I want to do

        1. Word to the wise: If somebody feels like being offended at anything you said or did, your intent is irrelevant.

          1. Which is also very true. If you want to make an offensive joke, make sure there is no one that is going to take offense. Even if you are a bit unsure, don’t say it. Like you said, if someone takes offense at something you said, your intents are irrelevant. What I said before works mostly for your own self. I see it as a way of determining whether or not I will take offense if the joke applies to me. Some of the best advice I have received has been to not offend anyone. You never know when your future may or may not depend on them. I feel that these jokes are to be made in very private settings with a select few friends. Even then it takes the right friends and the rift setting. I find that theses kinds of jokes are usually best unsaid even if they are funny/relevant/non-offending at the moment. I personally don’t like saying the jokes, but I am fine when someone else does as long as, like stated I above, no harm/foul/offense is meant. If I do find it offensive, I will ask respectively for them to stop and/or walk away. Both send the same message and if they continue, I will know who to not count as a friend or acquaintance. Harsh but I feel it necessary. Also your word to the wise has been noted 🙂 I will try to remember that.

  11. Love how you ‘just happen’ to not show what either of you are doing until that last panel. Also think you got Seley’s ‘Scruffy’ look in the last panel spot on.

  12. What are ‘gender roles’? Shouldn’t the person who is good at doing the laundry, understands how to do, and doesn’t despise doing it be the one to do it? Obviously there should be some type of chore that the other person normally does to keep things balanced in the household, but what does gender have to do with it? I can see laziness being a factor (I’ll admit, I’m guilty there), but I have some problems seeing gender meaning anything.

    1. Gender roles are a stereotype. Women are supposed to stay at home and do the chores and take care of kids, the men are supposed to work and make money. Not saying that’s what I believe but that’s what most of the world believed for a long time

      1. I was trying to be facetious. Yes, I do know what the ‘gender roles’ are, but I grew up on a small family farm and both of my parents worked. In that setting everyone helps out with everything because otherwise there just aren’t enough people to get things done. Besides, when I start thinking of my ‘ideal type’ of woman I tend to think of one who is rather strong, highly intelligent, and comfortable enough with herself she doesn’t have to ‘dress up’ just to be at home (sorta like how Seley is taking it easy in this strip, and I’ll admit odds are very good I’d probably be the one doing the laundry and most likely the dishes as well, but I’m picky about what makes clean dishes).

  13. My friend and I used to say something similar to each other. We’d always laugh because I was more “feminine” than her and she was more “masculine” than me. But then again being an obese hairy guy who loves dresses and purses tends to throw a kink in gender roles anyway lol

    1. I don’t know. I’m having trouble finding you feminine 🙂

  14. Glad to see you got yourself “recharged” and back up and running. 🙂

    And I agree 100% with you that ‘gender roles’ are total bullshit.

      1. Eh, it comes across better when talking to someone in person. Being facetious works best when you have non-word cues to work from (tone of voice, manner of speech, how you hold yourself, and a few other non-verbals). Of course, considering how often I tend to get sarcastic or facetious it does cause type-chatting to be less reliable for communicating what I mean.

        Hmmmmm………maybe I should brush up on my HK communication protocols. I’d either get some extra laughs or banned, either way people wouldn’t have problems understanding what I type.

        1. If you find a way to download HK protocols, let me know. I think they are hilarious.

          1. :SURPRISED QUERY: Do you have any idea how rare it is I make a remark like that that someone understands? :SMUG STATEMENT: Of course I have KotOR 1 & 2, so I could just play those games to brush up. :PONDERINGLY: Then again I might be able to find scripts of the dialog from those games, and TOR, to use as references instead.

            And for those who are not familiar with HK communication protocols, they actually say those ‘voice set’ portions, before saying the sentence in that ‘voice set’. Or whatever the term might be. I’ve never studied writing scripts, or being a voice actor, so I don’t know, I just know that you never, ever, ever have any doubts as to just what an HK means when it says something.

          2. Of course if you really want to get more specific, you would want the HK-47 protocols because the HK-50’s and the HK-51’s were nothing but assassination protocols.

            Kotor 1 and 2 are my favorite all time games. I am slightly depressed due to kotor 1 having issues launching out of steam:(

          3. For the most part I prefer KotOR 2 over 1. Aside from having a better balanced array of feats for a character specializing in ranged weapons, or dual-wielding, you couldn’t at the end suddenly change your mind about being light/darkside and get the other ending instead. 1 did have one awesome final boss fight though.

          4. I do have to agree with you, but I am feeling nostalgic for it:) I also love how in 2, the only thing that reflects your choices made in 1 was when you corrected Atton on the gender of Revan. Other than that, it was connected only by recent history and HK-47

          5. Getting off-topic in this thread, please take it to the forums or to email guys. Thanks. 🙂

    1. I’m afraid I don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said – read a lot of comics, and draw a lot of comics!

      On the topic of “tips,” though? Here’s a couple of specific “aha moments” I had early on, maybe they’d be helpful/interesting to you.

      — Gutters. This is the white space in between panels. They’re not entirely necessary depending on the look you’re going for, but I used to just draw panels jutted right up against each other (only a thick black line between them), and I realized I didn’t like how cluttered that looked. I started making sure I put space in between them.

      — Plan your word bubbles first. Nothing’s more irritating than putting time/energy into your characters and layout and realizing “oh shoot there’s no room to put that word bubble in, now…” Remember to write out what’s going to be IN the bubble, too, so you correctly plan for its size.

      — Don’t fall into the trap of “my style.” Some subtle changes, like using a thicker line around my characters in Curtailed, I held off on trying, somehow thinking “oh but that’s not the ‘style’ of this comic, even though I think I’d like how it looks.” Just do it. Try it. Especially as a beginner, don’t hold yourself back from experimenting, trying things out, don’t try to lock yourself into “one style” or “one look,” and don’t be afraid of making comics you look back on and think “well that didn’t work” (I think that about the backgrounds in this comic, heh). It was still worth a shot at the time!

      Beyond those random tips, there’s some helpful links/book recommendations in the FAQ section involving drawing in general and web-comics in particular.

      If you’re up for book suggestions I’d also recommend Scott McCloud’s Making Comics, it’s a good explanation/breakdown of the nitty gritty and terminology of the medium itself. Helps get your head around things.
      (Understanding Comics is also a good read, heavier on history and meaning of comics as an art form than on technical aspects though, so it doesn’t hold my attention as easily as the former, heh).

      Above all, just keep at it! Have fun and good luck!

      (“I’m afraid I don’t have much to say” — *types up multiple paragraphs about it*)

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