Moments of Permanence - Comic fail fail: Feminism fail

From: sqbr Date: September 30th, 2009 12:28 am (UTC) (Link)

I dunno, at first I agreed with your interpretation but having read someone on my reading circle's issues with the comic(*) I agree with their opinion that while the basic premise is sound, and while I don't think there's anything wrong in principle with guys trying to chat up cute girls on the subway, having him be afraid specifically of being treated like a creepy sex predator (rather than an ugly loser or whatever) ties into some dodgy Nice Guy crap.

(Which is to say, I think both you and Shakesville are wrong in part, thus the icon :))

(*)Which I'm not linking to since they said they were getting really upset arguing about it and there's always the danger that someone would follow from your comments to bug them

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From: sami Date: September 30th, 2009 01:18 am (UTC) (Link)

Right, except, no, because when one is afraid that others will place the worst possible interpretation on our motives, that doesn't actually relate very much to what our motives *actually* are; also, seriously, his thought was to *compliment her computer*, which, I don't CARE if ultimately he wanted to ask her out, that's just *not* an opening line which counts as offensive.

It's like... ultimately, there is a point at which yes, in fact, a man does have a right to approach a woman, even if he's attracted to her, because people have a right to TALK TO OTHER HUMAN BEINGS IN PUBLIC, and what you have here is the exact problem playing out.

Because here, you have a comic representing a guy thinking about making an innocuous remark to approach a woman, and being afraid that terrible interpretations will be placed upon his motives - and oh, look, people are doing exactly that in reaction to the comic, and what the hell. His point, proven, and yet somehow this STILL counts against him.

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From: sqbr Date: October 3rd, 2009 05:10 am (UTC) (Link)

Nnng..I dunno. I certainly agree that the character isn't at fault. And what issues there are with the comic are ambiguous enough that I'm willing to give Randall Munroe the benefit of the doubt. But I don't think it's totally off-base to interpret the comic as having the moral that men shouldn't worry about coming across as creepy. I don't think that's the only interpretation, but I think it makes a certain amount of sense. I can't be bothered defending it very strongly though, since it's not my interpretation :)

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