Comics I don't understand

[noracharles]

#71: Drag Dance Part 2

What am I missing, here? Is it the smarmy smile on the guy's face that makes his line "aggressive", is he standing too close, is it because he asks Wren for a dance in spite of her closed off body-language and unenthusiastic "...hey"?

I mean, I can see that he gets aggressive and defensive and snippy with her in the second panel, but I'm confused about why Wren is upset before that. Her line "Are you, like, hitting on me?" makes it seem like it's the mere fact that he's hitting on her, not the way in which he's hitting on her that bothers her.

Anyway, it's true that there are a lot of guys who think being in a queer space gives them license to be extra skeevy and objectifying and entitled and transgressive, because they confuse real life with porn.

Comments

[amadi]

I don't quite get it either. Maybe because she's a woman in drag it's meant to be taken as a clear signal that she's gay?

[noracharles]

I really hope it's not some bisexual people don't exist joke.

[facetofcathy]

I didn't get it either until I read her blurb about her own experiences. But that was because I have a hard time equating by default asking someone to dance with hitting on them. I was brought up to see that kind of socializing differently.

So then I was actually worried that it was a case of an LGBT world where the B and T are understood to be silent. Or the no such thing as genderqueer straight people joke.

Then I looked at it again, and I twigged to the fact that his drag is very half assed. He's not genderqueer, or even playing at genderqueer for a night, he's a frat boy in a beer branded t-shirt who tossed on a pink boa to go hit on lesbians.

I don't think her style is well suited to visual cues like that or I'm being more visually dumb than usual.

[noracharles]

I definitely read him like that too, and the second panel confirms that he's a douche Wren shouldn't waste her time on.

I've had the same sort of experience the artist mentions, and I agree that it's a problem.

I guess I'll go with many clues telling Wren what the guy was like, and her choosing not to explain it to the guy who wouldn't get it anyway. I shouldn't let her phrasing bother me.