641

Bisexual
Posted on April 30, 2015 by David M Willis
headoftheclasspreview07Hey, guess what, I finally got my next Slipshine comic finished this evening, and it's going up on their website on May 1!  That's, like... tomorrow?  Good turnaround!  "Head of the Class" is sixteen full color pages and it turns back the clock to January 2013, our time.  Look, Sal/Jason had to be done, and they've diddled it up exactly twice, are not diddling it up currently, and so in the time machine we went.  Anyway, it's drawn naked sexytimes, as per usual, but I figure I should mention that for anyone new here.  Don't want anyone to get through the paywall and be startled by genitalia and whatnot.  It's there, folks.  It's definitely there.   Peruse the Walky Performs A Sex FAQ for additional still-relevant info. And yadda yadda, five days left in the Book Four Kickstarter, blah blah.

641 thoughts on “Bisexual”

  1. Jen Aside

    “You said ‘buy sex, y’all’–that’s THREE words, and anyway I don’t have money for a hooker”

    …

    “or, not a good one, anyway”

    1. Jen Aside

      speaking of, gaddammit why is there only $3 left on my disposable CC, how do Slipshine renewal

      1. Wire Segal

        Doesn’t Walmart carry male prostitutes? He can probably buy sex there. Y’all should know this by now!
        (see what I did there)

        1. Cholma

          I’ve heard that Fred Garvin, Male Prostitue has cheap rates!

        2. Dr. Smart

          If I were looking for a male prostitute I would go to subway, I hear they have $5 footlongs

        3. Screwball

          Actually, Down Under they got 2 wraps for $10, would that mean he’d get a safe double serving to start off with?

      2. Maveric1984

        Like 25 for the first month an 8 every month after.

        1. Jen Aside

          it’s 9 and 3 is not 9

    2. Dean

      Mike never seems to spend more than a nickel.

      1. Jen Aside

        hey did you know Mike might also fuck ugly moms I don’t think he discriminates

        1. Kris

          Ugly or pretty they’re all worth the same…..a nickel.

        2. Rycan

          Mike does not discriminate – he is shitty to everyone. And so are his tips.

        3. DarkoNeko

          Eh, according to Ethan his tip does the job nicely.

    3. Lawzlo

      Dorothy, why did you just call me a bicycle? That doesn’t make any sense.

      1. Doctor_Who

        And you’ll look sweet
        Upon the seat
        Of a bisexual built for two

        The word works oddly well in that context.

        1. DarkoNeko

          Biiiicycle ! Biiiicycle ! Biiiicycle ! Biiiicycle !

          I want to ride my bisexual I want to ride my biiii~

        2. Leorale

          I’ve got a bi, you can ride him if you li / he’s got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make him look good. / I’d give him to you if I could, but I borrowed him.
          (Some songs don’t work quite as well.)

        3. Rycan

          *Danny stands there, unamused, holding a basket and a doorbell*

          “Is this supposed to help?”

        4. Screwball

          Wait a minute *Does Danny up in drag-queen-level makeup, then throws a feather boa around him* There we go, all done…

        5. timemonkey

          “Y’all wanted a twist, eh? Come on Dumbing of Age, let’s get sickening!” *death drop*

        6. Screwball

          Well someone had to add the ‘things to make him look good’. Not my fault I got no makeup or make-over skills…

        7. John V

          You can ride him if you lie?

        8. John

          Worked for Amber.

        9. -Sentinel-

          In film class, they had us watch and discuss the Italian film “The Bisexual Thief”.

    4. Znayx

      Nobody in this whole comment section has pointed out how similar this is another comic. Why? I saw the similarity right away. I suspect Willis planned this, yet only I seem to have caught on.

      I know Willis probably won’t come here to confirm, but seriously guys.

      …Sorry for the rage, people, this has been bothering me since I read this the first time, and so far I’ve read through the archive 4 times, so I had to.

      1. Znayx

        Or alternatively it’s just so obvious that nobody bothered? In that case, forgive my dickishness.

  2. Kilborn

    Hm so this is what it looks like when there are no comments

    1. boomwolf

      Hm, I wanna try something…

      ECHO!!!

      1. Captain Batson

        BITE ME!

        1. boomwolf

          DEPENDS, ARE YOU MADE OF COOKIES?

      2. Sean Franco

        The acoustics of the room change subtly.

        Loud Room
        On the ground is a large platinum bar.

        >

        1. Jen Aside

          >XYZZY

        2. Opus the Poet

          Rush YYZ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdpMpfp-J_I

        3. Deanatay

          light candle
          ring bell
          read book

        4. Roborat

          PLUGH

        5. Jen Aside

          You have:

          no tea

        6. Znayx

          YFYIAR

    2. nothri

      This is what it sounds like when doves cry.

      1. Rycan

        Actually, doves make a terrible racket. You do not want to hear doves cry, especially in the early morning.

        1. nothri

          Better than Seagulls or Cicadas, I’ll tell you that much.

          And +1 internets to anyone who gets the reference.

        2. DarkoNeko

          I love higurashi’s op <3

        3. Kryss LaBryn

          I can categorically state that having a herd of sea lions floating about 75′ offshore from your bedroom window is much, much worse. Holy cow.

        4. DarkoNeko

          I bet that’s where Hitchcock came from.

        5. Rycan

          Okay, that one takes the bellowing cake. Wear ear protection when you cut that thing up.

  3. DarkoNeko

    …well that defused quickly.

    1. otusasio451

      A reverse Ron Burgundy situation, if you will.

  4. HorchataShake

    YOU USELESS BISEXUAL

  5. Kris

    I starting to think this term “Bisexual” is pure fabrication!

    1. Opus the Poet

      Kinda like “polyamorous”. I mean get real, nobody can love more than one person at a time. That would take some kind od supernatural ability to love /s

      1. roflwafl

        Wait, what? You’re telling me people can love more than one romantic partner? That’s absurd. Next you’ll be claiming they can have more than one child and love all of them.

    2. Deanatay

      Yew jus made that werd up.

  6. otusasio451

    And so begins Danny’s educationinto the wide, wondeful world of sexual orientation.

  7. MelanieWaffle

    Just wait until he learns about the gender spectrum and pansexuals.

    1. Doctor_Who

      What? Some pans are sexy.

      1. DarkoNeko

        Eh, I thoughts only cooks were into that.

        1. otusasio451

          I dunno. I’m not a cook, but I’ve seen some saucy, hot pans in my day.

        2. Leorale

          They really invite you to take a wok on the wild side.

        3. Tacos

          What kinds? Teflon? Stainless steel? Or cast iron?

        4. Yet Another Laura H.

          And you thought “copper-bottomed” had something to do with gingers…

        5. Rycan

          I hear they leave a lasting impression.

      2. Rich

        Also Pan, especially if you’re a nymph or just generally into satyrs.

        1. Rycan

          Or you find sex too sticky.

    2. Carriethedragon

      Don’t even try to tell him about the asexual spectrum or intersex people. He can’t handle it.

      1. otusasio451

        Brain’ll go all Scanners all over Dorothy.

  8. TSB

    Fingers crossed that no one criticizes Danny for not having heard of bisexuality and citing it as a personal failing, when he is an actual bisexual person who is being actively harmed by society’s (and quite possibly his own family’s) prejudice against and erasure of bisexual people

    I believe in you, lil comments section! You can do it!

    1. Suitora

      I once thought bisexuals were just attention whores on MySpace when I was young. And then I realized I was bisexual.

      … And then I realized I was pansexual.

      1. John

        You can be bisexual and an attention whore on MySpace!

        1. Suitora

          Nah, I’m already an attention whore on Reddit and various internet forums. I could try tumblr, but it’s so hard for me to get into for some reason.

        2. neeks

          Tumblr and reddit seem to be natural enemies, that might have something to do with it.

        3. chisci

          i thought that was tumblr and 4chan… or tumblr with facebook… or tumblr with other parts of tumblr…..

        4. saki

          I think it’s been established tumblr likes to have ennemies.

        5. Fratriarch

          4chan is at odds with everyone too. I think it’s just a part of internet communities to think of your own group as the best.

        6. That Damn Rat

          Hell 4chan doesn’t really like 4chan very much from what I can tell.

        7. Clif

          And who can blame them?

        8. timemonkey

          Damned tumblrs, they ruined tumblr!

        9. Jack

          I’m a frequent Tumblr and Reddit user. This is definitely true, though I still can’t figure out why.

        10. Suitora

          It’s more that I have a hard time getting used to the format. Reddit is easy for me to understand. Tumblr, not so much.

          I’ve heard tumblr has a better social justice community than reddit, which whenever you see a story about something like the Baltimore riots, people use that to spout their racist opinions.

          But Reddit seems to also have a great MtF community. Tumblr seems geared towards FtMs and AFAB genderqueer people.

        11. cynthash

          Damn straight. I’m pretty much at home on reddit. There’s just so many things to get into. Little microcosmal communities, and not a whole lot will crucify you for daring to not be like everyone else. You just have to have a sick sense of humour, when people downvote train. I like to imagine little ants, imagining their downvote means all that much. n.n

        12. cynthash

          Also, can confirm that MtFs are easier to network with on reddit. Maybe it’s the whole aspect of not being really unique in the crowd dealie.

        13. DarkoNeko

          …so, you’re attention-sexual ?

        14. That Damn Rat

          I believe the term you’re looking for there is a Narcissist. (please note, not accusing anyone or attempting to diagnose anyone with a Narcissistic personality disorder).

        15. DarkoNeko

          Yes, it ws supposed to be a pun.

        16. Suitora

          Being an attention-sexual is closer to histrionic symptoms.

        17. C Baker

          If you’re attention whoring on Myspace nowadays, you’re really doing it wrong.

        18. Catullus

          There are dozens of us! DOZENS!

        19. Tacos

          Wait. Myspace is still a thing?

    2. Tacos

      You have more faith in humanity than I do then.

      1. Ned

        I have faith in this comment thread’s lack of humanity, so I’m scrolling down looking for it.

        1. Kaoy

          Found, tagged, and bagged. Spencer, time stamped 12:05am. Time between upload and Danny bashing: 4 minutes.

          Hardly a new speed record. Mediocre, really.

        2. Rycan

          Is this comments open season, or are you poaching?

    3. chris73

      Is he bisexual or does he just happen to have the hots for one particular guy?

      The reason i ask is that it seems like Brokeback Mountain in that Jake was clearly Bi (if not Gay) but Ennis only ever seemed interested in Jake so I was never clear on that

      Or if it really matters…this comic really does make you think

      1. Regina Phalange

        Normally that would be a question, but I’m pretty sure Willis said (maybe on Tumblr?) that Danny is bisexual

        1. chris73

          Ah ok cool fair enough then

        2. Idris

          At the very least, he said it just a few days ago in his commentary on old It’s Walky strips.

      2. Em

        I think you’re still considered bisexual then. Or just queer. Whatever term floats your boat..

      3. Ranthog

        Being bisexual doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily equally attracted to all genders and gender expressions. It means that one is capable of being attracted to someone besides the opposite gender. There is a spectrum involved, and it can be a very confusing spectrum to navigate. (This certainly follows for Pansexuality as well, which overlaps strongly with Bisexuality.)

        Not to mention Ethan is the first guy that Danny has ever had a strong crush on which made him question his sexuality. It doesn’t mean that he hasn’t found other men attractive, but assumed that is how all heterosexual people felt. It may sound silly, but it is pretty easy to not realize how you feel is different.

        1. Torechwen

          Yeah, I can get that sometimes people take awhile to untangle their own feelings. It took me long enough to figure out I was ace. <.< (Picture a kid sitting through youth group rants about Lust Is Evil and being freaked out because she thought lust=strong aesthetic attraction…)

      4. madock345

        I’m betting bisexual, just based on his discomfort and eye-aversion from the strips in the bathroom, even before Ethan showed up.

        1. Rycan

          To be fair, the mens’ room is awkward by default. We seem to have trouble acknowledging that we all have the same genitalia, for the most part.

    4. Plasma Mongoose

      I could understand not hearing about terms like cis-sexual and demi-sexual (Terms which I have never heard before 2014) but bisexual? it’s like the traditional holy trinity of sexuality along side homosexuality and lesbianism…

      1. caesaria82

        Yeah seriously, what did he think the B stood for in LGBT? Or has he never heard that term either? Seems inconcievable to make it to college age in this decade and not know what that means/stands for.

        1. Rich

          True story, I met a twenty-something college kid about two weeks ago who honestly thought it was short for bondage. I politely corrected him – to his credit he knew the rest of LGBT just fine.

          Love it when my good deed for the day is fighting ignorance.

        2. fogel

          “The Straight Dope: Fighting Ignorance Since 1973 (it’s taking longer than we thought)” http://www.straightdope.com/
          Good on ya; Cecil can use all the help we can give him! (So he can help me with things I’m ignorant about ….)

        3. Drake

          For the record, I was raised in a rather liberal atheist household and I literally didn’t hear the initials “LGBT” until I saw them on the internet. Two years ago. At *twenty five years old*.

          Bisexual is a common term. “LGBT” is really kind of not, at least in my area.

        4. JaneDoe

          Yeah, I’ve only seen that term (LGBT and its variations) on the internet and, very recently, on the marquee of this one church I drive past on my way to work.

        5. bodmans

          O gods yes, about 2 years ago I was browsing a gaming forum and I came across a thread called ”Any LGBT players around here”?

          I didn’t know so I went in and replied ”No, I haven’t played it yet, what is it?”

        6. Kryss LaBryn

          That must have made for some interesting replies. 🙂

        7. Gamaran Sepudomyn

          Oh god, what was the response?

        8. StClair

          “It’s fun, here, let me teach you how to play…”

      2. Regina Phalange

        I agree…I paused a bit when Becky didn’t know it was a thing, but now a guy from a seemingly normal home? I’m a bit confused and surprised. Even the way she said it, Dorothy doesn’t seem to be 100% sure she’s using it right.

        I know Robin implied earlier that they’re super conservative ’round these parts, but…what do they teach these kids in Indiana?

        1. Gigafreak

          Well, considering just last month Indiana successfully passed a law that legally allowed businesses to refuse service to people based on sexual orientation in the name of “religious freedom,” I find it plausible that LGBT erasure could be fairly serious there.

          (The backlash against the law led them to add a “but businesses cannot refuse services to people based on gender/race/creed/color/orientation” clause to it, but Indiana’s general anti-discrimination law apparently still DOES NOT include “stop bashing fags” in it, according to my Google search. Yeesh, two of my three closest firends are bisexual, and it sickens me to see this shit still going on.)

        2. Rycan

          And once we finally clean up the US, there’s most of the world left to tackle. At least we don’t lack for a cause.

        3. Smiling Cat

          You don’t have to put that in italics. There actually are religions like that.

        4. Smiling Cat

          Quotation marks. I mean quotation marks.

        5. Rycan

          That isn’t necessarily questioning the existence of said religions. Instead, the quotation marks question whether this qualifies as religious freedom, which isn’t unlimited.

        6. Smiling Cat

          I think the notion that a religion should dictate who you do and do not sell cakes to (as an example) is a crock of shit. And their adherents should be subject to the scorn and derision they deserve.

          I also understand that the first amendment’s protection of religious practice is not universal, especially when it comes to the protection of the public.

          I’m still torn over adding exceptions to those protections, though, at least when it comes to non-essential service. In a more perfect world, these businesses would fail naturally as decent people simply shun them into extinction. It bothers me that we cannot live in a better world.

        7. C Baker

          Abstinence. And possibly fear.

          http://www.getrealindiana.org/docs/survey_highlights.pdf

          According to them, 92% of surveyed teachers who teach sex ed. do NOT cover sexual orientation.

        8. Rycan

          I think that includes all of the sex ed I received in public school, if memory serves. In a notably liberal part of the country.

        9. khno

          I do not teach sex ed and I spoke about sexual orientation three weeks ago (just because in order to forbid homophobic slurs, you’ll first have to tel what homosexuality and bisexuality is).

        10. Rycan

          You used logic? What is this heresy?

          I graduated from high school five years ago, and most of my sex ed was well before then. Perhaps, and hopefully, the curriculum has been updated in the meantime. But that’s what my classmates and I got.

      3. Yumi

        I think it is, to a fair extent, a joke. Still, it is surprising that he wouldn’t be familiar with it. I remember learning the word “bisexual” when I was nine and watched the movie Dodgeball (not the best representation, but still). And when I was fourteen and came out to a friend of mine as bisexual, she knew what I meant despite her being pretty sheltered, living in the Midwest with pretty conservative parents. (Like, in this same conversation she told me there weren’t any gay people in India, to give you a sense of what I mean.)

      4. Raibean

        Is cissexual supposed to mean you’re only sexually attracted to cisgender people? Because there was already a word for that: Transphobia.

        1. Smiling Cat

          Sexual attraction is largely involuntary. Transphobia is being an ass. Not really the same thing.

        2. Raibean

          You can’t tell if someone is transgender by looking at them. If you aren’t attracted to transgender people, it is because you are making a conscious effort not to be.

        3. Smiling Cat

          Actually, you frequently can, simply by someone identifying as one gender and showing physical characteristics of another. I don’t think you quite understand everything that transgender involves. Or are you saying that someone can only be transexual if they have already gone through the hormones, requisite surgeries, or the like? Because that’s messed up, dude.

          If we acknowledge that transgender transcends physicial characteristics, then we should probably acknowledge that some people are attracted to specific physical characteristics regardless of what the other person identifies as.

        4. Raibean

          You can’t tell what someone identifies as by lookin at them. You also can’t tell what someone’s genitals are if they are clothed. If you are attracted to someone by sight, but this attraction changes once you know about their genital configuration, you are transphobic.

        5. David M Willis

          http://askatranswoman.tumblr.com/post/20810365382/is-it-cissexist-to-only-be-attracted-to-people

        6. Raibean

          @Willis And there are plenty of transgender people who disagree with that. Holding up one person’s opinion as representative for a whole group’s stance is silly.

        7. David M Willis

          If I were doing that, it would indeed be silly. I merely pasted a link. If linking an opinion from a transgender person into a discussion of transgender issues is awful now, then I apologize.

        8. Orbit Junkie

          @Raibean Your argument is also not representative of the whole. Invalidating Willis’ argument for that reason necessarily invalidates your own.

        9. Rycan

          Try this scenario:

          I am attracted to women, and only women. I encounter somebody who, for all intents and purposes, appears to be a man. I am not attracted to ‘him’. Now, one way or another, I learn that ‘he’ is actually a woman. If I fail to immediately feel any attraction towards her, am I transphobic? Was I transphobic for not being attracted to her from the get-go? And, most importantly, am I transphobic for not wanting to have sex with someone who I am not attracted to?

        10. Raibean

          Do you honestly believe this covers all scenarios involving transgender people?

        11. No Name

          Cissexual is the opposite of transsexual.

        12. Raibean

          Transsexual is out of favor; I’ve only heard people say cisgender, not cissexual.

        13. timemonkey

          Transphobia doesn’t work that way.

        14. IJ

          It isn’t transphobic to want to sleep with cis people over trans people. Trying to police someone else’s sexuality is gross.

        15. cookiecat

          I have a hard time seeing how excluding someone as a potential romantic or sexual option for no reason other then they fact that they are trans ISN’T transphobic.

        16. Gigafreak

          So, wait, if a woman excludes me from her pool of potential romantic and sexual partners because she’s homosexual and I’m male, does that make her heterophobic?

        17. cookiecat

          Okay yeah whatever let’s go with this. In the scenario that you are describing we can assume we are dealing because you described the situation as “heterophobic”it’s a straight dude being rejected by a lesbian woman. No that is not the same fucking thing. From the get go you would have never been a fucking option for her. In the scenario I am describing let’s say you were a trans woman who this hypothetical lesbian had been considering dating because before the revelation of your trans status she viewed you as a woman. However once trans status was disclosed a previously considered option suddenly stopped being one. Why did this stop being the case? It would seem that the second you were revealed as trans you stopped being viewed as a woman. How is this not fucked up? Trans women are women not men so the revelation shouldn’t have changed anything about the original attraction because again trans women are women and this was a woman attracted to women. Not a woman attracted to men which is why you being a man identifying and presenting as one this woman who is attracted to women would have been well within her rights to reject. But just so we’re clear anyone can reject anyone for anything but just like a whiter person who only dates white people you should still have to examine why the fuck that is and what society programmed ideas are deciding that.

        18. a4lbi

          Bravo.

        19. John

          Because she finds vaginas, not penises or feminine pronouns, sexually appealing?

        20. cookiecat

          @John: The lack of or presence of a penis says shit about if you are a man or a woman. Men with vaginas exits. Women with penis’ exist. Having one or the other does not make either identity more or less valid and saying it does make a difference is fucking transphobic.

        21. John

          I didn’t say anything about “man” or “woman”, did I?

          I’m entirely willing to assert that when you are considering having sex with someone, that is a perfectly legitimate time for whether or not they have the sort of plumbing you are interested in to make a difference.

        22. cookiecat

          And that kind of discussion is something to be talked about further along in the getting to know you process isn’t it? Not immediately upon meeting them. But if you’re talking about my proposed hypothetical again I was talking about a scenario along the lines of: 2 women meet at a party. They start talking and getting to know each other. Woman a is interested in woman b. Woman a reveals she is trans. Women B reveals nothing other than this fact (so genitals are not discussed) Woman A immediately rejects Woman B based upon this because this revelation has no immediately changed how she perceives woman B (the penis vs vagina talk means nothing here because woman 1 doesn’t know shit about that). If she suddenly freaks out at the possibility of a penis she is making that assumption that there will be one based on the idea alone that trans woman automatically = penis and trans woman somehow equals man and penis =man and AGAIN those assumptions and the reasoning behind the assumptions/rejection are fucking gross and rooted in something equally gross.

        23. cookiecat

          Okay I fucked up a little while typing that but for the sake of clarity: woman b is trans in this scenario woman a is cis. I wish we could edit these things.

        24. Raibean

          1. Yes it is. 2. That’s not sexuality.

      5. Deanatay

        Wait, lesbians _are_ homosexual. I think the third pillar you’re looking for there is ‘heterosexual’.

        Yes, they do exist. I know, it’s a little freaky, but some people are sexually attracted to the _opposite_ sex. You’ll just need to get used to it, ‘cuz they aren’t going away.

        1. Rich

          Yeah, there’s a few of us left.

    5. Zan Thrax

      I don’t think it’s a failing on Danny’s part. But my reaction to this entire story thread is pretty close to Dorothy’s in this strip. To me, the idea of not being aware of bisexuality as a concept or a word is akin to not having heard of the colour purple. Maybe if this were set forty, or even thirty years ago, I could buy this. But even twenty years ago, when I was this age, growing up in a tiny rural town with only a few dozen other kids, even the super-sheltered Jehova’s Witnesses in my class would have been aware of the concept. The media today is a hell of a lot less hetero-normative and even if it weren’t, kids today have grown up with the internet.

      Unless Danny’s upbringing was just as intentionally sheltering as Joyce’s, I find the notion that he isn’t aware of bisexuality implausible, not as evidence of some problem with Danny as a person.

      1. Spring

        Come to Idaho and I will show you the magical world of my youth

      2. DarkoNeko

        Even Dorothy seems to stumble on the term a bit, tho.

      3. Rycan

        You underestimate our ability to collectively hide under a rock and pretend the world is what we want it to be.

      4. Fish

        My social group in highschool knew what bisexual was. My sister’s description of her social group (same highschool, just a few years later) was that all the bi people clearly didn’t know what bisexual was, and instead were straight one week and gay the next and it caused them great angst. I had trouble believing it, because how does the whole school as a whole lose this simple concept in juse 3 years?

        Well, duh, Fish. Its not that the whole school lost it (or ever had it), its just that you get different cultural pockets within large organizations and my pocket was full of the kind of nerds that look up words for stuff in addition to having queer kids some of whom were activists, and her social pocket was full of a different kind of nerd (lovely people, just, never encountered this word and that caused them much angst).

        Anyhow. This might be the case where you are. Maybe not! But, its one way this can happen.

    6. Freemage

      I think the more likely reaction is surprise that Danny is so unaware of bisexuality. His upbringing has been sheltered, but for pity’s sake, Joe is his best friend. Sure, I wouldn’t expect accurate information on the subject (Joe presumably thinks ‘bisexuality’ is when two chicks make out while a group of guys cheer them on, before they both go off with a dude), but the notion that he’s never even heard the term before seems strange.

      That said, I do rather appreciate Dorothy’s non-reaction. If she stresses to him that “monogamous bisexuals” are actually a thing, and that there’s no reason for him to feel any guiltier for scoping out a dude than he would for scoping out, say, Sal (because honestly, who wouldn’t scope out Sal), Dan could get to a decent headspace.

      1. Zatar

        I should note that I had no idea what bisexuality was until my sister came out. If your not actually involved with LGBTQ matters than the level of erasure Than it can be surprisingly easy to be ignorant. Bi-erasure is pretty huge even when you grow up in a liberal household with a feminist mother.

        1. Fish

          yes. Well put. If you’re not out looking up detailed information on a topic because you deeply care, and the topic is kinda taboo so nobody talks about it much, then how can you be expected to get this information through osmosis?

    7. Lis

      My mom used to tell me “I think you’ll find the right guy, or the right girl it doesn’t matter.” She also was equally preemptively supportive of my brother. Then my brother came out as bisexual (funny social media accident actually) and her response was (to me who had been the first one he came out to) “well he just said he was Bisexual on Facebook so I think he may just be confused.” That’s right, my super openminded mom, who we didn’t tell because we were afraid she would be so happy to have a gay child that she would throw her own gay pride parade, could not deal with a child being bisexual. (she has gotten better) but yeah not gonna get on Danny’s case about that.

  9. MeghanTheWorldEater

    As a bisexual person I can ensure you that there is in fact no such word.
    -This has been TruFactz with Meg

    1. Wire Segal

      as a fellow bisexual, I can confirm the nonexistence of bisexuality

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        So you’re the sexual equivalent of the Canadian Boy/Girlfriend then?

        1. MeghanTheWorldEater

          What’s Canada?

        2. Tacos

          America’s Hat.

        3. MeghanTheWorldEater

          Oh I didn’t know that Abe Lincoln gave his hat a name!

        4. Rycan

          Rummage around enough, and you can find his written speeches.

        5. S'toon

          Canada is bigger than the US, and on top. In prison that’d make the US Canada’s bongo.

        6. Tacos

          As an American I’m probably Constitutionally obligated to point out that Canada is too polite and nice for any prison bongoing >.>

        7. timemonkey

          That just means you won’t see us coming until we’re in deep. Though we’ll probably use lube, we are polite after all.

        8. Starman

          When people say that Canada is bigger than the U.S., you need to remember that, like Russia, it is big because it claims vast, barely inhabited areas that no one else really wants to deal with. No offense to Canada, Russia, or Siberia, all of which are amazing places i would like to visit.

        9. Rycan

          Maybe not the northern reaches, unless you really like ice.

        10. DarkoNeko

          There’s that big deformation near the pole on mercator maps, too.

        11. LeftWingFox

          “The Northern Reach-arounds” is my new band name.

        12. Plasma Mongoose

          It’s where chocolate moose comes from of cause! ^_^

        13. Opus the Poet

          America’s toque…

        14. MeghanTheWorldEater

          I had too look up what a toque was. Ya see I’m a Mericun and we call those beanies.
          The first four literally have the word Canada written on them.

        15. Rich

          Maybe you call them beanies, they’re knit caps in my part of the US. Always get a chuckle out of foreigners who think this country’s language is consistent from coast to coast.

          Like many Americans my age, I first heard the word “toque” on Second City Television. The McKenzie brothers warped the perceptions of a generation.

        16. Dorje Sylas

          Its a hard concept to grasp that a single nation (by name) is so large its internal culture is not homogenous. Its a people thing, Americans also do it all the time to other nations. Scale, distance, and lack of knowledge tend to make humans lump “not us and far away” together.

          It is one of the things that makes the Internet, and the burgeoning Information Age so interesting. As more and more cultures get online and really start interacting.

        17. Rich

          Sure, and sheer size isn’t a requirement for deep cultural subdivisions either. Look at Pakistan, for example. Or the UK, which has been one country for a long time now and still had serious doubts about Scotland staying in the union just last year.

        18. Claire

          That’s not a size thing – ask a Brit what they call a bread roll, watch our second Civil War start brewing.

        19. DarkoNeko

          “…it’s how you use it”

        20. nothri

          What are ya’ll talking about, not consistent? Next thing ya’ll tell me is that ya’ll isn’t a thing outside of Texas. Which is silly. “All of you” obviously needs to become a contraction. Its just sensible English.

        21. Kryss LaBryn

          Really? To me (Canadian), a beanie is that little multicoloured brimless cap with a propeller on top kids used to wear.

          Have heard of Americans calling toques “ski hats” or “ski caps”, but “beanie” is a first for me.

        22. Rich

          Archie fans will also identify Jughead’s hat as a beanie, although wiki tells me it’s also called a whoopee hat. My grandfather had to wear one of the silly things for his fraternity initiation, still had it when I was a kid.

        23. Deathstalker

          I’m American. I’ve not heard toque before. (Guess I still haven’t, given that this is all text.) I have heard of beanies, and I associate them similarly, as propeller hats, which have always seemed silly. I’d just call that a knitted hat. Learn something random and new every day.

        24. Rycan

          I live in WA State, and I’m quite familiar with a ‘beanie’ being a sort of knit cap, sometimes with a small brim.

        25. Brady

          I’m an American, and what Canadians call touques (with a u), we call hats.
          If we must specify, we say stocking cap.
          I’ve never seen toque without a u. Do they still pronounce it took in your part of Canada?
          Jughead’s hat is called a crown. Is a king’s crown also called a beanie?
          A hat with propellers is called “one of dem hats with da propellers on dem.”
          A beanie is the tiny hat that people wear to synagogue, and that bishops occasionally wear. I was 28 when I learned that beanie means something else. A coworker told me I forgot my beanie, and I asked her what she meant.

          On a more relevant point, I also find it implausible that Danny doesn’t know what bisexual means. I was about 12 when I learned it in the 90s, and thought it was gross. I spent a lot of time imagining the sex lives of bisexuals and homosexuals to figure out which is grosser. A lot of time.

        26. nothri

          I believe Canada is another name for East Alaska.

        27. Kryss LaBryn

          As a Canadian bisexual, I can confirm that neither exists.

        28. DarkoNeko

          …bonus avatar makes it even better.

  10. LiaHansen

    knew she was perfect

  11. tim gueguen

    Seriously, what cave has Danny been hiding in? Becky I can see not knowing.

    1. saki

      Well, they do live in Indiana…

    2. Viktoria

      The cave is called Indiana. If there was basically no one out as gay at his school, he doesn’t spend time online, and the only media he consumes with gay people in it is Glee, it’s very possible he’s never heard of bi people. He may well know “LGBT” means gay without having any clue what the last 2 letters mean.

      1. Fish

        I cry a lone tear for those last two letters…

        1. Rich

          I’ve got an extra one for the poly folks. They don’t even get to be part of that alphabet soup, and zero states recognize their unions.

        2. Kryss LaBryn

          BC did at least have a conversation about recognizing poly relationships a few years ago, but unfortunately it ultimately failed to be legally recognized as they couldn’t find a way to legally allow poly marriages (which no one seemed to have much of an issue with) while still forbidding bigamy (a la one husband, multiple wives). They’ve got a religious group called the Doukhobors here (soooort of like a Russian version of the Mormons, so far as the marriages go) which they don’t want to legally condone–they investigated and found some pretty abusive practices, like marrying girls waaay too young off to much older men, and as I recall trading the girls away into different communities (some in the States, so not just down the road) so if they wanted out of a bad marriage (arranged, of course) they wouldn’t have any kind of support system to turn to.

          In the end they just decided to turn a blind eye to anyone trying to have a poly ceremony, which, okay, not actively persecuted, great; but I’m sure they’d like to have the option to have their marriage legally recognized. But they couldn’t figure out a way to allow poly marriages while still banning the Doukhobor practices without illegally discriminating against the latter.

          So bigamy (and therefore poly)’s illegal still. :/

        3. Li

          Idk it seems like AND YOU CANNOT BE MARRIED UNTIL YOU ARE 18 would solve some of that.

          Sure some people are going to whine because marriage at 16 with parental consult is the current standard in a lot of places but two years isn’t long to ask kids to wait in order to avoid some serious problems.

        4. Majere

          Being 18 and married off to a 50 year old man isn’t much different from being 16 though.

        5. Rich

          Ugh, that sounds unpleasant. Still, at least they were willing to talk about the possibility. Better than we’re doing down here right now.

        6. Zatar

          I didn’t know until my sister came out and I was in a liberal (so by US standards communist) Canadian household.

        7. Noobstar

          Ya know, Mormons don’t actually practice polygamy. It’s the RLDS (or whatever they changed their name to this month). Mormons are actively against bigamy. The main reason we used to practice it was because we were being slaughtered and there were widows that needed protection and shelter.

        8. Roborat

          Mormons don’t actually practice polygamy TODAY, and that is only because they were forced to renounce it. And yea, Mormons say publically that they renounce Polygamy, but in private, not so much. And I question the being slaughtered bit as well as justification for it in the first place. And for the record, what Mormons practice isn’t really polygamy, in that the women are not equal partners in the relationship.

        9. Freemage

          The difficulty with polygamy is that the term actually covers a whole slew of different arrangements, rather than a fairly simple one that can be given a handy default. This matters because one of the key functions of legal marriage is to establish a baseline for issues of dissolution, inheritance and custody. As soon as you add in a third person, this becomes far more complex.

        10. nothri

          While I see your point, I also have a counter argument. Many families have multiple children, and sometimes parents divorce and remarry and divorce again and have children from each of those marriages. I guess my point is this: Large families are NEVER simple to deal with in terms of custody or inheritance. Polygamy would just be a slightly different variety of the tangled knot of personal relationships families become, and therefore yet another thing we pay lawyers and judges big piles of cash to sort out.

        11. Fish

          Yes. Extra tears for the poly and ace and aro folks. And the people who are multiples like Amber/Amazigirl.

          LGBT doesn’t begin to completely cover everything.

        12. Rich

          Agreed. Credit to Kinsey for pioneering work, but you couldn’t graph an individual’s sexual, romantic, relational, and gender identity adequately in three dimensions, much less one. People are complex.

    3. nothri

      The Amazi-cave, maybe?

      1. MeghanTheWorldEater

        You mean Amber’s closet?
        Hmm he must of been distracted by the grappling hooks.

      2. DarkoNeko

        That’s an interesting way yo call Amber’s downstair.

      3. Roborat

        I suspect if you get caught describing a girls fun place as a cave, she probably won’t let you play in it anymore.

  12. Plasma Mongoose

    Bisexual isn’t the word, GREASE IS THE WORD, get it right peoples!

    1. Doctor_Who

      Nonono, bird is the word. Everybody’s heard.

      1. Opus the Poet

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gc4QTqslN4 Bird is the word!

      2. MeghanTheWorldEater

        Oh don’t ya know! About the BIRD!

        1. nothri

          No, I’m with Mongoose on this one. I mean, think about it. Grease is the word. The word that you heard. Its a groove, its got a meaning. Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion. Grease is the way we are feeling.

        2. nothri

          “The Bird” can make no such claim.

        3. MeghanTheWorldEater

          Well the bird can both fly and be flipped

        4. Roborat

          Apparently it surfs as well.

        5. neeks

          This thread needs to be immortalised and i’m stuck on a kindle without image editing software (and/or am too lazy to hunt down an app to crop a screenshot), could someone please take care of it for me? 🙁

        6. HereYouGo

          http://imgur.com/qjFscMU

        7. StClair

          http://s22.photobucket.com/user/cmdrzoom/media/theword.png.html

          there you go. 77 kb, png format for best legibility etc.

        8. StClair

          (bah. well, there ya go, pick your fave.)

        9. neeks

          Rad! Thanks to you both, and Clair if it makes you feel any better about getting ninja’d, yours is more what I had in mind. 🙂

        10. saltchocolate

          I love you, nothri. Your comment made my week.

        11. nothri

          Aww Shucks. I’m just following the train of silliness everyone else was heading down. But thanks! Hearing that I managed to brighten up somebody’s week makes mine feel better too. 🙂

        12. Roborat

          You should set that to music, bet it would make a great song.

  13. Doctor_Who

    Danny is secretly Ultra Magnus!

    Ultra Magnus: “Maybe I have been taking things too seriously. Maybe I should try and… and… whatever. There’s a word for it.”

    Rodimus: “Relax?”

    Ultra Magnus: “That’s not even a word. I’d have heard of it.”

    1. Tacos

      Heh, it’s funny cuz Magnus uses the word in an earlier issue.

      1. Doctor_Who

        Seeing as that series is so big on foreshadowing that things happening in the background come back 20 issues later, I choose to believe that this was some sort of super secret Easter Egg, the meaning of which will become clear in about a decade.

        Don’t laugh. They once turned a semicolon into a Chekhov’s Gun. A semicolon.

        1. Tacos

          Oh I know about the semicolon. I too read MTMTE.

        2. Dr. Smart

          um, maybe I should be reading this… a semicolon really?

        3. Orbit Junkie

          I’m going to have to agree with you. A semicolon? How do you even?

        4. Gamaran Sepudomyn

          I guess it’s like inserting the significant comma in “dead drunk”?

        5. Rycan

          That would have significance immediately, though. Unless the comma fell out.

        6. Gamaran Sepudomyn

          I meant more in the manner of the semicolon changing the meaning of a sentence from a relatively innocuous (I have no idea how to spell this) one to a significantly more important one.

        7. Doctor_Who

          Everyone should be reading MTMTE. Period…Semicolon.

        8. Roborat

          A story about robots that transform into vehicles? Hah, it will never catch on.

        9. Tacos

          I highly recommend reading MTMTE. Some of the most innocuous things there turn out to be super important. Like the Autobot-Decepticon war that’s lasted for 4 million years can be traced all the way back to a curly straw.

  14. Cerberus

    Dorothy uses acceptance!
    Danny is confused!
    Danny owns himself in his confusion!

    1. Jen Aside

      Danny passes out!

      1. Kaoy

        What’s this?!
        *Doo doo doo doooo*
        Dorothy is EVOLVING!!!
        *Doo doo doo dooooooo*
        Dorothy has evolved into… DOTTY!
        *Doododododoooo Doodeedeedeedeeeeee*

  15. saki

    And this is why Dorothy was the best person to talk to this about. No freaking out, no shaming, just accepting it.

    1. Leorale

      It’s really quite refreshing, like delicious Kiwi Cola.

      1. saki

        I have a dream that one day all coming outs will happen this way. Oh how beautiful the world will be.

    2. Kamino Neko

      Looks like Danny wanted freaking out…probably to justify his own freaking out.

      1. saki

        Sure, but if the first person he talks to about this freaks out, then that would only freak him out more. Not only that, but it would also make it harder to tell other people further down the line. Dorothy’s calm acceptance of it is what will help him accept it himself. That’s what he needs right now. Even if he’s only aware of it subconsciously.

      2. Rycan

        I don’t think he expected any reaction besides freaking out. I get the sense that, to Danny, it’s as if the Moon had turned into a pumpkin. HOW COULD YOU NOT BE FREAKING OUT?!?

        1. Rycan

          oops, screwed up the end tag on the bolding

        2. DarkoNeko

          …if that made the rest of the page bold then it’s hilarous.

    3. Smiling Cat

      I’m amazed there isn’t even a moment of reflection and re-evaluation*. I have no choice but to assume that Dotty always knew.

      *(in the sense of “hey, that makes sense in context”. Not in terms of judgment)

      1. saki

        Well, she’s known him for a long time. Maybe she suspected? Or the pause between the “Oh.” and the “And? […]” marked by a change in panel is that moment? I guess with comics you have to… read between the panels.

      2. APersonAmI

        I don’t see what there is to re-evaluate. He is not homosexual, and she is not interested in having threesomes with him and another guy, so… how would his sexuality be at all relevant to her and his relationship, in the past or now?

        1. Smiling Cat

          …

          You know there’s more to life than sex, right? Curiosity about an individual can extend beyond whether or not you can or will bone or be boned by them.

          Personally, whenever I learn something new about someone I’ve known for a long time, I’m quite eager to fit this new piece into the puzzle that is them. Without trying to fit my penis into them, in fact!

        2. timemonkey

          There’s nothing new to add to the puzzle. He only just realised and Danny has relationship tunnel vision so there won’t be any “oh, he was totally into that other person and didn’t realise it’ moments so there’s nothing new to add.

        3. Smiling Cat

          There’s always something new to add to the puzzle. And stop obsessing over the dating angle.

        4. timemonkey

          We’re discussing his sexuality, dating and attraction, or the lack thereof, is all that applies to it.

        5. Smiling Cat

          Umm… no? It’s all interconnected.

        6. APersonAmI

          It is entirely possible that, for you, every aspect of who you are is connected to every other aspect of who you are.

          However, for me, this is not the case. I identify as asexual. That means I don’t want to have sex with the people I like, I will not date others with a mind to have sex with them, and I will not be sexually attracted to others. But that is all that it means. It in no way informs the rest of who I am, except for the way I am affected by the way other people react to me because of my sexuality.

        7. Smiling Cat

          Poppycock. We’re all a tapestry, with each aspect informing on each other aspect of ourselves. It’s DNA. Those who claim otherwise are… well, probably just not as neurotic as I am and thus don’t obsess on the details. Even a lack of a subconscious (or conscious) desire to sex things informs on your personality, because it presents a different set of subconscious interactions with others than those who have the tiny voice in the back of their heads saying “make more mans!”

          For one thing, you seem kinda touchy on this subject.

      3. Rycan

        If someone’s comfortable enough with the concept, such a reaction shouldn’t be too unreasonable. Plus, some people have a really valuable knack for being cool and collected when others are freaking out. If the whole politician thing doesn’t work out, Dorothy should consider becoming an emergency responder.

        1. DarkoNeko

          And She’s seen Billie and (arguably) Joyce before

        2. Smiling Cat

          The no freakout thing I get. I may be projecting because I analyze everything obsessively.

      4. slapdash

        I think she knew all along. Dorothy is a fairly perceptive lady. My wife knew from our very first date, and I had no idea. I’d buried it down so deeply that it took years to finally fight through a lifetime of social programming and fundamental Christian self-hatred and realize who I was.

        Glad to see Danny can come to this realization with a support system. Thanks Willis.

  16. Bagge

    Psssst, Dorothy, this is obviously a big deal for Danny so just a tad less dismissive attitude wouldn’t hurt.

    1. caesaria82

      How is she being dismissive? She is being flawfree and amazing.

      1. Carriethedragon

        She’s kinda brushing him off. Like, it’s not a huge deal. As attitudes towards bisexuality go, it’s one of the better ones, and overall I applaud Dorothy. But it’s not always the best to reply to someone who comes out to you by implying that it doesn’t matter.

      2. saki

        The calm way she is taking it might appear as though she is dismissing Danny’s freaked out feelings. Depends on your perspective I guess.

        1. caesaria82

          Ah ok, dismissive towards his freak-out, you mean? Ok yeah, maybe. But Dorothy isn’t really the type to indulge a freak-out anyway and she’s not making a big deal out of this because it’s not a big deal to her.

        2. Tom T.

          Exactly. Dorothy has struggled as much as any of the characters at seeing from a perspective other than her own.

        3. Dr. Smart

          lol this is starting to remind me of the Lesson zero episode of MLP

        4. StClair

          You think Danny might get sent back to Magic Kindergarten?!

        5. Bagge

          I was gonna explain my original post, but frankly I like the direction this thread went so much that I don’t want to distract from that.

          “Every pony here is CRAZY”

    2. Em

      I think she’s handling it well. If she went “Oh my god really??” I don’t think that would really be very helpful. She’s trying to be his rock, since he doesn’t have one. Hopefully she’s showing him that what he’s feeling isn’t abnormal.

    3. timemonkey

      Instant acceptance isn’t really dismissive. Treating it like a big deal when he’s already worked up isn’t going to help anything.

    4. caramelundqueer

      I don’t think she’s being dismissive so much as she’s just happens to be someone who doesn’t freak the fuck out at the revelation that everyone in her life isn’t automatically heterosexual. Even someone who she had a previous sexual relationship. She also doesn’t automatically jump to the conclusion that Danny has to be gay and in denial because just a few minutes before he was reminding her (somewhat annoyingly) how he still enjoys sex with women. She actually has a very healthy attitude about this whole thing and was definitely the best/safest person he could have come out to first.

  17. Emoroffle

    I’m guessing Danny grew up in some kind of1950’s TV town.

    1. LiaHansen

      I like the idea that through Danny’s eyes the world is Riverdale and he is Archie

    2. AtomsOrSystems

      I wish. I grew up in the third-largest US city without bisexuality really being something I was aware of until… well, until I became personally aware of it.

      Hell, I went through med school reading peer-reviewed journal articles telling me that I didn’t exist. (We have a tendency to hide our bi’s, maybe especially our male bi’s, is what I’m trying to say.)

      1. Emoroffle

        Yeah our culture in the US tends to erase bisexual people in general which is really a sad thing for us. I just found it incredulous since I grew up in rural Texas with a Baptist family and I knew what bisexuality was by the time I entered high school. It helped that I’m bisexual homoromantic.

        1. Roborat

          When I was young (crap, that was a looonnnng time ago), I had heard the word, but the prevailing opinion was that they were actually gay or straight people who hadn’t yet figured out what orientation they were.

        2. Emoroffle

          That idea still persists in the southern US. Even among gay and lesbian groups there who persist in saying that bisexuals are confused or outright lying.

  18. IAmDeltaS

    But you have heard of it before, Danny! Dorothy just said it 15 seconds ago!

  19. newllend(henryvolt)

    Someone needs to sit Danny and Becky down and give them a talk.

    1. Leorale

      Maybe a whole series of talks. Maybe a gender studies class?

      1. brumagem

        Maybe next quarter in about 8 more years.

      2. Rich

        If it wasn’t still so early in the DoA school year I’d really be wondering if Leslie was terrible at her job. As it is, I’m straining disbelief a bit that the term’s never been mentioned in class or the readings even once. Very strange curriculum that doesn’t do some basic definitions first.

        1. DarkoNeko

          Danny’s taking her class ?

        2. Rich

          Oh right, he isn’t, is he? Well, never mind then.

          Think he could borrow a textbook? Heaven knows Joe isn’t using his.

        3. Rycan

          Still Leslie’s failing. She should be teaching the entire IU student body.

        4. DarkoNeko

          Sarcasm’s can be hard to detect over internet.

        5. Rich

          really I had not noticed

          🙂

  20. Arkantos

    There just can’t be people who haven’t even heard the word. I mean, I get Becky not hearing about it due to being all sheltered, but come on Danny.

    1. Viktoria

      I had only heard it online growing up. Not once was it mentioned in reality, beyond the “party bi” stereotype for girls, and even there “bisexual” was never uttered. And Indiana is ridiculously terrible, especially small towns. Danny having no clue is perfectly reasonable.

      (For perspective, I grew up in Texas and was shocked at how racist Indiana was when I moved there.)

      1. saltchocolate

        Whoa…

      2. Incomitatus

        Indiana, proudly boasting more KKK members per capita than any other state for the last century and probably longer.

        1. Varius

          KKK: Founded by democrats.

          MLK: Republican.

        2. nothri

          Well, sure, but this was before the Democrats got their shit together and lots of racists jumped ship to the Republicans.

        3. Rycan

          Indiana not only fought against the Confederacy (without having to be coerced by Lincoln), but banned slavery when they enacted their constitution in 1816. So I kinda doubt that the original KKK (stamped out in the 1870’s) was very popular in Indiana.

        4. No Name

          Ever hear of the Butternut states? Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois, and Southern Ohio all seriously considered seceding, a la West Virginia. The only reason they didn’t was because Kentucky (which had it’s own problems) was in the way. Many of them didn’t see a problem with slavery, and back when Lincoln was a lawyer in Illinois, he actually had to free a slave.

        5. Incomitatus

          Don’t use assumptions to argue with facts.

          In the early 1920’s Klan membership in Indiana stood at 30% of the white male population. Over half of the Legislature and the governor were open Klan members, and Indiana’s nickname was the “Klan State”.

          Membership isn’t nearly so high now (it collapsed in the late 20s and only partially regrew in the ’60s and ’70s), but it remains the highest per capita in the country.

          As far as the Civil War is concerned… Indiana spent the war under martial law with habeas corpus in suspension and a goodly chunk of the General Assembly in prison by order of the then-governor. Had he not taken those drastic measures, Indiana almost certainly would have seceded.

        6. Incomitatus

          So yeah, you’re right, Rycan, Lincoln didn’t have to coerce Indiana, he was fortunate enough the state had a governor who would do it on his own initiative.

          As far as the ‘original’ Klan is concerned, no… I don’t think it was big in Indiana. It was the reformed Klan of the very late 1800s and early 1900s that essentially took over the state.

      3. nothri

        Also from Texas (although I’m from Austin, which doesn’t actually ‘count’ as Texas depending on who you ask). I probably wouldn’t have heard of bisexuality until college if my friend hadn’t come out to me after a bad breakup. I remember how it really soldified everything for me. It seems like a completely retarded thing to say now…but in that moment everything changed as far as sexuality and such felt to me. Before it was all abstracts- I generally supported gay marriage and such because…you know, equality and crap. But that was really the first time someone I knew personally talked about being bisexual. And what I remember most was just…how normal it seemed. Like I said, it feels dumb now to say it, but it was quite a revelation at the time. Above the gender of the other person, my friend had been in love and had gotten heartbroken. This wasn’t some alien ritual she had gone through…she loved and lost, had taken a chance and suffered and felt the loss as sharp as anyone who’s gone through a breakup ever feels it. That’s always stayed with me. Gender, race, creed, or nation…there’s more that unites us as human than divides.

    2. hitmonkey

      I’d never heard of it at Danny’s age, and I’m definitely not sheltered. It’s really not that difficult when most of society doesn’t talk about it.

    3. Tacos

      Even if people know the word, they might not actually know what it really means. I’d heard of the word back in elementary school though a lot of people thought it was really just a word for only girls who were into guys and girls. They didn’t know it can also apply to dudes.

    4. Dr. Smart

      I’m wondering if maybe he has heard the word before but always dissociated it with himself so these feelings to him show up not as words but more as weird feelings he doesn’t quite understand. even when Dorothy said “Bisexual” he didn’t relate that to the way he was feeling because he had always imagined Bisexual being a word to describe other people?

      though I am probably wrong and he is just a victim of Bi erasure…

      1. Kryss LaBryn

        Poor Danny, erasing himself… :/

  21. Terry

    We are in need of open discussion on the spectrum of sexuality! We need help!

    Quickly, light the Roz Signal!

    1. Fish

      yesssss…..

    2. DarkoNeko

      …nooope.

    3. Idris

      So, you want a horrible drama explosion?

      If you really want to send him to an expert, send him to Leslie. She at least has empathy.

      1. Fish

        To be fair, “horrible drama explosions” are one of the many features this comic offers. 🙂

        Honestly, I’d just like to see Roz shine in a positive way, and this seems like a good opportunity for that.

    4. Rycan

      …is that a dildo hat strapped to a searchlight?!?

    5. nothri

      Can I lobby for a Leslie signal instead?

      1. DarkoNeko

        Only if it’s Robin-shaped.

        1. Rich

          I miss that couple. Get to work on the matchmaking, Roz, you’ve been slacking.

  22. Spencer

    I refuse to believe Danny is as ignorant on this as Becky.

    That aside, given how much Danny was wigging out over this, you’d think Dorothy would have a little more to say than “and?” or something like that. Obviously she doesn’t view it as a big deal and is trying to make Danny see that as well, but it just seems a little dismissive, even if it really isn’t a problem at all/

    1. brumagem

      I don’t think she was being dismissive, she obviously just assumed Danny’s problem would be quite a bit more complicated than that. But on that note, it IS. I wonder if Dorothy’s nosiness will get the better of her and ask who the lucky man is?

      1. Rycan

        She also has reason to assume there is another shoe – Danny is fearing Amber’s reaction for a reason, and Dorothy should reasonably suspect that it’s something other than homophobia.

        1. Random832

          So… we know that Ethan was Amber’s gay ex-boyfriend. What do Danny and Dorothy know? I think we know that Danny doesn’t know Ethan is gay. IIRC Danny knows, or should be able to infer, that Amber had an ex-boyfriend who turned out to be gay. Does he know that Ethan and Amber were ever together? Does Dorothy know anything?

        2. Greenygal

          Dorothy knows that Ethan is gay. Danny knows that Ethan is Amber’s ex. Dorothy presumably also knows that, because she was standing right there when Amber mentioned it. Dorothy may have worked out that Amber knows Ethan is gay; she saw Amber drag him off and yell at him after finding him with Joyce. But we haven’t seen her draw that conclusion, and she may not have done so. Danny could have worked out that Ethan is gay, as Amber mentioned that she’d been dumped by a closeted gay guy, but I’m pretty sure that revelation is going to be shown on-panel.

    2. Carriethedragon

      Yeah, I’m not big on the idea that we should tell people who come out that it doesn’t matter. Discovering that you have a non-normative orientation or identity is generally kind of a big deal in a person’s life.

      1. brumagem

        Kind of? There’s a very wide range of feels when it comes to this kind of thing and which feels you have in regard to it depends very much on all the -other- facets of your personality. For instance, I have a lot of anxiety when it comes to major life-changes, so the best possible reaction to my coming out was “Okay” with the conversation soon shifting back to whether or not they’ll ever release an Over the Garden Wall DVD set.

      2. saki

        I think the best response to this kind of thing depends a lot on the person coming out. Which makes it hard to determine how to react since you can’t always know what is best. My personal policy is to take it calmly like Dorothy is doing but make sure the other party knows that you understand it can be a big deal and are there for them.

        1. APersonAmI

          This is what I tend to do, too. Basic reaction: “Oh, cool.” or “Oh, okay.” And then followed by whatever I feel they need me to say. Confirming that I still love them, curiosity, that I will help them tell others close to them if they want me too, or inversely keep their secret if they don’t want to come out yet, etc. There really isn’t a single “right” way to react to this sort of thing, but I prefer to do it calmly.

      3. fogel

        In grad school was going to a conference with a friend, F, and his apartment mate, M drove us to the airport. At the drop off they sort of tussled for a moment, then M won and got the goodbye kiss that he wanted. I wondered that F hadn’t wanted to reveal himself to me then/there/that way but that M had had enough. I’d been to their apartment and never thought they were a couple, they acted other wise. I thought, 1, oh, ok; 2, it must really suck to worry about goodbye kissing in front of a friend, 3, do I say something to indicate it’s fine by me and see if he wants to talk,maybe, I didn’t realize that you and M are a couple, OR say nothing and hope that F realized it was because I wanted to normalize gay couplesbehaving like straights, not too weirded out. We had time before our flight and went to the bar. I went with the second option, and we had a conversation like any other. Which turned out to be an option that worked well. A few years later F And M attended my wedding as a couple and we have a lovely photo of them smiling and happy together.

    3. Tacos

      She’s not really being dismissive but Danny could always misconstrue her reply as such I guess.

    4. brumagem

      Also, I’m not surprised at Danny’s ignorance. He’s an 18-year-old from a backwater town in Indiana who’s best friend is Joe, who we’ve already established is pretty bi-erasure-tastic.

      1. timemonkey

        When did Joe display bi-erasure? When was the topic ever broached?

        1. neeks

          Danny did try to ask Joe about it in a backwards kind of way but the conversation only established that Joe is neither bi nor willing to deal with Danny’s bullshit.

        2. neeks

          I mean it basically went down like “hey Joe, you have a lot of sex, is any of it with dudes?” And Joe was like “no and I can tell that’s not the question you want to be asking and i’m srsly not getting roped into a conversation like this if you won’t get to the fucking point. So to speak.”

        3. brumagem

          When Danny brought up the subject of being maybe into dudes in addition to girls, Joe got squeemish about it and didn’t delve any further than asking “Are you gay?” and backing out when the answer was “No…?” to paraphrase.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/knockers/

        4. Random832

          There’s a little bit of bi-erasure in saying “Are you gay?” when what he meant was “Does this conversation relate to some attraction you have actually noticed yourself feeling towards a man?”

      2. Spencer

        But Completely rejecting the idea at a level previous only seen from megafundies Joyce and Becky? He’s not even saying he’s never heard of it, he’s actively refusing to believe bisexuality is a thing. For God’s sake, Danny’s just a walking pile of flaws at this point and it’s a pain in the ass to keep reading about him. Seeing him talk to somebody about his confusion was something I’ve been wanting for how much it resonated with me, and again, Danny is the fuck-up in the story that’s supposed to be about him.

        1. timemonkey

          Ignorance isn’t fucking up.

        2. Kinoko

          How is he actively refusing to believe it? I think he’s just saying that he has legitimately never heard of it. Which is unfortunately all too real of a problem. In that first panel, he’s clearly already accepted that he is attracted to guys as well as girls. He just doesn’t have any frame of reference for what bisexuality is yet.

        3. Rycan

          Unfortunately, your expectations in this are unrealistic. Saying astoundingly dumb, embarrassing, and insulting things, born our of ignorance, is hardly unique to Danny. I’ve certainly done it, too. And I’ve learned from them, just as Danny is about to. Everyone can be stupid from time to time, and there’s no changing that.

        4. StClair

          In other words, he’s an 18-year old college freshman. In a comic which is all about how dumb and flawed those can be (IT’S IN THE TITLE).

          Many will, eventually, get better. That process is what we are observing. It’s long, messy, and complicated, full of missteps and bad decisions and schadenfreude. If you find it that too unpleasant to watch, I sincerely urge you to stop reading.

      3. Rycan

        Trust me, it doesn’t even take that kind of background to be ignorant of bisexuality at 18. It certainly doesn’t get taught in schools.

  23. brumagem

    Don’t worry Danny, it’s in the dictionary. And despite what some Indiana courts may think, it IS allowed.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Dictionaries are allowed? Surely you jest! 😀

      1. Rich

        Only the expurgated versions. But then, no one likes gannets, do they?

        1. Roborat

          I will take obscure Monty Python references for 200 Alex.

        2. Rich

          Oh come on, that skit was a classic. Although maybe I’m biased – I worked bookseller retail for close to a decade between the dying small stores and the big boxes that murdered them.

      2. nothri

        Urban dictionary can get pretty explicit, to be fair…

    2. Rycan

      I knew Indiana has attacked mathematical constants in the past, but now they’re going after dictionaries? I don’t know whether this is terrifying or hilarious.

      1. Gamaran Sepudomyn

        Banning dictionaries seems less scary than trying to make the correct value of pi illegal. At least I can come up with one logical argument for banning dictionaries, even if the counterarguments don’t outweigh it a thousand times over.

  24. Yumi

    Haha, oh erasure.
    (I did laugh out loud at this one– not at the characters, but y’know.)

  25. Stephen Bierce

    We’ve now gone beyond love octagons to love tesseracts.

    1. Kaoy

      All them lines an angles converging into one space. Kinky.

    2. Jess

      I read that as ‘love testicles’ for a second there. lol

      1. Someone

        That would apply to the subject matter

  26. caesaria82

    Yay Dorothy <3

    Just embrace it, Danny and come over to the dark side. We have cookies! (delicious, 'confused', 'not real' and invisible in most media cookies… xD). No for real though. Thank you Willis for these two super important characters and this super lovely strip <3

  27. GoogerGeiger

    Finally we get to see Jason’s huge cock!

    1. chris73

      This comment really surprised me until I read the slipshine announcement

      1. nothri

        Oh of course! For a while I was just at a total loss for what the hell Googer was on about.

        Incidentally, I hope that Avatar isn’t a coincidence. Its too perfect.

  28. John

    Fifteen seconds, Danny. Pay attention.

    I love all of Dorothy’s expressions in this strip.

  29. Peter Sadlon

    Ok, now you’re being stupid, Danny. Rein it in before she smacks you silly.

  30. Kernanator

    Look, obviously, when Dorothy said “bisexual”, all Danny heard was static.

    1. DarkoNeko

      “bees seeks suals ?”

    2. Emily

      Danny is fnordsexual.

      1. nothri

        So…he wants to hump conspiracy theorists. That’s awful!

  31. Opus the Poet

    OK I am an old dude, but I knew what bisexual was back in the ’80s for [$DEITY]’s sake. And I was living in the Bible Belt at the time.

    1. Smiling Cat

      I remember hearing the word as a very young boy back in the eighties. I assumed it was a term for someone who liked threesomes.

      1. Captain Batson

        That’s not exactly wrong.

    2. Rich

      I’m a doddering wreck with similar experiences (sans the Bible Belt bit, thank the FSM) myself, but let’s remember that this country is all over the place when it comes to sexual awareness and freedom. Small towns are particularly varied. We had a swingers’ bar in mine when I was a kid, and the next town over was run by a pack of racist homophobes that eventually wound up in prison for their more violent activities. Even big cities can be oddly divided, with the norm on one block being “unspeakable perversion” a half mile away.

      When it comes to sexual stuff, I really try to avoid making assumptions about what other people may or may not know.

    3. Agemegos

      Yes, this is weird for me too. First time I encountered the word “bisexual” was reading Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals — context made clear what it meant — and I must have been younger than twelve or so because I can date that memory to before 1976.

      1. Agemegos

        Well, it might have been another volume in the Corfu Trilogy, now that I come to think of it. But I read all three in a bit of a rush, so that wouldn’t affect the date.

    4. Rycan

      There seems to have been a really strong impulse to shelter our youth from anything ‘gay’. So, I grew up with all of this being shielded from me, and homophobic attitudes ran rampant. And this was on the West Coast, in the Seattle area. Affluent suburbs can be incredibly insular.

      Strangely, the LGBT movement eventually spread through my generation like wildfire. Go figure.

      1. Rich

        Sheltering kids tends to backfire, or at least produce unpredictable results.

  32. taekwondogirl

    *cries of .. maybe laughter, maybe because truth hurtiness*

    1. nothri

      There, there. Its okay for it to be both.

  33. AgentKeen

    I can’t believe I’m saying this.

    Danny, you’re acting like Walky. Stop it.

    1. AgentKeen

      I feel like I should specify, Danny not knowing ‘bisexual’ isn’t the problem; him being Walky-style snarky to Dorothy trying to tell him is.

  34. DarkoNeko

    You’re getting way too close to the camera, Danny.

    1. MeghanTheWorldEater

      Careful. You’ll break the fourth wall saying things like that.

      1. Someone

        Eh there are worse forth walls to break, you break this one and we will have a few extra doofuses walking around, not a big deal.

        1. No Name

          We’ll also have Ryan, Blaine and Ross Babies McIntyre, assuming the damage can’t be fixed quickly. And I highly doubt anyone’s got Fourth Wall Tape(tm).

        2. timemonkey

          Ryan and Blaine pretty much lose their power once you know what they’re really like.

        3. Mitsukara

          Don’t worry, when Galasso conquers Earth then even impudent fools such as those shall bow before him.

          Also everyone else.

          Except Head Alien.

    2. Emily

      The next comic has Danny walking into the camera and knocking it over.

      1. Someone

        But will he develop Deapool powers?

      2. Rycan

        If anybody in this comic were to accidentally collide with the fourth wall, it would be Danny.

  35. Barf Ninjason

    So Becky doesn’t know the word for not believing in God and Danny doesn’t know the word for sexual interest in both men and women. I think this is almost a running gag at this point. Like Brian Lee O’Malley having multiple characters surprised to learn that bread makes you fat.

    1. Barf Ninjason

      Wait a minute, I just realized that I’m an idiot. Because it was about bisexuality that Becky said “is there even word for that?” Which is what I thought at first, but then I guess I thought that would be too perfect so I disunmisrememberizified it into atheism, but nope, it’s totally a running gag that DoA characters are frequently confused by the existence of bisexuals. I think?

      1. AgentKeen

        Less of a gag, more a thing that real people forget exists.

  36. Captain Batson

    I just realized that Billie’s still (as far as we know) naked in the hallway, and I find that hilarious.

    1. neeks

      Presumably she would have made her escape while Becky was being informed of Joyce’s trauma and proceeded to traumatize Sarah with party plans. Of course, since all her clothes are in Ruth’s room, it begs the question of what she intends to actually wear, but 20/20 hindsight or whatever.

      1. DarkoNeko

        My guess is that she ran back to Ruth’s room while complaining

        1. neeks

          “Give me back my jersey!”
          “It’s my jersey now.”
          “…fair point but still”

    2. Rich

      Billie’s not naked in the hallway. She was clearly wearing socks before Ruth reclaimed her jersey.

  37. TheLurkerAbove

    You know what, I think I might like this arc a lot.

    I personally came to terms being bisexual quite early as a teenager, and unlike Danny never really felt that weird about it. In fact I’ve revised it since to being pansexual. Unfortunately being in a conservative and unforgiving society means I’ve never really truly come out.

    I suppose someone else is going to find out now with this public post. xD

    1. TheLurkerAbove

      Or not, hah, I forget emails are obscured. Only Willis knows my deeeeeeeep dark secret!

      1. neeks

        The relative anonymity of the internet is pretty useful sometimes, isn’t it?

      2. saltchocolate

        So funny that your grav is Roz, who I can’t imagine in the closet! That said, I am bi and only out to my partner and my LGBT friends. (I tend to “pass” as a committed ally.). So no judgment!

      3. Rycan

        Yeah, I still wouldn’t put too much trust in the anonymity of the Internet. But in this case, you’re probably safe.

  38. elinoria

    Oh Danny, you beautiful useless bisexual. Welcome to the club, we have brunch the first of every month.

    1. neeks

      Bisexual brunch feels oddly appropriate.

      1. Rich

        Do I want waffles or pancakes today? I can never decide.

        1. Llamaturtle

          At polyamorous breakfast-for-dinner, we get to have both at once! HAHAHA

  39. Cephalo the Pod

    These strips featuring Danny and people being ignorant of bisexuality are freaking me out, but only because I’m trying to remember when I first learned about bisexuality and I cannot for the life of me remember.

    I mean, I wanna roll my eyes at these characters for not knowing, but, like..when did I learn? How do I not know this?

    1. DarkoNeko

      I probably first heard of pansexuality (and related puns) in the Go get a roomie webcomic. Maybe.

      1. Jess

        I heard of pan from my pan friend.

    2. Gigafreak

      I have no idea where I learned of the concept, let alone the word. Yet at some point near the end of my college years I was surrounded by bisexual people online and it was the most normal thing in the world.

    3. Kinoko

      Your comment made me remember that I first heard and understood the term in this scene from Friends that I saw as a pre-teen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tLXRYPODxI

      …Which is incredibly sad, because it also gave me context for the outright denial surrounding bisexuality, all wrapped up into one 20-second clip. 🙁

    4. Cephalo the Pod

      Pop culture taught me about homosexuality in my pre-/young teen years, of that I’m sure.

    5. Rich

      If we’re comparing notes, I was about 10 or 11 when I got a moderately complete sexplanation talk from a relative, largely because the slightly older neighbor’s kid knew everything about sex (mostly wrong) and had started me asking uncomfortable questions early. My parents totally copped out and let an aunt do the job, probably because she had a “bad reputation” as having been a free-love commune-living gal in her earlier days.

      That was in 1976.

    6. MichaelHaneline

      I learned about it in middle school from a Catholic nun.

    7. timemonkey

      I learned it from watching Rocky Horror, which my mom was watching one day when I got home from school. Learned a lot of different things from that movie: Crossdressing, Homosexuality, Bisexuality

      1. Roborat

        . . . Meatloaf, the awesomeness that is Tim Curry, yelling at a movie screen.

    8. Kryss LaBryn

      Yeah, I have no idea either. 🙂 I… probably came across it on the Internet somewhere? Willing to bet it was around or after college buuuut… Yeah, I have no idea. None at all. Which is doubly weird because I can generally remember when I first became aware that poly was a thing (it was the mid-Nineties).

    9. Julez

      …Yeah… I have no idea when I learned about bisexuality as a “thing” I just always knew that I liked men and women and other. >_>

      1. Zatar

        I learned it at about….15?…16? when my little sister came out.

  40. The Thing

    How does anyone who isn’t Joyce from several strips ago not know about bisexuality? In the year of our lord two thousand and fifteen?

    1. DarkoNeko

      Probably a lot more people than you’d think.

    2. chisci

      thing is, the only context most people talk of bisexuality is dismissive, “you’re really into dudes and just dudes don’t lie” pressure. i can easily buy that danny’s unaware that it’s a real orientation and not just a celebrity inclusivity money stunt or a stepping stone for gayness or idk whatever else. it becomes a bit of a stretch that he doesn’t know the word, but then again, i don’t know how indiana indiana really is

      1. TheLurkerAbove

        The sad thing is that gays can be just as discriminatory as straight people when it comes to bisexuals.

        1. The Thing

          I’m not even sure he’s bisexual. He might just be Ethansexual.

        2. TheLurkerAbove

          Willis has pretty much said that he’s bisexual, together with Billie and Ruth.

        3. barefootbiker

          Ethansexual would still be bisexual. It’s a pretty big tent.

          (heheheheh. “Big tent.”)

        4. AgentKeen

          Well, he could arguably be demisexual.

        5. ThatGuy

          I can testify this! I think i’ve done a good job but it still weirds me to hell and back that guys similar to me (ones who like guys like God intended) can ALSO like girls.

          its like Straight guys are just to forgone, but it still surprises me when i find out some guy i’m with is Bisexual.

          So while I envy their ability to possibly enjoy sex with the “socially acceptable” gender, that i feel for all the confusion from other people they have to face!

      2. Incomitatus

        Indiana is the most Indiana of Indianas.

        1. Rycan

          If you look up Indiana in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of Indiana!

        2. neeks

          As a former Indiana resident I can verify this as fact.

    3. timemonkey

      1. a massively heteronormative culture
      2. a culture that refuses to even discuss alternatives to heterosexcuality most of the time
      3. people like things binary and easy to label so they want to think of you as straight, or if they absolutely can’t make you straight then you’re gay.
      4. A lot of gay people act like that too so bisexuals kind of end up standing alone and trying to be valid while both sides shout them down

  41. Rodimiss

    Let’s just plaster the campus with posters and ads and colorful banners proclaiming the existence of bisexuality to stamp out this running gag and make a lot of people less confused about their sexuality.

    1. saki

      Motion seconded! 🙂

    2. Cephalo the Pod

      You know what? Let’s just do that everywhere.

    3. Kryss LaBryn

      Unfortunately I think it’s less a running gag and more a sad reality. :/

  42. 6Qubed

    Amazingly, you fucking gigantic wuss, the problem you are presently experiencing isn’t just *your* problem, or even a problem at all for that matter.

    …Is what I imagine she wants to say.

  43. davesignal

    Are there actually people who are this uninformed about the concept of bisexuality who aren’t, like, religiously sheltered?

    My concept of bisexuality’s obscurity must have been skewed by being the token gay guy in a group of bi women and dudes growing up.

    1. Ranthog

      Yes there are. Certainly it could be a lot worse than just ignorance, considering there are a lot of people who belive bisexuality is imaginary and impossible.

      There are not exactly a lot of examples of bisexuality in the media, and often times they are refered to as either straight or gay depending on whether or not they’re in a relationship with the opposite gender or the same gender.

      To be honest outside of Jack from Dr. Who (and he used a different label) I’m having a problem thinking of the last representation of bisexuality I saw which named it or wasn’t completely dismissive.

      1. Tacos

        I think the last person who was bisexual that I saw on tv was Barbara Kean from Gotham.

      2. Li

        Uh, actually they’re pretty dismissive with Jack’s orientation. The Doctor tells Rose that people from his century are just way less discerning. It’s pretty much exactly the hypersexual-person-with-no-standards bisexual stereotype.

        1. Ranthog

          I always thought Jack was more of a twist on the Kirk/Riker stereo type of sleeping with the alien of the week. It doesn’t seem to be uncommon in TV/Movie science fiction. It wasn’t the most nuanced way to handle it, but it could be a lot worse.

    2. ThatGuy

      as i said to someone on yesterdays thing, we still have millions of people who think sexuality is psychological and not (mostly) Biological and dont understand how gay people can have sex with opposite genders and still be gay and vice versa.

      IF people get over that hurdle then there is still the one in which people have to realize that Bi people arent either kinky straight people or half-closeted Gay people

      Quick, someone Link the Shortpacked! episode on all the sexual weirdness!

      1. Gamaran Sepudomyn

        That’s almost every part of Shortpacked!.

      2. DarkoNeko

        you mean, the one where Galasso makes a special closet ?

    3. Rycan

      Being sheltered from LGBT concepts as a child is quite widespread. If you grow up sheltered from anything, it’ll probably be either that or poverty.

    4. No Name

      Actually, I’m not entirely sure Danny isn’t religiously sheltered. He was the original Author Avatar, after all. And while his parents don’t seem like crazy religious nuts, we haven’t seen a lot of them.

  44. CleverTrousers

    Oh Indiana. You’re so not California it’s sad.

    1. Incomitatus

      Having lived in both… I choose neither as good exemplars.

      1. CleverTrousers

        I love California. It’s big and there are dumb parts and boring parts and it’s basically it’s own country but in most of the places I’ve been there’s enough California ego that you have at least a baseline understanding of its breadth and depth and the people all around.

        Even though I currently live a mile from the ocean in NorCal and it’s still so goddamn hot I’m just sitting around in the dark, covered in mud, and yelling at the internet.

        1. Incomitatus

          Californians, in my experience, are some of the most consistently inconsiderate people in the country and an almost allergic aversion to anything but the most shallow of interpersonal relationships. Whatever the state’s other virtues, and there are many, those alone has me itching to get out of here.

          And yes, I know I’m painting with a very unfairly large brush here.

  45. saki

    There’s so many people not getting how Danny doesn’t understand bisexuality is a thing, I wanna make a big sign saying “It’s INDIANA” and shove it – non-violently – in people’s faces haha.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Oh, I kinda expected another place. But it’s much harder to read from there.

    2. Rycan

      And yet it’s not just Indiana. You don’t have to be a state that thinks pi equals 3 to have people wholly ignorant of bisexuality.

      1. No Name

        Actually, It was pi equals 3.2.

        Unless you’re talking about the biblical definition.

        1. saki

          Wait, what? I’ve read several comments mentioning this now… I don’t live in the US so I don’t hear about all the crazy stories… Did Indiana seriously try to legally change the value of Pi? Am I getting this right?

        2. Rich

          Oh yeah, it happened. There’s a wiki page for it, even – look for Indiana Pi Bill. To be fair, it was 1897, and largely the result of a single vainglorious (and incompetent) mathematician with a personal axe to grind.

        3. saki

          Oh thank gods. I thought this was some recent thing haha. But still pretty unbelievable. Oh well, I guess it makes for an actually fun “fun fact” to tell at social gatherings during awkward silences. 🙂

        4. Li

          3.14 doesn’t round up to 3.2. :|a

  46. Arianod

    ‘How dare you not make a big deal of my angst! Like… like it isn’t a big deal!’

  47. neeks

    To be fair, Danny’s inability to process the things Dorothy says to him is basically why she dumped him.

    “This is a thing.”
    “Ok, but what if it wasn’t? :)”
    “Oh gtfo…”

    (Yeah I know the context is different but the point is the boy doesn’t listen)

  48. Charles Phipps

    I learned about the existence of bisexuality when I was fifteen. Which means this isn’t all that hard to believe.

    1. potatoaddict

      I learned of it through musing the realms of possibility, applied to the voraciousness of human sexuality. That said, I wonder if bisexuals are generally gluttons, because frankly I have little faith that everyone of the persuasion just Danny’s it up when it sinks in for them.

      1. Turbanous

        What excatly do you mean “I wonder if bisexuals are generally gluttons”?

        1. neeks

          My guess is they’re referring to promiscuity, but like…the “bisexual = slut” thing is a myth, which you probably know but it merits pointing out just in case.

      2. Just saying

        As a bisexual, that kind of statement makes me stomping mad. I’m a happily married (MONOGAMOUSLY) woman who has happily (very happily) slept with members of both genders and a few less-than-binary ones. However, all of my relationships were meaningful and monogamous when required. I don’t have nymphomania, I have the hots for hot people, the same way straight and gay people do.

        1. potatoaddict

          Hrm, it appears I’ve struck a nerve, come across as offensive, & began a little storytime. I should have phrased that in less grating tones, I guess. I don’t mean to offend you at all, it is just a notion that bounces around in my head a little. As you’ve phrased it, I muse to myself because I know of only just two bisexuals personally & they aren’t local, “if they “have the hots for hot people, the same way straight and gay people do,” but they swing both ways, then does that statistically mean they get turned on more throughout a week, as they react to more flavours of eye candy?” Personal taste aside, it has mused me a little, as I’d imagine it’d be awfully distracting if I was of that persuasion.

          It may be an unpopular opinion to share here, but my underlying sense of ire stems from the character mentioned above, whose not only in a very supportive environment for this kind of talk when I was not & had to figure my prerogative out for myself & why I want the things I do, but he still manages to make me facepalm when he goes about & badgers the person he went to for advice on the subject! I know he’s a window into personal doubt & the entryway into covering the matter of bisexuality, but COME ON! Becky’s got more of an idea of agency & decisiveness, & she looks like she got into a fight with a lawnmower & lost!

          I get it, Danny’s from an environment where this kind of talk wasn’t usually brooked. And I get where you’re coming from too. Still, it rubs me a little bit the wrong way personally, how I’m given the ‘Mary squint of disapproval in a typed chat because I come across as just a boring straight guy who spits on the sexuality of others. Far from it.

          I value both lust & love, those windows for looking as far into yourself as you can, in spite of my lack of experiencing it in comparison to yourself. I don’t want to run with the idea that you’re talking down to me, but really, everything you experienced was “meaningful & monogamous when required?” Really now? How about my chapter for storytime?

          I’ve been with three women in my life. I suspect the second one cheated on me while she was over in Turkey. The third one who I fooled around with mutually broke it off to damage herself with more self-obsessed mongoloids over time. And every woman I wanted to love or even feel compassion for ever since has passed me over. They had their personal reasons, like the crippling fear of being with anyone in life who isn’t religious, (yeah, I knew a girl like Joyce.) or because someone else did so much damage emotionally before I even knew her, but it’s a grind mainly because of the ‘impression’ I get that I’m not outstanding enough, which is a pretty goddamn nasty insecurity to cull out of your mind while trying to improve yourself at all.

          I try to get on with life despite this toxic abstract doing its best to plague me, especially in the form of the worst biological parents in this half of Dublin & almost every woman in my life. Because I have to. I NEED to, to surpass & discard all that poisonous influence. I won’t be as bad as them to the people I love, & I sure as hell won’t try to keep to that value by lacing it with spite.

          I come across Dumbing of Age, where I get the impression that the author likes to tug on the emotional heartstrings of his readers quite a lot, but manages to get a progressive point across, or an integral kind of quality that’s uplifting. And I see that with so many characters. I guess Danny just disappointed me, & my own cynicism is the cause of this, it led to me spilling my soul out to someone online who seems to have it so much better than me.

          I’m being honest here, every word, even the not so nice ones, & I am sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way. I ain’t quitting this comic, although I’m pretty jaded about Danny’s path to manhood if his approach is like this. The guy’s gotta believe in himself too, just as much as someone could be kind & help him get on the right direction. That’s all I can say on the matter, really, because at times it feels like it’s all I have. Love one person, or even two if you’ve got what it takes to pull it off. Taste in gender’s a subjective thing, & one of the few examples of subjectivity that doesn’t shift from outside influence very often, thank our monkey brains for that.

          P.S. If anyone perceives that I’m breaking the precious 10th commandment of the FAQ, forget it. Read over that rant of mine, I lay my concerns out flat, even the ones people likely don’t want to hear about. Straight guys in my experience very rarely have it ‘normal,’ & the ones who act like big men are usually just boys playing the role, who know nothing of the reality/abstracts bearing down on them in their imminent future. But we’re not all emotionally immature dullards, you know? There’s just a lot we don’t say outright, until much further down the line when a seemingly small thing just cracks the dam.

          So send the mob & pitchforks for this dissenting opinion that Danny could have a bit more agency, if any of you really think you have to.

        2. Turbanous

          I understand how things can come across wrong in text, so I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt and ask excatly what they mean by a phrase to avoid jumping to the wrong conclusion. Thank you for clarifying your meaning.

          Just because a person is bisexual does not mean they are attracted to all genders equally. Personally I have been more attracted to men for a few years. If a person is in the center of that attraction spectrum then it’s likely they could be attracted more by the larger pool of people that fit their type on sight.

          What is VERY IMPORTANT to know remember is just because a person in bisexual does not mean we cannot be monogamous or that we are any more “promiscuous” than any other sexuality. Being receptive to a closed relationship or an open relationship has less to do with your sexuality and more with personality and communication.

          Of the three bisexual characters we have seen so far (Billie, Ruth and Danny) Billie is the most secure in her identity/sexuality. Ruth seems less sure of her bisexual identity. However I could be confusing that with her attraction to Billie in regards to Billie’s history with alcohol. Danny is in a much different situation since he was always secure in being straight, and now that he realizes that isn’t the case we get to watch him try and work through it. This is something I’m glad we get to see it because this type of story is not told often.

  49. Spencer

    I was going to write a whole lengthy post detailing how I feel about this particularly strip and how it resonates with my own grappling with my sexuality, and my disappointment in seeing Danny again be the stupid putz who needs to be told why he’s wrong while dealing with something personal to him, but I figure I’m better off just cutting it out now and just saying that I’m not enthused with how it turns out, and I’ll wait for the rest of the story to play out before I make any judgement.

  50. Bri

    I can totally understand Danny here. I have a bit of his sheltered personality and didn’t here the word bisexual until I was almost 16. I just never though about it being a thing. But it did finally make my strong desire to brush Zooey Deshanel’s hair make sense. 6 years of exploring identities later and panromantic asexual finally fits.

  51. Twirls

    DOROTHY IS GOING TO DRAG HIM TO THE “QUESTIONING SOCIAL” WHERE HE’LL SEE ETHAN

    I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M YELLING

    1. DarkoNeko

      My ears x_x

    2. Mitsukara

      IN A.D. 2101
      AND PROOVED THE JUSTICE OF OUR CULTURE

      THEND

  52. Cheryl

    le dan….

  53. Potatamoto

    Okay, KNOWING the basic terminology of bisexuality aside, I’m feeling for Danny. This is a pretty huge revelation to get dropped on your head, with a big adjustment of your worldview to go with it. And the fact that he’s in a heterosexual relationship complicates matters a LOT. Suddenly he’s gotta incorporate being potentially attracted to a massive chunk of the population that was previously totally negligible, relationship-wise. If I were in his shoes, I’d be wondering if I could REALLY commit to a monogamous relationship during this transitional period.

    And I’d also be very worried about the potential oral and maxillofacial abuse I might suffer via impromptu podiatric methodology through my vigilante girlfriend as a result.

    1. Dallium

      As far as we can tell, he’s been attracted to women for awhile, whereas he’s just now realizing he’s attracted to this one guy. That’s a pretty low success rate. Besides, I don’t see how quantity of attractive people would affect an existing comitment

  54. Regalli

    Oh, Danny. You’re doing the right thing talking to Dorothy and it’s great that you are… but please if you’re asking for help listen to her? *Sigh* You clueless dork. Glad you at least do have a good confidante willing to help introduce you to sexualities and also Google.

    1. DarkoNeko

      He should make a “damnit people Listen to the meaning of what people answers to your questions” with Jason.

      …more seriously, he probably just need a bit of time for all that to sink in.

      1. Regalli

        Most likely, yeah, it’s just that she’s saying “okay so you’re *says unfamiliar word that ends with sexual*” and I’m like “… wow that did not register for you at ALL did that Danny.”

    2. saltchocolate

      The google she is your friend.

      1. saltchocolate

        Not sure why I decided Google is feminine gender.

        1. TIl

          Because she knows everything, just like real women.

        2. nothri

          But Google will sometimes also tell you like a million useless things before it gets to the one thing you ask about and needed to know.

          So also like real wo-OW! Who threw that?

        3. saltchocolate

          Me — but it’s just a plushie, so it shouldn’t have hurt.

        4. Rich

          Maybe if you hadn’t stuffed it with nails and broken glass beforehand?

      2. Rycan

        And she your enemy. The Google is indecisive.

  55. Solenoid

    When Danny finally answers Dorothy’s “… and?” with “The guy is Amber’s ex”, that’s probably where amusing things start happening.

    1. neeks

      “Also Joyce’s ex now”
      “Oh good he’s single. Wait, I’m not. Great, more conflicting feelings!”

  56. JetstreamGW

    The Dan Levels are OFF THE SCALE!

    1. nothri

      ITS OVER NINE THOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUSSSSSSSANNNNNNNND!

    2. Rycan

      We are approaching MAXIMUM DANNY! Lower the control rods! Open the vents! EVACUATE THE DORM!!!

      1. Gigafreak

        Lower the rod… where?

        1. Rycan

          Into the core, of course!

      2. Someone

        My Danny is the Danny that will reach the heavens!

    3. Willoughby Chase

      TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!

      1. Willoughby Chase

        I want Dan to own his Dananity all the way to 11. Things can only get better out there and beyond. Right?

  57. Cadevan

    Everyone is seemingly secretly a little gay… I love it

    1. AgentKeen

      “Galasso is attracted to nothing but TOTAL DOMINATION OF THE WORLD.”

      Though I guess that could still be pansexual?

      1. Rich

        Tragically, the world is not a sub.

  58. KSClaw

    Ah yes. The joy of when stubborness and panic makes you blind, deaf and dumb /sarcasm

  59. Torra

    I would be happy, but it looks like Danny is trying to leave. I get Dorothy’s reaction, sje’s showing support in a calm ‘so what’ kind of way, but I don’t think that’s come across well. Danny’s sounding pretty defensive, and I don’t blame him, this is a big deal and it took a lo t for him to say it, and to be told ‘well is that it’ can be a little discouraging at first.

    It’s like “cmom this is a big deal, sound a little surprised at least!” but thats just me talking about myself now

    1. VMthecoyote

      It is a pain in the ass, but it’s fun to look back and laugh!

      VM: “I’m worried about writing this article, because it’s goi g to completely out me.”
      [awkward pause]
      Adviser: … VM, you’ve been out. I mean… pretty much everyone knows, and, uh, kind of have for a while. This really hasn’t been a secret, like, ever.
      VM: “. . . oh.”
      Adviser: “Yeah.”
      VM: “Like… everybody?”
      Adviser: “Pretty much, yeah. I thought you came out a long time ago, I think everyone else did, too.”

      1. Rycan

        Maybe this’ll make you laugh (all you really need to know background-wise is that Lavali and Alex are siblings).
        http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips-sotr/kept_things_so_professional

      2. Torra

        Haha! It’s definitely a lot better than the ‘YOU’RE WHAT???’ reaction!

  60. ninja_jesus

    WOO! BISEXUAL REPRESENTATION!

    Too bad they’re represented by an idiot. >.> Love ya, Danny!

    1. Li

      I mean we already have Billie and Ruth… who are also flawed, but so is everyone else.

  61. Smiling Cat

    I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t catch on back when Danny, Billie, and Ruth were all on that “Bisexual visibility day” banner from way back. Billie distracted me by demanding attention.

    1. Rich

      Not arguing the point, but I’m still trying to remember where we had an indication that Ruth is bisexual rather than lesbian. What did I miss?

      1. Smiling Cat

        She mentions having dated boys in the past. Though I suppose that isn’t entirely conclusive.

        1. zaratustra

          1.5sexual?

        2. Smiling Cat

          Kinsey would call that mostly hetero. 😛

      2. Rycan

        All you really need to know is that Willis said so.

      3. timemonkey

        You have to remember there’s an entire other universe of established behaviour. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to but it’s still there and sexuality is consistent between them.

  62. madock345

    Are there really people who get to college without knowing what the word Bisexual means? Of Danny’s generation? I mean, I know there must be *some*, and I know my experiences aren’t necessarily indicative of everyone else’s, but Danny isn’t sheltered by any means. He’s an internet person. He’s heard of Tumblr. How has this escaped him? It… really just doesn’t add up.

    1. Tacos

      Yes, there still are. Just scrolling up through these comments shows that.

      1. madock345

        Well, yeah, some are, I even admitted that in my comment. My problem is more that the kind of person Danny is, a tech savvy, fairly liberal guy, doesn’t seem like the kind of person who wouldn’t have heard of that. It’s possible, but just very unlikely for someone who spends so much time online to not know about something like that, that gets referenced a lot.

        1. Nightsbridge

          Tech savvy has nothing to do with it. I dunno about how liberal Danny is supposed to be.

        2. Mitsukara

          Yeah, tech savvy isn’t really as relevant to this as one might think. The internet is a big place with a lot of different purposes, you could spend years never interacting with someone about sexuality on it depending on what you were working on and interested in.

          As far as liberalness, the way I understand it, Danny’s origins actually aren’t so different from Joyce’s (and my own), a heavily sheltered religious upbringing. What he’s experiencing probably goes against what he was taught he should be, which is why he has this much trouble understanding and accepting it at this stage. I’d say give him some time and better communication / maybe some real research.

      2. RandomNameGen

        It still has me in shock, I grew up in a town where the grades for school were only 120 people on a good day, everyone went to church 2-3 times a week, and gay was a sin punishable by death ( I think? No one is brave enough to come out/ excuse here ). Yet everyone of them knows what bisexual is. So it’s weird seeing people in a supposedly accepting environment willfully denying and being ignorant of the terminology.
        That said I won’t complain too much. I always hated how people who share my preferences in the city insist on defining me with rigid terminology like I couldn’t just be me.

    2. Cory

      Also the answer is rather simple. Danny is, to use the clinical term, a moron.

      1. Rich

        That is impressively insensitive. Moron actually was a clinical term for intellectual disability at one point, although it’s now defunct. No reputable psychologist would use that term any more, and it’s got ugly ties to the American branch of the eugenics movement.

        1. Cory

          Fine, he’s an ignoramus.

        2. Rich

          You can call him a moron if you like, just don’t make it a clinical term. That’s what makes it ugly instead of just insulting. Doing that in the wrong circles is as bad as using the word retard.

          Ignoramus (“we are ignorant of”) is more appropriate for Danny today anyway. Fine old English word, not one coined by Twentieth Century pseudoscientists.

  63. Raibean

    “Amber, I think I like guys.”

    *Amber looks into the camera like it’s The Office*

    1. David M Willis

      ha ha ha ha ha

    2. ThatGuy

      Oh i get it. Lawls

    3. ThatGuy

      Danny can be an Amber Ethan sandwhich

  64. Zaxares

    “Danny…” *drapes an arm over his shoulder* “Go to the kitchen and get a drink. I’m going to pull up UrbanDictionary.com, and we are gonna have a LOOOOONG talk.”

    1. Tacos

      UrbanDictionary proooobbbably isn’t the best tool to use in this talk.

      1. Rich

        Oh, you think? Current top definition of “bisexual” on UD:

        “The ability to reach down someone’s pants and be satisfied with whatever you find.”

        I hate people sometimes.

        1. Starman

          To be fair, that is a classic SNL Church Lady line from Dana Carvey.

        2. neeks

          Wouldn’t that technically be pansexual?

        3. fogel

          That’s indiferencesexual: your preference schedule regarding other people’s privates assigns the same UTILS to all the options

  65. Hellhound

    Wait…is he starting to dannyieng it up right now?
    i think he is going to Danny it up.

    1. Smiling Cat

      The boy’s been Danning it up the whole time.

      1. Rycan

        Danny’s life has been one steady stream of Danny.

  66. zaratustra

    That’s crazy talk. What would be next? Trisexual? Tetrasexual? Numbers don’t just go up forever.

    1. ninja_jesus

      infinisexual

      1. Rycan

        And, by way of contrast, finisexual. Not to be confused with Finnisexual.

        1. Rich

          Only being attracted to citizens of Finland?

        2. Argon

          Surely that would be perkelesexual.

        3. Rich

          Oh, must be “attracted to a very specific subset of Adventure Time cosplayers” then.

      2. StClair

        Omnisexual.

        (That’s right, spankin’ it to old issues of popular science/SF magazines…)

    2. Smiling Cat

      Mundisexual

    3. Rycan

      And am I to believe the numbers go in reverse, too? Can you even hit zerosexual?

      1. DarkoNeko

        only in Code Geass.

      2. Xerxes93

        asexual.

        1. Rycan

          I was just continuing this line of silliness and sarcasm – I actually am aware that asexuality exists.

    4. Willoughby Chase

      Polysexual.

      1. Killjoy

        Polyanna?

      2. Li

        polysexual is a real thing so… Probably doesn’t belong in this list.

    5. Rich

      We’re rapidly approach the limit for this function.

      Calculus is hilarious.

    6. Someone

      “Numbers dont just go up forever” Yes they do!

      1. Rycan

        How is that even possible? You’d run out of numbers eventually!

  67. nothri

    I know what your trying to do, Dorothy, but that was a poor choice of words in that second panel. Makes it sound like you were uninterested or unimpressed. “Fshah! That’s all? Danny, dear, that’s cute and all, but your going to have to try much harder if you want to shock me. Have you been on the internet? There are things Dexter and Monkeymaster do there that would turn your hair white.”

    1. Aurora

      I think that depends on what tone you read it with. I saw it as her trying to clarify what he was saying, rather than dismissing it. Like “is that what your trying to say?” vs. “is that all?”

      1. TSB

        I think you’re right. The first time I read it, I interpreted it as an irritated/dismissive “And?”, especially since that was basically Joe’s reaction when Danny tried to talk with him. But thinking of it as her gently prompting him makes more sense. To be honest, I think Willis could have tweaked her facial expression a little or had her say something more like “how are you feeling about that?” to make it completely unambiguous, but it’ll probably be clearer in the larger context of the scene once we get a few strips in.

      2. Spencer

        I think a few tweaks would have gone a long way to clearing up what is, apparently anyway, a misinterpretation on Dorothy’s response. The way I was reading it, it kind of came off as Dorothy dismissing Danny’s questions as an actual concern, vs. what she’s probably saying being something along the lines of “is there more to tell me.”

  68. Charles Fee

    This basically sums up coming out the closet to my best friend in high school
    Seriously anticlimactic

    1. neeks

      I remember an acquaintance-friend came out to me in high school by way of a typed up note, and he was so nervous while I was reading it and my reaction was basically like Dorothy’s here, like he might as well have told me that it’s not that he doesn’t need glasses, he just wears contacts. I guess I could have been more supportive about it, but we weren’t exactly close, and I mostly chocked it up to one more guy I didn’t have to worry about being attracted to me.

      In retrospect it was pretty brave of him to tell me, either way, I mean I’ve always had a serious case of “resting Daria face” so it’s not like he could get a read on my facial expressions. That I know of, anyway.

    2. Turbanous

      When I came out as bisexual to my parents their reactions were similarly anti-climactic which left me a little stunned as I was coming down from the anxiety energy and sweat. I felt strange and something similar to being unfulfilled but not actual disappointment and I only half remember the next few mins after the hugging.

      So I can totally understand Danny not actually hearing Dorothy say “bisexual” as he wasn’t prepared for her muted/nonreaction.

      1. Turbanous

        * anxiety and fear sweat.
        Despite feeling ready to tell my parents; once the moment was real and my parents were in the living room, the fear kicked in and made it super hard to get the words out.

    3. L. E. Hairstylist

      I had a pretty similar experience from Dorothy’s side when I was a teenager. A friend of mine told me with great deliberation that she had some super serious news and that she didn’t know how to tell me and I couldn’t tell anyone, etc, etc. I started panicking internally; was she seriously ill? Was she moving away? Had she committed a crime that I was about to become an accessory to? So when she told me she was bisexual I sort of blurted something along the lines of, “That’s all? Don’t scare me like that again!” Which wasn’t the most sensitive way I could have handled it, in hindsight, but baby!me was so worried that I didn’t even think that this might have been a big deal for her, because it wasn’t remotely a big deal to me.

      1. Zatar

        When my sister came out the family response was basically “we know.”

  69. Rich

    I can’t decide which impresses me more, the number of comments about how can anyone actually be that ignorant, or the number of responses about how can anyone be so ignorant of the fact that that level of ignorance actually exists.

    1. saki

      … Ignranception?

      1. saki

        … *Ignoranception. Stupid typo.

        1. Rich

          Can you actually misspell a neologism?

          Regardless, I’m going to have to remember that one and try to work it into a conversation sometime.

  70. gka

    Sadly accurate to real life.

  71. Michael

    I’m incredibly confused by all the people who are expressing shock the Danny doesn’t know about Bisexuality – my mom doesn’t know about Bisexuality – AND I’m Bisexual…

    I didn’t know about Bisexuality until a few years ago! I just thought I was a freak!

    1. Mitsukara

      Yep. To quote Tedd from El Goonish Shive, “There’s a word for it?” (though in that case it was about being genderfluid)

  72. Killjoy

    Really?

    I think I’ve known what bisexuality was since like 1993…

  73. Daisy

    And then there are the people who have been told it exists and don’t believe in it, which we have also seen (cough Becky cough).

  74. KKoro

    Aaaand that’s the moment when I registed Danny as a douche.

    Bad enough that Dorothy outright tells him the word and he’s too self-absorbed to apparently notice, but jeebus, how the hell did they even date in the first place? They don’t even seem to have similar knowledge bases, much less similar interests. How you can be that -completely- ignorant of your partner’s world?

    And he’s supposed to be extremely computer-literate! If he was just a casual internet user, I could understand that, but this boy breathes the stuff. How has he never encountered the idea of someone who has sex with both men and women?

    1. neeks

      It’s all too easy to stay within the bounds of a community that perpetuates its own ignorance without outside influence, even on the liberal side of things.

      1. Mitsukara

        Plus, there’s so many things to do on the internet that focus on specific subjects that, unless you wander around general discussion forums or comments sections or something more specifically relevant, you could spend loads of time just reading about stuff like science or programming or particular games or whatever, without sexuality even coming up.

    2. Pinja

      If you think this makes Danny a douche then the problem isn’t with him : /

    3. Turbanous

      Danny wasn’t prepared for Dororthy’s lack of a reaction, and needing to switch gears from that while wondering why she isn’t freaking out throws you for a loop so it makes sense that he didn’t hear her. When the people around you act in the opposite manner than you expect it is very jarring.

      Before coming out as bisexual to my family I read a lot of other coming out stories, far too many of which are not positive. This resulted in me being in defense mode as I told my parents. I wasn’t prepared for them to be chill about it and I needed to switch gears and re-boot and I only half remember the following five mins after telling them.

  75. Wisharts

    Honestly I get where the Dan-man is coming from. When I came out to my friend her reaction was basically “Oh, I don’t care about that” which was nice and her way of telling me she didn’t mind my sexuality, but when she first said it I definitely took it as her being dismissive of how long I’d had to work to get to that point.

  76. fogel

    What was it about Danny that attracted Dorothy?

    1. Rich

      They got together before the strip began, so we don’t really know. Speculating, they came from a smallish town and probably knew each other their whole lives, so they may just have drifted together because they were comfortable with each other. IIRC canon says they were each other’s first sexual partner, and my dim memories of being a horny teen tell me that a comfortable partner in reach would have seemed better than waiting for a perfect one. Both of them are probably very different people now – even a couple of years is a lot at that age, especially with the college thing factored in.

  77. fogel

    Seriously: Danny was Dorothy’ s boyfriend and he still thinks he knows more than her and that if he hasn’t heard of it it doesn’t exist and he has nothing to learn from her????? SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!?!?

    1. Greenygal

      I am really uncomfortable with criticizing Danny because he doesn’t immediately listen to Dorothy when she casually categorises his sexuality with a term he’s never heard of and a concept that he doesn’t understand as valid. This situation is not about Dorothy.

      1. fogel

        You are right, it is about Danny. Like, why did he come to Dorothy if all he expected was for her to freak and he wasn’t gonna listen to her, instead act knowitall superior smug. While they were together didn’t he realize that she’s hella more knowledgeable, smarter, and has her shut together way more than him. I feel sorry for him, but not for his ignorance, for patronizing Dorothy!

        1. Greenygal

          Yes, obviously Dorothy is the expert with regard to Danny’s sexuality and feelings. Why would Danny feel that he might know anything about that? Seriously, you’re criticizing a bi person having a sexual identity crisis because they aren’t immediately accepting of what a straight person tells them about it.

        2. Gigafreak

          “Seriously, you’re criticizing a bi person having a sexual identity crisis because they aren’t immediately accepting of what a straight person tells them about it.”
          I can’t think of a reason why “Danny is bi and Dorothy is hetero” would in any way reduce the value of Dorothy’s advice. The distinction between Danny’s and Dorothy’s orientations doesn’t even currently exist in Danny’s head, as they are currently both “not gay!” to him. (Hell, Dorothy’s learning Gender Studies and Danny isn’t. I’d give more stock to hetero Dorothy’s informed word over bi Danny’s uninformed word.)

          Danny came to Dorothy for advice. Dorothy pinpoints the issue (“You’re bisexual”) and gives the answer (“It’s totally okay for you to like both boys and girls!”). Danny immediately ignores the answer he is given, even though he is the one who sought it out, simply because it didn’t fit his worldview (“That’s not a thing because I would have heard of it before today”). This goes beyond innocent ignorance and into the realm of actively and closed-mindedly resisting his own character growth. THAT is what Danny is being criticized over: acting like his own (lack of) knowledge is somehow more valid than Dorothy’s word, for basically no reason at all, in a way that stops him from expanding his worldview and also prevents him from making peace with himself.

          Really hoping Dorothy can get through to him before he leaves. Heaven knows he’s not making it easy for her, or for himself.

        3. fogel

          Likely I wasnot clear. I do that a lot. I’m not criticizing him for not knowing about bi. And I don’t believe that Dorothy knows his sexuality or his feelings about that better than he does. And I’m sympathetic to his identity crisis. Up till today I’ve had no criticisms of him (in this arc with Dorothy). What I don’t get is that he came to Dorothy, knowing that she’s smart, and knows about stuff, and is supportive. Not because she knows his sexuality and feelings, because she knows about lots of stuff, and is smart, and supportive. And then he starts Danning it up the way he does almost everything. He snarks off at her And my reaction is, “seriously?” Not because he doesn’t instantly get what Dorothy tells him. Not because it doesn’t even make sense to him. Because he snarked off at her. Because of his expression in the last panel. Which I am unfortunately familiar with…

        4. Turbanous

          Danny is expecting her to freak out in part because he is freaking out about it, also Joe started to freak out when he was beating around the bush when asking for advice. Let’s also not forget that the narrative of far too many coming out stories involves family members instantly being dismissive, denying and even getting physically combative.

          Let’s also take into account that by and large as far as pop culture and the media/news is concerned people are either straight or gay. There are very few examples of the middle ground of bisexuality/pansexuality (other terms I’m unaware of). We usually get erased into one of the above categories based on the partner we are with.

          Danny knows that he doesn’t fit into the “big” categories so he seems to be expecting push back and he is currently at odds with the idea that it’s both normal and allowed.

        5. fogel

          Yes, everything you wrote. I even imagine him being ready for a freak out and bracing himself, and then … nothing. It would be disorienting, for sure. (Tho I’ve also felt immediate relief in analogous situations.) All I mean to question is his snarkiness towards Dorothy. I think that that is smeg

        6. fogel

          Tho I have been wrong before 🙂 even when I express myself calmly and clearly

  78. Eric

    Sympathetic Dorothy is rapidly becoming exasperated Dorothy.

  79. Pinja

    Willis you lightweight, give us the Ethan/Danny Slip-shine already.

  80. Jepmz

    Oh!!!! Oh my god!!! I hope he ends up meeting Ethan in That meeting!!!!!!

    And I’m not surprised anymore of people’s comments. I have trolls for friends who do tumblr but they had no idea of gay pron terms like “bara” or “twink”. Ah wait ,no one here knows either? *walks away in shame*

    1. luxlucis

      Twink is a pretty standard term but bara? Isn’t that only used in manga communities? I know a lot of LGBT people I could ask would recognize the former but not the latter.

      1. Jepmz

        Oh! Pardon me! I meant “bear”. Yeah you’re correct, you can also find bears in a bara manga as well. LoL

        It’s all labels, of course! Just for fun.

        1. Turbanous

          I wish I could find more bears in manga.

        2. Fred

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirokuma_Cafe

        3. Tacos

          But Stephen Colbert has warned us that bears are godless killing machines <.<

  81. Bearpelt

    omg danny

    *pats on head* just do some research sweetie. sigh.

  82. Roy

    I think the more important part is that the guy is Amber’s ex.

    1. Greenygal

      I don’t think it is. It’s a reason why Danny can’t talk to Amber about it, and it adds an edge of weird to the whole thing, but “Danny realized he’s attracted to guys and is having a sexual identity crisis” is more important than anything about the specific guy in question, since it’s not like Danny intends to act on the attraction.

    2. Rich

      And the fact that Danny doesn’t appear to have any intention of breaking up with Amber, and monogamy is a signature trait for him (even she’s joked about that). Speaking as someone who’s kind of devoutly monogamous himself, it’s easy to get into a frame of mind where you’re pointlessly blaming yourself for being attracted to other people than your current partner. It can feel as though just the thought were infidelity, despite not being interested in acting on it.

      Yeah, I know, not healthy.

      Add in a major personal discovery about your own sexuality and you can see why Danny’s uncomfortable right now.

    3. fogel

      I asked yesterday and someone said that Danny doesn’t know that Ethan is Amber s ex. And I doubt that he realized that Ethan ‘s gay. Probably Danny wad so shocked and uncomfortable with his attraction to Ethan that he wouldn’t have perceived Ethans view. (Amazingly, joyce did, but didn’t realize what it meant, even when Dorothy told her.)

      1. AlexanderHammil

        What? No, he totally know Ethan’s her ex. That was their whole conversation before Carla almost ran him down — “why did you and Amber break up?” “…other dudes.” “heh. other dudes are the WORST.” He may not know that Ethan’s gay, but I bet he suspects.

        1. cookiecat

          No he doesn’t suspect. Ethan made sure to explicitly deny being gay in front of him and referred to having a girlfriend as well. So as far as Danny knows Etahn’s straight.

        2. fogel

          cookiecat: so Ethan downright lied to him. We know why, but that certainly can’t help? “Not only am I attracted to a guy, he’s straight and ….” Though Dorothy pegged Ethan as gay as soon as Joyce explained why he made her feel safe.

        3. neeks

          Heheh “pegged”

          (Sorry, I’m secretly twelve sometimes. Though I didn’t learn what pegging is till long after being actually twelve, thank God…)

        4. fogel

          🙂 I wonder if that kind of pegging could be a sort of halfway house for Ethan… there might be volunteers: in Shortpacked Ethan falls on his while wearing a hospital gown and Robin salon’s over his tush.

        5. fogel

          SLIPSHINE!

        6. fogel

          Spellwrecker is related to HAL …

        7. fogel

          That does make Danny’s situation extra fraught. “Yeah, it’s not just a guy I’m attracted to, he’s your ex …..” UNLESS Dumbing-verse Amber turns out to be like the alternate Amber in Shortpacked, who proposed a threesome to Ethan and Mike.

  83. Theluxland

    Get a room with Ethan already!
    I would like to see this tough.

  84. Mitsukara

    This version of Danny is so much more charming than the original. He’s sympathetic, and even when he has a moment like this, it comes off as obviously ‘sheltered’ more than like he’s being stuck up about it. I honestly ship for a three-way/poly thing for Danny, Amber/Amazigirl, and Ethan.

    And just think of the slipshine potential! Wink wink aw man I have no money for even basic things like rent. : (

    1. Rich

      I’m with you on exploring the poly thing, although it’s more because I like Amber a lot and a break with Danny would probably not be good for her mental state. She and Ethan have plenty of connections already, both like Danny, and Danny likes both of them, which isn’t a bad foundation. Doesn’t need to involve a three-way necessarily, Danny splitting bedroom time between the two and all three of them socializing seems a little more plausible, at least going by the couple of triads I’ve known.

      I can see a bunch of arguments for why it wouldn’t happen, but it’s neither completely crazy nor just an excuse for a Slipshine story.

    2. fogel

      Maybe it’s possible? In an alternate universe Amber proposed a three way to Ethan and Mike–who then invited Dina to make it a four way. Is Amber just too burned by Ethan to be open to that?

  85. Spencer

    Looking back, I think what really bothers me about this strip is Danny’s dismissal of bisexuality, and how he chose to vocalize that. It’s frustrating to read about a character I really like saying something as shitty as “bisexuality isn’t a thing” and even moreso because of his active refusal to be open minded about it. She’s telling him about bisexuality, and all he can do is doubt that it’s valid? Why is Danny always a repository for totally shitty traits?

    1. Rowen Morland

      Yeah. I was feeling the same way reading this. I’m sort of excusing him though because he’s been winding himself up over this for days(?) Thinking that he’s doing wrong somehow or another.

    2. David M Willis

      Look.

      Just so you know, in the past 16 hours, I have had readers ask me if it’s safe to read today’s comments, because they were/are Danny, they super understand where he is right now, they are amazingly thankful that this is being shown in this way, but also don’t want to have to wade through comments like yours where you blanket his response as “totally shitty” or how terrible/unbelievable he is for being “ignorant.” Because they’ve seen this response, they’ve lived this response, and so they expect exactly this response. And you’re here to provide. Seriously, “totally shitty”? Danny is “totally shitty” because he doesn’t respond to this exactly as an amazing all-knowing bisexual ninja who acts precisely the way YOU think is perfect for any and all circumstances? Anyway, I have had to tell them, no, the comments are not safe for you today. And you are a huge part of why. Not even three hours ago you said you were holding off for further judgment, but apparently you’re back to double down and sling more jerky words around and force me to be all WTF. By all means, continue to make my comments section unreadable to an important segment of my audience.

      Danny’s story doesn’t have to be your story. You can prefer something else happen, or prefer it happen in a different way. There’s going to be no version of this that everyone is happy with. People are different. You don’t have to like this particular story to be a good person. Not liking this strip is valid. But maybe ease back on invectives.

      1. Random832

        When people talk about “bi erasure” as some automatically terrible thing (rather than an understandable ignorance – particularly given the abysmal state of media representation for bisexuals – to be corrected through education) when it’s Joe or Becky or a hypothetical Dorothy, is it surprising that people don’t see Danny – a character many people already dislike for reasons that have little to do with his sexuality – any differently?

      2. Spencer

        It was never my intent to contribute to a toxic environment for your readers, and I am deeply sorry that I’ve hurt any of them.

        I’m just angry at how Danny is taking this, because I was really looking forward to seeing a Bi dude be all “hey I’m bisexual, that’s great. It’s just another part of me that doesn’t significantly change anything about me but I’m glad I know it now because I’ve discovered something new” like how it was for me, and it didn’t play to how I wanted it to, so I took it the wrong way and went way too far with expressing my disappointment. Things started kind of coming together for me a while before you had written the strip where we learned Danny was bi, and seeing the dopey, loveable everyman learn he liked guys kind of helped me. Holy shit! There’s a normal dude who realized he likes guys! That’s kind of where I am right now! Danny was even more significant for me because, unlike every other character who came into the story with established sexualities, Danny started having these feelings during the story, so seeing someone actively navigate through these new feelings, was really nice while I tried to figure things out about myself.

        I guess what bothers me is how it plays out in relation to your other LGBT characters. Becky can be out and proud, Carla can be hilarious and awesome and never take anyone’s shit, Billie and Ruth can have their relationship where their sexuality isn’t an issue, and Ethan, while a tragic victim of his parents’ sheer assholishness, is now on the road to becoming more confident and in control of his sexuality, but Danny? Danny has to be totally in the dark about it and disbelieve that it’s an actual thing. And, yeah, I am taking this way too fucking personally, but it stung seeing the only bi dude in any of the fiction I consume say something like that.

        So, yeah, I should just wait until the end of the story before I start making half-cocked assumptions about both Danny and the very real concept of bi-erasure just because it didn’t play out according to the script in my head.

        1. David M Willis

          I have a whole bunch of stuff to say about much of that, but I don’t really want to telegraph my future story developments by explaining how I see my own characters. Suffice to say, I think there are some cracks you’re missing in a few of the folks you list in regards to how simpatico they are with their sexual identities.

          But more importantly, I understand what you want and I’m sorry my story couldn’t deliver it. My male cast is pretty small, as this is a comic primarily about ladies, so I can’t even promise that there’ll be another main character bi dude around that can fill that niche. It legit bums me out that I can’t fill all the niches, but I have to remind myself that I’m just one dude with one comic. Ethan got to have a much more relaxed self-discovery in Shortpacked! so maybe next universe Danny’s script will be flipped.

          I guess that’s exactly the thing. I was very happy with Ethan in Shortpacked! because, as you wished would have happened to Danny, him learning he was gay was just another detail to add to who he was, and I liked that. In Dumbing of Age, I wrote him as much younger and much more uncertain about everything, and I was constantly worried that I was focusing on it too much versus how it was handled before. But at Webcomics Rampage a few years ago, a few readers came to me and countered, no, this is fantastic, I don’t see this story elsewhere, and I’m happy to see Ethan going through it. It’s something they thought was missing from Shortpacked!. And then, meanwhile, in a Tumblr ask I was being scolded for doing the opposite, for doing exactly what I had feared I was doing, and why can’t Ethan just automatically be happy with who he is. And so I’ve come to understand that there’s all different kinds of valid coming out stories, and folks will be angry with some and happy with others, and vice versa, and always have valid reasons for disliking them. They need certain kinds of stories, even if that’s in contrast with what certain kinds of stories other people need. Both sets of folks can be right, and the important thing is that, collectively as humanity, we tell all the kinds of stories.

          It’s just that this time around, Danny got the end of the stick you’re unhappy with.

        2. Dr. T

          No offense, but Danny is a character who grew up in the Mississippi of the Midwest (aka, my own home state of Indiana). I know of people who struggled mightily with even recognizing their sexual orientation because of how backwards people around here can be. Just to give you an example, there are still people around these parts that don’t have anything against any black people who still think nothing of using the N word when referring to them.

        3. Random832

          “the only bi dude in any of the fiction I consume” – that’s a lot of weight to put on one character by one author, and it’s basically the opposite of his fault, since at least he has a bi character in the first place.

        4. Daisy

          Yup, this is my sentiment. No representation can be perfect and encompass everything. The answer is not to change one instance of representation but to improve representation across the board.

          And Mr Willis, you can’t possibly make everyone happy, but thank you so much for trying. Moments like this, and the little feminist moments, and the little very human moments, are really self-affirming and reassuring to read.

      3. Rartorata

        I am henceforth only to be known as an amazing all-knowing bisexual ninja.

    3. Pinja

      He’d literally never heard the word before, lets give him more than ten seconds to take it all in.

      1. Seerow

        He’s had over 15 seconds, come on how many seconds until we’ve given the guy enough time?

        And just to be clear, since apparently it’s hard to tell in the comments today, that was sarcasm.

        1. Zatar

          The difference between Danny having this response and the other characters is that he himself is bisexual. Them being ignorant about bisexuality was in circumstances were there ignorance was harmful to bisexuals. The only person Danny’s ignorance has been harmful to is Danny. He deserves our sympathy not our anger.

        2. Zatar

          This was meant as a reply to Random832 by the way.

        3. Random832

          But every explanation that exists for why he doesn’t know – being an ignorant teenager, growing up in a small-to-midsize town in Indiana, etc – applies equally well to everyone. I don’t think anyone deserves the kind of anger for that that they’ve been getting (including the “virtual” anger of people gleefully anticipating that this would be Dorothy’s one fatal character flaw, because Danny totally needs that right now in the person he went to for advice), and I think it’s something that should have been shut down before today.

        4. Random832

          Plus, you know, my point stands that everyone already hates Danny for non-downstairs-related reasons. Because apparently no-one remembers being Danny.

        5. Mandy

          That’s a very great last sentence – I find Danny VERY relatable. In a lot of ways. Not in this particular area, as I’ve not struggled with my sexuality, but in the fact that he’s awkward and unsure of himself and often doesn’t know the right thing to say to people. Aren’t we all like that?! I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But I have to say, as someone new to the Willis universe – I started with this comic and then went back and read Shortpacked and some of Roomies – I really do not understand the hate for Danny, ESPECIALLY in this comic. I associate with and really like Danny a lot, and people giving him shit for struggling through something immensely life- and worldview-altering is really low.

  86. Whittier

    This is actually a great commentary on the very real problem of bi erasure.

  87. Tenn

    Danny and Becky have an increasing number of things in common.

    1. bananarama

      I think that’s on purpose. Danny has so much character baggage from Walkyverse in the eyes of the audience. So how do you normalize his fuckups? Introduce a loveable character with similarities and watch the audience equilibriate to sometimes disliking Becky and sometimes liking Danny.

      1. Rich

        I find DoA reads better when you emulate Dorothy from a few days back and compartmentalize the different series. It’s fun to speculate on which traits will transfer intact (eg is DoA Mike a friendly drunk?) but dangerous to get trapped in that mode of thought.

        1. fogel

          It’s interesting to see similarities and differences in the reboot of the same characters in a different situation. Especially the relationships. (Saw a polish movie in which there are 3 versions of the protaganist’ s life and which trajectory he follows is determined by a split second’ s happenings: in running for a train does he duck around a guy and make the train, or bump into him and miss it, or …. very well done (in memory)

  88. a4lbi

    Okay, after I get my obligatory “I’m so glad I got out of my ‘bisexuality isn’t real/just a phase’ phase” comment in, I’ll stay the fuck out of the comments.

    (And yea, plot twist, I am bisexual. Pansexual, really. Bi-erasure and other internalized BS is a helluva thing to grow up with.)

  89. potatoaddict

    Watching common sense sink into Danny is like watching a sponge absorbing water. It’s not going to stick for very long.

  90. Lasenna

    I love the expression on Dorothy’s face in the last panel. It reminds me of the dog in a Looney Tunes cartoon called Cheese Chasers.

  91. erudtiteCaptain

    I have a serious question: is bisexuality not something people commonly know about? I’ve known about it basically as long as I’ve understood homosexuality as a real thing. So…why is it that bisexuality isn’t commonly known?

    1. neeks

      Myopia and rampant heteronormativity. It’s like…the narrative we are raised to accept is there’s one way to do things, one way that things “work”, and anything else is anomalous and doesn’t count. So it requires a steady and constant stream of people adding their own “non-normal” perspectives to get the word out there about anything, and I don’t think we’ll ever fully eradicate ignorance and “this is how I work and i’m totally normal so obviously anything not like me is weird and wrong”

    2. Turbanous

      Yes it is common that people don’t know what bisexuality is and worse there are those that refuse to believe that bisexuality is even a thing. Bi-erasure plays a big part in this since there is very little representation in popular culture, also the news media tends to see people as either gay or straight based off their curent partner.

      If I remember correctly one of the first same sex marriage cases was filed by a bisexual woman and her partner. However most media coverage only saw and reported them as a gay couple and their victory was for “gay marriage” as opposed to just same sex marriage.

      In a lot of television shows, most characters are rigidly straight or gay. I have noticed that female characters are more likely to experiment/realize that they were really gay all along. One example of this is Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The case can be made that she truly loved The male character Oz. After their relationship ended Willow eventually developed feelings for Tera and started to identify as gay and a lesbian. A more current example is the show Constantine who is bi in the comics but the director/show runners decided his romantic interest(s) will be women and wont even consider bringing up the idea that he is also attracted to men.

      When I was trying to figure out what I was in college (mid 2000s), I might have been aware of the term but I could not figure out if I was gay or straight because I thought those were my only options. I also remember deciding not to be a part of the LGBT club, even as an ally. Mostly because I was afraid people would think I was gay just for being a part of it, and also because I knew that I was not totally gay.

      If I had been more aware of the term and been involved I might have figured out what I was earlier and and out years ago as opposed to months.

    3. fogel

      EruditeCaptain: I have read, casually, that there are Both heterosexual and homosexual people who deny that bi is real and give grief to bi’ s, pushing them to stop pretending, attention whoring, and make up their minds/choose, perhaps because they want people to identify with their identity, perhaps because they’re stuck in dichotomous thinking, perhaps because they can accept that there are straight and gay so long as they are separate, but feel that bi would be polluting or illegitimate mixing of orientations — AND if bi is real then they might unawaredly have sex with someone who has had sex with someone from whichever camp they are NOT attracted to, which I suspect disconcerts many people. Whereas, like you, it seems to me that if homosex is real, then bi obviously follows.

    4. fogel

      PS, I love your gravatar.

  92. KaelemGaen

    Personally I really like the side-eye semi-4th wall breaking stare from Danny as he says he’d think he would have heard the word.

  93. man jean

    i didn’t even make the connection with becky saying it however-long-back. clever! the continuity jokes (i think that’s right??) are one part of what make this comic really damn good

  94. batman

    http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1340

  95. Rartorata

    Y’know, I think this comic really hammered home to me how pervasive bi erasure is. I’m bi myself (also I’m bisexual, badumtish (like, not just lonely (I’m that too))), but while I may only have realized that relatively recently, the idea that someone raised in a non-repressive household would reach 18 without even knowing what bisexuality is shocks me to the core.

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