I think she is singing the song with regards to being forgiven for her sins. Now how Becky will feel about it later, especially if Joyce finds out, is anyone’s guess.
Self-comfort, yes. Guilt, I don’t think so. There’s a difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is believing you have done something wrong and regretting tat you did it. Shame is believing that *other people* think it’s wrong and fearing their judgement if it’s find out. One can feel shame and guilt at the same time, but I think Becky is reaching a point where she’s struggling much more with the shame than the guilt.
For her, the shame is specifically directed at God, who supposedly knows absolutely everything and will send an unrepentant liar to eternal torment as quickly as an unrepentant murderer, because from his perspective all sins and imperfections are equally deserving of damnation. There is no way to hide what she’s done, and there is every reason to fear his response to it even if she doesn’t consider it to be inherently evil.
Hence Liz panicking with the belief that she ‘almost ruined herself forever’ after getting close to having premarital sex, compared to Becky who is more worried about the eternal consequences if God decides to condemn her. Liz believed the action itself was the problem; Becky believes that God’s perspective on the action is the problem.
Interested in why you went into a discussion of distinction between guilt and shame when nobody in the thread had used either of those terms? Is it because of the idea of regret? Because that still seems like it could go with either guilt or shame– differently, perhaps, but still. Or was it just something you wanted share and bring into the discussion?
As an ex-Christian fundie, it made perfect sense to me. Not in relation to what the thread is talking about, but in relation to what Becky is feeling and thinking.
She’s almost certainly feeling at least one of shame and guilt. The question is whether she thinks she did wrong – in which case she’d regret doing it. Or whether she just thinks God thinks she did wrong – in which case she’d probably want to “fix it forward” rather than regretting having done it.
Thing is, fundie Christianity has a very strong, though very inconsistent, redemption narrative. If you’re a televangelist who steals people’s money and cheats on his wife, you just have to say “I’ve prayed about it and God has forgiven me” and all the people will forgive you too and send more money. You probably don’t even have to give the stolen money back, much less treat your wife better. Just oopsie, I did the wrong thing, God forgave me, everything’s cool now.
It’s almost kind of a “get out of regret free” card…
I hate the term ‘Christian Fundamentalist’, because of how FAR AWAY from the fundamental principles of Christianity most of them seem to be.
Christianity was founded (NOT by Jesus, but by his closest followers after his death and perceived resurrection) on five core principles:
1. Love everybody, whether you believe they deserve it or not.
2. Care for the poor, oppressed and vulnerable.
3. Live a life of service to others.
4. Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.
5. Spread principles 1 through 4 as widely as possible, persuading as many people as you can to act on them.
If you read the Book of Acts, which is basically the history of the founding of the Church, you will see these five principles being put into practice. Those are the “fundamentals” of Jesus’ message. There’s no call be believe in any form of scripture, no prescribed forms of worship, no mandate to oppress people over their race, gender, religious or sexual preference, no ban on sex between free, consenting adults unless one of them has already made a commitment to someone else.
So in my book, if you want to call yourself a Christian Fundamentalist, those five things better be what you’re doing, and you need to be careful about anything your tradition has thrown on top of them.
Actually yeah that’s a good point. Why are they called fundamentalists anyway? The longest running gag about them is that they worship a 5ft Middle East Jewish socialist, but the fundamentals he preached don’t tend to mean much to them.
Is it more like “adhering to teachings, except those teachings are Fire & Brimstone/Biblical Literalism/I’m Innately Holier Than Thou”? Like say, they’re “following the fundamentals” except the fundamentals they were taught were the ones about Christianity as it exists on a cultural level of “White Jesus loves guns.”
Because, like pretty much every Christian group – or sect of any religion ever – they think they’re the ones who got it right. They’re the ones who took the corrupt and distorted teachings of mainstream religion back to the fundamental roots.
It’s not really true of course, but they believe it.
And frankly, I don’t think you’re any more right about the fundamentals than they are. I like your version better, but the Bible, even just the New Testament, is a complex group of texts from different viewpoints and with different intended messages – almost all of them even harder to interpret from the viewpoint of an incredibly different culture and with 2 millennia of assumptions stacked on top of them.
I like your principles, but it’s certainly not self evident from the NT that they’re the main focus. There’s a lot of other stuff in there and it depends on which you focus on and which texts you give priority to.
I thought Paul/Saul basically hijacked the early Christian religion and was the source of the misogyny and a lot of the other not nice aspects of current Christianity?
@Roborat: A common interpretation among those not fond of Christianity, but not clear how supported it really is. Remember that Paul’s letters are the earliest surviving works in the New Testament – our oldest glimpse into the beginnings of Christianity. Everything we know about what Jesus actually said comes from at least a generation later and much of it almost certainly influenced by Paul.
Not a current or former fundamentalist Christian, but as domeone who has spent his fsir share of time in therapy, it’s nice to see a clear explanation of the distinction between shame and guilt.
Honestly, the shame definition given here isn’t in alignment with what I have learned as a difference between them. Fine by me if that’s the working definition they use to make sense of it, just mine is more: guilt= I did something bad; shame= I am bad.
I can’t really see Becky making that distinction here. Using those definitions, if she’s not feeling guilt because she doesn’t think it was wrong, but shame because she things God would – that doesn’t fit with what we’ve seen of her take on God. Becky sees God as good – supportive and loving. If He’s disappointed in her, it’s because she’s actually done wrong. God isn’t wrong about what’s good and bad.
God answers lesbian prayers, despite her church teaching her otherwise. Becky doesn’t see God as a tyrant who has to catered to. Her views on premarital sex being wrong would only shift if her views on what God thought about it shifted with them.
Maybe? I think she’s doing more of that “flexible beliefs” stuff to try to convince herself that what she did is okay by God.
Now I’m not saying that what she did was wrong, because they’re both consenting adults. That being said, I’m not thrilled at the mental gymnastics she’s gotta do to believe that she’s still good with Evangelical Christianity.
It can’t be good for her mental health to latch onto religion while simultaneously burying the knowledge that said religion hates her for what she is. Something’s gotta give at some point, and I worry it’s going to come from some “good Christian” at her latest church trying to “save her soul” or some insanity like that.
I also think that, this is likely going to lead to a blowout with Dina one of these days. Dina treats Becky’s religion as something more or less like a cute character quirk, but for Becky, it’s kind of been her whole life thus far. She’s already had several major cracks in it what with her father, now Joyce, now this.
Earlier, she was thanking god for bringing Dina into her life, now, Dina has Led Her Down the Path of Temptation and Pre-Marital Sex, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Becky’s reaction was to blame her for that rather than admit it was her own choice or that she doesn’t agree with everything her religion has taught her.
Or she could be completely fine with it! She’s kind of weird in that respect, I’ve expected much worse reactions from her before and been wrong. (I thought her argument with Joyce was going to last a lot longer than like, a day comic time for example.)
Sex may have been the last thing separating Becky from Joyce, in Becky’s eyes.
Actually, Becky now has a one-up on Joyce. I suspect that Becky will bring this up whenever she gets tired of arguing with Joyce. “I don’t have to listen to a coward who’s too afraid to get laid lecture me about casting off my Christian brainwashing” or something similar.
Becky seems to be pretty solid on personal choice. I don’t think she would go down the path of blaming Dina for her sinning just because we’ve seen her on the other side of it so much and Dina has been good about checking in. Her first statement after pants euphoria was reaffirming Becky’s desire to wait.
It is possible that this will reach a breaking point where Dina just cannot understand why Becky is flagelating herself for a fictional character. If Becky has a breakdown because she was wrong in god’s eyes, I don’t know how Dina will react to that.
Dina has been okay with god mostly because he clearly seems to bring Becky joy – she probably sees it as akin to a child having a teddy bear. Harmless but brings comfort.
She couldn’t really empathize with the sexual frustration it was causing, and likely didn’t fully understand how much distress that Becky was under because of it. She likely saw it as Becky just not being ready and using that as an excuse. If she understood the messy duress it caused Becky, it’s possible she already would’ve been more harshly critical.
If her beleifs cause Becky to start feeling bad and beating herself up for an experience they both enjoyed – it is possible Dina will stop seeing this as a harmless comfort, and that could cause issues.
Given the smile, I don’t think so. Seems like an odd celebration. Based on how she said she feels toward this song, this is something of a cleansing ritual. A way to make ‘penance’ for the sin to so she can enjoy this guilt free!
Same, I don’t see any regret in her singing (at the very least, for now). And the Alt-text being the significant lyrics “let me remind you I’m the one who lead and guide you” makes me very hopeful she won’t have any big ones.
Oh, guarantee that at least a small part of her is freaking out, but, well, that dam breaking can be a kinda big thing. The song she’s singing is just the song that she played after masturbating, and now is just a song that makes her horny because association is weird that way.
Okay, have you read the third panel of that strip? Like yeah, association is weird. It can be dependent on a lot of things. Right now, I’d think she’s coming down from a horny high rather than getting horny again with the song. Sometimes in the post-horny wave, there can be pretty big feelings that aren’t all good, and I think that could be how the song is connecting here.
To me it looks more like ‘I’m really happy right now, but I shouldn’t be, and I kind of wish I wasn’t, because being happy means I am okay with having sinned, but I really am…’
I’m reading it the same, and glad she is happy. I hope it leads her to just being comfortable following what she actually wants, without having to worry about being eternally punished or messing up and upsetting her god.
D’awww that is so sweet, I hope the euphoria hangs around awhile. Also this is the perfect time for Joyce to show up unannounced and find them like this.
Joyce then proceeds to point out that the story this song is based on isn’t even in the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of John, and was likely added in later.
I don’t think that’s what it is. Remember Becky talking about her masturbatory habits from a couple weeks ago, where she would play a song when she got horny to try to fight being horny, then played it after masturbating, and then just started to associate the song with gettin’ off so just hearing it would make her horny? https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/goandsinnomore/
Yeah a lot of us made that connection. It’s a song she used to try and distract herself from sexual urges because it tells her to “sin no more”. Singing about how she needs to “sin no more” right after premarital hanky panky is concerning.
That’s not how toxic religion works. Power can only be only maintained through guilt. And guilt can only be created when the victim does something “wrong” and then asks for “forgiveness” and vows to never do the “wrong” thing again.
I’m wondering whether Becky does indeed believe what she’s singing here (specifically the “I will not condemn you” bit), or if she’s singing it to try to reassure herself that said statement is true.
50/50 odds at best, though I do hope this helps the both of them. Especially Becky, who I hope will be less restricted when it comes to “premarital hanky panky,” which may in turn affect Joyce and her feelings on the issue.
Neither, probably. These are lyrics from her masturbation song, which she said just hearing makes her horny now. I’m reading it more as an extension of that association.
I’m still not decided if I quite like this story decision, I rather liked Dina as an asexual person who was willing to have sex with her partner because she wants her partner to be happy, not because she has sexual feelings herself.
This sex encounter was not only initiated by Dina, but it was started because she got horny in the elevator.
Nothing wrong with that in the sense that it’s not wrong to have sex with your consenting romantic partner whenever and however you like, but I feel kinda sad that we lost the representation of Dina as entirely asexual.
(Or that Walkyverse Dina was turned on by Walky when they were a couple and that she eventually had sex with Mike, keeping in mind the ironclad rule of sexuality being a constant between universes)
that goes against what I know about asexuality, but these terms are fluid and it’s possible my definition is outdated. What’s the definition you’re working with?
I was under the impression that Dina was a sex-neutral asexual: sex is not particularly appealing to her, but she’s not sex-repulsed either.
She’s grey ace and clearly has a science fetish and dominant tendencies. Considering her size and how people respond to her, it’s hardly surprising that she hasn’t found anyone who triggers the dominant aspect before.
Pretty much what Z said. She’s most likely a grey ace, which is still part of the asexuality spectrum.
Asexuality means you’re not sexually attracted to a specific person. A lack of libido (the ability to be turned on by stimuli or just because you have functional nerves down there) isn’t required. Dina has a libido. In this moment she chose to act on it with Becky’s consent.
It’s fine to say “I think this story would have worked well if it had gone in a different direction”. It’s not like there’s one single ideal path for stories and not going down that path is a mistake, there’s lots of different paths that would be fascinating to take things down.
Just try not to judge a work for doing something different than what you were wanting. It can be really, really hard to do, I fail on that front more than plenty, but its important to take the story on its own merits first and foremost, judge the story based on what the creator wanted to do.
It’s not that the drive doesn’t exist, it’s that it’s not necessarily affected by humans and their shape.
For instance, I’m not particularly set off sexually by features like boobs and muscles and curves. But me and other asexuals like me could be set off that way by particular actions or scenarios.
And when it comes to those particular actions or scenarios, there are like MILLIONS. — eating certain foods, tickling, wearing of certain colors, role-playing certain characters, playing certain games, just to name a few.
Okay so imagine a firm 100% heterosexual male. Legitimately 0 sexual attraction to men period.
This guy is living in a compound with only other men, and for the purposes of this exercise had no access to pornography or even images of women and has only ever lived around men all his life.
No matter what his libido is – he has 0 attraction to men, he’ll feel 0 attraction to anyone around him.
He could have a high libido raring engine and need to jerk it 5 times a day – but he still has 0 attraction to anyone around him.
Now this high sex drive may cause him to decide to engage in sex acts with people he isn’t attracted to for the physical release it brings. But he still isn’t attracted to them.
That’s the difference between sex drive and sexuality. Asexuals don’t experience sexual attraction for other people.
If an asexual person has a high sex drive, then they may be less likely to identify as asexual and happier to go along with the mainstream experience of sex. However a person can still find comfort in the label because they don’t experience sexuality the way their peers do and that can still be confusing and distressing.
Bruh we got confirmation that Dina experienced sexual attraction on the 19th of March comic; of that’s not what “pants euphoria” means there then I don’t understand this AT ALL
Okay so every single time you’ve ever been horny in your entire life it was directed at a specific human being?
Your username is Derek – if you’re a cis guy then honestly that’s even harder to believe that you’ve literally never gotten hard without thinking of a specific human being, when it’s kind of endemic to male puberty to randomly get unwanted erections at the most awkward times.
If you literally have not – then, yeah, that’ll be part of the confusion.
You can masturbate without thinking of other people. You can feel the desire for an orgasm without thinking about another person. You can achieve an orgasm without any involvement with other people, including mental.
Physical arousal, masturbation, and orgasm are separate from attraction.
Sexual attraction is seeing someone and desiring to have sex with them. Seeing a person or talking to them or thinking about them and getting aroused is sexual attraction.
Biologically, arousal can happen for any number of unrelated reasons, it’s a hormonal response. Orgasm has a lot of biological benefits including stress relief that can be worth doing even if you haven’t experienced sexual attraction lately.
“pants euphoria” is just sexual arousal. They spent a handful of strips going through stimulants(naked Becky etc etc) that might arouse her by making her feel sexual attraction toward Becky, and she did not feel it. She only experienced arousal when she and Becky referred to each other as “lab partners”, which had nothing to do with sexual attraction to Becky and everything to do with science-y talk being a thing that can turn her on. arousal does not equal attraction
It wouldn’t make sense to say that no asexual people experience sexual arousal, because its just a sensation like any other. From my understanding, feeling sexual attraction and feeling a *need* to act on it is generally what separates allosexual from asexual. Dina felt aroused and wanted to act on it, now whether she felt a *need* to do so or whether she was just curious is up for debate, but experiencing arousal and then having sex doesn’t make you not or less asexual
These events do not invalidate Dina being ace, or on the ace spectrum.
Asexuality describes a lack of sexual attraction. That’s it.
Asexuality is unrelated to horniness and libido. Someone can have a low libido and rarely get horny, yet still experience sexual attraction – and someone can be completely asexual, yet have a high libido and often get horny.
I have a libido. I’m also a slightly sex-repulsed asexual demiromantic. This is sometimes uncomfortable, but it is not contradictory.
Dina is still ace. Quite frankly I disagree with a lot of other folks–I think Dina HAS now experienced some sexual attraction to Becky. But even then, she’s still grey-ace. Occasionally experiencing sexual attraction under only very specific and often nebulous circumstances is very much an asexual experience. It does not make Dina less ace, because the core of the ace experience is how they DON’T experience sexual attraction in their day to day life, which Dina still doesn’t.
Someone is still ace if they experience sexual attraction very infrequently, only under extremely specific circumstances, or so briefly/to such a low intensity that they don’t feel the need or desire to act on it.
Demisexuality for example is a form of grey-asexuality where someone only experiences sexual attraction to someone after establishing a deep emotional bond with them. I’d be ecstatic if this were the case with Dina, because it seems to me like Dina experienced attraction to Becky not after all of the weird experiments they did with random stimuli, but because for a moment she felt a deep and meaningful sense of emotional connection to Becky because of the whole ‘lab partners’ thing–and that is what triggered her attraction. (Which is. SO romantic imho…)
And this is yknow, a little backwards to how I understand most allosexual people experience things. For them, when deep emotional connections are involved with sex, they experience sexual attraction FIRST, and then the deeper emotional connection happens during the sex. For demisexuals the deep emotional connection is a prerequisite for attraction to happen at all.
These things tend to be on a spectrum, and I don’t think this represents a shift in how the character is being written. This has been coming for a long time
Okay THIS is why we need ace rep with Dina bc no one actually understands how asexuality works. More eloquent people than i have already explained the difference between arousal and attraction, and the fact that Dina is grey ace and can experience some attraction. And it sounds like you were operating under a flawed definition in the first place, which was also corrected.
Im just going to say that this misunderstanding right here is why it’s extremely important that we have characters like Dina. I wish dumbing of age was bigger, i want to take all these recent Dina strips and shove them in everyone’s faces like “THIS IS IT! this isn’t my specific experience but THIS IS HOW A LOT OF US WORK!!! LEARN IT, LOVE IT, RECOGNIZE IT IN YOURSELVES IF APPLICABLE!!!”
My microlabel is so micro even other aces don’t recognize it (acelflux, my capacity for sexual attraction fluctuates) so i don’t have any hope of getting representation ever, which is why amazing rep of other, close enough microlabels like Dina being grey as fuck makes me soooo excited. I really hope this thread helped better your understanding of asexuality.
I think she might be okay. The expression appears happy, and, also, from what we’ve seen… The core of Becky’s personal Christianity, the lens through which she views her faith, is that God DOES love her, and wants her to be happy. All the other stuff can be rearranged or outright ignored in favour of that central belief. This made her happy, and God is loving and forgiving, so God won’t mind. He’ll “forgive and forget it all.”
It probably won’t be that simple all the time, and there may be some freakouts, especially when Joyce finds out. Joyce’s understanding of faith and… well, everything else, is a lot less flexible. But I think ultimately, Becky will feel that she and God are still cool with each other after this.
They make something like this for babies – it’s a weighted arm to make them feel like they’re being held. I’ve also seen a set up with a speaker that imitates the breathing/heartbeat/etc of a sleeping adult. These aren’t even heated.
I don’t think the exact heat aspect would be as necessary because humans vary in how hot they feel – a hot water bottle inside would probably be enough. Or just heat it up itself if you fill it with rice.
If you have a plush already, you could keep an eye out for cheap deals on bulk rice. Then just carefully make a small hole in a few of the seams, empty it out, fill it with rice, sew it back up.
You can also mix some herbs in like lavender and chamomile. Or a body spray you like the smell of.
Look up the instructions for a homemade hot pack with rice – same concept.
That’s a good name. I named mine after a character from The Franchise That Must Not Be Named, and now I keep wondering about changing the name or leaving it because it does, like, exist as a name separate from that.
Depending on how it’s filled the cover might be able to be taken off and machine washed.
Depending on how porous the material is the stuffing may need to be replaced as well.
That’s assuming it’s machine washable, and if the dinosaur has a way of removing the insides without damaging the outside, but even if it doesn’t I don’t doubt someone has the skills necessary to repair it.
If it isn’t washable in a machine, hand washing should still be an option. Given its size it may take a while, but it should be fine.
Maybe dry cleaning? I’ve never tried to get the skin of a velociraptor dry cleaned, might be expensive.
The filling is another thing. Plushie filling gets weird after one or two years of extensive use. It makes dense clumps, and the whole thing loses its form. the filling needs to be replaced, which will be an absolute mess.
Plushies usually are washable, but there is no sink or washing machine on earth that can handle this thing.
Also is it me or did Becky get 100% validated by the narrative in thinking that if she said or did the correct sequence of actions or words, she’d trigger a “mating frenzy” in Dina? Hopefully she’s gotten past the idea that it would absolve her of responsibility
She did not. Her fantasy was about Dina losing control and ravaging her – but Dina’s reaction to becoming horny was to invite Becky to do something together. To share something. There was consent, and so that specific fantasy was not fulfilled.
Speaking as someone who sleeps in a not dissimilar way with or without a partner, that’s not as contorted as it looks. Maybe the arm is a little far back, but Dina may also just be more flexible than I am.
Before this happened, Becky has repeatedly stated that she didn’t want to have full sex with Dina due to religious reasons. And, in the end, Dina did push Becky onto the dinosaur, jumped at her and had sex with her.
I don’t wanna bother linking it but a few strips ago Dina asks Becky (paraphrasing here) “Hey I’m horny, do you want to have sex now or wait.” And Becky says she doesn’t want to wait, so they fuck. Hope this helps!
Maybe instead of asking edgy/gross questions for the sake of it, you could try reading the comic you’re talking about next time.
Okay, let me be clear here: I was genuinely curious, because I didn’t get the impression Becky admitted she didn’t want to wait. If that happened and I missed it, I am sorry for causing offence.
Dina got turned on. Dina mentioned this to Becky. Dina communicated her understanding that Becky wished to wait, but offered sex if Becky no longer wished to wait.
Becky said she no longer wished to wait.
Then they had sex. (probably)
If you can’t tell the difference between that very enthusiastic consent and a little playful pushing around to make it fun versus sexual assault – Please do everyone a favour and educate yourself before you try to have sex with anyone other than yourself.
Honestly, this just reeks of “You can’t even TALK to women any more” energy.
Prescient author knew someone would comment something like this, so he made sure to signal Becky’s consent before they throw themselves on the raptor. Now I wonder, how did he know?
There’s also an incredibly narrow chance that Willis did the same thing they’ve done with with all these sexual encounters. Namely, they establish plainly that the characters consent to it (often by gasping out of exclaiming the word “Yes!” enthusiastically with a smile on their faces), because for reasons beyond us mortals, they didn’t feel like writing and drawing a rape story. Maybe I’m completely off-base here, but I don’t think that was in the cards for this comic.
Okay, I seriously looked at the raptor strip and I didn’t get the impression Becky was signaling consent there. If I did, I wouldn’t be asking this question.
yeah, no. Dina was clear that she would enjoy sex but that if Becky still wanted to wait, that was fine; Becky gave her explicit consent before anything happened.
Becky’s also previously expressed something of a dubcon fantasy (“mating frenzy”) as a twisted way of getting around the religious guilt – but Dina is not into the dubcon thing and wasn’t willing to do anything until she’d made sure Becky specifically said she wanted to go forward with it.
I hope Becky’s happy with her choice! But either way Becky definitely made a choice and consent was had by all.
Feeling a bit of relief for now. See, I get my “fear the worst” out early so I can spend the rest of the storyline “hoping for the best”. It’s better for my health lmao
Dina: completely comfortable, had a sexual experience that was specifically perfect to her every desire with a girlfriend she was able to explain all her perspective to without being mocked.
Conclusion: ?
Becky: had a sexual experience where she got to experience the joy she so longed for but felt conflicted on. She chose this and knows it so all her religious trauma is possibly going through every argument she can think of to make it a bad thing but the warmth and happiness is countering it with so much joy
There’s something genuinely wonderful about an autistic being sexually open and curious, and not being rejected.
Becky has flaws but she didn’t treat Dina like a freak for her specific desires and I find that very special and nice. Like Becky is collaborative with Dina’s specific way of exploring both of their sexualities and even told Dina the specific religious trauma stuff, really help make it clear what is occurring.
Yeah, this does indeed shine as a BEAUTIFUL beacon to neurodivergents and aces of all stripes, everywhere, as well as those with religious hangups. ???
Hopefully this works out better than literally every other relationship featured in a slipshine (from this comic). Seriously, all of the couples from this timeline who were featured on slipshine have broken up, usually badly.
I’m not taking that as much of a sign personally because really no couple has lasted very long in this strip, so I definitely don’t think of Slipshines as causal of breakups.
Honestly, yeah maybe Becky will feel bad about this later but I think the song on itself (Rebecca St. James, no i’m not a genius I just googled to see if it was a Rich Mullins’ one)– OK SO this symbolism is layered, ok. Singer is her namesake, she’s done something that was explicitly condemned by her religion, which is the theme of the song… But, important as hell: Becky is smiling.
Dina must be having the deepest of naps, because the sheer power of her sexual appeal must be a heavy cross to carry on herself; and she looks at such deep-bone-tired smiley peace. (Good job, both of you!) But the thing with Becky, singing this song in self-soothing… IDK, fam, but it’s so… Open? Vulnerable? And yet she sings and she smiles, and I’m dead-ass sure she does’t regret this. Shame is more difficult to shed, but…
(I’m rambling and it’s my sleeping pills kicking in, sorry)
This strip, basically… Made me feel that, indeed: God Answers Lesbian Prayers. Everything happen in the most perfect way it could’ve gone. I’m one of those accursed wrecks of humanity … ATHEISTS! and hey. At least for this stirp? If God is a canon character in this iteration of the WILLIS MULTIVERSE, I bet they are decent enough to og “oh yes, my daughters. Glad to see you two fructify, no sin here, but enjoy the music.” Even the punchline agrees!
It’s also possible that, given what Becky said about the song always making her horny, she’s simply gearing up for Round 2. 😉
But yeah, I imagine that part of her will still be feeling huge amounts of subliminal guilt over this. Hopefully in time she’ll manage to crush that feeling down into a teensy ball until it’s no longer felt at all. :3
…huh, hadn’t put the same-name thing together until now. (Or if I did, I forgot). I suppose it’s entirely possible that Becky’s named after her in-universe.
Slipshines are the characters boffing (while remaining in-character, they’re still pieces that inform the cast), we’ve yet to get premium character development paywalled behind canonical smut.
Plus we already know that this was about to happen. Basically sex happened. It may have been a spoiler if it cut to the two of them having failed to have sex (such as if Dina lost interest, or Becky panicked out). The only thing we really missed is positions and other sex stuff.
Admittedly I suppose it’s worth asking how Becky managed to recover when, during the Slipshine, Dina violently tore into Becky’s stomach using her powerful claws and began feasting on her organs.
The closest I’ve ever heard of that to date is that apparently in the Joe/Malaya slipshine, Joe was apparently fantasizing about Joyce toward the end of it.
I am really glad Dina and Becky got this moment together but damn I hate how Becky will just twist and justify herself and her faith at every instance and cant even phathom why Joyce has turned atheist… which she constantly seems to make about Joyce’s faith not being as strong as hers… Not acknowledging that her faith is liquid that she can pour into any container to fit her narritive but Joyce’s was more like clay that got moulded, shakingly glazed, shoved into a kiln at high heat and got left out to shrink and cool… before getting picked up and smashed on the floor.
Not sure if I am making too much of something, but… is this the first time Becky’s eyes haven’t been partially covered by a curtain of hair? Make of that potential symbolism what you will.
We’ve definitely seen uncovered by hair before or at least from an angle that let us see her eye without needing to do that “put the above her hair” thing, but in terms of “having her hair entirely out of her face” like here I don’t believe that’s happened since she got her haircut.
Dina is uncomfortable with her hat off. We’ve seen her taking it off twice to have an effect on Becky, but her current state is completely comfortable and contented, which she would not be without her hat on.
Let’s not forget that the “sky-daddy” in question here is very real to Becky and she would be making this potential decision from that position.
I’m a little surprised at how flippantly this choice is being presented here considering how we’ve already seen Becky struggling when she’s put in what she feels is a difficult position in terms of her religion.
Not really. Sexual purity is just about the only thing Becky didn’t immediately discard when it contradicted her desires, and as far as has been revealed, sexual purity only stuck around because Becky thought she had changed too much already.
With Becky losing her virginity (something she’s previously been hesitant about regarding how she’s already changed so much) I wonder if she’ll double up her efforts to reconvert Joyce so she can keep being her buffer, now that her only other last remaining link to Old Becky the Christian Good Girl is gone.
Willis (and everybody), it’s impossible to anyone from some countries outside USA and Europe to buy a Slipshine subscription. I wasn’t able to pass the credit card form.
What can I do? I already sent a email to Slipshine support, but I got no reply.
Interrupting the “afterglow with a side of religious guilt” moment to talk about more important things.
One of my favourite stupid things to do when reading comics is to play the “Christ, what an asshole” game, aka replacing the punchline with… yeah, that. This is of course normally leading to every comic ending with “what a jerk”… but if you do it in this strip (as well as the first afterglow strip between Walky and Dorothy), it takes on a much better meaning. Much, much better.
Anyway, back to religious qualms and scientific lab partners.
Taking a second day look at this, Dina’s arm placement in the last panel looks uncomfortable, bordering on painful. If I put my arm in that position, palm up seems more natural, palm down hurts.
*Amber comes in* OH NO THE RAPTOR ATE DINA AND BECKY
come ON SATURDAY
Are those sweat marks on their skin? ?
Yep!
If it was any good, they should be.
They are glistening.
i don’t think the raptor ate them
maybe it’s only holding them for later
Well _someone_ ate _someone_.
(out, that is)
((speaking of out, i’ll see myself there.))
They’ve been raptured
No no, raptor’d
Your Becky.exe has stopped functioning properly following a general protection fault.
(A)bort, (R)etry, (I)gnore?
they’re both women, no abort needed.
That DOES look like one contented raptor.
My parasite senses indicate a significant chance that the upcoming Slipshine comic will be nothing much beyond 18 pages of HD naked snuggling. ?
Even if that’s the case though, that’s still awesome!!! ???
And for those who’d rather not tune this scene to Christian music for whatever reason:
*plays “Mysterious Starlit Sky” by Takanori Arisawa on Hacked Muzak*
? ? ? SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!
I think it would be hilarious if it included Dina going on a tangent about dinosaur reproduction.
“We just don’t know!”
I think that would make my whole YEAR. ?
There is much overlap between the “cloacal kiss” of hypothesised dinosaur reproduction and scissoring.
This tumblr post suggests there might be a little more than just snuggling…
The sweat suggests really intense snuggling at the very least.
Oh no, is Becky having regrets?
depends on whether she acted with integrity
I think she is singing the song with regards to being forgiven for her sins. Now how Becky will feel about it later, especially if Joyce finds out, is anyone’s guess.
“I will be forgiven for this” seems like an attempt at self-comforting in the face of regret.
See https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/goandsinnomore/ for more context on this specific song in this specific scenario. Seems like it’s more of a habit than anything.
I know the strip, I know the song, I just don’t agree with that interpretation of how they’re fitting together here.
We’ll likely find out tomorrow.
Well, unless we cut away to another interlude. Then within the next week.
Well, unless that then cuts away to a different story.
Within the next month for sure. Probably.
Watch as we just never come back to this particular arc.
Horny jail is being trapped in stasis… forever?
Self-comfort, yes. Guilt, I don’t think so. There’s a difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is believing you have done something wrong and regretting tat you did it. Shame is believing that *other people* think it’s wrong and fearing their judgement if it’s find out. One can feel shame and guilt at the same time, but I think Becky is reaching a point where she’s struggling much more with the shame than the guilt.
For her, the shame is specifically directed at God, who supposedly knows absolutely everything and will send an unrepentant liar to eternal torment as quickly as an unrepentant murderer, because from his perspective all sins and imperfections are equally deserving of damnation. There is no way to hide what she’s done, and there is every reason to fear his response to it even if she doesn’t consider it to be inherently evil.
Hence Liz panicking with the belief that she ‘almost ruined herself forever’ after getting close to having premarital sex, compared to Becky who is more worried about the eternal consequences if God decides to condemn her. Liz believed the action itself was the problem; Becky believes that God’s perspective on the action is the problem.
Interested in why you went into a discussion of distinction between guilt and shame when nobody in the thread had used either of those terms? Is it because of the idea of regret? Because that still seems like it could go with either guilt or shame– differently, perhaps, but still. Or was it just something you wanted share and bring into the discussion?
As an ex-Christian fundie, it made perfect sense to me. Not in relation to what the thread is talking about, but in relation to what Becky is feeling and thinking.
She’s almost certainly feeling at least one of shame and guilt. The question is whether she thinks she did wrong – in which case she’d regret doing it. Or whether she just thinks God thinks she did wrong – in which case she’d probably want to “fix it forward” rather than regretting having done it.
Thing is, fundie Christianity has a very strong, though very inconsistent, redemption narrative. If you’re a televangelist who steals people’s money and cheats on his wife, you just have to say “I’ve prayed about it and God has forgiven me” and all the people will forgive you too and send more money. You probably don’t even have to give the stolen money back, much less treat your wife better. Just oopsie, I did the wrong thing, God forgave me, everything’s cool now.
It’s almost kind of a “get out of regret free” card…
I hate the term ‘Christian Fundamentalist’, because of how FAR AWAY from the fundamental principles of Christianity most of them seem to be.
Christianity was founded (NOT by Jesus, but by his closest followers after his death and perceived resurrection) on five core principles:
1. Love everybody, whether you believe they deserve it or not.
2. Care for the poor, oppressed and vulnerable.
3. Live a life of service to others.
4. Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.
5. Spread principles 1 through 4 as widely as possible, persuading as many people as you can to act on them.
If you read the Book of Acts, which is basically the history of the founding of the Church, you will see these five principles being put into practice. Those are the “fundamentals” of Jesus’ message. There’s no call be believe in any form of scripture, no prescribed forms of worship, no mandate to oppress people over their race, gender, religious or sexual preference, no ban on sex between free, consenting adults unless one of them has already made a commitment to someone else.
So in my book, if you want to call yourself a Christian Fundamentalist, those five things better be what you’re doing, and you need to be careful about anything your tradition has thrown on top of them.
Actually yeah that’s a good point. Why are they called fundamentalists anyway? The longest running gag about them is that they worship a 5ft Middle East Jewish socialist, but the fundamentals he preached don’t tend to mean much to them.
Is it more like “adhering to teachings, except those teachings are Fire & Brimstone/Biblical Literalism/I’m Innately Holier Than Thou”? Like say, they’re “following the fundamentals” except the fundamentals they were taught were the ones about Christianity as it exists on a cultural level of “White Jesus loves guns.”
PREACH IT!!!
I am so DONE with the American Evangelical approach to religion. It has, as you show, basically zilch to do with the imitation of Christ.
I am Christian, I’m not a fundie, but I like how expertly you laid that out.
Well done!
As for the comic, I hope she learns to feel neither shame nor guilt for their love. Some things are just pure even if fictional.
Because, like pretty much every Christian group – or sect of any religion ever – they think they’re the ones who got it right. They’re the ones who took the corrupt and distorted teachings of mainstream religion back to the fundamental roots.
It’s not really true of course, but they believe it.
And frankly, I don’t think you’re any more right about the fundamentals than they are. I like your version better, but the Bible, even just the New Testament, is a complex group of texts from different viewpoints and with different intended messages – almost all of them even harder to interpret from the viewpoint of an incredibly different culture and with 2 millennia of assumptions stacked on top of them.
I like your principles, but it’s certainly not self evident from the NT that they’re the main focus. There’s a lot of other stuff in there and it depends on which you focus on and which texts you give priority to.
I thought Paul/Saul basically hijacked the early Christian religion and was the source of the misogyny and a lot of the other not nice aspects of current Christianity?
We) said,Srifyn.
Er, well said.
@Roborat: A common interpretation among those not fond of Christianity, but not clear how supported it really is. Remember that Paul’s letters are the earliest surviving works in the New Testament – our oldest glimpse into the beginnings of Christianity. Everything we know about what Jesus actually said comes from at least a generation later and much of it almost certainly influenced by Paul.
Not a current or former fundamentalist Christian, but as domeone who has spent his fsir share of time in therapy, it’s nice to see a clear explanation of the distinction between shame and guilt.
Honestly, the shame definition given here isn’t in alignment with what I have learned as a difference between them. Fine by me if that’s the working definition they use to make sense of it, just mine is more: guilt= I did something bad; shame= I am bad.
That’s how I’ve seen it as well, though I don’t have experience with a Christian view on this.
I can’t really see Becky making that distinction here. Using those definitions, if she’s not feeling guilt because she doesn’t think it was wrong, but shame because she things God would – that doesn’t fit with what we’ve seen of her take on God. Becky sees God as good – supportive and loving. If He’s disappointed in her, it’s because she’s actually done wrong. God isn’t wrong about what’s good and bad.
God answers lesbian prayers, despite her church teaching her otherwise. Becky doesn’t see God as a tyrant who has to catered to. Her views on premarital sex being wrong would only shift if her views on what God thought about it shifted with them.
Maybe? I think she’s doing more of that “flexible beliefs” stuff to try to convince herself that what she did is okay by God.
Now I’m not saying that what she did was wrong, because they’re both consenting adults. That being said, I’m not thrilled at the mental gymnastics she’s gotta do to believe that she’s still good with Evangelical Christianity.
It can’t be good for her mental health to latch onto religion while simultaneously burying the knowledge that said religion hates her for what she is. Something’s gotta give at some point, and I worry it’s going to come from some “good Christian” at her latest church trying to “save her soul” or some insanity like that.
I also think that, this is likely going to lead to a blowout with Dina one of these days. Dina treats Becky’s religion as something more or less like a cute character quirk, but for Becky, it’s kind of been her whole life thus far. She’s already had several major cracks in it what with her father, now Joyce, now this.
Earlier, she was thanking god for bringing Dina into her life, now, Dina has Led Her Down the Path of Temptation and Pre-Marital Sex, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Becky’s reaction was to blame her for that rather than admit it was her own choice or that she doesn’t agree with everything her religion has taught her.
Or she could be completely fine with it! She’s kind of weird in that respect, I’ve expected much worse reactions from her before and been wrong. (I thought her argument with Joyce was going to last a lot longer than like, a day comic time for example.)
This was kind of incoherent because i was thinking of like three points at once, oops.
Yeah, this is my interpretation of the singing as well. Sex may have been the last thing separating Becky from Joyce, in Becky’s eyes.
Actually, Becky now has a one-up on Joyce. I suspect that Becky will bring this up whenever she gets tired of arguing with Joyce. “I don’t have to listen to a coward who’s too afraid to get laid lecture me about casting off my Christian brainwashing” or something similar.
Becky seems to be pretty solid on personal choice. I don’t think she would go down the path of blaming Dina for her sinning just because we’ve seen her on the other side of it so much and Dina has been good about checking in. Her first statement after pants euphoria was reaffirming Becky’s desire to wait.
It is possible that this will reach a breaking point where Dina just cannot understand why Becky is flagelating herself for a fictional character. If Becky has a breakdown because she was wrong in god’s eyes, I don’t know how Dina will react to that.
Dina has been okay with god mostly because he clearly seems to bring Becky joy – she probably sees it as akin to a child having a teddy bear. Harmless but brings comfort.
She couldn’t really empathize with the sexual frustration it was causing, and likely didn’t fully understand how much distress that Becky was under because of it. She likely saw it as Becky just not being ready and using that as an excuse. If she understood the messy duress it caused Becky, it’s possible she already would’ve been more harshly critical.
If her beleifs cause Becky to start feeling bad and beating herself up for an experience they both enjoyed – it is possible Dina will stop seeing this as a harmless comfort, and that could cause issues.
i choose to believe she’s revving her engine for when dina wakes up
Fair idea. She did say that song just makes her horny now.
Does the Willis need damning?
Drama-bomb
Given the smile, I don’t think so. Seems like an odd celebration. Based on how she said she feels toward this song, this is something of a cleansing ritual. A way to make ‘penance’ for the sin to so she can enjoy this guilt free!
Same, I don’t see any regret in her singing (at the very least, for now). And the Alt-text being the significant lyrics “let me remind you I’m the one who lead and guide you” makes me very hopeful she won’t have any big ones.
I hope that singing doesn’t indicate regret or guilt on Becky’s part.
I mean her face doesn’t exactly seem regretful
I think it’s hard to really read her face from one panel. Like, she could be really happy, or she could be freaking out.
Oh, guarantee that at least a small part of her is freaking out, but, well, that dam breaking can be a kinda big thing. The song she’s singing is just the song that she played after masturbating, and now is just a song that makes her horny because association is weird that way.
Okay, have you read the third panel of that strip? Like yeah, association is weird. It can be dependent on a lot of things. Right now, I’d think she’s coming down from a horny high rather than getting horny again with the song. Sometimes in the post-horny wave, there can be pretty big feelings that aren’t all good, and I think that could be how the song is connecting here.
It looks to ME like she’s having an epiphany
A sexy epiphany :3
Dina-Morph…
Dina-Morph…
Does whatever
a Dina-Morph does….
A sexpiphany, if you will
To me it looks more like ‘I’m really happy right now, but I shouldn’t be, and I kind of wish I wasn’t, because being happy means I am okay with having sinned, but I really am…’
Happy, but a little wishing she wasn’t.
I read this pretty close to the same. Maybe with a bit of wonder at this new experience.
I’m reading it the same, and glad she is happy. I hope it leads her to just being comfortable following what she actually wants, without having to worry about being eternally punished or messing up and upsetting her god.
D’awww that is so sweet, I hope the euphoria hangs around awhile. Also this is the perfect time for Joyce to show up unannounced and find them like this.
time for the MOAFF
(mother of all freakout faces)
?
Is that anything like the MOAB?
they have no chance to survive, make your time~
HA HA HA HA . . . .
Joyce then proceeds to point out that the story this song is based on isn’t even in the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of John, and was likely added in later.
Becky having a crisis
I don’t think that’s what it is. Remember Becky talking about her masturbatory habits from a couple weeks ago, where she would play a song when she got horny to try to fight being horny, then played it after masturbating, and then just started to associate the song with gettin’ off so just hearing it would make her horny? https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/goandsinnomore/
Guess what song the lyrics she’s singing are from :D. https://genius.com/Rebecca-st-james-go-and-sin-no-more-lyrics
Yeah a lot of us made that connection. It’s a song she used to try and distract herself from sexual urges because it tells her to “sin no more”. Singing about how she needs to “sin no more” right after premarital hanky panky is concerning.
But she’s singing the lyrics that say she’ll NOT be condemned, that she’ll be forgiven
That’s not how toxic religion works. Power can only be only maintained through guilt. And guilt can only be created when the victim does something “wrong” and then asks for “forgiveness” and vows to never do the “wrong” thing again.
And then does the something wrong again and asks for forgiveness and vows never to do it again. Again.
I dunno that expression reads as pretty happy to me
I’m wondering whether Becky does indeed believe what she’s singing here (specifically the “I will not condemn you” bit), or if she’s singing it to try to reassure herself that said statement is true.
50/50 odds at best, though I do hope this helps the both of them. Especially Becky, who I hope will be less restricted when it comes to “premarital hanky panky,” which may in turn affect Joyce and her feelings on the issue.
Neither, probably. These are lyrics from her masturbation song, which she said just hearing makes her horny now. I’m reading it more as an extension of that association.
That might make the most sense out of all the theories thus far.
It is an extremely sexy song!
There are different kinds of asexual. Just like everything else, it’s a spectrum. Dina is grey ace.
daaaaaaaaang
This afterglow would outshine any divine radiance.
[Pants euphoria intensifies]
What pants?
A wild Windblade appears
Gosh, no! It’s winter.
Windblade has seen some shit.
If the dorm room’s a-HOMPK!-in’, don’t come a-knockin’.
I’m still not decided if I quite like this story decision, I rather liked Dina as an asexual person who was willing to have sex with her partner because she wants her partner to be happy, not because she has sexual feelings herself.
This sex encounter was not only initiated by Dina, but it was started because she got horny in the elevator.
Nothing wrong with that in the sense that it’s not wrong to have sex with your consenting romantic partner whenever and however you like, but I feel kinda sad that we lost the representation of Dina as entirely asexual.
You can be asexual and still get turned on. Dina got turned on and chose to act on that with Becky.
Not to mention that Dina’s been confirmed as grey-ace by Willis for soon to be going on three years, now
(Or that Walkyverse Dina was turned on by Walky when they were a couple and that she eventually had sex with Mike, keeping in mind the ironclad rule of sexuality being a constant between universes)
that goes against what I know about asexuality, but these terms are fluid and it’s possible my definition is outdated. What’s the definition you’re working with?
I was under the impression that Dina was a sex-neutral asexual: sex is not particularly appealing to her, but she’s not sex-repulsed either.
She’s grey ace and clearly has a science fetish and dominant tendencies. Considering her size and how people respond to her, it’s hardly surprising that she hasn’t found anyone who triggers the dominant aspect before.
Pretty much what Z said. She’s most likely a grey ace, which is still part of the asexuality spectrum.
Asexuality means you’re not sexually attracted to a specific person. A lack of libido (the ability to be turned on by stimuli or just because you have functional nerves down there) isn’t required. Dina has a libido. In this moment she chose to act on it with Becky’s consent.
It’s fine to say “I think this story would have worked well if it had gone in a different direction”. It’s not like there’s one single ideal path for stories and not going down that path is a mistake, there’s lots of different paths that would be fascinating to take things down.
Just try not to judge a work for doing something different than what you were wanting. It can be really, really hard to do, I fail on that front more than plenty, but its important to take the story on its own merits first and foremost, judge the story based on what the creator wanted to do.
Having sexual urges doesn’t make someone only ‘partially asexual’ or whatever. Asexuality has to do with attraction, not the existence of a sex drive.
Huh, I was under the impression that sex drive DOES affect one being asexual. Like, a lot.
It’s not that the drive doesn’t exist, it’s that it’s not necessarily affected by humans and their shape.
For instance, I’m not particularly set off sexually by features like boobs and muscles and curves. But me and other asexuals like me could be set off that way by particular actions or scenarios.
And when it comes to those particular actions or scenarios, there are like MILLIONS. — eating certain foods, tickling, wearing of certain colors, role-playing certain characters, playing certain games, just to name a few.
Okay so imagine a firm 100% heterosexual male. Legitimately 0 sexual attraction to men period.
This guy is living in a compound with only other men, and for the purposes of this exercise had no access to pornography or even images of women and has only ever lived around men all his life.
No matter what his libido is – he has 0 attraction to men, he’ll feel 0 attraction to anyone around him.
He could have a high libido raring engine and need to jerk it 5 times a day – but he still has 0 attraction to anyone around him.
Now this high sex drive may cause him to decide to engage in sex acts with people he isn’t attracted to for the physical release it brings. But he still isn’t attracted to them.
That’s the difference between sex drive and sexuality. Asexuals don’t experience sexual attraction for other people.
If an asexual person has a high sex drive, then they may be less likely to identify as asexual and happier to go along with the mainstream experience of sex. However a person can still find comfort in the label because they don’t experience sexuality the way their peers do and that can still be confusing and distressing.
Bruh, there’s TONS of reasons why people would want to have sex BESIDES sexual attraction to a person.
Believe me, as I’m asexual too ?
Bruh we got confirmation that Dina experienced sexual attraction on the 19th of March comic; of that’s not what “pants euphoria” means there then I don’t understand this AT ALL
Okay so every single time you’ve ever been horny in your entire life it was directed at a specific human being?
Your username is Derek – if you’re a cis guy then honestly that’s even harder to believe that you’ve literally never gotten hard without thinking of a specific human being, when it’s kind of endemic to male puberty to randomly get unwanted erections at the most awkward times.
If you literally have not – then, yeah, that’ll be part of the confusion.
You can masturbate without thinking of other people. You can feel the desire for an orgasm without thinking about another person. You can achieve an orgasm without any involvement with other people, including mental.
Physical arousal, masturbation, and orgasm are separate from attraction.
Sexual attraction is seeing someone and desiring to have sex with them. Seeing a person or talking to them or thinking about them and getting aroused is sexual attraction.
Biologically, arousal can happen for any number of unrelated reasons, it’s a hormonal response. Orgasm has a lot of biological benefits including stress relief that can be worth doing even if you haven’t experienced sexual attraction lately.
Cosigned on all of this Z!!! ?
Especially that lovely bit of science at the end!!! ?
Also, she’s grey ace!!!! She can experience some amount of sexual attraction on the rare occasion!
“pants euphoria” is just sexual arousal. They spent a handful of strips going through stimulants(naked Becky etc etc) that might arouse her by making her feel sexual attraction toward Becky, and she did not feel it. She only experienced arousal when she and Becky referred to each other as “lab partners”, which had nothing to do with sexual attraction to Becky and everything to do with science-y talk being a thing that can turn her on. arousal does not equal attraction
It wouldn’t make sense to say that no asexual people experience sexual arousal, because its just a sensation like any other. From my understanding, feeling sexual attraction and feeling a *need* to act on it is generally what separates allosexual from asexual. Dina felt aroused and wanted to act on it, now whether she felt a *need* to do so or whether she was just curious is up for debate, but experiencing arousal and then having sex doesn’t make you not or less asexual
oh gods why did the thing make Jennifer my avatar
I think it’s been made clear that what turns Dina on isn’t men or women, but science. That seems not entirely but still mostly asexual to me.
These events do not invalidate Dina being ace, or on the ace spectrum.
Asexuality describes a lack of sexual attraction. That’s it.
Asexuality is unrelated to horniness and libido. Someone can have a low libido and rarely get horny, yet still experience sexual attraction – and someone can be completely asexual, yet have a high libido and often get horny.
I have a libido. I’m also a slightly sex-repulsed asexual demiromantic. This is sometimes uncomfortable, but it is not contradictory.
Dina is still ace. Quite frankly I disagree with a lot of other folks–I think Dina HAS now experienced some sexual attraction to Becky. But even then, she’s still grey-ace. Occasionally experiencing sexual attraction under only very specific and often nebulous circumstances is very much an asexual experience. It does not make Dina less ace, because the core of the ace experience is how they DON’T experience sexual attraction in their day to day life, which Dina still doesn’t.
Someone is still ace if they experience sexual attraction very infrequently, only under extremely specific circumstances, or so briefly/to such a low intensity that they don’t feel the need or desire to act on it.
Demisexuality for example is a form of grey-asexuality where someone only experiences sexual attraction to someone after establishing a deep emotional bond with them. I’d be ecstatic if this were the case with Dina, because it seems to me like Dina experienced attraction to Becky not after all of the weird experiments they did with random stimuli, but because for a moment she felt a deep and meaningful sense of emotional connection to Becky because of the whole ‘lab partners’ thing–and that is what triggered her attraction. (Which is. SO romantic imho…)
And this is yknow, a little backwards to how I understand most allosexual people experience things. For them, when deep emotional connections are involved with sex, they experience sexual attraction FIRST, and then the deeper emotional connection happens during the sex. For demisexuals the deep emotional connection is a prerequisite for attraction to happen at all.
These things tend to be on a spectrum, and I don’t think this represents a shift in how the character is being written. This has been coming for a long time
Okay THIS is why we need ace rep with Dina bc no one actually understands how asexuality works. More eloquent people than i have already explained the difference between arousal and attraction, and the fact that Dina is grey ace and can experience some attraction. And it sounds like you were operating under a flawed definition in the first place, which was also corrected.
Im just going to say that this misunderstanding right here is why it’s extremely important that we have characters like Dina. I wish dumbing of age was bigger, i want to take all these recent Dina strips and shove them in everyone’s faces like “THIS IS IT! this isn’t my specific experience but THIS IS HOW A LOT OF US WORK!!! LEARN IT, LOVE IT, RECOGNIZE IT IN YOURSELVES IF APPLICABLE!!!”
My microlabel is so micro even other aces don’t recognize it (acelflux, my capacity for sexual attraction fluctuates) so i don’t have any hope of getting representation ever, which is why amazing rep of other, close enough microlabels like Dina being grey as fuck makes me soooo excited. I really hope this thread helped better your understanding of asexuality.
I reiterate, “Oh My!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir37fmdbSew&ab_channel=ScottMeyer
Bruh, it may not be Stein’s Gate, but some time ago I made a Dr. Stone meme that goes PERFECT with this song! ?
https://imgur.com/a/ZgRkp3K
I’m proud of ’em.
Even if it’s just naked snuggling they did?
ESPECIALLY IF IT’S JUST NAKED SNUGGLING. I have the utmost respect of naked snuggling.
If it’s just 18 pages of naked snuggling, I’m gonna want my ten dollars back.
There are more than one artist on Slipshine, it’s worth the money.
I forgot that was Becky’s horny song. Okay, my worries about this being the prelude to some sort of ‘come down’ have almost entirely evaporated.
It’s Becky’s horny song but also Becky’s shame song, so I think it’s still up in the air. Hopefully tomorrow will confirm it as all good, though.
No sign of them in Patreon’s blurry preview, unfortunately.
Welp, never to be returned to it is, then.
Don’t be so sure. There are like, 12 or something Dina strips left in this arc. ?
I think she might be okay. The expression appears happy, and, also, from what we’ve seen… The core of Becky’s personal Christianity, the lens through which she views her faith, is that God DOES love her, and wants her to be happy. All the other stuff can be rearranged or outright ignored in favour of that central belief. This made her happy, and God is loving and forgiving, so God won’t mind. He’ll “forgive and forget it all.”
It probably won’t be that simple all the time, and there may be some freakouts, especially when Joyce finds out. Joyce’s understanding of faith and… well, everything else, is a lot less flexible. But I think ultimately, Becky will feel that she and God are still cool with each other after this.
God I wanna be cuddled by a naked lady so goddamn bad.
You and me both, brother. My lonely nights with a cold body pillow just aren’t as enjoyable.
I wonder how much better it would be with a weighted stuffed animal or Pokemon plush heated to exactly 98.6 degrees.
Unfortunately, I have not the funds to perform that lovely-sounding experiment. ?
They make something like this for babies – it’s a weighted arm to make them feel like they’re being held. I’ve also seen a set up with a speaker that imitates the breathing/heartbeat/etc of a sleeping adult. These aren’t even heated.
I don’t think the exact heat aspect would be as necessary because humans vary in how hot they feel – a hot water bottle inside would probably be enough. Or just heat it up itself if you fill it with rice.
If you have a plush already, you could keep an eye out for cheap deals on bulk rice. Then just carefully make a small hole in a few of the seams, empty it out, fill it with rice, sew it back up.
You can also mix some herbs in like lavender and chamomile. Or a body spray you like the smell of.
Look up the instructions for a homemade hot pack with rice – same concept.
Cheap and easy.
A body pillow? Naw, y’see I’m too cool for that sorta thing.
I have a large 3-4 foot teddy bear I’ve had since I was a child. Love that guy.
His name’s Barry. Obviously.
Bruh, nobody’s “too cool” for that stuff. Not these days. I don’t even have a plush like that. ?
That’s a good name. I named mine after a character from The Franchise That Must Not Be Named, and now I keep wondering about changing the name or leaving it because it does, like, exist as a name separate from that.
Why must the franchise not be named?
I can think of like 3 franchises off the top of my head
I think it’s a Transphobic Wizards School reference.
That was my first guess.
Same. I have boobs what need nuzzling and needs to nuzzle booblings
Goodness I could absolutely go for nuzzling some boobs. (I probably WOULD appreciate getting nuzzled but I’m less into that.)
Hey if Chinese Hospitals can invent hands-free masturbation machines, I don’t see why we can’t have artificial boobs just for nuzzling.
Oh, I’m fat enough to have actual nuzzleable boobs 😛
EVERYONE needs a bosom for a pillow. Everyone.
Smug Dinobot is smug.
Excellent feels but oh jeez Dina I hope you’re able to move that arm before falling asleep like that
Booby freckles are the cutest kind ?
I concur. (It’s like the main feature of one of my characters.)
The dinosaur looks just so smug. Living her best life.
Currently wondering how you clean a dinosaur bed. I mean, it has no sheets.
Yeah, it’s completely…. yeah, I dunno.
Depending on how it’s filled the cover might be able to be taken off and machine washed.
Depending on how porous the material is the stuffing may need to be replaced as well.
That’s assuming it’s machine washable, and if the dinosaur has a way of removing the insides without damaging the outside, but even if it doesn’t I don’t doubt someone has the skills necessary to repair it.
If it isn’t washable in a machine, hand washing should still be an option. Given its size it may take a while, but it should be fine.
Maybe dry cleaning? I’ve never tried to get the skin of a velociraptor dry cleaned, might be expensive.
The filling is another thing. Plushie filling gets weird after one or two years of extensive use. It makes dense clumps, and the whole thing loses its form. the filling needs to be replaced, which will be an absolute mess.
Plushies usually are washable, but there is no sink or washing machine on earth that can handle this thing.
Send it through the car wash.
I applaud your improvisation talent ?
Somehow I don’t think a fabric plushie will stand up all that well to a washing sequence intended for multi-ton metal machines…
I’m wondering if you ever went to college. Cleaning the bedding was not a priority for most people I knew.
My thought was “you fuck on top of the blankets” but Dina doesn’t appear to have any blankets??
Gods, that is the cutest and sweetest scene ever.
A lot of years, and a lot they had passed through…
Also is it me or did Becky get 100% validated by the narrative in thinking that if she said or did the correct sequence of actions or words, she’d trigger a “mating frenzy” in Dina? Hopefully she’s gotten past the idea that it would absolve her of responsibility
I mean, she’s the one who initiated the sexual contact, if you look a few strips ago. Dina just said she was horny.
She did not. Her fantasy was about Dina losing control and ravaging her – but Dina’s reaction to becoming horny was to invite Becky to do something together. To share something. There was consent, and so that specific fantasy was not fulfilled.
is Dina’s arm ok?!
Hey, maybe she’s Dinosaur LARPing!!! ?
The million-dollar question is,
Who’s that dinosaur?!?!
*meant to be read in the voice of “Who’s that Pokemon?”
Maybe all that 9 Chickweed Lane is rubbing off on Willis
is better than have it bellow Becky. I guarantee.
Speaking as someone who sleeps in a not dissimilar way with or without a partner, that’s not as contorted as it looks. Maybe the arm is a little far back, but Dina may also just be more flexible than I am.
I think Dina has demonstrated some extra flexibility – maybe even doublejointedness before? Mimicking dinosaur poses.
Aww, that’s cute.
“Go and sin no more” but to the tune of “Come and get your love”
This is stuck in my head now, thanks.
Go and sin! No, more!
Go and sin! No, mo-o-ore!
Go and sin! No, more!
Okay, question:
Before this happened, Becky has repeatedly stated that she didn’t want to have full sex with Dina due to religious reasons. And, in the end, Dina did push Becky onto the dinosaur, jumped at her and had sex with her.
So…
Is Dina a sex offender now?
I don’t wanna bother linking it but a few strips ago Dina asks Becky (paraphrasing here) “Hey I’m horny, do you want to have sex now or wait.” And Becky says she doesn’t want to wait, so they fuck. Hope this helps!
Maybe instead of asking edgy/gross questions for the sake of it, you could try reading the comic you’re talking about next time.
Okay, let me be clear here: I was genuinely curious, because I didn’t get the impression Becky admitted she didn’t want to wait. If that happened and I missed it, I am sorry for causing offence.
My gods, some of the takes in this comments section
Did you see Becky showing reluctancy, let alone being put off, when Dina said that she had pants euforia that she wanted to act upon?
No, she leant into it
*deep sigh*
??
NOT FUNNY
Seriously, I’ve seen some bad comments around here that I’ve let slide, but it just seems like you’re looking for a fight.
Yea, even in the context of sarcasm this is not cool
I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. I was genuinely wondering…
Dina got turned on. Dina mentioned this to Becky. Dina communicated her understanding that Becky wished to wait, but offered sex if Becky no longer wished to wait.
Becky said she no longer wished to wait.
Then they had sex. (probably)
If you can’t tell the difference between that very enthusiastic consent and a little playful pushing around to make it fun versus sexual assault – Please do everyone a favour and educate yourself before you try to have sex with anyone other than yourself.
Honestly, this just reeks of “You can’t even TALK to women any more” energy.
Becky: consents to sex after being asked by Dina, who is currently experiencing the Pants Euphoria that led them to their experimenting to begin with
“I can’t believe Dina pressured Becky into sex.”
Becky: “I consent!”
Dina: “I consent!”
Piotr W: “I don’t!”
Of course not.
Prescient author knew someone would comment something like this, so he made sure to signal Becky’s consent before they throw themselves on the raptor. Now I wonder, how did he know?
There’s also an incredibly narrow chance that Willis did the same thing they’ve done with with all these sexual encounters. Namely, they establish plainly that the characters consent to it (often by gasping out of exclaiming the word “Yes!” enthusiastically with a smile on their faces), because for reasons beyond us mortals, they didn’t feel like writing and drawing a rape story. Maybe I’m completely off-base here, but I don’t think that was in the cards for this comic.
Okay, I seriously looked at the raptor strip and I didn’t get the impression Becky was signaling consent there. If I did, I wouldn’t be asking this question.
Here’s the strip you appear to have missed: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/rightnow/
Hmmmm. Alright, I concur: this counts as consent. I was wrong and I apologize.
…shut the fuck up
I don’t understand how some people in these comments come to such ridiculous conclusions. Did you even read the same comic strips I did?
yeah, no. Dina was clear that she would enjoy sex but that if Becky still wanted to wait, that was fine; Becky gave her explicit consent before anything happened.
Becky’s also previously expressed something of a dubcon fantasy (“mating frenzy”) as a twisted way of getting around the religious guilt – but Dina is not into the dubcon thing and wasn’t willing to do anything until she’d made sure Becky specifically said she wanted to go forward with it.
I hope Becky’s happy with her choice! But either way Becky definitely made a choice and consent was had by all.
I mean, sure, if you just didn’t read any of the words between Dina stating she’s horny and now
Feeling a bit of relief for now. See, I get my “fear the worst” out early so I can spend the rest of the storyline “hoping for the best”. It’s better for my health lmao
Dina: completely comfortable, had a sexual experience that was specifically perfect to her every desire with a girlfriend she was able to explain all her perspective to without being mocked.
Conclusion: ?
Becky: had a sexual experience where she got to experience the joy she so longed for but felt conflicted on. She chose this and knows it so all her religious trauma is possibly going through every argument she can think of to make it a bad thing but the warmth and happiness is countering it with so much joy
Conclusion: ? ? ? ?
There’s something genuinely wonderful about an autistic being sexually open and curious, and not being rejected.
Becky has flaws but she didn’t treat Dina like a freak for her specific desires and I find that very special and nice. Like Becky is collaborative with Dina’s specific way of exploring both of their sexualities and even told Dina the specific religious trauma stuff, really help make it clear what is occurring.
Yeah, this does indeed shine as a BEAUTIFUL beacon to neurodivergents and aces of all stripes, everywhere, as well as those with religious hangups. ???
*plays “Carrying You” from Castle in the Sky on the Hacked Muzak*
Hopefully this works out better than literally every other relationship featured in a slipshine (from this comic). Seriously, all of the couples from this timeline who were featured on slipshine have broken up, usually badly.
I’m not taking that as much of a sign personally because really no couple has lasted very long in this strip, so I definitely don’t think of Slipshines as causal of breakups.
Hey, they didn’t all break up.
Ethan and Mike banged and they weren’t dating, and then Mike died.
Stopping in long enough to play “You Can Leave Your Hat On” on the hacked Muzak.
Honestly, yeah maybe Becky will feel bad about this later but I think the song on itself (Rebecca St. James, no i’m not a genius I just googled to see if it was a Rich Mullins’ one)– OK SO this symbolism is layered, ok. Singer is her namesake, she’s done something that was explicitly condemned by her religion, which is the theme of the song… But, important as hell: Becky is smiling.
Dina must be having the deepest of naps, because the sheer power of her sexual appeal must be a heavy cross to carry on herself; and she looks at such deep-bone-tired smiley peace. (Good job, both of you!) But the thing with Becky, singing this song in self-soothing… IDK, fam, but it’s so… Open? Vulnerable? And yet she sings and she smiles, and I’m dead-ass sure she does’t regret this. Shame is more difficult to shed, but…
(I’m rambling and it’s my sleeping pills kicking in, sorry)
This strip, basically… Made me feel that, indeed: God Answers Lesbian Prayers. Everything happen in the most perfect way it could’ve gone. I’m one of those accursed wrecks of humanity … ATHEISTS! and hey. At least for this stirp? If God is a canon character in this iteration of the WILLIS MULTIVERSE, I bet they are decent enough to og “oh yes, my daughters. Glad to see you two fructify, no sin here, but enjoy the music.” Even the punchline agrees!
IDK. They bring me such peace ;A;
Me too bruh! ?
It’s also possible that, given what Becky said about the song always making her horny, she’s simply gearing up for Round 2. 😉
But yeah, I imagine that part of her will still be feeling huge amounts of subliminal guilt over this. Hopefully in time she’ll manage to crush that feeling down into a teensy ball until it’s no longer felt at all. :3
…huh, hadn’t put the same-name thing together until now. (Or if I did, I forgot). I suppose it’s entirely possible that Becky’s named after her in-universe.
I guess I’ll be outside DoA, until Slipshine release. Today strip were a huge spoiler, don’t you think? We already on pillow talk.
Slipshines are the characters boffing (while remaining in-character, they’re still pieces that inform the cast), we’ve yet to get premium character development paywalled behind canonical smut.
Plus we already know that this was about to happen. Basically sex happened. It may have been a spoiler if it cut to the two of them having failed to have sex (such as if Dina lost interest, or Becky panicked out). The only thing we really missed is positions and other sex stuff.
Admittedly I suppose it’s worth asking how Becky managed to recover when, during the Slipshine, Dina violently tore into Becky’s stomach using her powerful claws and began feasting on her organs.
The complete absence of Future Cyborg Becky is also strange, when she promised to stand guard and watch the two of them until Amber got back.
… not only a bad thing. What if sex was so good Becky proposes to Dina?
Something like that would be in the main strip
Afaik nothing story critical has been in slipshine or patreon comics
The closest I’ve ever heard of that to date is that apparently in the Joe/Malaya slipshine, Joe was apparently fantasizing about Joyce toward the end of it.
Being the little spoon to someone shorter than you is like having a backpack that loves you.
Being 6’2″, I love this description. I also love this feeling.
That dinosaur is way too happy of what happened on him. 😀
I am really glad Dina and Becky got this moment together but damn I hate how Becky will just twist and justify herself and her faith at every instance and cant even phathom why Joyce has turned atheist… which she constantly seems to make about Joyce’s faith not being as strong as hers… Not acknowledging that her faith is liquid that she can pour into any container to fit her narritive but Joyce’s was more like clay that got moulded, shakingly glazed, shoved into a kiln at high heat and got left out to shrink and cool… before getting picked up and smashed on the floor.
Wow that is such a great visual, and a really accurate comparison of how they both approach religion.
Thank you 🙂
Your move, Joyce.
Not sure if I am making too much of something, but… is this the first time Becky’s eyes haven’t been partially covered by a curtain of hair? Make of that potential symbolism what you will.
We’ve definitely seen uncovered by hair before or at least from an angle that let us see her eye without needing to do that “put the above her hair” thing, but in terms of “having her hair entirely out of her face” like here I don’t believe that’s happened since she got her haircut.
Nah, her older haircuts weren’t nearly so long and didn’t partially cover her eyes like her current one does
that is not the face of regret.
that is a woman that just saw the face of god, and god was wearing a dinosaur hat.
jesus christ they are literally nesting
lesbians are beautiful this time of year
“lesbians are beautiful this time of year”
Being that, in the UK, “bird” is a slang term for women, namely young women.. I got a real, ah, ornithological vibe off your comment. :’P
#BirdWatching #FoundAPairOfMatingLesbians #TheLesbiansAreBeautifulThisTimeOfYear #NaturalBeauty #Springtime
Hey, we don’t know that Becky doesn’t appreciate some Great Tits, or perhaps some Brown Boobies
They both look very happy ♡.
I guess I should have expected that Dina wouldn’t take the hat off.
I hope they remembered to shut the door!
A crowd gathered. People brought snacks. Somebody was selling 3D glasses. Ruth brought a grill.
Good time was had by all.
Going off your avatar, it seems Ruth brought in a bit more than just a grill. Or is that just the current slang? I can’t keep up.. 🙁
“grill” was a typo, it was supposed to be “girl”
The Dino-Hat stays ON during seggs
I’m a little surprised at this given the reaction Dina taking her hat off initially had in Becky. Maybe that particularly sexiness has worn off?
Dina is uncomfortable with her hat off. We’ve seen her taking it off twice to have an effect on Becky, but her current state is completely comfortable and contented, which she would not be without her hat on.
Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he ever wanted – Willy Wonka
What happened? – Charlie
He lived happily ever after – Willy Wonka
I’m glad Becky and Dina had those moments together, but I worry about how Becky’s religious upbringing might make her regret this later.
If that is the case, she’ll have to make a choice. Imaginary sky-daddy or a real, concrete girlfriend.
Let’s not forget that the “sky-daddy” in question here is very real to Becky and she would be making this potential decision from that position.
I’m a little surprised at how flippantly this choice is being presented here considering how we’ve already seen Becky struggling when she’s put in what she feels is a difficult position in terms of her religion.
Not really. Sexual purity is just about the only thing Becky didn’t immediately discard when it contradicted her desires, and as far as has been revealed, sexual purity only stuck around because Becky thought she had changed too much already.
With Becky losing her virginity (something she’s previously been hesitant about regarding how she’s already changed so much) I wonder if she’ll double up her efforts to reconvert Joyce so she can keep being her buffer, now that her only other last remaining link to Old Becky the Christian Good Girl is gone.
I’m hoping against hope that getting laid mellows her out.
Willis (and everybody), it’s impossible to anyone from some countries outside USA and Europe to buy a Slipshine subscription. I wasn’t able to pass the credit card form.
What can I do? I already sent a email to Slipshine support, but I got no reply.
Use a proxy card?
A pre-paid card, do you mean? No, I couldn’t find any I could use.
Interrupting the “afterglow with a side of religious guilt” moment to talk about more important things.
One of my favourite stupid things to do when reading comics is to play the “Christ, what an asshole” game, aka replacing the punchline with… yeah, that. This is of course normally leading to every comic ending with “what a jerk”… but if you do it in this strip (as well as the first afterglow strip between Walky and Dorothy), it takes on a much better meaning. Much, much better.
Anyway, back to religious qualms and scientific lab partners.
The position of Dina’s left arm in the last panel is bothering me.
Me too. I’m not as flexible as I used to be.
Dina curled up on Becky like that is absolutely adorable, my heart
So, is that dinosaur furniture something you can actually buy?
Technically it’s a giant plush not originally intended for use as furniture, but if it did exist in either format I’d be extremely tempted.
That’s not Fuck Face but they sure did fuck IN or ON his face!
aight so im not the only hoping this ends with “you’re almost as beautiful as Joyce” right
where my fellow degenerate monsters at
I gotta get a raptor like that
This strip broke my wallet by compelling me to subscribe to s’n’shine
Taking a second day look at this, Dina’s arm placement in the last panel looks uncomfortable, bordering on painful. If I put my arm in that position, palm up seems more natural, palm down hurts.