And this strip is being sponsored by the Koch brothers and the Republican party, who doesn’t want David Willis to live anymore. I hear the next letter bomb has Hasbro’s corporate HQ as the return address.
His interests are not messed up, but his priorities are. Like prioritizing intimacy with the dude who’s offering him comfort, instead of turning the conversation back to his interests. He’s only 18, though, it’s excusable.
Is it just me, or is Thad being kind of forward so far? I’m kinda weirded out with how fast this is moving. In fairness, though, I’d totally forgotten that he’s one of Ethan’s dormmates, so I guess it’s not *too* weird.
They’ve known each other for a few weeks, I figure, but I imagine some of this is related to what Mike said about how Ethan had options. Ethan’s hot stuff, so there’s maybe they’re trying to make a move while they can, plus just that, for a lot of LGBT folk, dating was really not an option in their home towns, so college is a time when they can sow their oats, and some of us take to that with panache.
That being said, comic time does make it difficult for me to tell sometimes just what speed stuff is or isn’t happening, so he could just be going too quick, which obviously would be an issue.
Not necessarily forward with the making out (if he’s had the hots for Ethan for a while), but kinda forward with the pressing for answers to quite personal questions without (so far as we’ve seen) checking if Ethan actually wants to talk about this incident, yes. It’s a bit rude.
Of course, if it was just a ploy because Thad figured that this was one subject he could bring up that wouldn’t morph into Ethan talking about Transformers, then he’s just discovering that finding such a ploy is a hopeless task.
forward doesn’t seem like the right word. the more uncomfortable thing to me is jumping right from reassuring someone about trauma to initiating makeouts. strikes me as opportunistic and concerning.
so I gather Thad was under the impression that Ethan’s Transformers obsession was PTSD-induced and thus his obsessive focus would be more understandable . . . and now he realizes no, Ethan’s just like that.
Some guys just don’t like to comb their hair. At all. My late brother always had a buzzcut, he used to tell me all he had to do to get ready in the morning was get his hair wet. Done. Meanwhile I’m the only guy in the -entire family- that likes to have long hair. Eh.
OR have we considered THIS reason:
Maybe Willis is just saving a lot of time just needing to draw a half circle instead of a whole hair style every panel?!
He could suffer from male pattern baldness, which can start from teens to early 20s, and just decided to shave it all off instead of deal with being a balding guy at 18.
The entire theme of Shortpacked! was essentially Ethan whining, “Why can’t I find a guy who I like, and who can stand me talking about Transformers all the ti – ooh, is that the new Chromedome skin?”
I’m wondering if Thad is turned off by the sudden nerdiness or if he is just surprised that is what went through Ethan’s mind at the time. I suppose it could be a little bit of both honestly.
Also, since I suspect Mike does does actually have feelings for Ethan(even if he can’t openly admit it, event to himself) how will he react to Ethan suddenly being with someone else?
Let’s face it, Ethan can deal with the emotional consequences of an assault. Amber couldn’t, but she only became insane because of Blaine’s bullying. Too much to think about.
Actually, Ethan is doing surprisingly well. Being able to deal with an experience like that so fast (yes, five years is fast) is impressive, especially since he was a child. Being kind of messed up after an experience like this is pretty much normal. Blaine probably didn’t help though.
He probably got counseling after the incident, which helped him come to terms with what happened.
Alanari
Yeah but even with counselling, being so completely at peace with having been in mortal danger after such a (relatively) short time is impressive. It’s not some magic thing that solves everything instantly.
Oy, please don’t use the i-word. Not nice. Not good.
(I have mental illnesses. I even have DID — yeah, that thing that Amber has — and I very much disagree with the use of the i-word. Thanks. I’m not “insane”, I’m dealing with stuff. Stuff that you should be thankful you don’t have to deal with.)
And yeah obviously Blaine is why she couldn’t deal with anything. She didn’t have a safe harbor to unload. We all need that. I had the same issue. Now I’m working on finally unloading and sorting through all of my luggage.
Wait, but what’s wrong with ‘insane’? I’ve never heard anyone object to that before, and even as someone who qualifies for that descriptor, never felt demeaned by it.
Regalli
It’s a differs from person to person thing, particularly if it’s been used against them in the past as a negative.
The thing with a lot of the ableist language stuff is that most of us impacted have different reactions to words and such – pretty much everyone agrees that That Word Starting With R has been used as an insult too much for too long to have any business in vocabulary, but a lot of the others can be debatable. (‘Stupid’, for instance. Started clinical, isn’t anymore, and while I don’t think we should really be calling other people the word I FAR prefer it to ‘special’ as short for special education and don’t want that spreading any further than it has already. If it’s stupid or whatever’s euphemism treadmilled next that is in current clinical use, I’ll take stupid.) That sort of debate is there over every word, insane included, that’s been used to describe mental illness and disability pretty much ever, because all of them have been used as perjoratives against SOMEONE for whom it’s personal, and many have a reclamation versus dump it entirely debate on top of things.
the final pam
I think something too is that insane has specific kinds of connotations that have been perpetuated throughout media that paint mentally ill people in a bad light. When used as a legal term to decide a person’s responsibility, it’s arguing that a person was in a state of mental incapacity and that they did not have full control over themselves. And there’s very specific characters that are attached to this label that pop up whenever it’s brought up- the Joker, Norman Bates, Gollum, Jack Torrance, etc.
It’s no longer a medical diagnosis, but a legal term, and it refers to the mental capacity or lack thereof to determine responsibility for one’s actions (and that has its own problems), and has gross connotations of being tied to universally violent, raving madmen incapable of rational thought or actions and carries the stigma that anyone labeled with it needs to be institutionalized, so I dunno. In general, it’s bad form.
Especially in this context because Amber didn’t become “insane” because of Blaine’s abuse. She is still in capacity for her actions, although her capacity is limited in some ways due to her mental illness. She’s struggling, but she’s still holding on.
Meagan
Regalli, there’s the nuance I’m looking for. Thanks for reminding us that (gasp) All humans do not have the same association with words.
thejeff
People are going to continue to describe these things colloquially and they’re going find words to use for it. Some have gained connotations that are bad enough to warrant booting from polite usage, but at the same time we can’t drop every term that’s ever been used in a negative sense.
I don’t think “stupid” was ever clinical though or at least didn’t start that way. Near as I can tell, it came to English from Latin by way of French back in the 1500s, in pretty much the modern colloquial sense.
BBCC
I don’t think that ‘every term that’s ever been used in a negative sense’ is the same as ‘words that have a more negative than positive history with specific marginalized groups’.
thejeff
I don’t think it is either. It’s a question of where to draw the line.
the final pam
You’re kind of pulling a slippery slope argument here, though, since literally no one said “drop every term that’s ever been used in a negative sense”. Yes, there is never not going to be language used in a negative or insulting way. That’s just how it’s going to be. But there are terms that are more harmful than others with worse connotations, and like Regalli was saying, a lot of words are debatable and how “bad” they are depends on the individual.
But there’s really no harm at all if you take the time to remove those more harmful phrases from your vocabulary. And like.. it’s not going to kill you to not use specific words around specific people if they find it offensive. It’s not about drawing a line, it’s about showing consideration for other people.
Regalli
There are definitely people who argue for dropping all ableist language out there. I personally have trouble agreeing, since there’s the aforementioned euphemism treadmill issue (I saw a serious spike in ‘special’ as a perjorative implying low intelligence once the r word started being socially unacceptable,) but also because there are so many words people legitimately don’t realize had clinical use. (And that’s before we get into how all of that ties into racism because eugenics ties those two together.) There’s also a definite ‘okay but the people reading your thinkpiece are very likely to also be disabled themselves in ways where words are hard and we have trouble changing ours, so maybe this is not the most workable plan for all words?’
It’s a complicated argument we’re having amongst ourselves and will continue to have for some time, but I think the things everyone can agree on are that a handful of words need to be retired outside clinical use (hey there ‘paychotic’,) you only get to reclaim the ones that apply directly to you, and generally speaking not using them on other people is the better option unless you know that’s how they describe themselves. So generally speaking, saying Blaine drove Amber insane is not the best term. Caused some kind of dissociative break or something, sure, lasting psychological damage certainly, but ‘drove her insane’ is really loaded and I can see why it had some reactions even if I’m willing to reclaim crazy for myself in some circumstances.
the final pam
That’s very true, although to be clear, I was specifically referring to this comment thread not bringing up dropping negative terms as a serious suggestion. It’s still under debate, like you’ve said, and there probably will never be an agreement about it.
But I don’t think it’s very helpful to go, “Well, we can’t just drop every bad term! We have to draw the line somewhere!!” as a response to the suggestion that there’s.. debate over ableist language. Especially given there’s a specific context in mind, in this case, this entire thread over the term “insane”. I agree with you about the euphemism issue and reclaiming words being a personal affair (hello LGBT discourse). But, y’know, we already alter our vocabulary and way of speaking a lot depending on who we’re speaking to. All I’m saying is it’s not unreasonable to keep on doing that, instead of insisting there has to be a line.
Regalli
Didn’t originate as clinical, but was used by psychologists formally to describe patients.
Sometimes I really want to go back in time with a punching robot and set it loose on the entire eugenics movement. Fuck causality and paradoxes and all that shit, if I come back to a timeline in which I never existed then at least I’ll get to see a robot punch some assholes first.
136 thoughts on “Flashing”
Ana Chronistic
Buyer’s remorse?
(Ethan, Thad, either or)
butts
GOD DAMN IT I MISSED IT
Doctor_Who
Aaaand Thad is having second thoughts about this guy in record time.
…He’s more of a Power Rangers fan.
woobie
hand off shoulder
starts edging away slowly
ShinyNeen
Ethan keeps going on for so long that Thad edges far enough to fall off the bed
Kyrik Michalowski
If Thad is a Power Rangers man then Ethan needs to hold on to him. Also Ethan needs to invest time in learning about Power Rangers. 😛
Delicious Taffy
You are extremely correct.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Perhaps Thad’s a brony, and is thinking “at last! A Has-Bro of my very own!” xD
SonicBlueRanger
Either way they’ll both be heading to Hascon.
Stephen Bierce
If It Makes You Happy, then it can’t be that bad…
Stephen Bierce
And this strip is being sponsored by the Koch brothers and the Republican party, who doesn’t want David Willis to live anymore. I hear the next letter bomb has Hasbro’s corporate HQ as the return address.
fire_daws
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?
AeromechanicalAce
You almost have to admire Ethan’s commitment to his priorities. Messed up as they are.
Clif
Messed up? I mean they aren’t my priorities, but why messed up?
BonBon
Prioritizing transformers over the intrinsic want to not die I guess? I’m not sure.
Kinoko
His interests are not messed up, but his priorities are. Like prioritizing intimacy with the dude who’s offering him comfort, instead of turning the conversation back to his interests. He’s only 18, though, it’s excusable.
Nikol Geier
Is it just me, or is Thad being kind of forward so far? I’m kinda weirded out with how fast this is moving. In fairness, though, I’d totally forgotten that he’s one of Ethan’s dormmates, so I guess it’s not *too* weird.
DailyBrad
They’ve known each other for a few weeks, I figure, but I imagine some of this is related to what Mike said about how Ethan had options. Ethan’s hot stuff, so there’s maybe they’re trying to make a move while they can, plus just that, for a lot of LGBT folk, dating was really not an option in their home towns, so college is a time when they can sow their oats, and some of us take to that with panache.
That being said, comic time does make it difficult for me to tell sometimes just what speed stuff is or isn’t happening, so he could just be going too quick, which obviously would be an issue.
Rabid Rabbit
Not necessarily forward with the making out (if he’s had the hots for Ethan for a while), but kinda forward with the pressing for answers to quite personal questions without (so far as we’ve seen) checking if Ethan actually wants to talk about this incident, yes. It’s a bit rude.
Of course, if it was just a ploy because Thad figured that this was one subject he could bring up that wouldn’t morph into Ethan talking about Transformers, then he’s just discovering that finding such a ploy is a hopeless task.
not someone else
Ehhh. They’re both 18-19-year-old dudes. It’s not uncalled for.
alice
forward doesn’t seem like the right word. the more uncomfortable thing to me is jumping right from reassuring someone about trauma to initiating makeouts. strikes me as opportunistic and concerning.
Needfuldoer
But trauma and makeouts are two of the three things that make this comic what it is! (The third is ‘recovering fundie introspection’.)
Ivy
He saw an opportunity (Ethan being emotionally vernerable) and took it?
Deanatay
Emotionally venerable? Yeah, sometimes I feel like I’m 90, emotionally.
(j/k IKWYM)
Alanari
They are consenting adults. Why shouldn’t they progress fast?
zaratustra
Compared to Joe, Billie and Roz, they’re almost nuns.
LauraS
I’m getting more of a “moving too fast” feeling from the attempted emotional intimacy than the physical, tbh.
DailyBrad
Not transformers for me so much as 6 inch DC and Marvel figures, but mood.
DailyBrad
Oh, also Gundam 1/144, of course.
Nono
Well, at least Ethan isn’t deliberately milking the ‘oh no I had a near stabbing, pity me!’ angle.
I do have to wonder if Thad has a THING for people going through near-death situations though.
Tacos
Well this moved on faster than I expected.
Nono
They have their clothes on still, they moved slower than I expected.
fire_daws
Apt gravatar is apt.
darkgloomie
I dunno, Amber would have been more fitting imo.
Mollyscribbles
so I gather Thad was under the impression that Ethan’s Transformers obsession was PTSD-induced and thus his obsessive focus would be more understandable . . . and now he realizes no, Ethan’s just like that.
JepMZ
Why is he bald anyway?
1 2 2 50 in Roman numerals
He was fro. Another comic originally that comic had an all adult cast so him bein bald was nnormal but then he was aged down and put in this comic
BBCC
Maybe he shaves it?
Foxhack
Some guys just don’t like to comb their hair. At all. My late brother always had a buzzcut, he used to tell me all he had to do to get ready in the morning was get his hair wet. Done. Meanwhile I’m the only guy in the -entire family- that likes to have long hair. Eh.
Felian
OR have we considered THIS reason:
Maybe Willis is just saving a lot of time just needing to draw a half circle instead of a whole hair style every panel?!
the final pam
He could suffer from male pattern baldness, which can start from teens to early 20s, and just decided to shave it all off instead of deal with being a balding guy at 18.
brute
some folks just wanna be bald
Felian
Are you saying it’s a decision?! Maybe he was born this way!!
jk. i’m all for empowering choices instead of insisting that people are born a specific way and only allowed to be that way “cause they can’t help it“
On a related note:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7BKg31Ym5o
SKALLAMANN!
BBCC
I like Amber’s way of putting it – “He was born this way, but even if it is a choice, it wouldn’t be a wrong choice to make!”
kay
Ethan.
Ethan.
No.
Ivy
The man has interests. He knows what he likes.
Clif
Best to be upfront with your personality quirks than surprise people later.
3-I
Especially with Thad, because Thad is going to break your heart because of them. =<
Lilyliv
Adorkable Ethan is adorkable.
Mr. Random
Yeah, sorry Thad.
He’s…
He’s just like this.
All the time.
Keulen
You’d think Thad would’ve realized that the previous time they met, when all Ethan could add to the conversation was Transformers.
Deanatay
The entire theme of Shortpacked! was essentially Ethan whining, “Why can’t I find a guy who I like, and who can stand me talking about Transformers all the ti – ooh, is that the new Chromedome skin?”
Kyrik Michalowski
I’m wondering if Thad is turned off by the sudden nerdiness or if he is just surprised that is what went through Ethan’s mind at the time. I suppose it could be a little bit of both honestly.
Also, since I suspect Mike does does actually have feelings for Ethan(even if he can’t openly admit it, event to himself) how will he react to Ethan suddenly being with someone else?
abysswatcher1993
Let’s face it, Ethan can deal with the emotional consequences of an assault. Amber couldn’t, but she only became insane because of Blaine’s bullying. Too much to think about.
Pablo360
The i-word is no the best choice, probably.
Alanari
Actually, Ethan is doing surprisingly well. Being able to deal with an experience like that so fast (yes, five years is fast) is impressive, especially since he was a child. Being kind of messed up after an experience like this is pretty much normal. Blaine probably didn’t help though.
Needfuldoer
He probably got counseling after the incident, which helped him come to terms with what happened.
Alanari
Yeah but even with counselling, being so completely at peace with having been in mortal danger after such a (relatively) short time is impressive. It’s not some magic thing that solves everything instantly.
thejeff
Didn’t really bother him.
Why should it? Didn’t interfere with his Transformers collection.
Ronnie
Oy, please don’t use the i-word. Not nice. Not good.
(I have mental illnesses. I even have DID — yeah, that thing that Amber has — and I very much disagree with the use of the i-word. Thanks. I’m not “insane”, I’m dealing with stuff. Stuff that you should be thankful you don’t have to deal with.)
And yeah obviously Blaine is why she couldn’t deal with anything. She didn’t have a safe harbor to unload. We all need that. I had the same issue. Now I’m working on finally unloading and sorting through all of my luggage.
ruhrow
Wait, but what’s wrong with ‘insane’? I’ve never heard anyone object to that before, and even as someone who qualifies for that descriptor, never felt demeaned by it.
Regalli
It’s a differs from person to person thing, particularly if it’s been used against them in the past as a negative.
The thing with a lot of the ableist language stuff is that most of us impacted have different reactions to words and such – pretty much everyone agrees that That Word Starting With R has been used as an insult too much for too long to have any business in vocabulary, but a lot of the others can be debatable. (‘Stupid’, for instance. Started clinical, isn’t anymore, and while I don’t think we should really be calling other people the word I FAR prefer it to ‘special’ as short for special education and don’t want that spreading any further than it has already. If it’s stupid or whatever’s euphemism treadmilled next that is in current clinical use, I’ll take stupid.) That sort of debate is there over every word, insane included, that’s been used to describe mental illness and disability pretty much ever, because all of them have been used as perjoratives against SOMEONE for whom it’s personal, and many have a reclamation versus dump it entirely debate on top of things.
the final pam
I think something too is that insane has specific kinds of connotations that have been perpetuated throughout media that paint mentally ill people in a bad light. When used as a legal term to decide a person’s responsibility, it’s arguing that a person was in a state of mental incapacity and that they did not have full control over themselves. And there’s very specific characters that are attached to this label that pop up whenever it’s brought up- the Joker, Norman Bates, Gollum, Jack Torrance, etc.
It’s no longer a medical diagnosis, but a legal term, and it refers to the mental capacity or lack thereof to determine responsibility for one’s actions (and that has its own problems), and has gross connotations of being tied to universally violent, raving madmen incapable of rational thought or actions and carries the stigma that anyone labeled with it needs to be institutionalized, so I dunno. In general, it’s bad form.
Especially in this context because Amber didn’t become “insane” because of Blaine’s abuse. She is still in capacity for her actions, although her capacity is limited in some ways due to her mental illness. She’s struggling, but she’s still holding on.
Meagan
Regalli, there’s the nuance I’m looking for. Thanks for reminding us that (gasp) All humans do not have the same association with words.
thejeff
People are going to continue to describe these things colloquially and they’re going find words to use for it. Some have gained connotations that are bad enough to warrant booting from polite usage, but at the same time we can’t drop every term that’s ever been used in a negative sense.
I don’t think “stupid” was ever clinical though or at least didn’t start that way. Near as I can tell, it came to English from Latin by way of French back in the 1500s, in pretty much the modern colloquial sense.
BBCC
I don’t think that ‘every term that’s ever been used in a negative sense’ is the same as ‘words that have a more negative than positive history with specific marginalized groups’.
thejeff
I don’t think it is either. It’s a question of where to draw the line.
the final pam
You’re kind of pulling a slippery slope argument here, though, since literally no one said “drop every term that’s ever been used in a negative sense”. Yes, there is never not going to be language used in a negative or insulting way. That’s just how it’s going to be. But there are terms that are more harmful than others with worse connotations, and like Regalli was saying, a lot of words are debatable and how “bad” they are depends on the individual.
But there’s really no harm at all if you take the time to remove those more harmful phrases from your vocabulary. And like.. it’s not going to kill you to not use specific words around specific people if they find it offensive. It’s not about drawing a line, it’s about showing consideration for other people.
Regalli
There are definitely people who argue for dropping all ableist language out there. I personally have trouble agreeing, since there’s the aforementioned euphemism treadmill issue (I saw a serious spike in ‘special’ as a perjorative implying low intelligence once the r word started being socially unacceptable,) but also because there are so many words people legitimately don’t realize had clinical use. (And that’s before we get into how all of that ties into racism because eugenics ties those two together.) There’s also a definite ‘okay but the people reading your thinkpiece are very likely to also be disabled themselves in ways where words are hard and we have trouble changing ours, so maybe this is not the most workable plan for all words?’
It’s a complicated argument we’re having amongst ourselves and will continue to have for some time, but I think the things everyone can agree on are that a handful of words need to be retired outside clinical use (hey there ‘paychotic’,) you only get to reclaim the ones that apply directly to you, and generally speaking not using them on other people is the better option unless you know that’s how they describe themselves. So generally speaking, saying Blaine drove Amber insane is not the best term. Caused some kind of dissociative break or something, sure, lasting psychological damage certainly, but ‘drove her insane’ is really loaded and I can see why it had some reactions even if I’m willing to reclaim crazy for myself in some circumstances.
the final pam
That’s very true, although to be clear, I was specifically referring to this comment thread not bringing up dropping negative terms as a serious suggestion. It’s still under debate, like you’ve said, and there probably will never be an agreement about it.
But I don’t think it’s very helpful to go, “Well, we can’t just drop every bad term! We have to draw the line somewhere!!” as a response to the suggestion that there’s.. debate over ableist language. Especially given there’s a specific context in mind, in this case, this entire thread over the term “insane”. I agree with you about the euphemism issue and reclaiming words being a personal affair (hello LGBT discourse). But, y’know, we already alter our vocabulary and way of speaking a lot depending on who we’re speaking to. All I’m saying is it’s not unreasonable to keep on doing that, instead of insisting there has to be a line.
Regalli
Didn’t originate as clinical, but was used by psychologists formally to describe patients.
Sometimes I really want to go back in time with a punching robot and set it loose on the entire eugenics movement. Fuck causality and paradoxes and all that shit, if I come back to a timeline in which I never existed then at least I’ll get to see a robot punch some assholes first.