oh dang it doesn’t quite work but dang that would be amazing
shellshockbp
(MGSAlert.mp3)
Poskie
I think I remember at least one bonus strip wherein Carol was seen pregnant with Joyce,so unfortunately I think the odds of this being correct are slim… but wouldn’t that be one hell of a revelation.
It’s not exactly clear which interval “it’s been 20 years” means, but it’s a good data point. Probably also when Joyce and Jocelyne were talking about Halloween. https://www.dumbingofage.com/squeezing-2/
Yeah, I’m 10000% thinking that. That comment, while something Carol would fucking say in a heartbeat, is also way too comical given the context of this being a comic.
Jocelyne is not out to Joyce yet, based on her phone contact not changing as of a couple weeks ago. Their last shown conversation was about Joyce trusting their dad, though, so I wonder if that led to Joce telling Hank and word of it coming back to Carol.
Or Carla. I’m pretty sure Joyce knows Carla. And I’m surprised she doesn’t know Carla’s trans, it doesn’t seem like Carla is quiet about that or anything else about herself.
Interesting that Joyce’s shirt seems to be trans pride colors this comic.
She knows Carla. Carla built the shower shoes for her, mostly out of spite. Joyce however is still in the “why does she get a room to herself” phase of that knowledge. She might need some stuff spelled out for her and Carla is too abrasive to tell her and no one else really feels the need to bring it up.
Thanatos
Easy. Carla’s parents are rich and would do anything for her. And Carla is self-centered enough to think sharing a room with someone else would be unbearable as it would require her to concede space in her room for them to sleep and keep their things. These are all things that Carla has made pretty explicit. No need to look any deeper.
Aslan
I mean there’s no reason to discount the obvious reality that, even if Carla’s parents did pull some (purse) strings to get her a single, the pool of roommates that won’t endanger her is small and IU’s resources for finding said roommates are likely minimal
Liliet
I’m pretty sure the context is “what would Joyce assume about this”
HueSatLight
I don’t think Carla not telling someone she’s trans is abrasiveness. It just hasn’t been relevant to any of their interactions.
well, carla only said she was trans explicitly to ruth (who might’ve known from her ‘files’ or whatever anyways) and some other ppl but i imagine even if she wasn’t esp trying to hide it from joyce she’d be more annoyed trying to ‘explain’ it to joyce as opposed to getting preached at her from before she changed like how mary was transphobic towards her
adam Black
Carla was in some famous court case, so public.
thejeff
Definitely public, but that doesn’t mean that everyone on the floor knows or that she goes around telling everyone or that Joyce is exceptionally blind not to have figured it out.
Carla has actually been very reserved about being trans. She doesn’t seem to see it as anyone else’s business.
Carla has layers, y’all.
Leorale
I definitely see Carla as not blending. She was a famous legal battle as a trans teen, she’s really tall, and she chooses clothes that don’t make her especially hourglass-shaped. Anyone with any trans knowledge at all can probably tell that Carla’s a transwoman just by looking.
It’s just, you might remember when Joyce found out Ethan was gay, and he first response was “but you look normal”. It has never crossed Joyce’s mind that somebody she knows could possibly be trans.
Lena
You know tall cis women who don’t have hour glass figures exist as well, right?
Nalim Skarro
Yeah but how many are also the relative of public figures / have been in the news for a legal dispute about not being cis?
thejeff
How many kids follow news stories about the children of random public figures? Especially ones who aren’t celebrities in fields that really appeal to kids.
Allandrel
Plus Joyce would still have been deep in the Evangelical Bubble when it happened, avoiding “secular news.”
Leorale
I do indeed know that there are tall slim mostly-rectangular ciswomen. It was just in combination with the other factors, and with Carla’s openness in general. Carla wears what she likes to wear, she does whatever pleases her, she prefers to rip bandaids off of secrets, she just doesn’t care all that much about blending or not, so, people may be able to tell she’s a transwoman.
Carla mentions being trans when it’s relevant (like when she was making a really good point about it to Ruth, and alluding to it with Sal to make sure Sal knew the “reason” that Carla was tall, bragging about being the textbook in Gender Studies, etc).
She’s really not closeted.
Joyce was just specifically raised with blinders on. Carla’s transness wouldn’t occur to Joyce without a specific conversation about ‘hello, I am trans’.
Leorale
I did not mean that people can automatically tell anyone’s assigned gender just by looking. I mean that Carla, specifically, often doesn’t blend, because she doesn’t prioritize blending.
(Also I didn’t know that “transwoman” was out and “trans woman” was in. My bad.)
asmodai27
Carla’s transness wouldn’t occur to Joyce without a specific conversation about ‘hello, I am trans’.
Which is totally fine! People being ignorant of one’s transness is way better than people tiptoeing around it.
To Joyce, Carla is “just” a woman, therefore is treated as a woman, which is probably for the best. I mean, worst case scenario, she might say something inconsiderate at some point without realising it.
Some people may need to know, to avoid delicate situations (e.g student housing arrangements), but “random kid from the dorm floor” probably doesn’t check that knid of box.
Imogen
I remember that “why I’m tall” moment, but I don’t remember it being portrayed as “bragging” at all. I can’t find it, though.
Imogen
Found it. As I remembered, it was distinctly *not* braggy. Carla’s expression in this comic is wary, uncomfortable. She’s probably lost friends in the past. She’s a trans teenaged girl in Indiana.
I know Carla’s mostly just comic relief nowadays, but seriously, the idea that Carla “doesn’t care about being outed” is pretty demonstrably not the case. I don’t think she scrambles to hide being trans, but she’s also pretty obviously not interested in bringing it up. When she talked to Carla about being trans, her frustration was that people punish her for being flawed and messy, that they expect her to be a perfect representative of womanhood to “make up” for being trans.
It’s pretty obvious to me that Carla is not the type to stand on a table and announce that she’s trans. At least, the old Carla wasn’t.
Oh, I misread you–you didn’t describe it as “bragging” at all. That said, all my other analysis stands. Carla isn’t closeted, but that’s *not* the same thing as being comfortable announcing herself. She told Sal because Sal was a kind-of friend, and she wanted to test the waters. Trans people have to do that.
It’s worth remembering that Carla’s also being written pretty differently these days. She’s a lot more exaggerated, with little of her old access to serious scenes and sincere moments. It’s kind of hard to predict how she’ll act.
morleuca
Did you really just use the phrase “can tell just by looking”?
Mark
Must be nice to have that sort of ESP. I wondered literally for years what it was that other readers “knew” about Carla that I didn’t. It was nice to eventually have some direct evidence. (The occasion wasn’t nice for her — sorry, Carla.)
Theluxland
To be honest I completly forgot that Carla was trans. Everyone seems to remember that sort of thing but I guess my brain is just overloaded by the simplest of things and ADD doesn’t help
nicoleandmaggie
I’ve been trying to remember how I knew. I think it was a discussion about why she has a single?
Mturtle7
@nicoleandmaggie I’m pretty sure it was actually first revealed to us the audience when she accidentally walked into a conversation where Mary was throwing a temper tantrum and thus immediately got a big handful of transphobic insults hurled at her. It may have been implied before then, though.
Well, that and the fact that her ‘Walkyverse’ counterpart, Ultra Car is also very explicitly trans, but that’s a whole ‘nother deal.
BBCC
In their defence I’m pretty sure Willis had said it when he put her first character model out, long before it was explicitly stated in comic.
Liliet
Carla being trans is from Shortpacked, as are many other character facts.
BBCC
Well, Ultra Car was trans chassis, but Carla isn’t ultra car.
But yes, to translate that over she’s a trans woman.
Imogen
“Transchassis” was just a funny joke about her taking human form. She was objectively also transgender, having identified previously as a boy, then as a girl. It would have been weird to cut that out, so it makes sense people inferred the new Carla would be trans, too.
Lysbeth
Strongly advise against the thoughts that being tall or not hourglass-shaped means a woman trans, that “transwoman” is a word, or that you can indeed tell just by looking. All three were made up by people who really, really don’t know their shit and really, really have it against trans women.
I guess the “transwoman as a word” one is a bit more obscure and may be hard to understand, but basically it was invented as a way to indirectly challenge and dehumanise trans people. “trans” or “transgender” are adjectives: you can say “a trans woman” the same way you’d say “a short woman” or “a stylish woman,” conversely making it a single word is a way to present trans women as a different thing – a short woman is a woman, but whatever the hell a “shortwoman” is isn’t necessarily one, that’s the goal behind it.
Leorale
Oh, thanks! Wish I could update.
Felian
well said! <3
trans is a descriptive adjective that tells a part of my story, but not all of it! 🙂
Felian
oh, also, i want do add that the other bad word is “transgenderism“ which deliberately makes it sound like a trend or illness.
it’s an adjective, not a cult. This is important!
Adept
Is Carla actually really tall, or is it just the fact that she uses rollerskates for shoes?
asmodai27
Both IIRC
zee
Canonically 6′ i believe
Adept
Cool, thanks.
Thag Simmons
Given the implication that her transition was extremely public and high profile, I don’t think she’d ever feel the need to tell someone, she probably assumes everyone already knows.
It would never occur to Carla that anyone wouldn’t find her fascinating.
Mark
I think she’s busy being angry about the stuff that some bad people have put her through, just for being what she is. And may have learned to be, not silent, but quiet and selective, to keep bad people in the dark.
447 thoughts on “Our house”
newlland(Henryvolt)
Barry Allen has got nothing on Joe.
Joyce needed help and he came running good on him.
DarkoNeko
YOUR GRANDMA
Cholma
OUCH
Clif
Joe knows how to make an excellent first impression.
GreyICE
Yeah, but he’s also earning hella boyfriend points right there.
Liliet
IKR? Fucking excellent.
Warcodered
I mean the way she talks doesn’t exactly do her any favors.
Rose by Any Other Name
Joe dropping the sick burns without even meaning to.
Vanessa
Perfect. Lol. How old is her oldest sibling anyway.
Carms
OH SHIT. IS JOYCE HER OLDEST BROTHER’S ILLEGITIMATE DAUGHTER??
Bajj
:0 head canon acquired
Dara
oh DANG
OH DANG
oh dang it doesn’t quite work but dang that would be amazing
shellshockbp
(MGSAlert.mp3)
Poskie
I think I remember at least one bonus strip wherein Carol was seen pregnant with Joyce,so unfortunately I think the odds of this being correct are slim… but wouldn’t that be one hell of a revelation.
Ana Chronistic
yeah, they asked Jocelyne for name ideas
BBCC
He was out of the house almost as long as she can remember. So over a decade and probably a decade and a half older.
HueSatLight
It’s not exactly clear which interval “it’s been 20 years” means, but it’s a good data point. Probably also when Joyce and Jocelyne were talking about Halloween.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/squeezing-2/
Proxiehunter
You didn’t need to murder Carol yet Joe.
Ryan
Yeah. Just wait 10 minutes.
Proxiehunter
Fifteen max. I’m sure she’ll do something to deserve it by then.
Teddae
Ngl this made my love for joe spike tenfold
Ana Chronistic
Actually, DID Jocelyne do this to her? After Hallowe’en? ?
Ana Chronistic
Joyce: *points at Carol*
Joe: No, that’s 1-800-GOT-JUNK
Bryy
Yeah, I’m 10000% thinking that. That comment, while something Carol would fucking say in a heartbeat, is also way too comical given the context of this being a comic.
Electric
Jocelyne is not out to Joyce yet, based on her phone contact not changing as of a couple weeks ago. Their last shown conversation was about Joyce trusting their dad, though, so I wonder if that led to Joce telling Hank and word of it coming back to Carol.
tunasammich
She could just be watching Newsmax. One of my parental units says shit like this for no other reason
Proxiehunter
Or Carla. I’m pretty sure Joyce knows Carla. And I’m surprised she doesn’t know Carla’s trans, it doesn’t seem like Carla is quiet about that or anything else about herself.
Interesting that Joyce’s shirt seems to be trans pride colors this comic.
ANeM
She knows Carla. Carla built the shower shoes for her, mostly out of spite. Joyce however is still in the “why does she get a room to herself” phase of that knowledge. She might need some stuff spelled out for her and Carla is too abrasive to tell her and no one else really feels the need to bring it up.
Thanatos
Easy. Carla’s parents are rich and would do anything for her. And Carla is self-centered enough to think sharing a room with someone else would be unbearable as it would require her to concede space in her room for them to sleep and keep their things. These are all things that Carla has made pretty explicit. No need to look any deeper.
Aslan
I mean there’s no reason to discount the obvious reality that, even if Carla’s parents did pull some (purse) strings to get her a single, the pool of roommates that won’t endanger her is small and IU’s resources for finding said roommates are likely minimal
Liliet
I’m pretty sure the context is “what would Joyce assume about this”
HueSatLight
I don’t think Carla not telling someone she’s trans is abrasiveness. It just hasn’t been relevant to any of their interactions.
Angel
well, carla only said she was trans explicitly to ruth (who might’ve known from her ‘files’ or whatever anyways) and some other ppl but i imagine even if she wasn’t esp trying to hide it from joyce she’d be more annoyed trying to ‘explain’ it to joyce as opposed to getting preached at her from before she changed like how mary was transphobic towards her
adam Black
Carla was in some famous court case, so public.
thejeff
Definitely public, but that doesn’t mean that everyone on the floor knows or that she goes around telling everyone or that Joyce is exceptionally blind not to have figured it out.
Imogen
Carla has actually been very reserved about being trans. She doesn’t seem to see it as anyone else’s business.
Carla has layers, y’all.
Leorale
I definitely see Carla as not blending. She was a famous legal battle as a trans teen, she’s really tall, and she chooses clothes that don’t make her especially hourglass-shaped. Anyone with any trans knowledge at all can probably tell that Carla’s a transwoman just by looking.
It’s just, you might remember when Joyce found out Ethan was gay, and he first response was “but you look normal”. It has never crossed Joyce’s mind that somebody she knows could possibly be trans.
Lena
You know tall cis women who don’t have hour glass figures exist as well, right?
Nalim Skarro
Yeah but how many are also the relative of public figures / have been in the news for a legal dispute about not being cis?
thejeff
How many kids follow news stories about the children of random public figures? Especially ones who aren’t celebrities in fields that really appeal to kids.
Allandrel
Plus Joyce would still have been deep in the Evangelical Bubble when it happened, avoiding “secular news.”
Leorale
I do indeed know that there are tall slim mostly-rectangular ciswomen. It was just in combination with the other factors, and with Carla’s openness in general. Carla wears what she likes to wear, she does whatever pleases her, she prefers to rip bandaids off of secrets, she just doesn’t care all that much about blending or not, so, people may be able to tell she’s a transwoman.
Carla mentions being trans when it’s relevant (like when she was making a really good point about it to Ruth, and alluding to it with Sal to make sure Sal knew the “reason” that Carla was tall, bragging about being the textbook in Gender Studies, etc).
She’s really not closeted.
Joyce was just specifically raised with blinders on. Carla’s transness wouldn’t occur to Joyce without a specific conversation about ‘hello, I am trans’.
Leorale
I did not mean that people can automatically tell anyone’s assigned gender just by looking. I mean that Carla, specifically, often doesn’t blend, because she doesn’t prioritize blending.
(Also I didn’t know that “transwoman” was out and “trans woman” was in. My bad.)
asmodai27
Which is totally fine! People being ignorant of one’s transness is way better than people tiptoeing around it.
To Joyce, Carla is “just” a woman, therefore is treated as a woman, which is probably for the best. I mean, worst case scenario, she might say something inconsiderate at some point without realising it.
Some people may need to know, to avoid delicate situations (e.g student housing arrangements), but “random kid from the dorm floor” probably doesn’t check that knid of box.
Imogen
I remember that “why I’m tall” moment, but I don’t remember it being portrayed as “bragging” at all. I can’t find it, though.
Imogen
Found it. As I remembered, it was distinctly *not* braggy. Carla’s expression in this comic is wary, uncomfortable. She’s probably lost friends in the past. She’s a trans teenaged girl in Indiana.
I know Carla’s mostly just comic relief nowadays, but seriously, the idea that Carla “doesn’t care about being outed” is pretty demonstrably not the case. I don’t think she scrambles to hide being trans, but she’s also pretty obviously not interested in bringing it up. When she talked to Carla about being trans, her frustration was that people punish her for being flawed and messy, that they expect her to be a perfect representative of womanhood to “make up” for being trans.
It’s pretty obvious to me that Carla is not the type to stand on a table and announce that she’s trans. At least, the old Carla wasn’t.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/purpleandskates/
Imogen
Oh, I misread you–you didn’t describe it as “bragging” at all. That said, all my other analysis stands. Carla isn’t closeted, but that’s *not* the same thing as being comfortable announcing herself. She told Sal because Sal was a kind-of friend, and she wanted to test the waters. Trans people have to do that.
It’s worth remembering that Carla’s also being written pretty differently these days. She’s a lot more exaggerated, with little of her old access to serious scenes and sincere moments. It’s kind of hard to predict how she’ll act.
morleuca
Did you really just use the phrase “can tell just by looking”?
Mark
Must be nice to have that sort of ESP. I wondered literally for years what it was that other readers “knew” about Carla that I didn’t. It was nice to eventually have some direct evidence. (The occasion wasn’t nice for her — sorry, Carla.)
Theluxland
To be honest I completly forgot that Carla was trans. Everyone seems to remember that sort of thing but I guess my brain is just overloaded by the simplest of things and ADD doesn’t help
nicoleandmaggie
I’ve been trying to remember how I knew. I think it was a discussion about why she has a single?
Mturtle7
@nicoleandmaggie I’m pretty sure it was actually first revealed to us the audience when she accidentally walked into a conversation where Mary was throwing a temper tantrum and thus immediately got a big handful of transphobic insults hurled at her. It may have been implied before then, though.
Well, that and the fact that her ‘Walkyverse’ counterpart, Ultra Car is also very explicitly trans, but that’s a whole ‘nother deal.
BBCC
In their defence I’m pretty sure Willis had said it when he put her first character model out, long before it was explicitly stated in comic.
Liliet
Carla being trans is from Shortpacked, as are many other character facts.
BBCC
Well, Ultra Car was trans chassis, but Carla isn’t ultra car.
But yes, to translate that over she’s a trans woman.
Imogen
“Transchassis” was just a funny joke about her taking human form. She was objectively also transgender, having identified previously as a boy, then as a girl. It would have been weird to cut that out, so it makes sense people inferred the new Carla would be trans, too.
Lysbeth
Strongly advise against the thoughts that being tall or not hourglass-shaped means a woman trans, that “transwoman” is a word, or that you can indeed tell just by looking. All three were made up by people who really, really don’t know their shit and really, really have it against trans women.
I guess the “transwoman as a word” one is a bit more obscure and may be hard to understand, but basically it was invented as a way to indirectly challenge and dehumanise trans people. “trans” or “transgender” are adjectives: you can say “a trans woman” the same way you’d say “a short woman” or “a stylish woman,” conversely making it a single word is a way to present trans women as a different thing – a short woman is a woman, but whatever the hell a “shortwoman” is isn’t necessarily one, that’s the goal behind it.
Leorale
Oh, thanks! Wish I could update.
Felian
well said! <3
trans is a descriptive adjective that tells a part of my story, but not all of it! 🙂
Felian
oh, also, i want do add that the other bad word is “transgenderism“ which deliberately makes it sound like a trend or illness.
it’s an adjective, not a cult. This is important!
Adept
Is Carla actually really tall, or is it just the fact that she uses rollerskates for shoes?
asmodai27
Both IIRC
zee
Canonically 6′ i believe
Adept
Cool, thanks.
Thag Simmons
Given the implication that her transition was extremely public and high profile, I don’t think she’d ever feel the need to tell someone, she probably assumes everyone already knows.
vulcanodon
It would never occur to Carla that anyone wouldn’t find her fascinating.
Mark
I think she’s busy being angry about the stuff that some bad people have put her through, just for being what she is. And may have learned to be, not silent, but quiet and selective, to keep bad people in the dark.
Clif
So it’s agreed? It’s all Carla’s fault.
sultryglebe
Carla is pleased.
Bajj
They’ve been those colors in her wardrobe since the beginning of the comic
Multiple pink white blue plaids what what
Kelibath
This! Joyce SHOULD know Carla, but apparently it’s Everybody Ignores Carla Week in-universe even when she isn’t on screen…
thejeff
I think we vastly overestimate who knows about Carla.
Mark
Heh, I would probably pay little attention to Carla because she is so insistent. Not that I wouldn’t notice; I just wouldn’t let it show.
JoyceisGoingtoHeck
Is it really at all surprising that Joyce would be completly oblivious to Carla being trans? It feels like one of those mental blocks she would have.
zaratustra