A few years, which isn’t that weird if you’re both adults.
And from a dramatic perspective I think the “awkward because she’s the sister of your best friend/crush” is a point in the pro-column, that is a dynamic right there.
Dorothy is a college freshman, Jocelyne has graduated, so presumably at least 4 years. Probably 5 or 6.
Daibhid C
That’s definitely less than half Dorothy’s age plus seven.
atonyatlaw
That’s not how that rule works, man. You take the older person, halve their age, add seven. If the younger person isn’t in that bar, you’re in gross territory.
thejeff
I think they were joking, but depending on how old Jocelyne actually is, she’s at best right on the edge of the rule.
Clif
It’s a stupid rule. There are people more mature at 19 than I am at 76. If two adults are happy with each other, it’s no-one else’s business
thejeff
I’m still looking askance at the 50 year men trying to pick up college girls, no matter how mature they are.
Age gap: A conservative excuse to infantilize adult women and cast them as incapable of thinking for themselves.
thejeff
Isn’t it more liberals who are concerned about age gaps? The conservative position is all in favor of old guys with young trophy wives. That’s traditional.
Li
There is a point after which age gap concern absolutely loops back around to being reactionary conservatism, though, like the idea that no one’s brain is done developing until we’re 25, therefore no one should be able to decide to transition until then.
(I have also seen folks who claimed to be leftist assert that the age of consent, period, should be 25.)
thejeff
In general, a lot of “restrict the youth” stuff is conservative, but age gap in particular rarely is.
And age of consent at 25 is ridiculous – though I have been known to half-seriously suggest legislating the half-your-age-plus-seven rule.
If nothing else, half-plus-seven helps keep the lived experiences reasonably close together. I’m 32 in October, so that’d put 23 as the floor if I applied the guideline. That hypothetical 23-year-old won’t remember anything from the pre-Spider-Man world, but at least they’re old enough to drive and vote and can be expected to make informed decisions for their own life.
Li
My point wasn’t “this idea is more popular or only popular with leftists”, my point was “certain strains of regressive and reactionary thinking are also popular among leftists”.
Tradcaths and their ilk DO approve of extremely specific types of age gaps. (For example, the woman isn’t supposed to be the older partner, and an age gap in a queer relationship just makes it even more predatory!)
Leftists, meanwhile, can slip into a certain type of “think of the children” rhetoric and wind up thinking it’s somehow progressive to re-label young adult women in particular as “children”. It’s not progressive, it’s regressive — regardless of which political party is doing it.
Sometimes, age gaps between adults are also power gaps, and sometimes power gaps are predatory, but it would behoove all of us to reframe our thinking on this and p much every other topic, so that we aren’t letting “what those two consenting adults are doing creeps me out” turn into “it MUST be abusive, and it shouldn’t be legal for them to do it”.
When it comes to abuse, don’t police identities, police behavior. If you let preconceptions about what “type” of person is more likely to be an abuser cloud your judgment, you won’t just make false accusations, you’ll miss a lot of abuse that doesn’t come from people you expect.
Anyway I know I first started being leery and bewildered by fictional age gap discourse when I saw people getting bent out of shape about Yuuri and Victor (from Yuri on ICE!!), which is a relationship between a 23-year-old man and his 27-year-old partner. People were calling Victor a predator and also another word that starts with “p”.
Li
In case it wasn’t clear, the people making that argument were young, usually queer themselves, and would have insisted they were leftists.
yak
The idea that people of roughly the same age make better romantic pairs is actually very traditional in most of the world. It’s just that love wasn’t/isn’t always considered the main reason to get married.
I think people come up with a lot of liberal-sounding reasons for why they think something like age gaps are gross and icky. Usually it’s unnecessary. Taboos aren’t necessarily bad.
I feel like Jocelyne would be awkward about it, though. I mean, she already proved more attractive than Joyce to Joyce’s first boyfriend (though admittedly while Ethan thought she was a guy). Doing that to her first girlfriend as well? Daaang.
Jason Mendoza: I’m telling you, Molotov cocktails work. Any time I had a problem, and I threw a Molotov cocktail, boom! Right away, I had a different problem.
Joe and Joyce are cute and simple together, but Joyce and Dorothy has so much potential for emotional moments and I’ve really really missed gay disasters, it’s been a while since Billie and Ruth were a couple.
I want Joyce and Joe to stick together for a while longer. They’re a fun couple and I want more time with them (and if Joyce/Dorothy does happen I want it to have a more auspicious start).
Also I’m kind of pulling for something to happen with Dorothy and Jocelyne. Not necessarily something good, dating your crush’s sister is historically not a great idea, but I think it’d be something dramatic.
I was also gonna say let Dorothy kiss Jocelyne! Why not!? Trade up as they say. Lose the zero get with the hero. I don’t care if that’s awkward. Dorothy should be on menace time!
I mean I’m a sicko so I don’t care what happens as long as it leads to them banging, them being Joyce+Any of the many losers in love with her, but also if I were to put on a conspiracy theory hat we have all noticed Rachel being around Joe for some unknown reason talking about loyalty and crap. Almost as if she were interested in him so if say his first real relationship went south for some reason she’d be established as a person who likes him so it would sting less and or test his own loyalty as the new improved Joe.
That’s only a guess though. Let Joe crush Dorothy’s heart in his hand in front of her for all I care. Plenty of bespectacled girls in these streets for the both of them.
i feel like even if joyce /dorothy were willing to admit they were bi if not at least each others ‘exceptions’ idk if a long term poly/open relationship would work out like that
Especially since Joe’s whole thing is working on his monogamy and trying to be a better boyfriend. It would be really bewildering to him if he suddenly had to make room for another woman but he wasn’t allowed to go fuck.
I absolutely want Joyce to break up with Joe and get with Dorothy. I like Jorothy, but also I just think Joyce and Joe are really boring together, and them breaking up might lead to some mildly interesting character development for Joe.
Joe/Joyce is probably my least favourite pairing in the history of the comic strip, so I’m for sure in favour of Joe getting dumped. The sooner the better (preferably off a bridge or something)
I sadly can’t make any jokes about the protest going south because the reality is distinctly unfunny and I’m going to the 4th of July Free America ones.
152 thoughts on “Any one person”
NGPZ
Awe. ??
Yay they found Jocelyne!
*plays “Loving You, Losing You” by Phyllis Hyman on hacked muzak*
Clif
Good timing too.
Deanatay
Dorothy: OH THANK GOD
Deanatay
Shoulda kept reading…
TrueVCU
Dorothy: Oh, thank Athe
skartling
Hmm finally a God I can get behind
Decidedly Orthogonal
The other day at the altar,
I met a god who wasn’t there.
They weren’t there again today.
How I wish they’d go away.
elebenty
I like that version! I have the Mad magazine Watergate version stuck in my head.
The other day, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
I think he’s from the CIA.
Charles Phipps
I support Dorothy dating Jocelyn now that the latter admits to liking girls too.
anon
how much of an age gap is there? Either way it be awkward to date someone’s sibling like hat lol
Thag Simmons
A few years, which isn’t that weird if you’re both adults.
And from a dramatic perspective I think the “awkward because she’s the sister of your best friend/crush” is a point in the pro-column, that is a dynamic right there.
a/snow/mous/e
sister wives?
Charles Phipps
Like two years or so, I think?
Tan
Dorothy is a college freshman, Jocelyne has graduated, so presumably at least 4 years. Probably 5 or 6.
Daibhid C
That’s definitely less than half Dorothy’s age plus seven.
atonyatlaw
That’s not how that rule works, man. You take the older person, halve their age, add seven. If the younger person isn’t in that bar, you’re in gross territory.
thejeff
I think they were joking, but depending on how old Jocelyne actually is, she’s at best right on the edge of the rule.
Clif
It’s a stupid rule. There are people more mature at 19 than I am at 76. If two adults are happy with each other, it’s no-one else’s business
thejeff
I’m still looking askance at the 50 year men trying to pick up college girls, no matter how mature they are.
Ray Radlein
Heck, some of us have dated our ex’s sister before
Jen D
I married my ex’s twin.
Frankly, I traded up.
Ray Radlein
Okay, now that one has mine beat all to hell
Decidedly Orthogonal
Age gap: A conservative excuse to infantilize adult women and cast them as incapable of thinking for themselves.
thejeff
Isn’t it more liberals who are concerned about age gaps? The conservative position is all in favor of old guys with young trophy wives. That’s traditional.
Li
There is a point after which age gap concern absolutely loops back around to being reactionary conservatism, though, like the idea that no one’s brain is done developing until we’re 25, therefore no one should be able to decide to transition until then.
(I have also seen folks who claimed to be leftist assert that the age of consent, period, should be 25.)
thejeff
In general, a lot of “restrict the youth” stuff is conservative, but age gap in particular rarely is.
And age of consent at 25 is ridiculous – though I have been known to half-seriously suggest legislating the half-your-age-plus-seven rule.
Taffy
If nothing else, half-plus-seven helps keep the lived experiences reasonably close together. I’m 32 in October, so that’d put 23 as the floor if I applied the guideline. That hypothetical 23-year-old won’t remember anything from the pre-Spider-Man world, but at least they’re old enough to drive and vote and can be expected to make informed decisions for their own life.
Li
My point wasn’t “this idea is more popular or only popular with leftists”, my point was “certain strains of regressive and reactionary thinking are also popular among leftists”.
Tradcaths and their ilk DO approve of extremely specific types of age gaps. (For example, the woman isn’t supposed to be the older partner, and an age gap in a queer relationship just makes it even more predatory!)
Leftists, meanwhile, can slip into a certain type of “think of the children” rhetoric and wind up thinking it’s somehow progressive to re-label young adult women in particular as “children”. It’s not progressive, it’s regressive — regardless of which political party is doing it.
Sometimes, age gaps between adults are also power gaps, and sometimes power gaps are predatory, but it would behoove all of us to reframe our thinking on this and p much every other topic, so that we aren’t letting “what those two consenting adults are doing creeps me out” turn into “it MUST be abusive, and it shouldn’t be legal for them to do it”.
When it comes to abuse, don’t police identities, police behavior. If you let preconceptions about what “type” of person is more likely to be an abuser cloud your judgment, you won’t just make false accusations, you’ll miss a lot of abuse that doesn’t come from people you expect.
Anyway I know I first started being leery and bewildered by fictional age gap discourse when I saw people getting bent out of shape about Yuuri and Victor (from Yuri on ICE!!), which is a relationship between a 23-year-old man and his 27-year-old partner. People were calling Victor a predator and also another word that starts with “p”.
Li
In case it wasn’t clear, the people making that argument were young, usually queer themselves, and would have insisted they were leftists.
yak
The idea that people of roughly the same age make better romantic pairs is actually very traditional in most of the world. It’s just that love wasn’t/isn’t always considered the main reason to get married.
I think people come up with a lot of liberal-sounding reasons for why they think something like age gaps are gross and icky. Usually it’s unnecessary. Taboos aren’t necessarily bad.
Rabid Rabbit
I feel like Jocelyne would be awkward about it, though. I mean, she already proved more attractive than Joyce to Joyce’s first boyfriend (though admittedly while Ethan thought she was a guy). Doing that to her first girlfriend as well? Daaang.
Nymph
It’s Jocelyne, not Jocelyn ?
Doctor_Who
(Sirens in the distance)
Dorothy: “Oh thank God, a distraction. I was about to throw a freaking Molotov to get out of this conversation.”
butting
Pfff, Dorothy on a rampage? She’d knock over a disposable coffee cup. Or maybe even litter.
John Campbell
Yeah, Dorothy is basically Sweetheart with opposable thumbs.
Needfuldoer
Then start walking away, but actually in a loop to pick it back up and dispose of it responsibly.
Freezer
Dorothy is Human!Sweetheart…
Things make so much more sense now!
Olofa
Jason Mendoza: I’m telling you, Molotov cocktails work. Any time I had a problem, and I threw a Molotov cocktail, boom! Right away, I had a different problem.
Doopyboop
“You are my trauma, Joyce”
The 25th
But where’s the badly drawn portrait?!
Arianod
You are my trauma, my only trauma
You keep me happy when skies are grey
Freezer
Accept this +1, citizen. Well done.
Michelle J Caboose
“My perfect rock bottom
My beautiful trauma”
Sirksome
Being somehow gayer than you dear Jocelyne. You know how the game is.
Thag Simmons
I mean Joss thought she was straight until recently, so while that’s not nothing it’s not the highest bar to clear either.
ZombieKyrik
Saved by the sister; for now at least.
I’m so torn on whether I want Joyce to stay with Joe, or whether I want Joyce and Dorothy to be a couple.
What do y’all think? Is there a 3rd option?
Taffy
There’s the P-word everyone always brings up, but I don’t think it’s viable.
Yumi
Before what you meant clicked, my first thought was “pregnant.”
Taffy
Yes, of course, Joyce just needs to get Dorothy pregnant. It all makes sense now.
Throwatron
Wait, Dorothy? I assumed she’d be getting Joe pregnant.
Yumi
Joe is pregnant with Dorothy’s baby via Joyce having (what she currently defines as) sex with both of them.
thejeff
This follows from the transitive property of sex.
Wack'd
her egg will penetrate dorothy’s egg and make a grand slam
Jen D
So what you’re saying is that Joyce is Denny-sexual?
Embe13
+1
Furie
I never understood how people could look at pangolins that way, or how it applies here?
DailyBrad
To be honest, I think Joe is the more compelling option for me, still, but I do think there is a lot of meat on any of the options.
AlexaSpuds
Joe and Joyce are cute and simple together, but Joyce and Dorothy has so much potential for emotional moments and I’ve really really missed gay disasters, it’s been a while since Billie and Ruth were a couple.
Thag Simmons
I want Joyce and Joe to stick together for a while longer. They’re a fun couple and I want more time with them (and if Joyce/Dorothy does happen I want it to have a more auspicious start).
Also I’m kind of pulling for something to happen with Dorothy and Jocelyne. Not necessarily something good, dating your crush’s sister is historically not a great idea, but I think it’d be something dramatic.
Sirksome
I was also gonna say let Dorothy kiss Jocelyne! Why not!? Trade up as they say. Lose the zero get with the hero. I don’t care if that’s awkward. Dorothy should be on menace time!
Sirksome
I mean I’m a sicko so I don’t care what happens as long as it leads to them banging, them being Joyce+Any of the many losers in love with her, but also if I were to put on a conspiracy theory hat we have all noticed Rachel being around Joe for some unknown reason talking about loyalty and crap. Almost as if she were interested in him so if say his first real relationship went south for some reason she’d be established as a person who likes him so it would sting less and or test his own loyalty as the new improved Joe.
That’s only a guess though. Let Joe crush Dorothy’s heart in his hand in front of her for all I care. Plenty of bespectacled girls in these streets for the both of them.
anon
i feel like even if joyce /dorothy were willing to admit they were bi if not at least each others ‘exceptions’ idk if a long term poly/open relationship would work out like that
DashWallkick
Especially since Joe’s whole thing is working on his monogamy and trying to be a better boyfriend. It would be really bewildering to him if he suddenly had to make room for another woman but he wasn’t allowed to go fuck.
Kyulen
As long as they don’t cheat on their current boyfriends and maybe break up with them first, I’m fine with Joyce and Dorothy getting together.
Starlight
I absolutely want Joyce to break up with Joe and get with Dorothy. I like Jorothy, but also I just think Joyce and Joe are really boring together, and them breaking up might lead to some mildly interesting character development for Joe.
Liara
Joe/Joyce is probably my least favourite pairing in the history of the comic strip, so I’m for sure in favour of Joe getting dumped. The sooner the better (preferably off a bridge or something)
Taffy
Cool, now they can tell her the thing that could’ve waited and then buzz off.
Clif
I too am convinced it will work exactly like that.
Charles Phipps
I sadly can’t make any jokes about the protest going south because the reality is distinctly unfunny and I’m going to the 4th of July Free America ones.
Please attend if you can!
Queen Anthai
PSA: Never ever EVER post on the internet that you are going to a protest. Simply do not.
Charles Phipps
I’m preparing to be arrested rather than trying to avoid it. Getting arrested is something that may be necessary for change.
NGPZ
gotta get the establishment to disgrace themselves to the public *somehow*
“And I will cast your way abominable filth, and I will make you vile, and I will make you a spectacle.”