She’s going to have to learn to accept her own sexuality SOMEHOW, but I doubt we’ll get an alien device to create an evil twin to set off the epiphany in this universe.
Wonder if she’ll turn full Anti-Joyce on Ethan. At least Ethan’s both resistant to feminine wiles and level-headed enough to potentially talk her through it before she makes a big mistake in a libido-driven frenzy.
Halcyon
Yeah.. That or she decides to masturbate instead XD
I think that if Joyce wanted help and asked, Sarah would help. But Joyce has made it clear she doesn’t want to change, so Sarah isn’t going to waste her time trying. Joyce is an adult and can make her own decisions.
(The problem, of course, is that her parents are abusive assholes who did as much damage as they could before Joyce was an adult. If there was any non-horrible way to limit parent’s control over their children, I’d take it in a second.)
As someone from a counry that has never permitted homescooling, the whole concept boggles my mind. I can’t fanthom a single reason for it to be permitted or why it would be a good thing at all.
JCfromNC
Well, when it’s not being used to indoctrinate kids into Christian fundamentalist/evangelical beliefs, and done by intelligent, motivated parents, it can have pretty good results. Sadly, in a lot of the USA, the public school system is not all that good.
The operative words being “intelligent, motivated parents”. I’ve known three lots who home school their kids. One does it because her daughter was deprived of oxygen as a child and needs a slower pace now. The others do it because the Internet told them “society is evil, LOLZ” and they live by those profound words. I wouldn’t mind so much if either of their teenagers was actually able to read and write at a basic level, but they can’t. The parents plonk them in front of the television with a bunch of flash cards (pre school style) and expect that to replace the entire school experience as what they need to get on in the world. Granted, that’s two sets of people and not the entirety of homeschooling, but it does show a shocking lack of oversight for these people.
Bantha
There is nothing wrong with homeschooling if it is done right. In my state, you are required to have a degree in education to homeschool your child. That is a good requirement. You should not be forced to send your child to a public school where many teachers use it as a chance to indoctrinate your child. There are tons of great teachers out there interested only in educating children but for every one of those there is another that just wants to force feed your kid their agenda. If you don’t want that to happen and have the education + drive to properly educate your child? Nothing wrong with that. I can’t see a reason why it WOULDN’T be permitted.
Freemage
Bantha: At issue is whether or not the parents are actually motivated by a desire to provide a quality education, and whether or not they are capable of providing it. I used to date a girl who had a degree in education; she was also an unwavering believer in Young Earth Creationism. She was doing sub work when we dated; if she was at a public school, she stayed inside the lines, but would quite readily teach YEC as truth at private religious schools, and I have no doubt would home-school her kids the same way.
So frankly, in order for your system to work, you first have to tighten the degree requirements a fair bit. You also need a system in place to monitor the curriculum, and the child’s progress. Since the folks who most loudly support home-schooling are the same ones who believe that the Ebil Gum’mint is attempting to enslave us all to Satan, they tend to be a bit reluctant to comply with that sort of oversight.
Johnny Slick
“Indoctrinate”? What? I was a product of one of those public schools and I don’t remember being “indoctrinated” into anything. Well, other than communist homosexual atheism. But that’s just libs for you, am I right???
das-g
Do public schools still teach just communist homosexual atheism? That’s so last century. Today’s kids will have to fnord be well versed in black Jewish illuminati communist terrorist homosexual bankster transgender hipster copyleftist atheism to be successful. If your local public school doesn’t teach that subject, better send your children to a private school that does.
Thixophobia
Best post. Much lulz.
Dave H
When done properly educating at home can be far superior to school. Children get to be out and about in the real world, not shut in a classroom. It doesn’t suit all children, in the same as school doesn’t. Children who are bottom of the class at school can really flourish when freed from the arbitrary rules and procedures. The UK home education environment is far removed from the stereotype of Joyce.
It’s in the UN charter of human rights than parents should have the right to educate their child as they see fit. As long as we lack any universally recognized superior school of thought to educate all children in, that’s probably the best we can do.
Sarah
My mom did it for a few years, and for a very good reason too. My older sister went into fourth grade with a sixth-grade reading level, and left with a sixth grade reading level. The teacher’s response to her already knowing the material, instead of getting a couple higher level books for her, was to use her as a teacher. She learnt almost nothing that whole year.
She based the whole curriculum off the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, it was fun, and when we went back to school, having switched to the next nearest school, we were both ahead of our peers.
kelticat
I have heard of a family whose 10 yr old daughter developed a sensitivity to the fluoride that was put into the school’s water supply. The teacher’s solution was to put the girl’s desk into the corner, facing the wall. Even after the doctor had prescribed filtered, bottled water for the girl.
When the parents did a surprise audit, they found their daughter in the corner. The girl was removed from that school within 48 hours, and the parents started homeschooling her with good results.
On the other side of the homeschool coin, are my three nephews, two of whom have dyslexia, who didn’t start getting anything resembling a good education until they started community college. I think the middle one, who didn’t have dyslexia still resents his parents for that decision.
jiynx
well, in the case of our oldest, the school system lacks the ability to properly approach his issues outside of wanting him medicated.
but with homeschooling, we don’t have to do that, and he’s thriving and is actually ahead of his age-group for learning.
mileage may vary of course.
Bemisawa
I mean, I was homeschooled all the way until college. It affected how I developed in some good ways and some more neutral ways, but I think that I would have just developed different quirks if I went to public school. I’ve known a lot of thoroughly awesome, well-adjusted homeschoolers; like anything else, the extreme examples are what you tend to hear about. For the record, neither of my parents have a degree in education… We used a mail-order course until those ran out, then I joined a local homeschooling group and took some college classes. I’ve been very happy overall with being homeschooled, and from how I’ve seen others do, I’ve seen it work very well for others.
I don’t think so. I think she had one bad thought and is now tearing herself up over it. She’s probably months, if not years, from acting on those thoughts.
I am 50% sure that would make everything even worse and the other 50% sure it would make everything completely weird.
How would that even go?
J: “I can’t think about men because of religion.”
H: “I don’t WANT to think about men because of neuroses.”
J: “Well, it’s been nice talking to you.”
H: “You, too. Now, what’ll you have? The specials are BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS and BUTTS.”
OctopusGardener
Don’t forget, Joyce is a die-hard, science-disbelieving fundie while Hanners’s dad is a scientist in a space station and her mom is literally an evil corporate overlord, complete with shark tank.
I’d ship that. Of course, they’d only go so far as to shake hands, and Hanners would insist on using gloves followed by copious amounts of hand sanitizer.
See, that’s what I don’t like about this interpretation of God. He gives everyone fun buttons that they can’t put away, then says, “DON’T TOUCH”
Who does that, other than assholes??
MindLink
Yeah, exactly! It always confuses me when I hear religious people speak bad of sexuality, as it seems to me to be an insult to their own God, implying that he did a very poor job creating us.
Whenever I had any doubt if God had any problems with me touching my own body, I just looked down and saw that my hands, hanging down, line up perfectly with my equipment. Coincidense? I think not!
363 thoughts on “Dark room”
Jen Aside
Cold showers: Not just for dudes!
Cheryl
RIGHT?!
Mr. Random
You are a wonderful person.
Opus the Poet
Is that Gravatar from Archer or Frisky Dingo?
Hippoman
Archer
Opus the Poet
At that resolution it’s kinda hard to tell.
TrueVCU
No it’s not! YOU’RE NOT MY SUPERVISOR!
Groove
Damn it Carol, get back to work.
Carol
YOU’RE NOT MY SUPERVISOR !!!
Van Jealous
My name’s not Carol…It’s Cheryl!
Doctor_Who
These days isn’t it Shirleen?
Vincent
Quit changing the timeline!
Usayasha
And don’t call her Shirleen!
Crystal
Yeah ! I just changed it to Crystaaaal….
Nothri
I thought it was heather?
Mr. Random
Crippling repression. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
rachel
Jeez, yeah. This’s a hard comic to read today!
Gigafreak
She’s going to have to learn to accept her own sexuality SOMEHOW, but I doubt we’ll get an alien device to create an evil twin to set off the epiphany in this universe.
Wonder if she’ll turn full Anti-Joyce on Ethan. At least Ethan’s both resistant to feminine wiles and level-headed enough to potentially talk her through it before she makes a big mistake in a libido-driven frenzy.
Halcyon
Yeah.. That or she decides to masturbate instead XD
maycroft
I’d like to see that storyline.
Ahighfunctioningsociopath
Put on a show, make one wrong move and everyone will know
narmenduke
And now “Let it Go” is about Joyce finally saying, “to hell with it”and just going to TOWN on herself.
narmenduke
After scrolling through the comments, I see that others have also reached this conclusion. Never mind.
Tunaro
Helping people work through their sexual issues or waffles. Easy choice.
Viktoria
I think that if Joyce wanted help and asked, Sarah would help. But Joyce has made it clear she doesn’t want to change, so Sarah isn’t going to waste her time trying. Joyce is an adult and can make her own decisions.
(The problem, of course, is that her parents are abusive assholes who did as much damage as they could before Joyce was an adult. If there was any non-horrible way to limit parent’s control over their children, I’d take it in a second.)
Sageress
Non-Horrible: Mind control?
begbert2
I’m pretty sure that would make you as evil as they are.
Doctor_Who
But you could make her cluck like a chicken, so the tradeoff is worth it.
Mr. Random
She has to realize that something’s wrong with her mindset. And she has to want help. So, Mike level machinations may be needed.
Bloop Bloop Bloop
Outlawing homeschooling?
I.care.0
As someone from a counry that has never permitted homescooling, the whole concept boggles my mind. I can’t fanthom a single reason for it to be permitted or why it would be a good thing at all.
JCfromNC
Well, when it’s not being used to indoctrinate kids into Christian fundamentalist/evangelical beliefs, and done by intelligent, motivated parents, it can have pretty good results. Sadly, in a lot of the USA, the public school system is not all that good.
Furie
The operative words being “intelligent, motivated parents”. I’ve known three lots who home school their kids. One does it because her daughter was deprived of oxygen as a child and needs a slower pace now. The others do it because the Internet told them “society is evil, LOLZ” and they live by those profound words. I wouldn’t mind so much if either of their teenagers was actually able to read and write at a basic level, but they can’t. The parents plonk them in front of the television with a bunch of flash cards (pre school style) and expect that to replace the entire school experience as what they need to get on in the world. Granted, that’s two sets of people and not the entirety of homeschooling, but it does show a shocking lack of oversight for these people.
Bantha
There is nothing wrong with homeschooling if it is done right. In my state, you are required to have a degree in education to homeschool your child. That is a good requirement. You should not be forced to send your child to a public school where many teachers use it as a chance to indoctrinate your child. There are tons of great teachers out there interested only in educating children but for every one of those there is another that just wants to force feed your kid their agenda. If you don’t want that to happen and have the education + drive to properly educate your child? Nothing wrong with that. I can’t see a reason why it WOULDN’T be permitted.
Freemage
Bantha: At issue is whether or not the parents are actually motivated by a desire to provide a quality education, and whether or not they are capable of providing it. I used to date a girl who had a degree in education; she was also an unwavering believer in Young Earth Creationism. She was doing sub work when we dated; if she was at a public school, she stayed inside the lines, but would quite readily teach YEC as truth at private religious schools, and I have no doubt would home-school her kids the same way.
So frankly, in order for your system to work, you first have to tighten the degree requirements a fair bit. You also need a system in place to monitor the curriculum, and the child’s progress. Since the folks who most loudly support home-schooling are the same ones who believe that the Ebil Gum’mint is attempting to enslave us all to Satan, they tend to be a bit reluctant to comply with that sort of oversight.
Johnny Slick
“Indoctrinate”? What? I was a product of one of those public schools and I don’t remember being “indoctrinated” into anything. Well, other than communist homosexual atheism. But that’s just libs for you, am I right???
das-g
Do public schools still teach just communist homosexual atheism? That’s so last century. Today’s kids will have to fnord be well versed in black Jewish illuminati communist terrorist homosexual bankster transgender hipster copyleftist atheism to be successful. If your local public school doesn’t teach that subject, better send your children to a private school that does.
Thixophobia
Best post. Much lulz.
Dave H
When done properly educating at home can be far superior to school. Children get to be out and about in the real world, not shut in a classroom. It doesn’t suit all children, in the same as school doesn’t. Children who are bottom of the class at school can really flourish when freed from the arbitrary rules and procedures. The UK home education environment is far removed from the stereotype of Joyce.
Jenny Creed
It’s in the UN charter of human rights than parents should have the right to educate their child as they see fit. As long as we lack any universally recognized superior school of thought to educate all children in, that’s probably the best we can do.
Sarah
My mom did it for a few years, and for a very good reason too. My older sister went into fourth grade with a sixth-grade reading level, and left with a sixth grade reading level. The teacher’s response to her already knowing the material, instead of getting a couple higher level books for her, was to use her as a teacher. She learnt almost nothing that whole year.
She based the whole curriculum off the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, it was fun, and when we went back to school, having switched to the next nearest school, we were both ahead of our peers.
kelticat
I have heard of a family whose 10 yr old daughter developed a sensitivity to the fluoride that was put into the school’s water supply. The teacher’s solution was to put the girl’s desk into the corner, facing the wall. Even after the doctor had prescribed filtered, bottled water for the girl.
When the parents did a surprise audit, they found their daughter in the corner. The girl was removed from that school within 48 hours, and the parents started homeschooling her with good results.
On the other side of the homeschool coin, are my three nephews, two of whom have dyslexia, who didn’t start getting anything resembling a good education until they started community college. I think the middle one, who didn’t have dyslexia still resents his parents for that decision.
jiynx
well, in the case of our oldest, the school system lacks the ability to properly approach his issues outside of wanting him medicated.
but with homeschooling, we don’t have to do that, and he’s thriving and is actually ahead of his age-group for learning.
mileage may vary of course.
Bemisawa
I mean, I was homeschooled all the way until college. It affected how I developed in some good ways and some more neutral ways, but I think that I would have just developed different quirks if I went to public school. I’ve known a lot of thoroughly awesome, well-adjusted homeschoolers; like anything else, the extreme examples are what you tend to hear about. For the record, neither of my parents have a degree in education… We used a mail-order course until those ran out, then I joined a local homeschooling group and took some college classes. I’ve been very happy overall with being homeschooled, and from how I’ve seen others do, I’ve seen it work very well for others.
Jen Aside
Donate $15,001 and up to the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter – LeVar Burton raises your child in your stead because he could honestly do a better job and your child would be happier.
About as non-horrible as it gets!
newllend
Correcion, helping JOYCE through her sexual issues or waffles, no contest.
Unkind Fish
Wow, this one is a bit depressing.
thinkingofthechildren
I know, right? I too want waffles…*sigh*
Reltzik
Well, you can smear melted butter and maple syrup all over waffles and then slurp them up, so I think it’s a pretty solid choice.
*insert “innocent” emoticon here*
Leo
Now I have a mental picture of Joyce covered in melted butter and maple syrup. I’m sure the fanboys would love that.
Terry
Man… after the pride is a sin one… the sads just keep coming. 🙁
Jackson
Riding the Sad Bus to Sad City here.
GoogerGeiger
Aww, Joyce’s first diddle.
Viktoria
I don’t think so. I think she had one bad thought and is now tearing herself up over it. She’s probably months, if not years, from acting on those thoughts.
Shogouki
Indeed. My thinking was that from her pose in the last panel she was hitting herself with the cold shower after having that thought.
GoogerGeiger
From my point of view, in the second-to-last panel she used an “errant finger or two” and then instantly regretted it.
thinkingofthechildren
Jeph Jaques and Dave Willis need to get Joyce and Hanners to talk at length.
Paul Indrome
I am 50% sure that would make everything even worse and the other 50% sure it would make everything completely weird.
How would that even go?
J: “I can’t think about men because of religion.”
H: “I don’t WANT to think about men because of neuroses.”
J: “Well, it’s been nice talking to you.”
H: “You, too. Now, what’ll you have? The specials are BUTTS BUTTS BUTTS and BUTTS.”
OctopusGardener
Don’t forget, Joyce is a die-hard, science-disbelieving fundie while Hanners’s dad is a scientist in a space station and her mom is literally an evil corporate overlord, complete with shark tank.
Tenn
Butts, butts, butts, butts
Butts, butts, butts, butts
LOVELY BUUUUUUUUUUTTS!
WONDERFUL BUUUUUUTTS!
Maveric1984
Hanners thinks about women all the time. She even looks at porn
Maveric1984
Men dammit. She thinks about men all the time. She just doesn’t want to touch them.
ThatRobedGuy
I’d ship that. Of course, they’d only go so far as to shake hands, and Hanners would insist on using gloves followed by copious amounts of hand sanitizer.
Bastylos
Or on length…
Ninja Ned
Given how repressive and uncomfortable experience this is for Joyce, I don’t think I want to see the first diddle. 🙁
jiynx
friend of mine was like that. didn’t wank till he was like 17, then wound up getting curious then did it.
he described it as furiously shameful and explosive.
The Doctor
I am pretty sure she is crying in that last panel after merely THINKING about a naked man.
Jen Aside
See, that’s what I don’t like about this interpretation of God. He gives everyone fun buttons that they can’t put away, then says, “DON’T TOUCH”
Who does that, other than assholes??
MindLink
Yeah, exactly! It always confuses me when I hear religious people speak bad of sexuality, as it seems to me to be an insult to their own God, implying that he did a very poor job creating us.
Whenever I had any doubt if God had any problems with me touching my own body, I just looked down and saw that my hands, hanging down, line up perfectly with my equipment. Coincidense? I think not!
Opus the Poet
Yes, it is disturbing at times, but you can deal with it. It’s part of becoming an adult.
Yotomoe
If I know anything about being an adult, it’s the worst experience in the world.
Tunaro