White Noise (Webcomic by Adrien Lee) SPOILERS

[Jitter]

plus their response was stupid, "I'm not planning to become one" (transgender person). Oh I see, apparently they are planning to become a winged hunk, and a healer with a smith's muscles, and another healer who is also a tree? Reading something outside of one's own experience is enriching, not something that we shouldn't do!

[Keep Looking]

Having read the comments, I admire thephooka and the other commenters for their relatively civil responses to such an...... off-taste? Weirdly insulting? Transphobic but in a particularly weird way? kind of comment.

plus their response was stupid, "I'm not planning to become one" (transgender person). Oh I see, apparently they are planning to become a winged hunk, and a healer with a smith's muscles, and another healer who is also a tree? Reading something outside of one's own experience is enriching, not something that we shouldn't do!

Yeah, it's weird - like... do they feel that the existence of transgender people somehow threatens their own gender or something? Do they think that transgender people are trying to convert people or something? I'm not transgender but my girlfriend and a large proportion of my friends are, so I'm pretty sure if transgender people were trying to stop people from being cis I would know. And as you said Jitter, it's enriching and interesting to read stories outside of your own experience and understand that other people have different experiences than you do - you don't have to understand why someone might want to be a gender that's different from the one they were given at birth in order to respect that it's their life and that's the place they're at.

[JoB]

Yeah, it's weird - like... do they feel that the existence of transgender people somehow threatens their own gender or something? Do they think that transgender people are trying to convert people or something?

I obviously have no idea about that commenter in particular, but if you ask the right - as in, sufficiently far right - people ...

https://www.tagesschau.de/faktenfinder/queerfeindlichkeit-desinformation-100.html

[thorny]

Do I actually want to go to that link, and am I going to be able to understand it if I do? I'm afraid I can only read English and a miniscule amount of French.

-- I wonder whether what they felt threatened about was thinking that people might assume they're transgender if they admit to liking a comic with sympathetic transgender characters? Which makes no sense if one thinks about it for five minutes -- not only is nobody going to conclude that they must be a shapeshifter or a truthseer, but surely they've noticed that many works in many fields present characters who are both male and female and nobody assumes that anyone praising those works must be a specific one of those -- but I suspect the commenter is somebody who's never actually thought about this before. I hope that they will now.

[Jitter]

Yeah, Thorny, something like that occurs to me too. Maybe the ”not into the transgender thing” was more of an automatic comment to distance them from the topic, and having been asked WHY they find it objectionable makes them think and hopefully even find they don’t really have a reason. Here’s hoping anyways!

[JoB]

Do I actually want to go to that link, and am I going to be able to understand it if I do? I'm afraid I can only read English and a miniscule amount of French.

Google can translate the text for you, but not the opener photo, which admittedly is all I expected y'all to look at. Yes, the text has a paragraph about the "portray as a threat to children" topic, too, but it doesn't capture the sheer scream of "we'll agitprop people's brains out!" that the photo conveys.

-- I wonder whether what they felt threatened about was thinking that people might assume they're transgender if they admit to liking a comic with sympathetic transgender characters? Which makes no sense if one thinks about it for five minutes -- not only is nobody going to conclude that they must be a shapeshifter or a truthseer, but surely they've noticed that many works in many fields present characters who are both male and female and nobody assumes that anyone praising those works must be a specific one of those -- but I suspect the commenter is somebody who's never actually thought about this before. I hope that they will now.

Hmmmm I wonder whether that's why so many fans dislike major character deaths ...

"Hello everyone, I'm Fan-ny and I'm dead!"

[Róisín]

I think there may be an element of ‘one true way’ about that attitude. You know the one, I’m sure…..’this is how I am and there is no other legitimate way to be’. Personally I find looking at the world from the viewpoint of people or things very different from myself to be interesting and informative, but then I am sufficiently myself to not be vulnerable to being easily changed into someone else merely by being exposed to another viewpoint. I get the impression that a lot of ‘one true way’ types lack sufficient character and autonomy to have opinions unless somebody has very firmly told them what to think they are or what they believe.

[thorny]

That attitude does always seem to me to imply a major insecurity. As you say, people who are sure who they are don't need to feel threatened by somebody else's being somebody else. The way I sometimes put it is, who wants to look into a mirror all the time? I want to look out the window and see somebody different!

(I've been wearing glasses since I was six. The back of my head seems to expect there to be glass involved in my vision, one way or another.)

[thorny]

Page is up --

and I think this is going to work!

[Keep Looking]

Yes! They are having a very good conversation - it's honestly nice to see a healthy relational conversation in a piece of media.

[Jitter]

They are both being so mature, it almost seems out of character. Good thing it was mentioned that Hawk promised to get therapy, I think he has.

For some reason it seems to me it would be harder for Hawk, although Numair probably has even thicker shell around him. Hawk never got the opportunity to openly be vulnerable, but Numair was actively kept imprisoned in his shell.

[thorny]

Hawk, that's not the only way you're already involved!

And it might not be the right one to bring up first in this conversation.

-- but at least Numair's being honest about why he doesn't want Hawk to stay involved.

[Jitter]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the mistake that was left behind was Aries. I’m not sure Hawk has realized there is more history than Numair just getting randomly attacked and escaping the thugs. Or, well, the attack was random because the traffickers didn’t recognize Numair, but clearly there’s more than that.

Also ai don’t think Hawk can really fathom the game of thrones ongoing with the council and the danger involved. He’s been in Aetheri for a short while and until quite recently had the impression that the cynn is a very powerful figure. I am quite certain he doesn’t realize how close Numair is to getting assassinated.

And he really is, as he doesn’t seem to have any security on his living floor. It would be a very good idea to get a big and strong bodyguard in his room! Preferably one that can also perform airborne extraction if needed!

[thorny]

And one who can be trusted; and who Numair can stand to have around all the time --

Guys: you are both in danger and that's going to be true even if you're separated. I suspect that you're both at least slightly safer together.

[thorny]

Oh, perfect, perfect, perfect, Hawk!

-- and "for as long as we can" is all one (two) (however many) ever get(s). And nobody ever knows how long it's going to be.