The Old Hack

Alternate. Universe. And Tensaided is a law unto himself.

We did, in the Off Topic forum. Feel free to start a new one.

'Not want to believe' is not the same as 'refusing to believe.' Especially not in Susan's case. If there is any character more painfully honest with herself than Susan is, I have a hard time thinking of one. I do not see denial holding her back for very long.

May the Fourth serve you well.

Languages can be funny that way. Danish is one of the latter, in a sense. Apart from certain dialects close to Germany that have three genders, Danish in general only has two -- combined gender (male and female gender conflated into one) and agender (the literal translation would be 'nogender' but it sounds a little odd to my ears.) But even English has gender in it, if vestigial and only used in very special cases. One would be ships, which by seamen are referred to as 'she' rather than 'it.' This same naval tradition exists in Denmark as well and is one of the few places where this kind of usage survives.

I do not think so. 1) It is Nanase, whom Susan knows personally. 2) Vampires are involved. In this, Susan all too well knows how deadly serious the trouble is -- and knows how unlikely it would be for Nanase of all people to invoke them in some sort of deception or scam.

Codswallop. Gender identity is a much, much older issue than the race issue. There are cultures on this planet that make specific allowances for people to move from the gender assigned at their birth to the other. We have present day hunter/gatherer tribes in which gender is basically treated as whether you hunt or you gather. We have thousands of years old legends of males becoming females or the other way around. Tiresias of Greek mythology is just one example. Race, on the other hand, is a far more modern construct and only started to become an issue once improving travel technology made large scale interaction between continental land masses possible. Race lines as we know them have only existed for a mere handful of centuries and came into being as a justification for the systematic enslavement of Black people. In previous centuries or millennia, what slavery did exist was usually based on cultural or tribal lines. Even the hapless Slavs, a people so victimised by the slave trade that their very tribal name became the root word of 'slavery', were not considered a 'race' but a tribe. Also, at its very root, the concept of 'race' is scientifically speaking utter nonsense. The concept of gender is not. Which would be more likely to be an old, old part of humanity's identity: an observable physical and social fact or a ridiculous contrivance solely brought into existence to justify the exploitation of people with high melanin content in their skin?

Good luck, old friend. And take good care of yourself.

That would depend on precisely which doctor you are visiting. Would it happen to be the Doctor?

Oh dear, how sad, never mind. Another outdated, intolerant and bigoted buffoon bites the dust.

I regret to inform these people that I consider it far more important to respect the wishes of those actually affected by the terminology than those of any spectators, however idealistic.

It used to have one, but Krypton exploded.

This is already a common phenomenon. Many politicians do it every time they publicly open their mouths.

This is true and also very important. One thing I find helpful to remember: if someone comes at me angry about something I said, however innocent my intent, they may well have cause. In that case my first priority must be to find out what it was I did wrong so I won't repeat it. And one cannot always expect people to behave reasonably when one has hurt them. In the best cases I've been able to work out what I did wrong and at the same time conveyed my apologies. That often goes a long way towards better communication afterwards. Another point to remember: it is not often helpful to tell someone not to be angry. If they are actually communicating in good faith, they will be angry for cause and in that case the solution is to discover what caused the anger and hopefully alleviate it. If they are not communicating in good faith -- this is unfortunately also possible -- no appeal to their better nature will work in any event. And most importantly of all, there are those who simply use anger as an excuse to dismiss the angry person's argument. This is a much-loved tactic of those who wish to silence victims of (for example) misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and racism. It is called tone policing and works like this: if you are angry, your argument is invalid, if you are not angry, you have no reason to complain. The above is the ideal and unfortunately I cannot always live up to it. For one thing, I have a temper of my own and I cannot always control it. But for exactly that reason I try to remember that the anger of the other person may very well be valid and should be respected.

Goldarnit! It would have been so much more awesomely horrible if they had meant 'died from AIDS, among other things.'

Spoilsport. *muttermuttergrumble*

The poor sod will end up having died from more causes than the number of times JFK was shot.

I have elected to simplify. I choose to refer to each individual as they prefer and to otherwise avoid employing offensive terms as I am best able. That is the best I can do; if this stance makes me enemies, I regret that but I do not know a better place to work from.

I think we can skip the 'to women' part and simply label them 'inherently offensive.'

Clearly, a saucer-shaped craft implies that it is being propelled by a teacup.

I can't see why Susan would need a laser to get a ranged weapon. All she needs is to drop a TFG gun into her chest. Admittedly, a transformation beam isn't quite the same as a laser but it is at least ranged.

YES. So long, Bromans. You shan't be missed.

GOOD. Please take care of yourself and let us know how things go.

That would be ridiculous. Next we are going to learn that I am actually part Norwegian Blue.

A question just occurred to me: The first time Elliot was ever turned into a girl, I am fairly sure Elliot's gender identity was that of a boy turned into a girl, i. e. still considering himself male. Over time, this seems to have gradually changed. I wonder if today's comic's moment of acceptance also marks that Elliot now fully considers herself a girl while transformed into her superhero identity or other variations of female selves?