Uh oh..
ig special thank you to my elite terven hacker, Miss Wool who played a huge role in this page being what it is!
She not only taught me there was a way to do the newsprint dot effect that didn't involve me doing it by hand (yeah i found out after the fact), but was also instrumental in sharpening the dialogue of Blaire on this page!
Blaire… Buddy… Bro. What the fuck.
Poor Riley omg ?
This page is so on the nose and gorgeous as always ?
Just caught up from chapter 8, been a fan for a long time on tumblr. Was never on the Blaire stan train myself, sure she’s cute, but she always had an obnoxious vibe. And here it is. She’s gonna groom Riley, isn’t she? Love the expressions on every page, as always, and your style and coloring has gotten so much tighter! I’m still reeling from “the way you pronounced it was fine” from the previous chapter. Jaden, true normie queen.
BLAIRE ?
I like the last shot showing how everything Blaire just said applies to Riley, too!
Blarie, you are describing your girlfriend. She is right there, babe.
I’m an autistic cis butch lesbian. I used to be like Riley: insecure about myself whenever somebody asked for pronouns or thought I was trans, and on some level internally blaming trans people for making things harder for me. But the truth is, it’s not trans people’s or trans supporters’ fault that I was insecure.
A similar issue: I was bullied by girls, and had internalized misogyny that presented in inherently distrusting/fearing groups of women, even feminists. I had to realize that that was a problem that could let me hurt people, and let me be sexist, and I’ve been working on fixing that ever since. Likewise, internally blaming trans people for your own insecurities can present in hurting trans people, which I’ve avoided with extreme caution and working on my problems internally. It hasn’t been easy, but reflecting on these was worth it.
Some of your gnc traits may confuse people, and that’s okay. It’s not an insult to be mistaken for trans in the context of a queer-positive setting, and if you feel insulted then you need to look within to combat your own insecurities and get more confidence about your identity (NOT that you have to change it, but that if you are cis, you CAN feel confident as a cis gnc person). You also need to look at stories from trans men who get mistaken for butch lesbians, and other queer people’s stories. We’re all different people, and as long as we’re trying to respect each other then we should be helping each other. Some trans men, afab enbies, and cis gnc women share physical traits, and that’s perfectly okay. We can still be friends. We can still respect identities/pronouns/names. We can still fight for the rights of others.
I also think that Blaire is at least trying to do the right thing here. She’s making assumptions about Jaden, sure, but she’s trying to ask a friend who she knows (or thinks) is trans-accepting whether she’s right and how to show Jaden that it’s safe to come out to them. I know Riley’s probably on guard right now due to her insecurities creeping up, but I hope she realizes that -IF Blaire was right- Jaden would need friends who help her feel safe. I know Blaire’s wrong, I was assuming the hypothetical.
Yes, I know this comic is written by a terf. But a part of me feels like knowing my thoughts might help you to consider the “other side,” especially as someone who used to be on the fence about a lot of these issues.
bruh….
people will fully be calling you “she” around a mutual genderist they know, but then that person will just theythem you anyways because ur butch.
The realism in this page ?
blaire!!! come on now, girl ? but seriously, this page is too real! poor riley!! i suspect that between this and jaden’s encounter w the AGP gang, she might be starting to peak ?
a lot of they/them women i know shave their legs so blaire equating leg hair to “not woman” is really funny. women shave their legs bc of the shame and embarrassment drilled into them from when they were 12 by their own mothers and classmates. but genderists think a woman’s view of herself is constructed in the void
Oh shit does Blaire secretly think Riley is trans?
sighhh i stopped getting asked my pronouns all the time at uni when i grew my hair out… this comic is so relatable :/
“The haircut (the short hair?), hiding behind the baggy clothes, showing off their leg hair…” The next panel features Riley with a short haircut, large loose shorts, and showing off her leg hair! I get the sense Blaire is partially talking about Riley, too, and thinks Riley is trans.
As a “normie” reading this comic, it seems being assumed trans relies on almost sexist stereotypes?? It makes me wonder how people like this would see me: I always considered myself a ‘feminine’ woman but I don’t wear makeup, don’t shave, have worn nothing but baggy clothes over the past year because it’s COVID and who cares anymore, but have long hair. So, if I cut my hair short, would someone like Blaire think I was trans, too?
It explains a weird moment in college where a trans woman in one of my classes who barely knew me or any of my friends heard one of my guy friend’s name. My friend had a very normal, unisex name. The trans person shouted, “Oh, that’s your name? Are you trans??” My friend was confused, stared blankly, and asked, “HUH???” A bunch of people around us were suddenly staring in silence, too. My friend is even more of a “normie” than me and had no idea what ‘trans’ even meant. The trans person got so uncomfortable and flustered trying to explain how he thought my friend was a trans girl because of his unisex name that can be seen as “feminine”. Then seemed to realize how rude and awkward a statement like that can be especially to someone he just met, that he awkwardly ran away and avoided my friend forever. It was a weird experience. I had forgotten about it and pushed it into the back of my memory as one of those super weird, random, and awkward things that happens in life to never think about again. Until this comic brought the memory back to the surface ha! The attitude presented in this comic makes that experience make sense if this is how some groups really think. I wonder how they come to such conclusions?
The “They/Thems” are killing me and I am not okay. Also, yes, definitely sounds like she’s thinking the same of Riley too. Part of me keeps wanting to say that this is just a comic, but the fact that there are real people out here in the year 2021 that are having actual conversations and thoughts like this really gets under my skin. It’s unfortunate that some women can’t just exist without people assuming they have a gender identity or something. Yes, I have a haircut and don’t shave my legs. No, that does not automatically mean that I am “trans” or an “enby”… Really don’t like the term “enby” by the way. I don’t know why, but it just feels really juvenile to me and I cringe at hearing it.
God, I hate-love Blaire (love to hate?). She sounds… kind of dumb to me, but the worst part is that I know several people that think like her. I have short hair and hate shaving and dress like Jade so I guess in Blaire’s mind I would be trans lol
Oof, the contrast of everything Blaire describes about Jaden, panning out to see all of it reflected in Riley. I know in my heart that this chapter is going to hurt. I’ve got the tissues ready
way to drag the ever living fuck out of your gf -.-
Not the they/theming T_T
This page hits my so hard every time I reread Leasebound. Blaire listing off every characteristic and it cutting back to Riley matching every one…. I think I’ve literally had this exact conversation in real life with people several times. The idea that someone could know you’re ‘trans’ for you, could assign it to you.
My first ‘girlfriend’, a trans-identified man, would ask me often if I was actually just a trans guy for those exact same reasons. Short hair, don’t like makeup, a hatred of shaving. I often get they/themed in certain spaces like uni and sometimes it literally continues even after I’ve done the whole ‘I prefer she/her’ spiel. I had a boss that they/themed me for the year that I worked there, while he she/hered everyone other girl on the team. This was even after we’d done the whole pronoun circle several times, in an ‘inclusion-based’ job. I even had a coworker ask me if I was nonbinary because even she started to notice it.
It’s just so regressive. I feel like we’ve walked gender stereotypes back 50 years. ;-; it’s rough out there right now for butches.
Anyways though! Love this page <3 It feels uncomfortably accurate to a real conversation like this plays out and how it would affects someone like Riley.