*Sigh* Oh, Rusty. Why do you have to make me feel such conflicting stuff? On one hand, I’m annoyed at Poppy (I think it’s funny she does kinda look like a genie) for wanting to be “inclusive” of people who don’t belong but she’s also so realistic. The fact she feels like relenting and letting men have leeway will put an end to their violence is a common view point. Why not just let them in? Why not just be nice? Surely if we’re nicer they won’t hurt us, right? Right?…?

Also her feeling like her being on the side of women will jeopardize her chance for success is so fucking real and unfortunately not a paranoid view at all. And oh my fucking God. Donnie being like “where you go I go” hits close. She’s so in love with Poppy that she’s willing to stick by her side no matter what. However, considering Poppy is considering a bad life path, I don’t think this is a good thing in this scenario lmaooo. Idk, I was willing to move heaven and earth for my ex but I realized that it was detrimental to me for various reasons and I’m seeing that in Donnie. Yeesh.

This page, man. So much to unpack. I feel like I just scratched the surface and if I was less tired, I could go IN, but alas. Take this for now lmao. I’m really loving how this story moves forward.

Aughhh Poppy feeling like she has to put behind her strong feelings for helping women to get ahead in this world (and basically to SURVIVE) is so real in a world ran by men :,(

Oh, Poppy… If someone reacts violently to being denied entry, letting them in will not make you safer.
:[

🙁 Poppy…I both understand and hate that she’s driven out of fear for herself and for her fellow women. It shouldn’t have to be this way, but here we are 😔 Her and Donnie are so sweet though, I wish them a long lasting relationship and peaceful moid free existence 🤞❤️

Girl this is the timeliest possible page; I am in a very gendie seaside town in the UK (Brighton) for a work trip and it coincides with Brighton Pride, which apart from London is the biggest in the country (for reference, before the gender craze Brighton was the GAY capital of the UK).
 

and there’s an event run by a company called Butch Please that puts on (supposedly) lesbian club nights, so I figured I’d make an appearance- only to read on the event description page its for ‘lesbian and bisexual women, trans and nonbinary people and allies’. so- everyone. its not even gay, let alone female-specific. then like, why have this at pride?? needless to say im spending the evening with a book and some fish tacos instead.

oof, blaming the women setting boundaries for the violence men inflict.
Saying “if she just let him have his way she wouldn’t have been hurt” isn’t the compassionate take Poppy seems to think it is 🙄

Oh Poppy, they would absolutely not be satisfied with being allowed in for one night. If anything, it’d open the floodgates more and get them even angrier about not being let in any other night.

Poppy’s position is a very common, very understandable one. But then where do you draw the line? Male people can come in on one night? A lot of the women who go there specifically because it’s women-only will self-exclude on that night. The men will start asking why only that night, why not also denim night, what if they really like denim – and the males who don’t identify as men will bristle at being relegated to the category of male and not given the full run of the club.
 

And then, with a foot in the door from where they’ll keep pushing – because they will, we’ve all seen it before, they don’t want to be just guests in women’s spaces, and besides they’re already here one night and look nothing has gone horribly wrong so why not all nights? – where draw the line then? And how? And will that prevent violence, or will they claim they were “led on” the way they do when they murder women who smiled and then said no?
 

Let males in one night, what then if they get mad over rejection? Sexually harass someone? Does men being given ground reduce their violence, or does it just tell them they’re entitled to that much and makes them demand more? Besides, from experience, a women-only space is only that when it is women-only. A single man in the room changes the atmosphere in a way hard to put into words but impossible not to notice, even if he’s not doing anything. You’ll get moments where you forget, where you can talk freely and laugh loudly again, but then his voice is heard from across the room and you and everyone around you shrinks back into herself, or straightens and remembers to keep her walls up.
 

I wonder whether this could be solved by Poppy talking with Ruth. Not trying to convince her, not making demands, but actually talking and actually listening. I’m sure Ruth has experienced that pattern from men over and over. She knows what she’s doing, and why she’s doing it that way.
Poppy’s friends are no doubt lovely people, or at least I hope so because I wish her good friends. But when you open a room to men, especially a public room like a bar or club, you can’t just let in “the nice ones”. You don’t even know beforehand who “the nice ones” are. And men are already everywhere else, this is the one place to catch a break from them.
 

But then again, chances are Poppy already knows deep-down and is just trapped in the cognitive dissonance of patriarchal expectations (and the expectations of her clients/friends) against the knowledge of why spaces like Yonique are needed in the first place. “Be nice. Be nicer. If you’d been nicer, he wouldn’t have had to hurt you. Why didn’t you just give him a chance?”

I do really love some parts of this comic
 

For starters I think the artsyle is wonderful. It’s like a classic cartoon but refined for still images. The colors are always lovely and portray very nicely what each character is feeling using the background as an aid.
 

Alot of the story too. I’ve read lots of comments so I can confidently say it makes people on both sides of the argument deeply sad through its story telling. This is undeniably a good thing. The story, so far, IS sad. No matter which lense you veiw it through. That’s because the creator is capable of telling a good story with many different lines to follow. This is tricky but it’s all well balanced. You don’t get confused and everything is easy to follow and tie together with the central themes
 

I enjoy it, even as someone to disagrees with some of the central ideas. The art and story are good. I think it says alot about art itself. It’s meant to be used like this. It’s supposed to show your ideas and feelings through a means almost beyond yourself. Beyond spoken word. Something anyone can see, understand and think about later on.
 

I veiw this as a way to get to know the people who so vehemently disagree with some of my own points of veiw. Why you think the way you do and some of the things you all think about certain topics. I’m more familiar with the argument than I have ever been and it’s on my mind alot
 

I am able to think about why I feel the way I do. I get to compare it to real thoughts and arguments from the other side, not just what people I know say the ideas are. It’s amazing food for thought
Sorry this isn’t about the page and more the comic as a whole so far and my own personal feelings

I’m unsure how to reply to comments but, huge same page as MushroomFrog, the artist stands on her own merit even with other disagreements I personally hold.
 

Plus, more than anything, I’ve found this comic to be like a “safe haven” that completely and unabashedly confronts misogynistic and sexist elements that exists because, sadly, there’s this mindset where if it’s bad optics you’re not allowed to say anything, I have unironically heard trans people tell other trans people they aren’t allowed to speak on things like intra-community S/A, people treating anyone observed male as untouchable dieties unless and until they also call out another trans woman.
 

Unironically seeing trans women reply to other trans women with things like “Are you saying trans women are able to systemically oppress anyone?” As in if white racist trans people don’t exist, if a cis woman can be sexist, racist, misogynistic, then how are trans women, suddenly immune? It’s a double standard that if you even begun to point out, you get treated like a gay person in a conservative church, lol.
 

I’ve also ironically dealt with hatred from other trans people for being in a same-sex relationship, so you know, just another flavor of homophobic.
 

Yet, I haven’t been able to ever talk about it without being gaslit, treated like I’m shitty for trying to be open about S/A I’ve experienced, sexual harassment I’ve experienced, trying to call out someone trying to force me to be with someone I’m incompatible with etc even though I still used completely inclusive and non-derisive language, once even had a trans man tell me to kys, as in screaming it at me, when I expressed discomfort over a trans woman constantly misgendering me, interesting eh?
 

Even Kat Blaque has dealt with this, where she was with a person who S/A’d multiple people, cis women and trans women, in often violent and disgusting ways, said rapist comes out as a trans woman, and suddenly everyone seems to tell Kat that the slate is wiped clean, and she, herself a black trans woman, would be accused of being bigoted for talking about her rapist.
 

So, in terms of people not disregarding these experiences, I often have more to talk about with people I don’t otherwise completely agree with than I ever do in a community that is dominated by bullies who still prioritize observed male people above all else, even other trans women if they happen to be victimized by them.