I can imagine what the 1987 Mo would do with current-era Pride celebrations, with so much glorification of marriage and corporate diversity initiatives.
Not that I was able to attend a single city-wide pride event this year, being all caught up in the end of Little League season among other things.
Even though I have (most) of the Dykes books, I really really really enjoy seeing the old strips here, on the web, on my laptop screen. There’s something about the juxtaposition of nostalgia and technology that warps the time-space continuum. (my mother dug up a wonderful photo of me in my own little league uniform from 30 years ago and scanned it in, which has the same warpy effect as the classic strips, if not more so…)
I’m feeling wistful for my first pride celebrations, dancing down the streets of Boston after the Batucada Belles (or however that is spelled)…
Interesting to see that “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” and “fuck gender” were already being said in 1987– I’d have guessed both of those expressions dated no farther back than the early 90s. Well, AB always was at the cutting edge.
And I agree with others who have observed that these earlier incarnations of Toni and Harriet seem “butcher” than how they are drawn nowadays. I guess we’re not in the androgynous 80s anymore…
Still time to get to London for Pride here folks. Satyrday 30th, take over central London. Bring your wellies.
I was going to change that typo but hey –
Lookit all the skinny lines in the drawing style! The whole strip seems wigglier, somehow.
I went to Chicago’s march this year, along with 450,000 other people, and got sunburnt. But as always, it felt good. (The joyfulness of the march, not the sunburn!)
ha, i am just in the middle of preparing to run some gender stuff at the ‘australian student christian movement’ conference. think i’ll take this strip along… i love that banner, “… soon to be saints!”
KB: Toronto had Pride this year – it was this past weekend! http://www.pridetoronto.com/festivalinfo
(I actually only know this because my husband is there on travel & he had to stay 15 miles out of town because all the hotels were booked up for Pride. I live outside Philadelphia, our Pride was June 10.)
Wow the last time we saw Harriet (as a mom) she looked sooo different, I forgot what she looked like when she was a young hot DTWOF! This is like looking at old photo albums. I agree w/ JenK, though, that Harriet wasn’t the right mate for Mo – to Mo’s loss, actually…
On another note, man (I mean, wow, or damn,) the more things change the more they stay the same, eh? But where is today’s equivalent of the Central American Task Force??? Oh, and no digital cameras! No cellphones! I miss 1987!
“Gay Shame” in London has been cancelled too. I shall miss it.
Queasy feelings here, however, about the reason given for the cancellation.
To capture the 2012 Olympic Games, the London / British bid lied about projected costs. Budgets for other sports / arts / cultural events are now being pollarded to make money available for the actual Games costs. Among the pruned-away items: Gay Shame.
To learn that Gay Shame has been governmentally subsidised taints it. At least for me.
today’s central american task force are immigrant rights activists–
THANK YOU Alison– this strip is perfect. we had our first trans march here in the twin cities and one of the chants was “Fe Fi Fo Fum, Watch out Corporate Pride Here We Come”– it was the only part of pride that i could handle due to everything else being so corporate.
i think mo’s my longest standing crush… incorporate that into your new book maybe alison? as in exploring your love life and your fans’ imagined love lives with your characters? not part of the book contract?
Nurseingrid, I think you will find that there is little ‘new’ under the sun. It is an affliction of youth that they assume that they were the first to do anything. I was hollering such slogans in my youth in the 80’s, probably much to the weary amusement of the grown up’s. Now I am old and cynical, I watch on in a knowing way to the baby dykes & disco bunny boys enjoying their moments of percieved originality. And so the wheel turns….bless ’em!
I miss harriet. Their relationship was so more even handed than mo and sydney…
Lauren Z– here’s the thing– no, it wasn’t. I mean, I think Harriet was really cool, but overall, I don’t think she was as good for Mo as Sydney is, because she didn’t take her as seriously. Actually, nobody took Mo seriously– the usual way of things was that Mo would rantrantRANT!, and everyone else, including Harriet, would sigh and tell her that she was being overdramatic and joke about how much she whined. Which was an interesting literary device, as it let AB present a position strongly without letting the strip itself be overwhelming. But it kind of sucked for Mo, because she was surrounded by people saying “there, there” and ignoring her.
Sydney, on the other hand, argued. Sydney took Mo’s rants seriously enough to be worth addressing and discussing and playing with– in part because she actually disagreed with her (unlike Mo’s other friends, who mostly agree with her, but don’t feel like making the point quite so loudly), but also because she was really smitten with Mo and thought she was really cool, just as she is (a really hot ghoulish Mr. Rogers, indeed).
And there are two awesome things about that. One is that AB brought Sydney in at just about the same time that she was expanding the strip to be about more different kinds of people– it had always been diverse, but now it’s diverse in terms of worldviews, too, which I think is really neat. And the other awesome thing is that Mo has actually changed a lot more with Sydney in her life than she ever did before. She seems to me more secure– she doesn’t fall into rants as much, because she’s too interested in her actual life. It’s not that she’s less political, but I think she does less preaching to the choir. And her sex life is better (except lately), and her job is not as community-feeling, but it is something that she cares about and for which she gets paid better, and overall, I feel better about where she is right now (well, not right now. Aggggh, the cliffhanger in the last strip, aggghhhh!).
There’s a freshness and energy to the original strips which is fun. But I also like seeing them to see how very, very much better a writer AB is now. It’s encouraging.
Yeah – mo definately wasn’t being taken seriously, at no fault to harriet. Just have different outlooks on life. We’ve all known (married!::gasp::) people like mo and unless you get the right match, most people just look on them as an annoyance. I think I’m just feeling sad about the current state of affairs with Mo and Sydney. It is so easy to lay the blame on Sydney. Sidney is in my opinion a bit of a lost soul. Her experience over the cancer, her money issues, her family problems – its like she connects to the world through her intellect, but that only goes so far. Like something is lost in translation. Like do we even really KNOW sydney? I don’t We know how all the characters feel – but do we know how Sydney really feels? No, because it all gets covered up in talk and theories, and nice shiny expensive things, and affairs.
Oh god, what a ramble. But your right Gauidor. I think I’m just feeling sad for Mo right now.
But I have to agree with Gauidor. Much as I tend to despise Sydney, she does at least engage with Mo, whereas Harriet pretty much ignored/belittled/sighed over her. Perhaps Harriet’s social work skills only extended so far…and hearing Mo whine about everything despite her numerous privileges was easier shut out than responded to. It’s a disappointing revelation! Sydney’s keen intellect does attract me on some level, despite all her foibles.
And I agree with Lauren Z — that intellect and her desperate clinging to it is hiding a scared and lonely little girl who buys things and acts juvenile in order to cope with disappointment, because she doesn’t have the skills to do it in an adult manner. For a long time I wondered if Syndey was bipolar, because I work with several folks with bipolar disorder who, when manic, spend spend spend. But I don’t think so any more.
On another note, Mo’s ranting about corporate pride reminds me of my own boss’s recent meltdown over HRC and the NGLTF and their (questionable) influence in our community and in politics that affect us. She made me get rid of the HRC equality stickers in our office! Sigh. Being 26, I can’t really remember the “good ol’ days” of our subversive culture. I’m used to the world with Ellen Degeneres having her own talk show and think that being an investment banker is a perfectly acceptable career choice for someone who’s queer. Just as it takes all kinds in the straight community — it’s the same for us. The challenge is to encourage those of us who are living “the dream” to give back to the community.
I agree with Gaudior and Angi — in fact I’ve written to much the same effect in comments here before. Except for the bit about “Perhaps Harriet’s social work skills only extended so far” — those were Harriet’s social work skills!
I’m 56, so I remember the “‘good ol’ days’ of our subversive culture, and they weren’t really that subsersive. For every militant gay radical in the early 70s, there were a hundred smug closet cases who didn’t see why we had to “advertise” our gayness. A lot of younger gay people seem to think that at that time everybody was an activist, but it ain’t so. One reason I’ve always loved DTWOF was that it’s about the people who do think, and Alison’s interests and politics are basically the same as mine. It’s been like a refuge from the glbt reactionaries who continue to make life tedious and depressing. (Good for your boss, by the way, for making you get rid of the HRC “equality” stickers. 9-) Alison should — or has she already? — make up a derisive equivalent to Human Rights Campaign comparable to Bounders and Bunns & Noodle. Human Rights Closet? Homo-American Reactionary Campaign? Creative Accounting Campaign? Any suggestions?)
It’s striking that Harriet’s initial response to Mo was exactly the same as Mo’s initial response to Sydney.
And I don’t just think Sydney is a good match for Mo. I like Sydney, although I wish she’d get her act together in certain respects. How can you hate someone who is that clever and observant and playful?
Gaudior’s point about disagreement being a way of taking somebody seriously is exactly right. That is what Sydney gave Mo and I hope both of them can grow up enough not to wreck what they’ve got.
Hi there–I’m the same age as Duncan,and I remember a bi man talking about “gender fucking” in 1975.He favored wearing heavy boots with frilly blouses at parties. As my maternal grandma,a bright and well-read woman who lived to 94, used to say,”there’s nothing new under the sun.”
I’m 35, and passed on NYC Pride this past Sunday. I’m not one of those “Pride is over!” people, but I don’t feel the need to attend every year. (Last year, I was wearing a white t-shirt, and bought a hot dog with ketchup and spent the entire Pride day with a huge ketchup stain on my front). I did almost swear off Pride a few years ago with the rentboy.com float not out of prudishness but more out of “Oh, give me a fucking break.” But for all those who don’t feel the need, there’s still that one person for whom it’s their first Pride and it’s all new and exciting.
As for HRC – isn’t it time they had another lavish dinner honoring straight people?
Duncan – Alison has made up a clever riff on the HRC, I think it was in the bonus section of _Split Level Dykes to Watch Out For_. “The Human Rights Champagne Fund”. Heh.
I don’t think Harriet belittled Mo; quite the opposite, I believe . Mo used other issues (recycling, consummerism, world affairs) to push Harriet away. I think deep down, Mo thought she really didn’t deserve someone who was as good to her as Harriet. Mo’s definately a member of the “Groucho Club”; you know—“I would never join a club that would accept me as a member.”
last weekend at pride in berlin i asked myself those same questions about the parade and the queer comuntiy. it is funny how mo was doing that twenty years earlier in the us. ps. there are no dykes on bikes in germany.
I’ve been so totally wrapped up in work and finally getting my father’s house sold, I’ve missed Pride and everything around it! Next year will be different. *sighs*
Pride is coming up in my city next weekend. But I don’t want to go because I am afraid of running into my ex (in the corporate sponsered beer garden, we struggle with branding Pride, too, and not in the kink sense!) I’ve always enjoyed DTWOF and the characters intertwined histories and I know lots of my queer friends who are best buds with their ex’s, etc, but thats never been my reality. My city is big enough to be anon when needed, but Pride brings everybody out (no pun intended). Any ideas on how to share a small community?
Seeing this comic makes me wonder how the hell Mo and Harriet ever got together in the first place. I know I would have turned tail. 🙂
A relatively new group in the Twin Cities, the Revolting Queers, actually did an action to remind viewers of the local gay pride parade about all the overtly political topics that are kinda swept under the rug during Pride- they staged a “wake” in which people wore various forms of “mourning” clothes and cared makeshift coffins bearing titles such as Ant-Racism, Feminism, National Healthcare. My S.O. and I tried to follow their example at the Dyke March- we hijacked a cheer:
Girl with the Megaphone: WHADDA WANT?
Everyone Else: VISIBILITY!
Us: HEALTH CARE!
I’m generally in the “Fuck-Marriage-Just-Give-Us-Universal-Healthcare-and-Benefits” camp.
I sent my cousin and his male partner of 25 years a self-greeted “Happy LGBTQIQ Pride Day” card. He called to thank me,but said he was puzzled about the QIQ. I explained it,and he admitted he was out of the loop. Then he went off on a rant about how bi people really aren’t oppressed,they’re just in the closet. I decided not to argue this point but steered the conversation towards Falwell,Buchanan,Coulter et al.
I have to live up to my reputation as the super hip cousin,after all,but I won’t do all his research for him.
Hey, here in Iowa City, Pride was organized this year by a committee including the coolest, most effective, and most human gang of teenagers — and I mean 9th graders & the like — you’ve ever met. Fun parade, local speakers, music, dancing. Maybe if you’re off the commercial grid, you get to keep Pride as a community event . . . and give the young ‘uns a chance to do their thing.
n an interview AB once said that the reason she puts news stories into her scripts and onto the ‘headlines’ of the papers her characters read is to try and let people know what the news is around the world as the usa media seem to miss out the important stuff, or down play it.
well, it looks like there is an honourary member of this world.
Mika Brzezinski told the host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe programme that she would not lead with the paris hilton getting out of jail story, esp as the second item was George bush and Iraq. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdNcCcweL0
Nic- thanks for the link. That was a fascinating clip of how a woman anchor refuses to do the paris hilton story and is over ruled time and again by her co anchors and her producer who basically make fun of her for wanting to cover the actual news. Interesting how they kept taking her power away.
Had it been a male anchor refusing to cover the story, I’m sure it would have played out differently.
Why, yes, Cat Pimp, I am in the Bay Area. You have definitely piqued my curiousity! The problem is, there are probably about a dozen or more of our wedding guests that could easily be considered “cat pimps.” Any chance of another hint? Were you with the bride’s side, or the bride’s?
London Pride was the wettest since 1988. My shoes were too full of water at the end to go looking for all the continuing groovy clubbing around Soho, but at least I should get my photos edited for monday now. There are so few banners these days apart from corporate and trade union ones. Maybe because there are so few local groups, I guess. The only ones that made me laugh were a bunch of wild women with placards saying – Femme Invisibilty: So Last Year.
I wasn’t going to go to London Pride when I saw the weather – but there were 3 bomb scares and I couldn’t bear to let anyone think I could be put off by terrorists. I went with a couple of other lesbian families and the children had a whale of a time. Pity there wasn’t an organised children’s section, but we’re planning to organise one for next year.
RachelB, maybe I have your picture. I was the wet photographer who would have asked nicely, I prefer to ask if it’s ok to take pics if children are involved.
There’s an article on the front page of last week’s Washington Blade about Pride and its relevancy…I wonder if they’ll be accused of printing “post gay pablum.” The Post, meanwhile, did an entire spread on how Pride in DC is so necessary for people who live in rural areas. And I find myself conflicted: not even out 15 years and Pride is all corporate and “the community” does nothing but seek assimilation (when did being queer automatically mean you were a Borg?) yet, I can see where it would be like a beacon for someone living isolated in a small town.
What strikes me most about the ‘toon: how much the drawing style has changed. I’m loving learning the visual evolution of Mo and company!
PamI. No-one asked if they could take our pic, so I suspect you didn’t take one. What a shame! Our youngsters were all very young, so we were watching from the lower bit of Regent Street, rather than marching. (First time I’ve ever seen the floats.)
Seems there are a few DTWOF fans from the Smoke – enough for a chapter of the fan club?
I think pride is definately still needed. This year I went to St Louis, my first pride. It was so exciting. I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, having an enviornment like that which celebrates something I am made to feel like a freak about in my own community is great. Just being normal for a weekend was worth everything, even the long and taxing drive.
“Relevant” and “needed” are two very different things. I don’t think Pride is either one, myself — they’re rather restricted domains — but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, or that it shouldn’t happen. Why not have Pride marches and celebrations, not because they’re “relevant” (so early 60s!) or “needed” but because they’re fun?
Of course I’m not so sure they are necessarily fun either. I’ve never been in a big march (the biggest Pride march I’ve joined was maybe a dozen people), and they look like frat parties to me. Not my style. But if the people in them are having fun, why not?
bre, I “feel like a freak in my own community” — the gay community, but the last thing I’m interested in is feeling “normal,” which I’m not, in so many ways; and I doubt I’d feel “normal” in a big Pride march even if they weren’t so commercialized. But I understand what you mean, I think. (If I sound like I’m trying to rain on your parade, I’m not — just feeling Mo-ish, as usual. While looking for the strip where she annoys Madwimmin’s intern Sophie by being less than excited by the Millennium March, I found No. 300, on the murder of Matthew Shepard: “Sophie, I’ve been filled with rage since you were a twinkle in your sperm donor’s eye.”
I went to my first Pride 5 years ago !! and would say that one’s first march will (almost certainly) be memorable. it makes you feel “normal,” it gives you a chance to be visible with “your people,” and for so many other reasons.
I will always remember the feeling of numbness that came over me when marching past the hateful Christians with my first gf. the recognition that straight people aren’t vilified in this way because of their sexuality was equally numbing. made me sad that as an “ally” I’d never gone to watch the parade, had never been there to support folks during what can be a harrowing experience.
subsequent Prides haven’t been so powerful for me. I had fun, though, the year a group of us stood across High Street from the hate contingent to hold signs saying “God Loves You” and hug marchers who were so happy to see welcoming faces and open arms. I may be overly sentimental, but it just felt good.
most people don’t hate us, but those who do are pretty virulent . . . and too many who don’t are lax about showing their support. I know too well how easy it is to say “not my problem.”
I suppose that Pride Parades serve different needs at different times. I used to regularly make the pilgrimage from Boulder to Denver for the parade and subsequent rally and fair. Eventually, I got tired of the crowds and port-a-potties and corporate emphasis, the drag show entertainment under the hot sun, the honorable yet predictable non-profit groups filling the booths asking for money.
Yet I know that for many, many people, all of the above would be exhilarating. Maybe because those folks are more newly-out or a loved one is, maybe because they are more social than me, or love a good party and lots of cold beer, or have plenty of money to spend on rainbow items or one more T-shirt, or live just blocks from the action. Or they have to travel 100 miles from Kansas, Utah, or Wyoming, where they live much harder, much more closeted lives than I. They appreciate it in a way I no longer do.
Now, three years ago, Boulder hosted a half-block Pride Parade. Despite its short length and limited participation (about 25 people marching and 125 watching) it pretty much encompassed, in a very, very concentrated manner, all the themes and goals of the corporate parade. A total hoot. Very down home and entirely uplifting.
I attended my city’s pride for the first time in 1998, the year I came out, and haven’t missed a single one since! This year they almost cancelled it — the group that organizes it had dumped it — and at the last minute a new group formed to take it up. Here’s hoping it goes off as it should!
Ellen Orleans, your description of the Boulder Pride parade reminds me of the Dooh Dah parade held July 4th each year here in Columbus. it’s not gay, per se, but is progressively irreverent and totally non-corporate.
Columbus’s Pride originates at ComFest (“Community Festival”) a hippie festival that, 30 years later, is still totally non-corporate. This year’s theme was “No Planet, No Party!” Pride itself, held downtown, has its corporate sponsors and all that stuff, but its association with ComFest makes it special — for me, at least.
I can see that the distance traveled can have a lot to do with one’s experience of Pride as enjoyable or something of a burden.
Pam I
Interestingly, someone was selling the most fab masks at the post parade pride party. I felt sick with anxiety before heading out to the big do, but running into old friends, beloved elders, new babies and puppies, PFLAG, and the like made it worth it. One small drama happened, but not to the extent I had imagined it! Plus, it was very cool to hang out with the new gf and kinda reclaim new traditions for pride. Thanks for your kind words.
Hey,
The Batucada Belles [and you spelled it right!] are celebrating the 25 anniversary this year. We need women drummers for social Justice events. We are recruiting a diverse group of women and we rehearse in cambridge MA on the charles river in cambridge at magazine beach, and we offer free drumming workshops atthe womens center.
Come join us to get that great feeling of women energy again.
We will be playing at the peace rally in Maine this weekend! http://batucadabelles.com
Jan
69 Responses to “DTWOF Archive Episode #11”
It was twenty years ago today…
I can imagine what the 1987 Mo would do with current-era Pride celebrations, with so much glorification of marriage and corporate diversity initiatives.
Not that I was able to attend a single city-wide pride event this year, being all caught up in the end of Little League season among other things.
Even though I have (most) of the Dykes books, I really really really enjoy seeing the old strips here, on the web, on my laptop screen. There’s something about the juxtaposition of nostalgia and technology that warps the time-space continuum. (my mother dug up a wonderful photo of me in my own little league uniform from 30 years ago and scanned it in, which has the same warpy effect as the classic strips, if not more so…)
I’m feeling wistful for my first pride celebrations, dancing down the streets of Boston after the Batucada Belles (or however that is spelled)…
interestingly enough, the sf pride theme this year was “pride not prejudice.”
the dyke march?
“healthcare for all”
oh, pride season. it really is a national holiday. emphasis on the national.
I wanted to follow Mo’s more recent example and go to gay shame this year, but it seems it has already folded. At least there was none in Toronto. 🙁
Awww…Mo and Harriet’s first meeting!
Interesting to see that “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” and “fuck gender” were already being said in 1987– I’d have guessed both of those expressions dated no farther back than the early 90s. Well, AB always was at the cutting edge.
And I agree with others who have observed that these earlier incarnations of Toni and Harriet seem “butcher” than how they are drawn nowadays. I guess we’re not in the androgynous 80s anymore…
Yay, Harriet! I’d forgotten how they met. I had the biggest crush on her. 🙂
Still time to get to London for Pride here folks. Satyrday 30th, take over central London. Bring your wellies.
I was going to change that typo but hey –
I miss harriet. Their relationship was so more even handed than mo and sydney… :::sigh:::
I loved Harriet…
I liked Harriet, but she was almost TOO level-headed. No wonder Mo drove her nuts! At least with Sydney they can take turns being crazy. 🙂
Lookit all the skinny lines in the drawing style! The whole strip seems wigglier, somehow.
I went to Chicago’s march this year, along with 450,000 other people, and got sunburnt. But as always, it felt good. (The joyfulness of the march, not the sunburn!)
ha ha Toni has roid rage.
What is it with Mo? Does seem like she constantly sabotages her personal growth through her relationships?
Phoenix Pride is usually fun, but never enough shade.
Thank goodness the dialog’s gotten better! Mo would never give in so easily now.
ha, i am just in the middle of preparing to run some gender stuff at the ‘australian student christian movement’ conference. think i’ll take this strip along… i love that banner, “… soon to be saints!”
KB: Toronto had Pride this year – it was this past weekend! http://www.pridetoronto.com/festivalinfo
(I actually only know this because my husband is there on travel & he had to stay 15 miles out of town because all the hotels were booked up for Pride. I live outside Philadelphia, our Pride was June 10.)
Wow the last time we saw Harriet (as a mom) she looked sooo different, I forgot what she looked like when she was a young hot DTWOF! This is like looking at old photo albums. I agree w/ JenK, though, that Harriet wasn’t the right mate for Mo – to Mo’s loss, actually…
On another note, man (I mean, wow, or damn,) the more things change the more they stay the same, eh? But where is today’s equivalent of the Central American Task Force??? Oh, and no digital cameras! No cellphones! I miss 1987!
I love the whisper speach bubbles!
“Gay Shame” in London has been cancelled too. I shall miss it.
Queasy feelings here, however, about the reason given for the cancellation.
To capture the 2012 Olympic Games, the London / British bid lied about projected costs. Budgets for other sports / arts / cultural events are now being pollarded to make money available for the actual Games costs. Among the pruned-away items: Gay Shame.
To learn that Gay Shame has been governmentally subsidised taints it. At least for me.
today’s central american task force are immigrant rights activists–
THANK YOU Alison– this strip is perfect. we had our first trans march here in the twin cities and one of the chants was “Fe Fi Fo Fum, Watch out Corporate Pride Here We Come”– it was the only part of pride that i could handle due to everything else being so corporate.
i think mo’s my longest standing crush… incorporate that into your new book maybe alison? as in exploring your love life and your fans’ imagined love lives with your characters? not part of the book contract?
Nurseingrid, I think you will find that there is little ‘new’ under the sun. It is an affliction of youth that they assume that they were the first to do anything. I was hollering such slogans in my youth in the 80’s, probably much to the weary amusement of the grown up’s. Now I am old and cynical, I watch on in a knowing way to the baby dykes & disco bunny boys enjoying their moments of percieved originality. And so the wheel turns….bless ’em!
I miss harriet. Their relationship was so more even handed than mo and sydney…
Lauren Z– here’s the thing– no, it wasn’t. I mean, I think Harriet was really cool, but overall, I don’t think she was as good for Mo as Sydney is, because she didn’t take her as seriously. Actually, nobody took Mo seriously– the usual way of things was that Mo would rantrantRANT!, and everyone else, including Harriet, would sigh and tell her that she was being overdramatic and joke about how much she whined. Which was an interesting literary device, as it let AB present a position strongly without letting the strip itself be overwhelming. But it kind of sucked for Mo, because she was surrounded by people saying “there, there” and ignoring her.
Sydney, on the other hand, argued. Sydney took Mo’s rants seriously enough to be worth addressing and discussing and playing with– in part because she actually disagreed with her (unlike Mo’s other friends, who mostly agree with her, but don’t feel like making the point quite so loudly), but also because she was really smitten with Mo and thought she was really cool, just as she is (a really
hotghoulish Mr. Rogers, indeed).And there are two awesome things about that. One is that AB brought Sydney in at just about the same time that she was expanding the strip to be about more different kinds of people– it had always been diverse, but now it’s diverse in terms of worldviews, too, which I think is really neat. And the other awesome thing is that Mo has actually changed a lot more with Sydney in her life than she ever did before. She seems to me more secure– she doesn’t fall into rants as much, because she’s too interested in her actual life. It’s not that she’s less political, but I think she does less preaching to the choir. And her sex life is better (except lately), and her job is not as community-feeling, but it is something that she cares about and for which she gets paid better, and overall, I feel better about where she is right now (well, not right now. Aggggh, the cliffhanger in the last strip, aggghhhh!).
There’s a freshness and energy to the original strips which is fun. But I also like seeing them to see how very, very much better a writer AB is now. It’s encouraging.
Yeah – mo definately wasn’t being taken seriously, at no fault to harriet. Just have different outlooks on life. We’ve all known (married!::gasp::) people like mo and unless you get the right match, most people just look on them as an annoyance. I think I’m just feeling sad about the current state of affairs with Mo and Sydney. It is so easy to lay the blame on Sydney. Sidney is in my opinion a bit of a lost soul. Her experience over the cancer, her money issues, her family problems – its like she connects to the world through her intellect, but that only goes so far. Like something is lost in translation. Like do we even really KNOW sydney? I don’t We know how all the characters feel – but do we know how Sydney really feels? No, because it all gets covered up in talk and theories, and nice shiny expensive things, and affairs.
Oh god, what a ramble. But your right Gauidor. I think I’m just feeling sad for Mo right now.
Who needs a soap operas when you got DTWOF!!! 😀
oh! Sorry about the bad edit! I’m in starbucks getting caffinated!!
Ha ha…and so it begins with Harriet…
But I have to agree with Gauidor. Much as I tend to despise Sydney, she does at least engage with Mo, whereas Harriet pretty much ignored/belittled/sighed over her. Perhaps Harriet’s social work skills only extended so far…and hearing Mo whine about everything despite her numerous privileges was easier shut out than responded to. It’s a disappointing revelation! Sydney’s keen intellect does attract me on some level, despite all her foibles.
And I agree with Lauren Z — that intellect and her desperate clinging to it is hiding a scared and lonely little girl who buys things and acts juvenile in order to cope with disappointment, because she doesn’t have the skills to do it in an adult manner. For a long time I wondered if Syndey was bipolar, because I work with several folks with bipolar disorder who, when manic, spend spend spend. But I don’t think so any more.
On another note, Mo’s ranting about corporate pride reminds me of my own boss’s recent meltdown over HRC and the NGLTF and their (questionable) influence in our community and in politics that affect us. She made me get rid of the HRC equality stickers in our office! Sigh. Being 26, I can’t really remember the “good ol’ days” of our subversive culture. I’m used to the world with Ellen Degeneres having her own talk show and think that being an investment banker is a perfectly acceptable career choice for someone who’s queer. Just as it takes all kinds in the straight community — it’s the same for us. The challenge is to encourage those of us who are living “the dream” to give back to the community.
I agree with Gaudior and Angi — in fact I’ve written to much the same effect in comments here before. Except for the bit about “Perhaps Harriet’s social work skills only extended so far” — those were Harriet’s social work skills!
I’m 56, so I remember the “‘good ol’ days’ of our subversive culture, and they weren’t really that subsersive. For every militant gay radical in the early 70s, there were a hundred smug closet cases who didn’t see why we had to “advertise” our gayness. A lot of younger gay people seem to think that at that time everybody was an activist, but it ain’t so. One reason I’ve always loved DTWOF was that it’s about the people who do think, and Alison’s interests and politics are basically the same as mine. It’s been like a refuge from the glbt reactionaries who continue to make life tedious and depressing. (Good for your boss, by the way, for making you get rid of the HRC “equality” stickers. 9-) Alison should — or has she already? — make up a derisive equivalent to Human Rights Campaign comparable to Bounders and Bunns & Noodle. Human Rights Closet? Homo-American Reactionary Campaign? Creative Accounting Campaign? Any suggestions?)
I’ve done my own musing /ranting on the post-Stonewall landscape in my blog, http://thisislikesogay.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-enjoy-being-girl.html — notice the Phranc picture. I like to think that Mo would approve of it.
It’s striking that Harriet’s initial response to Mo was exactly the same as Mo’s initial response to Sydney.
And I don’t just think Sydney is a good match for Mo. I like Sydney, although I wish she’d get her act together in certain respects. How can you hate someone who is that clever and observant and playful?
Gaudior’s point about disagreement being a way of taking somebody seriously is exactly right. That is what Sydney gave Mo and I hope both of them can grow up enough not to wreck what they’ve got.
Hi there–I’m the same age as Duncan,and I remember a bi man talking about “gender fucking” in 1975.He favored wearing heavy boots with frilly blouses at parties. As my maternal grandma,a bright and well-read woman who lived to 94, used to say,”there’s nothing new under the sun.”
I’m 35, and passed on NYC Pride this past Sunday. I’m not one of those “Pride is over!” people, but I don’t feel the need to attend every year. (Last year, I was wearing a white t-shirt, and bought a hot dog with ketchup and spent the entire Pride day with a huge ketchup stain on my front). I did almost swear off Pride a few years ago with the rentboy.com float not out of prudishness but more out of “Oh, give me a fucking break.” But for all those who don’t feel the need, there’s still that one person for whom it’s their first Pride and it’s all new and exciting.
As for HRC – isn’t it time they had another lavish dinner honoring straight people?
Duncan – Alison has made up a clever riff on the HRC, I think it was in the bonus section of _Split Level Dykes to Watch Out For_. “The Human Rights Champagne Fund”. Heh.
I don’t think Harriet belittled Mo; quite the opposite, I believe . Mo used other issues (recycling, consummerism, world affairs) to push Harriet away. I think deep down, Mo thought she really didn’t deserve someone who was as good to her as Harriet. Mo’s definately a member of the “Groucho Club”; you know—“I would never join a club that would accept me as a member.”
last weekend at pride in berlin i asked myself those same questions about the parade and the queer comuntiy. it is funny how mo was doing that twenty years earlier in the us. ps. there are no dykes on bikes in germany.
I’ve been so totally wrapped up in work and finally getting my father’s house sold, I’ve missed Pride and everything around it! Next year will be different. *sighs*
Pride is coming up in my city next weekend. But I don’t want to go because I am afraid of running into my ex (in the corporate sponsered beer garden, we struggle with branding Pride, too, and not in the kink sense!) I’ve always enjoyed DTWOF and the characters intertwined histories and I know lots of my queer friends who are best buds with their ex’s, etc, but thats never been my reality. My city is big enough to be anon when needed, but Pride brings everybody out (no pun intended). Any ideas on how to share a small community?
Brazenfemme – a mask? Pride lets you go for the theatrical…
Maybe one day you will get on with your ex again. It can just take time.
What ever would Mo have to say about this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/614876577/
Seeing this comic makes me wonder how the hell Mo and Harriet ever got together in the first place. I know I would have turned tail. 🙂
A relatively new group in the Twin Cities, the Revolting Queers, actually did an action to remind viewers of the local gay pride parade about all the overtly political topics that are kinda swept under the rug during Pride- they staged a “wake” in which people wore various forms of “mourning” clothes and cared makeshift coffins bearing titles such as Ant-Racism, Feminism, National Healthcare. My S.O. and I tried to follow their example at the Dyke March- we hijacked a cheer:
Girl with the Megaphone: WHADDA WANT?
Everyone Else: VISIBILITY!
Us: HEALTH CARE!
I’m generally in the “Fuck-Marriage-Just-Give-Us-Universal-Healthcare-and-Benefits” camp.
I sent my cousin and his male partner of 25 years a self-greeted “Happy LGBTQIQ Pride Day” card. He called to thank me,but said he was puzzled about the QIQ. I explained it,and he admitted he was out of the loop. Then he went off on a rant about how bi people really aren’t oppressed,they’re just in the closet. I decided not to argue this point but steered the conversation towards Falwell,Buchanan,Coulter et al.
I have to live up to my reputation as the super hip cousin,after all,but I won’t do all his research for him.
P.S. I maintain my stance that Mo should go back to Harriet,and they could happily co-parent together.
Yep,health care’s a right,not a privilege. Watch for Michael Moore’s latest flick Sicko,which opens this weekend.
Hey, here in Iowa City, Pride was organized this year by a committee including the coolest, most effective, and most human gang of teenagers — and I mean 9th graders & the like — you’ve ever met. Fun parade, local speakers, music, dancing. Maybe if you’re off the commercial grid, you get to keep Pride as a community event . . . and give the young ‘uns a chance to do their thing.
Sigh, seeing Mo and Harriet meet makes me a little verklempt. I still love Harriet’s earthy nature.
nurseingrid, are you in the Bay Area? If so, I am one of your wedding guests, LOL. Guess who?
n an interview AB once said that the reason she puts news stories into her scripts and onto the ‘headlines’ of the papers her characters read is to try and let people know what the news is around the world as the usa media seem to miss out the important stuff, or down play it.
well, it looks like there is an honourary member of this world.
Mika Brzezinski told the host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe programme that she would not lead with the paris hilton getting out of jail story, esp as the second item was George bush and Iraq.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdNcCcweL0
way to go, woman.
oops what i should have also said was,
I know its out of context but i dont know where else to put this comment.
Ok, I’m bi, but I don’t know what “QIQ” is. Little help?
Nic- thanks for the link. That was a fascinating clip of how a woman anchor refuses to do the paris hilton story and is over ruled time and again by her co anchors and her producer who basically make fun of her for wanting to cover the actual news. Interesting how they kept taking her power away.
Had it been a male anchor refusing to cover the story, I’m sure it would have played out differently.
QIQ – probably Queer, Intersexed and/or Questioning.
Queer, Intoxicated, and Qute?
And the winner is…Sir Real. Though I also like how AB had her fun with this: LGBTQIQ..XYZ.
Coolmama– I lost my virginity in Iowa City (actually in Coralville). Have you seen it around?
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith WSG: Nothing is so conductive to toleration as the knowledge that one’s bread depends upon it.
Why, yes, Cat Pimp, I am in the Bay Area. You have definitely piqued my curiousity! The problem is, there are probably about a dozen or more of our wedding guests that could easily be considered “cat pimps.” Any chance of another hint? Were you with the bride’s side, or the bride’s?
“Are you with the gride — PTOO! — or the broom?”
Nice reference to the Indelible Alison Bechdel, MC. I loved that cartoon about queer weddings!
yay! This bightened my day! Thank you 🙂
btw, for those who cant make it to London Pride tomorrow, next Saturday 7th is Bourne Free, if you’re in the Bournemouth area at all…
London Pride was the wettest since 1988. My shoes were too full of water at the end to go looking for all the continuing groovy clubbing around Soho, but at least I should get my photos edited for monday now. There are so few banners these days apart from corporate and trade union ones. Maybe because there are so few local groups, I guess. The only ones that made me laugh were a bunch of wild women with placards saying – Femme Invisibilty: So Last Year.
I wasn’t going to go to London Pride when I saw the weather – but there were 3 bomb scares and I couldn’t bear to let anyone think I could be put off by terrorists. I went with a couple of other lesbian families and the children had a whale of a time. Pity there wasn’t an organised children’s section, but we’re planning to organise one for next year.
RachelB, maybe I have your picture. I was the wet photographer who would have asked nicely, I prefer to ask if it’s ok to take pics if children are involved.
what do we want?
A NEW CHANT!!!
when do we want it?
NOW!!!
hey, hey, ho, ho, all bad chants have got to go.
There’s an article on the front page of last week’s Washington Blade about Pride and its relevancy…I wonder if they’ll be accused of printing “post gay pablum.” The Post, meanwhile, did an entire spread on how Pride in DC is so necessary for people who live in rural areas. And I find myself conflicted: not even out 15 years and Pride is all corporate and “the community” does nothing but seek assimilation (when did being queer automatically mean you were a Borg?) yet, I can see where it would be like a beacon for someone living isolated in a small town.
What strikes me most about the ‘toon: how much the drawing style has changed. I’m loving learning the visual evolution of Mo and company!
PamI. No-one asked if they could take our pic, so I suspect you didn’t take one. What a shame! Our youngsters were all very young, so we were watching from the lower bit of Regent Street, rather than marching. (First time I’ve ever seen the floats.)
Seems there are a few DTWOF fans from the Smoke – enough for a chapter of the fan club?
I still hold out hope that when Mo dumps Sydney, she’ll hook back up with Harriet and discover her inner suburbanite. 🙂
noooooooooooooo!!!
progressive implies progress, yes?
I think pride is definately still needed. This year I went to St Louis, my first pride. It was so exciting. I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, having an enviornment like that which celebrates something I am made to feel like a freak about in my own community is great. Just being normal for a weekend was worth everything, even the long and taxing drive.
“Relevant” and “needed” are two very different things. I don’t think Pride is either one, myself — they’re rather restricted domains — but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, or that it shouldn’t happen. Why not have Pride marches and celebrations, not because they’re “relevant” (so early 60s!) or “needed” but because they’re fun?
Of course I’m not so sure they are necessarily fun either. I’ve never been in a big march (the biggest Pride march I’ve joined was maybe a dozen people), and they look like frat parties to me. Not my style. But if the people in them are having fun, why not?
bre, I “feel like a freak in my own community” — the gay community, but the last thing I’m interested in is feeling “normal,” which I’m not, in so many ways; and I doubt I’d feel “normal” in a big Pride march even if they weren’t so commercialized. But I understand what you mean, I think. (If I sound like I’m trying to rain on your parade, I’m not — just feeling Mo-ish, as usual. While looking for the strip where she annoys Madwimmin’s intern Sophie by being less than excited by the Millennium March, I found No. 300, on the murder of Matthew Shepard: “Sophie, I’ve been filled with rage since you were a twinkle in your sperm donor’s eye.”
The “Gay and lesbian Catholic martyrs–soon to be saints” sign is fantastic. 🙂
I went to my first Pride 5 years ago !! and would say that one’s first march will (almost certainly) be memorable. it makes you feel “normal,” it gives you a chance to be visible with “your people,” and for so many other reasons.
I will always remember the feeling of numbness that came over me when marching past the hateful Christians with my first gf. the recognition that straight people aren’t vilified in this way because of their sexuality was equally numbing. made me sad that as an “ally” I’d never gone to watch the parade, had never been there to support folks during what can be a harrowing experience.
subsequent Prides haven’t been so powerful for me. I had fun, though, the year a group of us stood across High Street from the hate contingent to hold signs saying “God Loves You” and hug marchers who were so happy to see welcoming faces and open arms. I may be overly sentimental, but it just felt good.
most people don’t hate us, but those who do are pretty virulent . . . and too many who don’t are lax about showing their support. I know too well how easy it is to say “not my problem.”
I suppose that Pride Parades serve different needs at different times. I used to regularly make the pilgrimage from Boulder to Denver for the parade and subsequent rally and fair. Eventually, I got tired of the crowds and port-a-potties and corporate emphasis, the drag show entertainment under the hot sun, the honorable yet predictable non-profit groups filling the booths asking for money.
Yet I know that for many, many people, all of the above would be exhilarating. Maybe because those folks are more newly-out or a loved one is, maybe because they are more social than me, or love a good party and lots of cold beer, or have plenty of money to spend on rainbow items or one more T-shirt, or live just blocks from the action. Or they have to travel 100 miles from Kansas, Utah, or Wyoming, where they live much harder, much more closeted lives than I. They appreciate it in a way I no longer do.
Now, three years ago, Boulder hosted a half-block Pride Parade. Despite its short length and limited participation (about 25 people marching and 125 watching) it pretty much encompassed, in a very, very concentrated manner, all the themes and goals of the corporate parade. A total hoot. Very down home and entirely uplifting.
I attended my city’s pride for the first time in 1998, the year I came out, and haven’t missed a single one since! This year they almost cancelled it — the group that organizes it had dumped it — and at the last minute a new group formed to take it up. Here’s hoping it goes off as it should!
Ellen Orleans, your description of the Boulder Pride parade reminds me of the Dooh Dah parade held July 4th each year here in Columbus. it’s not gay, per se, but is progressively irreverent and totally non-corporate.
Columbus’s Pride originates at ComFest (“Community Festival”) a hippie festival that, 30 years later, is still totally non-corporate. This year’s theme was “No Planet, No Party!” Pride itself, held downtown, has its corporate sponsors and all that stuff, but its association with ComFest makes it special — for me, at least.
I can see that the distance traveled can have a lot to do with one’s experience of Pride as enjoyable or something of a burden.
Pam I
Interestingly, someone was selling the most fab masks at the post parade pride party. I felt sick with anxiety before heading out to the big do, but running into old friends, beloved elders, new babies and puppies, PFLAG, and the like made it worth it. One small drama happened, but not to the extent I had imagined it! Plus, it was very cool to hang out with the new gf and kinda reclaim new traditions for pride. Thanks for your kind words.
Brazenfemme, there, you see, you did it. A lesson to all other hoverers. Glad it went OK.
Hey,
The Batucada Belles [and you spelled it right!] are celebrating the 25 anniversary this year. We need women drummers for social Justice events. We are recruiting a diverse group of women and we rehearse in cambridge MA on the charles river in cambridge at magazine beach, and we offer free drumming workshops atthe womens center.
Come join us to get that great feeling of women energy again.
We will be playing at the peace rally in Maine this weekend!
http://batucadabelles.com
Jan