Girly makes me uneasy.
Six comics in sexual harassment becomes a joke, in the form of an unwanted suitor who believes his penis is his only redeeming quality. The “joke� is reoccurring.
Girly makes me angry.
In the first part, the main plotline is both how Winter and Otra (“Girly�) come to be leader and sidekick, and then friends, and then lovers – as well as the downfall of El Chupacabre. Chupacabre is described as a lover, pleasurer, eater, and penetrater of women.
The first time a woman walked onscreen and then down a dark alley, I was expecting rape. Rape is defined as “sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female.� The woman was grabbed, and for all her scream of surprise or terror (most likely terror) turned into pleasure, as indicated by the hearts around the sound effect, it was rape.
Winter and Otra obviously don’t see it as a problem – they go after the elephants. The news doesn’t see it as a problem; Women being found naked runs as the secondary story.
I could dismiss this all as a satire if at the conclusion of the story the lesson didn’t fall so flat.
Winter says he’s been doing the right thing, in the wrong way. She proclaims that he has been practicing sexuality haphazardly, leading to guilt and resentment. But what about the common feeling of violation? Of shame? Of disbelief? Of fear and self-blame?
And then there is the statement that Chupacabre never attacked anyone. He was irresistible, and so they just submitted. Does this excuse him? Consider real life attacks – could a rapist claim that they just submitted? Could it be true? Would it make it any better?
Chupacabre was finally driven out of town by Winter and Otra. And I stopped reading.
The entire first part of this comic is a giant thumbs up to sexual harassment and rape. Joking about rape makes the act of rape a joke. Make a joke about murder, and you’re not likely to be patted on the back in the bar for doing it. Make a joke about rape, harassment, etc., and you may just be a local hero.
Or a webcomic creator successful enough to have a book published.