Too funny. I love this comic. I’ve been reading for about a year, but this week I’ve been reading through the whole archive, starting from the beginning. So awesome.
I’m already a Patreon, er, patron, but I gotta know: WHEN are we going to get a Bug Book? I want Bug on my shelf!
I’m actually going through the strips that’ll be in book one and double-checking them for typos (boy howdy, there are a lot). After that I move on to assembling the book in InDesign – fingers crossed.
(BTW, stop drawing clever, minimalistic comic strips that make me laugh… and then think. Thinking takes time and then I have to write it all down. Seriously, a week of boobs, fart jokes and trite comments on current events would give me a breather. )
This is what you triggered:
I had a friend in college who was objectified by women all the time. He was 6’2″, blond hair, blue eyes, perfect teeth, and built-in golden tan. He was artist, a good one, and rode a motorcycle. He’d been a football star in high school. His hobby was weight lifting and he put himself through college working as a carpenter. He was intelligent, honest, geniune and he enjoyed talking and listening to people, especially women.
Men gravitated to him as well because he was a natural leader who automatically took charge in almost any situation, knew every team members name, strength, weaknesses and made sure everyone got taken care of while the job got done. He could have organized the terrified, hysterical survivors of a Zombie Apocalypse into a Wehrmacht regiment in an afternoon.
His one horrible cruelty was he like to play Dungeons and Dragons with us science uber-geeks, so we had had to watch women from ages 13 to 60 throw themselves at him. The contrast could not have been greater. We were glad if we got “A” girlfriend while he had to dodge more women than all our girl friends combined just to get to and from the Quickymart. If he hadn’t been such a great guy, we would have murdered him out of jealousy.
Most women hit on my friend based on their immediate physical impression of him, often without exchanging so much as a word with him. It was soon clear he was living in one of those “be careful what you wish for, you might get” moralistic tales.
He was just an object to them to the extent that they didn’t care if he already in a relationship, on his way to work or an exam, wanted by the FBI etc they just kept hitting on him. He commented that gay men were far more respectful of his polite (and highly practices) turn downs than women, who often acted morally offended. (The prettier the girl, the more outraged they became, as if they had the right to bang the guy they selected. )
It was hard for him to have a permanent relationship because any steady girl friend, no matter how much he cared for or how faithful he remained, because even the least jealous woman would be eventually driven to jealous paranoia by the watching temptation being thrown into my friend face time and time again.
He would be standing their with his obvious girl friend and a woman or a group of women would come up and start hitting on him hard an just utterly ignoring his girl friend. He really couldn’t protect from the pain that caused and that troubled him. Eventually the poor girl would just breakdown in twitches and turn her anger on my friend.
He did find a girl who solved the problem rather elegantly but this is family friendly strip, so I wont say more. They were together for a long time.
Still the constant objectification made it hard for him to really develop a deep relationship. He had to struggle himself not turn into a shallow entitled jerk who took people for granted. When relationships are just handed to you on a silver plate, it’s hard to keep remembering that you have to work for the real relationships. When you can just literally walk out the door and pick up a new girl friend or even guy friend, it take discipline to put up with the usually slings and arrows of ordinary relationships. One of mutual friend said, “It’s like he’s rich enough to buy an entire new car whenever his current car gets a flat but he insist on driving the same beater for ten years.”
He often felt lonely because so many gravitated him purely for superficial reasons. I think he might of hung around with us geeks because we were all initially actively scornful of the “pretty boy jock” and he had to prove his geek creds before we would accept him. It might have been the one social area were his natural beauty and genuine charm worked against him.
I learned watching my friend that the problem with objectification is not that it makes people objects in the sense of a inanimate lump of matter. The problem is that it makes the targeted person an OBJECTIVE, something obtained after a consciously planned series of actions. When we make someone the objective of our desires, we don’t care about them or what they want. We think of them in terms of what they can do for us, not for what we can for them or what we could do together.
To make another person an objective, is selfish, and selfishness is the first foot fall of the march to evil.
Me too, with the TLDR thing. The vindictive part of me says, “Hah! See how YOU like it!” but the nicer side of me says, “I feel your pain, and I’m sorry you have to go through that.”
And then the not-so-family-friendly part of me says, “I wouldn’t mind having a woman objectify me. And yes, I’ve done the go-go dancer thing” 🙂
That was an interesting read. Earlier today I actually saw a couple good-looking guys, and I instantly objectified them. Not just “hey they’re cute”, but “I wonder what the rest of them looks like?”. I justified it, by thinking, well I’m a girl it doesn’t count. But I knew it was wrong anyway.
Although all generalizations have their exceptions, have you noticed that the Uber-good-looking generally have crappy personalities? Again, NOT ALL OF THEM, so no trolling here. Just saying, I’ve noticed this in many instances. Things come easier to good looking people, but they don’t always notice it. It’s just…the way things are for them. It’s “the norm” in their experience, nothing unusual about it.
For those of us…say, LESS than good-looking folks…we have to work harder for things. I’m not talking about our actual jobs, although things can be much easier for the good looking there as well, but I’m talking about how people treat them vs. an average-looking-Joe/Jane.
Our whole society treats looks, youth, etc. as the pinnacle to which we all aspire. Thus so many celebs (and others as well) have plastic surgery. It’s sad, really. Here it all is, summed up in one short video from Craig Ferguson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKUZ42T9diU
Kinky go-go dancer bug has got be the funniest of all bugs.
The question is not really IF you objectify women, but rather if you objectify them at the RIGHT moment.
And if you are handsome and/or wealthy.
How about a roller coaster? That’s neither sexy nor boring?
I wouldn’t mind being objectified as a roller coaster. Hop on, ladies, and enjoy a wild ride!
LMAO *like*
Your title at first had me thinking that it was about Shatner playing a trial lawyer.
That, wasn’t,, verynice!
Aw… man up!! Do you want her to buy you flowers and a puppy too? Okay… so that actually might be nice too.
Too funny. I love this comic. I’ve been reading for about a year, but this week I’ve been reading through the whole archive, starting from the beginning. So awesome.
I’m already a Patreon, er, patron, but I gotta know: WHEN are we going to get a Bug Book? I want Bug on my shelf!
Thank you so much!
I’m actually going through the strips that’ll be in book one and double-checking them for typos (boy howdy, there are a lot). After that I move on to assembling the book in InDesign – fingers crossed.
I thought that all your loyal readers/unpaid interns would have caught all those typos, already. 🙂
Technically, panel 3 shows Side Table Bug, not Drink Coaster Bug. To be Drink Coaster Bug, he’d have to be protecting a wood table from water damage.
(BTW, stop drawing clever, minimalistic comic strips that make me laugh… and then think. Thinking takes time and then I have to write it all down. Seriously, a week of boobs, fart jokes and trite comments on current events would give me a breather. )
This is what you triggered:
I had a friend in college who was objectified by women all the time. He was 6’2″, blond hair, blue eyes, perfect teeth, and built-in golden tan. He was artist, a good one, and rode a motorcycle. He’d been a football star in high school. His hobby was weight lifting and he put himself through college working as a carpenter. He was intelligent, honest, geniune and he enjoyed talking and listening to people, especially women.
Men gravitated to him as well because he was a natural leader who automatically took charge in almost any situation, knew every team members name, strength, weaknesses and made sure everyone got taken care of while the job got done. He could have organized the terrified, hysterical survivors of a Zombie Apocalypse into a Wehrmacht regiment in an afternoon.
His one horrible cruelty was he like to play Dungeons and Dragons with us science uber-geeks, so we had had to watch women from ages 13 to 60 throw themselves at him. The contrast could not have been greater. We were glad if we got “A” girlfriend while he had to dodge more women than all our girl friends combined just to get to and from the Quickymart. If he hadn’t been such a great guy, we would have murdered him out of jealousy.
Most women hit on my friend based on their immediate physical impression of him, often without exchanging so much as a word with him. It was soon clear he was living in one of those “be careful what you wish for, you might get” moralistic tales.
He was just an object to them to the extent that they didn’t care if he already in a relationship, on his way to work or an exam, wanted by the FBI etc they just kept hitting on him. He commented that gay men were far more respectful of his polite (and highly practices) turn downs than women, who often acted morally offended. (The prettier the girl, the more outraged they became, as if they had the right to bang the guy they selected. )
It was hard for him to have a permanent relationship because any steady girl friend, no matter how much he cared for or how faithful he remained, because even the least jealous woman would be eventually driven to jealous paranoia by the watching temptation being thrown into my friend face time and time again.
He would be standing their with his obvious girl friend and a woman or a group of women would come up and start hitting on him hard an just utterly ignoring his girl friend. He really couldn’t protect from the pain that caused and that troubled him. Eventually the poor girl would just breakdown in twitches and turn her anger on my friend.
He did find a girl who solved the problem rather elegantly but this is family friendly strip, so I wont say more. They were together for a long time.
Still the constant objectification made it hard for him to really develop a deep relationship. He had to struggle himself not turn into a shallow entitled jerk who took people for granted. When relationships are just handed to you on a silver plate, it’s hard to keep remembering that you have to work for the real relationships. When you can just literally walk out the door and pick up a new girl friend or even guy friend, it take discipline to put up with the usually slings and arrows of ordinary relationships. One of mutual friend said, “It’s like he’s rich enough to buy an entire new car whenever his current car gets a flat but he insist on driving the same beater for ten years.”
He often felt lonely because so many gravitated him purely for superficial reasons. I think he might of hung around with us geeks because we were all initially actively scornful of the “pretty boy jock” and he had to prove his geek creds before we would accept him. It might have been the one social area were his natural beauty and genuine charm worked against him.
I learned watching my friend that the problem with objectification is not that it makes people objects in the sense of a inanimate lump of matter. The problem is that it makes the targeted person an OBJECTIVE, something obtained after a consciously planned series of actions. When we make someone the objective of our desires, we don’t care about them or what they want. We think of them in terms of what they can do for us, not for what we can for them or what we could do together.
To make another person an objective, is selfish, and selfishness is the first foot fall of the march to evil.
was gonna do the tldr but i didn’t. in fact i read the whole thing. actually an interesting story.
Me too, with the TLDR thing. The vindictive part of me says, “Hah! See how YOU like it!” but the nicer side of me says, “I feel your pain, and I’m sorry you have to go through that.”
And then the not-so-family-friendly part of me says, “I wouldn’t mind having a woman objectify me. And yes, I’ve done the go-go dancer thing” 🙂
That was an interesting read. Earlier today I actually saw a couple good-looking guys, and I instantly objectified them. Not just “hey they’re cute”, but “I wonder what the rest of them looks like?”. I justified it, by thinking, well I’m a girl it doesn’t count. But I knew it was wrong anyway.
Interesting, thanks for sharing 🙂
Men tend to creep me out, even though I’m not at all pretty. I feel sorry for good-looking people, really I do.
Anyone else immediately hear cheesy 70’s dance music in their head upon reading “Go-go dancer” and seeing Bug shake it?
Actually, i hear Gunther. It’s (really really) cheesy dance music, but from the 2k era…
The drink coaster panel is the best.
“Is dampness a super power?”
Although all generalizations have their exceptions, have you noticed that the Uber-good-looking generally have crappy personalities? Again, NOT ALL OF THEM, so no trolling here. Just saying, I’ve noticed this in many instances. Things come easier to good looking people, but they don’t always notice it. It’s just…the way things are for them. It’s “the norm” in their experience, nothing unusual about it.
For those of us…say, LESS than good-looking folks…we have to work harder for things. I’m not talking about our actual jobs, although things can be much easier for the good looking there as well, but I’m talking about how people treat them vs. an average-looking-Joe/Jane.
Our whole society treats looks, youth, etc. as the pinnacle to which we all aspire. Thus so many celebs (and others as well) have plastic surgery. It’s sad, really. Here it all is, summed up in one short video from Craig Ferguson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKUZ42T9diU
There’s something adorable about coaster Bug just sitting there compliantly.