[1029] Dating Tips For Boys, Part 3 Of 4
└ posted on Thursday, 11 October 2018, by Novil
- Henry: I’m just too ugly to get a nice girlfriend.
- Cloud: Don’t say that. Girls don’t care as much about looks as boys do.
- Cloud: There are lots of things you can do to impress a girl. I’m sure there’s something you’re particularly good at.
- Henry: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…
- Henry: … No, I’m completely average in just about everything I do.
- Cloud: In that case…
- Cloud: Henry, meet Taylor. Taylor, meet Henry.
- Sign: Looking for: Spineless, malleable cluster of cells
- Taylor: Just what I was looking for!
- Henry: Didn’t you just say to avoid snippedy-snap girls at all–
- Cloud: See? Even ugly boys can be chased after by pretty girls!
he said all that, but beggars can’t be choosers
I’m starting to think that that theory that Tay is related to Larisa isn’t too farfetched.
It would surprise no one if it turned out that she raises jellyfish to harvest their poisons.
@ foducool:
Even beggars dont choose to commit suicide in 99,7 percent of cases…
Paeris Kiran wrote:
Like he said, beggars can’t be choosers.
>I’m too ugly to get a nice girlfriend
>that’s ok dude, girls don’t care about looks anyway
Cloud didn’t even try to deny it. Brutal.
tbh Cloud’s giving a lot of misleading advice over these strips. Very few girls want ugly, spineless boys as boyfriends.
At least he found something he’s good at – the 40-yard dash, Get him in pads and cleats, coach! 🏈
Calling it right now next clip ends with Larisa pulling off a cloud mask
The more we see of Taylor, the more I love her.
@ Brijeka Vervix:
While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, beholders really should have better things to do than ogle their peers.
That said, anyone can take the dominant position in their own relationship – so those who tend to do so can always choose a spineless mate, if they like.
Beast Mode Taylor.
I don’t think nameless kid can run fast enough.
This is FAR less useful than the girls tips.
I wounder if Talyor and is a certain programmer 😉
So we’ve seen the Horse Girl and Snippedy-Snap girl. Will the last comic feature the Gold-digger or the Drama Queen? Betting on a two-fer…
I-I didn’t even know Taylor could make that kind of expression!
Go Taylor go! Gotta catch that spineless, malleable cluster of cells…wait, aren’t lab cultured cells better suited after that definition?
@ MidoriLuna:
His name is clearly stated to be Henry lol
Then there are those of us who have warts growing on their eyelids. 😛 😛 😛
Look at Taylor go. That’s the most animated we’ve ever seen her.
Haven’t found my Taylor yet.
MidoriLuna wrote:
He does have a name…
Meh, that’s what I get for checking the tags but not the comic itself.
@ Half-life-Zim:
I’ll take that bet!
Taylor is emerging as a really fun character.
@ TachyonCode:
Yes girls can choose to go after an ugly spineless boy but why would they want to?
Actually, having just thought about it, one might want a spineless partner who can be easily bullied into doing what one wants (in which case I wouldn’t want to be such a boy) but I cannot think why one would go after an ugly person (excepting if they thought they weren’t ugly for whatever reason). However, as several boys in the previous comment section were so eager to point out (so we could so how woe-begotten they were 😛 ), this generally an uncommon exception to the norm.
Actually this strip is just wrong. Women value physical attractiveness *more* than men do; more accurately women are much harsher judges about it: 80% of men are considered “below average.” While men rated 50% of women below average.
So yeah, they may say they don’t care as much… but they have a far harsher “minimum value” for consideration.
@ Byzantine:
I think it’d be better to not take anything in these strips too seriously, especially since this strip somewhat contradicts last strip.
I have to say: Cloud’s really bad at this.
Byzantine wrote:
60% of the time, it works every time.
@ oledakaajel:
“The Nameless Kid” is his internet handle.
@brijeka vervix I don’t think Taylor is supposed to be representative of many girls here. As to the “why would a girl choose an ugly, spineless person with low self esteem,” I think it’s that they’re more likely to accept a relationship if offered since they probably don’t get a lot of opportunities (just an unfortunate fact of life that a lack of self confidence isolates you and deepens the issue) and would thus be more “tolerant” of an unfair/abusive relationship—they’d be more likely to blame themselves and have fears that are an easy target for manipulation. I think there are definitely people like that out there (the crazy ex is a stereotype/joke for a reason).
Ok, armchair theorizing time: As for why this stereotype is gendered (and it is, just like the wife beater is) it’s possible since women are less likely to be physically abusive (amended: noticeably physically abusive. According to an article I will link below, women are slightly more likely to be physically abusive, but less likely to inflict injury (I.e slapping their partner rather than punching). Page 6) the perpetrators don’t get ostracized/punished as often, and so fly under the radar, finding more victims. So this kind of thing crop up in our social consciousness more as stories of “the crazy girlfriend I once had” rather than “the monster who physically abused me and is now behind bars” (and I’m not saying one is equivalent to the other, I’m just trying to reason out why this stereotype exists. And I’m also not saying men can’t be emotionally abusive—that usually goes hand in hand with physical abuse—or that women can’t be physically abusive, I’m just stating that men are more likely to physically injure their partners).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3876290/#!po=10.9375
(I will admit I skimmed the article. It’s morbidly interesting but I’m procrastinating as is. Feel free to point out if I misinterpreted anything.)
@ Brijeka Vervix:
Going by final panel of this and the previous strip, I think the intended joke of this mini-arc is that Cloud is just genuinely bad at giving advice.
See, cloud’s friends think that because he had an immense amount of luck he is qualified to give advice, but because he has NO idea how that luck worked, he’s bluffing his way through it. So far, this is going a lot worse for them than it did for larissa’s friends.
Also interesting to note, Larissa actually gave really neutral advice that can be applied to relationships universally. Cloud is just using this as an opportunity to be judgemental….
Cloud found a thing Henry was good at, running.
Didn’t know Taylor bread was buttered that way, though.
Strider wrote:
It’ll be the drama queen, ’cause when it comes down to it, they’re ALL gold-diggers to some extent.
@ Thisguy:
I agree that tips for girls were far better. I wonder whether male writers like Novil are better at giving dating tips for girls than at giving dating tips for boys, or whether this story arc is just a big prank where each strip contradicts one tip of first one. We already have the horse girl and the snippedy-snap girl. Maybe tomorrow the drama queen.
I think Henry looks pretty cute, actually.
Personally, I tend to agree with the “better to stay single than get into a bad relationship.” And Henry said that he was too ugly to get a nice girlfriend. Taylor is not nice.
@ oledakaajel:
My head-canon is she is a “Larisa” from an alternate universe.
Byzantine wrote:
Those numbers were based on a single data pull from a dating website; not exactly a sound scientific study. Also, while it might be true that women view a smaller percentage of men as being attractive, they’re also more likely than men to place other factors above that.
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
Well, the actual advice is in the first two panels, the thing with Taylor is just the over the top joke. And I think he is right that girls are less fixated on physical attractiveness than boys commonly are, at least as long as the boy doesn’t look outright disgusting. Being nice, charming and confident and hopefully having some other quality that makes him interesting, like some special skills or common interest is at least as important if not more important than good looks. Being spineless and insecure on the other hand is, as you already stated, a huge turnoff for most girls. That’s likely where the false prejudice comes from that girls prefer bad boys / Machos over nice boys. Most girls don’t, they do want a boy who treats them nice and respects them, but he still has to be confident, not a wet handkerchief that curls up drooling at their feet. Unless the girl is a dominatrix and wants an obedient little boy-pet to tame, use and humiliate (which seems to be what Taylor wants here 😉 ).
Who… who said she was going to date him?
Byzantine wrote:
You understand the second clause does not support the first. They *judge* more harshly (according to this data point), but it says nothing about the importance of it to relationship decisions.
Many, if not most, successful relationships start out as friendships first, then progress to romantic interest. (Which is a good thing – when raising very small kids, romance takes quite the hit, but you want your best friend backing you up.)
And since very few of us choose our friends based on appearance, my experience is that for both men and women, appearance (within bounds), is nearly immaterial for forming long-term relationships.
What really matters is being someone that people think worth befriending, and truthfully, having interests that aren’t almost entirely male or female specific (the wider the pool of people you meet of the appropriate gender in a social setting, the better the odds of finding “the one”.)
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A person can be magnificently physically attractive but if they only care about a partner’s looks then why would I ever want to even be around them? Not just as a partner but even as a friend. I don’t tend to like shallow people.
For that matter, a person could be a beautiful coward, or a hideous hero. Basing such things on looks will only get you so far in life. After all, it’s only skin deep.
Calling anyone ugly is a judgement that one should consider also applies to the self.
Even spineless malleable cellular clusters have a purpose.
Also I’m beginning to thing that the gist of this particular arc is that you’re going to end up with all the girls you want to avoid anyway.
Is Cloud TRYING to be an asshole friend?”
I guess if the overarching joke of this whole sequence is that Cloud is terrible at giving dating advice, then that makes it a little better. Still doesn’t really excuse the outright sexism and complete misrepresentation of feminism in the first page, though.
I dunno, I’ve been liking Taylor so far. Seems like a fun person to be around. Although, that would probably disqualify me instantly from being her target.
You know, if you consider this sexist you should probably consider the earlier dating advice for
girls stips sexist too, as they played on the “men/boys can’t understand social cues” stereotype.