- Zoey: I’d like to register for the county championships. But for the men’s competition! I need a new challenge!
- Official: Naturally, only men may be admitted to the men’s competition.
- Zoey: Did you just assume my gender?!
- Official: Of course not, for Twitter’s sake!
- Official: … Date of birth?
- Zoey: 1 January 1970.
|
I am disappointed… why not 1.1.1900? 😀
OK, I understand sex/gender joke. But, why Zoey say she is 50 years old?
@ Hegel Marx:
It’s the sound of a tennis ball hitting a tennis racquet: “epoch!” “epoch”!
The unix epoch is a nice enough default – but John and Jane Doe surely don‘t cut it anymore these days. How‘d one gender these in full pc-ness!?
The last panel is the most european this comic has ever been.
@ Hegel Marx:
Not sure. I think she’s saying the date of her birth was either the dawn of a new era – or “epic”. That particular date is famous in nerd land as epoch – the start date of unix computer systems. Or maybe it’s bending unix to be unich, a person with a kind of undetermined sexuality. I suppose the entire joke is a bit… ambiguous.
Is like a genderbent South Park’s Strong Woman Competicion… Sweet!
Hegel Marx wrote:
In line of the gender joke, 1 january 1970 is one of those standard dates of birth you use when you just leave a date picker to its default. A lot of those default to 1 jan 1970.
The man’s exclamation in the second panel would make more sense as “for Tumblr’s sake.” It’s that social media service, not Twitter, which has been associated with overzealous people on the left. Twitter, in contrast, has I’d say a roughly equal proportion of overzealous righties and lefties.
Bear in mind that the world’s best-known frequent Tweeter is about as right-leaning as you can get without falling into the Atlantic.
Does she plan on playing seniors?
I like the explanation regarding leaving the date field to default, but I was thinking maybe she wants to compete against adult males, to provide an even bigger challenge.
@ Alice Macher:It’s not the users of Twitter so much as who uses it to “cancel” people.
Jan 1 1970 is the beginning of the time epoch (i.e. the time is equal to 0) for Unix timestamps. I sense a division by zero coming!
@Novil: Being set in the United States, she would have said “January 1, 1970”.
I get the reference to the epoch, but I don’t know what Zoe is planning, or if indeed this is anything more than a nonsensical joke for IT nerds.
She could also declare her name is “Zoe’); DROP TABLE Students; –“
Clever gir-…individual of indistinguishable age and species…..
Nachum wrote:
well El Aynaoui at 45 beat a 23 year old made him the oldest player to currently have an ATP ranking. he is still active however was not the oldest active player to play proffesionally.
Martina Navratilova was almost 50 when she won a mixed doubles us open, making her the oldest tennis player in history to win a major title, and she was the second oldest pro. its rare to be above 35 and still a winning and active pro but it is possible. the average age of the top ten is in the mid to late 20s but they can still be challenged and possibly even beat by a select few pros in their 40’s.
@ B Hetrick:
That is a brilliant pun. Bravo!
Ferret Williams wrote:
Being set in the United States, it would be 31 December 1969 because of time zones. Zoey wants a challenge, so s/he’s going big endian. xD
Actually men’s sports don’t usually say women can’t play. It’s female sports that say men can’t play. Because most women physically can’t compete against men, so female sports are allowed to discriminate against men. But for the same reason, male athletes don’t feel physically threatened by females, so have no reason to exclude females or children from competing in male focused competitions.
I didn’t catch the epoch reference. I just assumed that playing in the 50+ Men’s bracket was a reference to Riggs vs Court, the so called “Battle of the Sexes”.
Hegel Marx wrote:
If she can choose her gender, why can’t she choose her age?
Oh yeah because all trans people are just liars and untrustworthy. This is also something that trans people say unironically. I am laughing so so hard. /s
Fuck all the way off. I’ve never heard of this ever happening in reality, and you’re an asshole for spreading this false narrative.
I miss when this comic was about a raccoon and his human, not politics. Having a message is fine, every piece of media has a message, but this kind of joke is clearly targeted at a vulnerable minority, and designed to be insulting.
And yeah, I am “butthurt” about it or whatever stupid thing you’re about to say about me getting mad about it. This is worth getting mad about. Not caring doesn’t make you right.
@ TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain:
I agree with thewhalers. Punching down is not funny. Non-binary, trans, and gay people are still being fired, evicted, and sometimes even killed in America. (Sometimes by their parents and churches.) It is about to get far worse with Trump’s new ultra-right-wing Supreme Court. And the president just called for his neo-Nazi supporters to “stand by” so they are organizing and arming, recruiting and planning.
It’s a really bad time to be making these tone-deaf jokes.
@ TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain:
This joke is not meant to “punch down” anybody. Sometimes a joke is just that: a joke. When did people become so easily offended anyway? You can’t say anything without somebody screaming about being offended.
@ TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain:
Er, you never heard about MTF-trans athletes using their gender to took advantage over female competitors?
@ TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain:
Agreed.
@ Brotlov:
Offensiveness is a red herring. Cultural violence is where the meat is at.
TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain wrote:
JK Rowling is just being attacked because she said she wants to be addressed as a woman, not as a ‘human with uterus’. There are even guys burning her books live on Twitter :O
It’s pure and simple hatred for people who do not even hold conservative, but just natural scientific views. Already the mere experimental result that sex is determined by genes on xy chromosomes is ‘offending’ their ideology, because it proves it wrong.
These guys are purely ideological and do not care the least about transsexuals. If they were interested in such things, they would never protest Rowling – or western countries for that matter – at all. They would be out in the streets protesting countries where homosexuals are being murdered and persecuted.
Hey.
This makes fun of the issues that arise from the fact that society is not prepared to handle Trans rights.
Not trans people. The type who would punch down don’t include smart, capable bisexuals in their comics.
Think deeper and don’t presume you are under attack. That’s the “Good Will Hunting” error; presuming that everyone will attack you and therefore winding up as the ass who attacks everyone else, even down to their loved ones eventually.
Beware that toxic feedback loop. Average cisgendered people also have to deal with toxicity for whatever their unusual bits are too; they just aren’t usually as pronounced (but some oddities are actually worse than the sexual/gendered ones as you get no sympathy and are hated for what is not your fault by people you are actually trying to compliment) parenthetical said with context of trans lgbtq etc friends who have pointed this out- that some things are worse than lgbtq struggles as they at least have a community. My issue makes you alone until you deal with it.
Doesnt matter what color or biological sex you are or how you interpret it, my condition will garner hate and being generally ostracized.
You have to roll with the punches and meet the people who will keep a warm moist towel and a raw steak ready for you. Because short of genocide followed by constant infanticide/idealistic killing, the assholes are never going away. So the best thing to do is to properly parse your friends from your acquaintances from your enemies.
TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain wrote:
No one said anything like that. How you interpret the media is your prerogative… but it is still YOUR interpretation. Novil/the comic isn’t making a jab at any minority groups. Zoe’s imperious or “spoiled brat” personality was well established before we found out she was interested in other girls.
This is a strip about an entitled brat using whatever tools she has at her disposal to get what she wants — if that means utilizing SJW hysteria she will do so. Zoe, the character, doesnt give two rips about what she is saying… only the effect those words will have and what they will get her.
I’m sorry that you are unable to see characters for who they are beyond what minority checklist they are from. The strip in no way implies that ALL trans/gay people are petulant liars, it simply is showing that ZOE is… if you cannot understand that then perhaps you should try reading less into media…
You also shut down conversation by labeling anyone with a different opinion as not caring about LGBTQ+ rights, which is unfair, unreasonable and explicitly against your goals of improving things for trans people… plenty of people care dor others, including LGBTQ+ minorities. The fact that america is majorly divided and a terrible place for LGBTQ+ people doesnt mean that other areas do not have a better situation for these minorities or that there is no joking about LGBTQ+ matters…
@ Drakeye:
Yeah, but in general, younger people do better against older people.
@ TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain:
Really? You’ve never heard of it? It’s been in the news a lot lately.
@ VP:
Wow, you’ve got all the (incorrect) memes down pat, don’t you?
I’ve been reading this comic for years and I’m pretty disappointed by this lazy joke. Not only is it invalidating trans people’s experiences, it’s also just… not funny? I get humour is subjective but I can’t imagine anything funny about “Did you just assume my gender?”. Plus, the use of that question is rooted in transphobia and inevitably results in people fighting over their beliefs wherever it shows up, so why bother putting that in your comic for a lame joke? Idk, I’m kinda sad about this. I really liked the comic so far but this really isn’t ok.
Cheesecakes wrote:
By the way, the joke, as usual, is in the last panel.The “Did you just assume my gender?” line is the setup for the joke.
@ Alice Macher:
Tumblr is kind of dead and everyone moved onto Twitter now so…
I see people get pretty fired up at what they think may or may not be the joke. I can’t even tell what is supposed to be the joke, so I can’t really comment on that, but I’d rather people didn’t start flaming each other so easily over their differences.
Kuraimizu’s right: Nobody bars women from men’s competitions, there wouldn’t be a point, except maybe safety issues in some sports. Tennis wouldn’t be one of those, though.
The truth is, women just aren’t competitive in most men’s sports, for purely biological reasons. I hope Zoey learning that is handled in a funny way.
@ TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain:
Yeah, this was a cruel and unpleasant “joke”. I miss the days when Sandra and Woo was about showing the best in people. Dumping on LGBT people hardly qualifies as the best in people.
And here in the comments we have people acting like triggered snowflakes in response to Zoe invoking the fear of triggering snowflakes in the registration official.
@ InDefenseofNovil:
“This makes fun of the issues that arise from the fact that society is not prepared to handle Trans rights.”
Society is prepared to handle trans rights. The real question is, what are those rights? Not automatically anything they demand, obviously: That would be superiority, not equality.
The point to remember is, the right to do and say what you want doesn’t imply the right that others do and say what you want. The trans rights movement hasn’t yet figured that out, it’s a hard thing to accept, when you’re fighting for your rights, that others have rights, too.
It’s that…every time I’ve heard “did you just assume my gender?” it has always been some right-wing person/site thinking they’re making a clever parody of trans/nb/etc’s expectations to be treated seriously.
I know a lot of trans/nb/gender fluid people and in the very few occasions I have used an incorrect term or pronoun, I have, without exception, been politely and civilly asked to use something. And I’m happy to do that because I see no value in deliberately provoking someone or being dismissive. I know I would find it rude if someone thought they knew my own thoughts and self identity better than I did.
Ratfox wrote:
Ah, I see we have another Xkcd fan among us 🙂
“Oh yes, little Zoe Tables, we call her.” (#327)
@ TheWhalersNotTheCoffeeChain:
She’s not trans, she’s an opportunist using trans as a shield to get whatever she wants without consequence. Given Zoey’s previously displayed personality, I fully expect her to claim to be black.
Opportunists who take advantage of people to get stuff, do exist.
Um, you do realize that men’s tennis is actually less challenging? As far as I know. I know some people like to talk big game on how they’d win against Serena Williams, but Zoey might just be up for a disappointment.
Would be funny if that was the plot twist… but would Novil dare to write it? It could be just enough to put him in the sights of the OTHER cancel brigade.
Dilandu wrote:
Male-to-female mixed martial artist Fallon Fox did a whole lot of “punching down” in the course of his/her career — for example in this fight against Tamikka Brents, in which Tamikka suffered a concussion and an orbital bone fracture:
Really, this whole “punching down” trope is nothing more than a demand that certain groups must be considered off limits when it comes to criticism.
For anyone confused: Zoey pretending to be trans is NOT a statement on trans people, or society in general.
Her saying THE catchphrase, and the guy immediately shrinking in terror like he’s about to be run over by the Down With Cis bus? THAT, right here, is a political statement. The only reason why the guy acts like that, and the reason why Zoey could reliably EXPECT him to act like that, is because in this comic’s alternate universe, All Shall Bow Down To The Big Brother SJW Status Quo. Of course, for some people the real world seems exactly like that, so it might be hard to discern.
Charlie wrote:
Given that this is a comic where little girls fabricate pet black holes, having Zoey win the men’s tournament would be too easy. Personally I’m hoping the twist is that she gets clobbered.
A brilliant statement on the current state of society.