And she comes in to class a bit late. Not many pages ago, we saw a still pajama'd Rain who hadn't done her makeup or hair yet, and was trying to get out of coming to school altogether today. Although talked into going, they would naturally be a little behind schedule.
I know most readers probably wanted to see the reactions of her friends and plot-relevant classmates, but her running late allowed the opportunity for this scene, which I felt was potentially more impacting. Walking in late puts everyone's eyes on her. Most of the class (Brother Arthur included) don't recognize her right away. The peanut gallery murmurs about what they're seeing as she walks to her seat that's closer to the back of the class. She hears them whisper, but thanks to her shyness doesn't respond. Awwwwwwkwaaaaard...
On the plus side, the commentary's not as bad as it could be. It's technically not ideal (and it escalates pretty quickly), but they really could be saying far worse things. I guess she has only been there like thirty seconds though.
But what are your thoughts? Are initial reactions better or worse than you expected? Can Rain work with this, or does this have the potential to explode into something more? And I wonder which classmate will be the first to approach her.
My imediate thought when I read that was "Wow I had no idea Rain's class was where all the Anons from Tumblr hang out." It's like a snapshot of every tumblr response possible
Well, that could have gone worse. While people thinking she's gay isn't the best thing, the fact that the Strongwell kids haven't been thrown out is testament that Rain can survive those sorts of whispers. Though Brother Arthur gave all those kids two seconds to whisper for every half second I would have tolerated.
Honestly, it's a lot worse than I expected. Maybe it's just a different culture (I know that the US is, generally speaking, a ~lot~ more conservative than most of the English-speaking world, save maybe Northern Ireland & Australia; certainly the kind of conservative & fundamentalist Christianity I hear about as being mainstream in the States is pretty far from all but the most conservative Denominations which I'm used to here in NZ), but I honestly have never heard of anybody below the age of, say, 50, actually thinking that homosexuality was something you can "catch"--I honestly thought it was a joke people made about homophobes o.O And I've honestly never heard of people equating the pixie cut with a "d***y" hairstyle--if anything, I'm used to it being gushed over as being cute and feminine (eg, Jenifer Lawrance, Emma Watson, Anne Hathaway, etc). So yeah, I really didn't expect it to go this bad… I don't think I've ever gotten such major culture shock from "Rain" before! :-P
The conservative fundamentalist deal is more of a bible belt thing. I have never heard of anyone thinking you can catch gay. This is a comic set in it's own universe. Not saying that so attitudes aren't a problem, but fundies aren't exactly main stream in most of the country.
While it's true that that sort of commentary is more common in the Bible Belt, she does attend a Catholic school. My (Catholic) middle school
classmates had a very similar reaction to my friend cutting her hair. She was neither gay nor trans, but in their minds short hair=lesbian.
Well being in a public school being associated with LGBTQ classmates could get you targeted as gay. Even if you are straight (or in my case didn't realize it). I'd wager that is more of what is going on.
At least from where I lived I don't think you'd see much of any difference in the student body at the catholic school. At some of the fundamentalist schools it might be different.
Unlike most people hanging out in the closet, I've gone out of my way to talk to homophobes, transphobes, and other such ilk, specifically about LGBTQQAIPK stuff. And I've talked to a disturbingly large number of them who seemed to think that one could catch the gay.
Just stating that opinion would not be nearly enough for me to come to this conclusion, but I was also around these people, got to see how they acted, where they let their eyes rest. When they were in a room with a beautiful woman and a handsome man and they weren't the center of attention, where did their eyes go?
It's my assessment that something like 90% of the people I've talked to who seemed to think one could catch the gay is at least bisexual, though many are probably gay. Note that I didn't keep scientific records and I'm sure I haven't found a statistically significant number of them, so my numbers are probably not the actual population average, and even if they were, your personal experiences are likely to not match exactly.
I did notice that at lest one of her classmates thought the new hairstyle was "Hot" and that has to mean that all the reaction isn't bad. I think most of the issues are that she feels insecure with it.
I don't think it's really bad. This page is like "Squeak" (http://rain.thecomicseries.com/comics/11/), things will be annoying for a short time, but her classmates won't care for long. ^^
It's sad that Rain doesn't really appreciate her femininity, and that the long hair means that much to her presentation and her identity. I mean, looking at her she still definitely looks feminine and passes 100%, even with a 'dikey' cut.
But I guess it's easy to succumb to self doubts under the tide of ignorance of her classmates and it takes time for any change to digest, however big or small.
I hope she won't mope around for long but say something along the lines of donating her hair so the douches lay off her back. I also hope something positive happens to reaffirm her femininity. That would be good.
More weird name coincidences. My name is Kellan (as stated before) and my girlfriend's name is Emily. So, yea. I think that the naming is awesome, Jocelyn. Thanks.
Aww, poor Rain...imho she didn't need to hear all that when she was already beyond concerned with how she's going to be received...but at least her gender doesn't come into question, fortunately...
classmates had a very similar reaction to my friend cutting her hair. She was neither gay nor trans, but in their minds short hair=lesbian.
At least from where I lived I don't think you'd see much of any difference in the student body at the catholic school. At some of the fundamentalist schools it might be different.
Just stating that opinion would not be nearly enough for me to come to this conclusion, but I was also around these people, got to see how they acted, where they let their eyes rest. When they were in a room with a beautiful woman and a handsome man and they weren't the center of attention, where did their eyes go?
It's my assessment that something like 90% of the people I've talked to who seemed to think one could catch the gay is at least bisexual, though many are probably gay. Note that I didn't keep scientific records and I'm sure I haven't found a statistically significant number of them, so my numbers are probably not the actual population average, and even if they were, your personal experiences are likely to not match exactly.
"Did she always have two eyes" -> NO.
But I guess it's easy to succumb to self doubts under the tide of ignorance of her classmates and it takes time for any change to digest, however big or small.
I hope she won't mope around for long but say something along the lines of donating her hair so the douches lay off her back. I also hope something positive happens to reaffirm her femininity. That would be good.
Its official - Kellily is the hot new ship.
Whoever said that is now my favourite character.
"Dude what?"
LOL!! :( Poor Rain. *hugs*