Sinfest is for TERFS
Do you think Sinfest will explore transgender issues? I know there’s a “trans state” but so far no actual stated transgender characters have showed as far as i know.
Ha! No!
![](http://65.media.tumblr.com/2c3e27e33503cc818a57481fbf8fcfc0/tumblr_inline_o8hn5yLHXS1r8fbhx_540.png)
This is a comic with a gay dude who exists for homophobic jokes and where “men do unmasculine things” is used for comedy value (Vainglorious is entirely gendered comedy about a man who cares about fashion and art haha how hilarious).
And when you have a character who’s entire character is “gay” and his purpose in life is “gay jokes” in a comic entirely about gender politics, then strips like this
![](http://67.media.tumblr.com/0bf1167a3dab523847d4de3b5cc50573/tumblr_inline_o8hn8ksYMq1r8fbhx_540.png)
Become kind of uncomfortable, what with that offhand “my hetero days” implying that Francis wasn’t gay before and then changed to being gay.
![](http://67.media.tumblr.com/ec3f72b8e24749a7cd69792d807ff916/tumblr_inline_o8hnfwuUby1r8fbhx_540.png)
”Ha ha”, says Tats, “look at this bad guy who likes My Little Pony what a queer!”
So Tat’s opinion of LGBT issues is…rather poor. Anyway, trans issues kind of fall under the banner of third-wave feminism (with its “intersectionality” themes), and we all know what Tats thinks of that:
![](http://66.media.tumblr.com/28ed85063c3c91ee0fa08ea45bfc3d64/tumblr_inline_o8hnl7HLjP1r8fbhx_540.png)
Tatsuya Ishida’s feminism is 1970s-style radfem, not modern feminism or even modern Tumblr-style feminism. He’s a homophobe and almost certainly a TERF. His feminism is gender existentialist in a way that modern feminism isn’t, and he has no room in his worldview for anyone who’s not cisgender.
Reading the newest arc… You called it.
=( So sad… I really liked that comic.
Yours is the most articulate, granular and concise analysis I’ve found, of the artistic tragedy that is Sinfest. I’ve been thinking heavily on it for quite a while, as the whole trans-exclusionary aspect of it crept in slowly, and I honestly had never heard of terfs before I began trying to sort out what the hell Ishida was trying to say. When it turned out that he’d decided to dedicate his life-long quest of daily webcomic publishing to… attacking trans people to excite his fan base, I was baffled. So much talent to waste on such an obviously faulty, hateful idea. I am coming around to pitying the poor man, as it seems that the hermit lifestyle he’s cultivated leaves him oblivious to the ongoing evolution of deeper human understanding. Anyhow- thank you for your thoughtful and interesting analysis.