07-04-15 I have peeked at a few shows myself

[Spidrift]

Is that what she's purchasing? I thought "how much do you want for this" was the realization her guilty pleasure is known and there is no way of denying it so she is asking how much it will cost to keep Zii quiet.

I just can't see it that way, I'm afraid. Ruby was half-way through an "I'm not like that" speech when Zii showed her the phone. But that picture doesn't prove anything about Ruby being "like that"; it merely illustrates what Zii has already said about herself. Ruby could have ignored it and carried on with the denial if she'd wanted to. Likewise, "How much do you want for this?" is an offer to buy the thing in front of you; if she was trying to buy Zii's silence, she'd have said "How much do you want to keep quiet about all this?" or something.

And buying a copy of the picture off Zii is, in itself, a straightforward commercial transaction; paying Zii off from talking would make the whole thing into a case of blackmail (such an Ugly Word), which I'd not expect Ruby to go for so easily, if only because Zii could reasonably take offence at being called a blackmailer.

Taking pictures like this is one of Zii's and for that matter Dillon's less than endearing qualities so I really don't want her to use moral relativism to convince Ruby that there is nothing wrong with this.

That ship has sailed, I'm afraid. Ruby may not see it as spying, because it was more of a public scene, but she did sneak a peak at Dillon kissing Ray, then tried very hard to persuade them to repeat the scene despite Ray's evident discomfort, then kept saying that Ray should be kissing Dillon rather than Amber, again despite Ray's own preferences. And she put far too much effort into trying to work out how she could excuse damaging Dillon's book, contrary to her usual truthful nature.

I'm afraid that Ruby's hormones are being rather bad for her moral sense. Buying a digital photo that she ought to know is an invasion of someone's privacy is just another instance of this. She's nothing like as bad as Zii, and given the evident scale of the hormonal surge, and the fact that she's been repressing this stuff for years, I'm inclined to forgive her and reckon that she'll get back on more of a moral even keel when she unwinds a bit and finds a few outlets for her libido. But just now, well, she has swung to somewhere near Zii's position.

Maybe there was some subconscious desire or instinct to hide in the closet when Dillon and Jerzy were about to enter her room, but whereas Ruby feels guilty about getting a free yaoi show Zii would not if she were in her place.

Honestly, I think that Zii is overestimating Ruby's subconscious there; she just wasn't that aware of the situation when that scene started, and she really didn't enjoy it very much at the time. But that's just Zii sowing doubt in Ruby's opinion of herself; it doesn't have to be true, it just has to relate to the truth.

This is all supposed to be lighthearted, but I do wonder if there is more to this than respectability. There is an unfair double standard for women who enjoy the same kinds of pleasures men do and knowing that might be another justification for Ruby's repression.

Up to a point... Ruby clearly has some amazingly old-fashioned ideas (well, this is comedy), certainly including the idea that all men are obsessed with sex while almost all women have better things to do with their time - so I'm sure that she also thinks that "respectability" for a woman requires chastity and repression in a way that it might not for a man. But that's just general old-fashioned conventionality, not some kind of complex hang-up about being a girl.

She doesn't exactly seem to admire Dillon for his sexual activity, but then, to be fair to Ruby, she does seem to regard sexual morality as a personal matter. After her first few seconds of panic in the wardrobe, and aside from some weird attempts at doublethink in the restaurant, she's never set out to stop anyone else having sex; she just refuses to think that it makes them cool, or that she ought to join them.

This conversation takes place a few days before Zii's ill-fated clubbing with Gary and Yvan so it's possible Ruby made an impression on her. Ultimately she helped Gary out because of friendship, but there might have been some resemblance of guilt that aside from good looks, youth, and charm she has tendencies that make her too similar to someone like Yvan.

I think that's a bit subtle for Zii, frankly. Her objection to Yvan wasn't that he wanted sex, it was that he was so damn creepy, and her shoulder devil told her that with her sexual record, she couldn't exactly act the blushing virgin - but it never said "after all, you're just like him".

Zii might be capable of reviewing her life and trying to reorder her priorities, but she doesn't seem to be anywhere near that, here or in Ma3. At most, Ruby might argue the case for other things being more important than sex, well enough that Zii has to admit that things aren't always as simple as she wants them to be.

[wi1dfire]

I really like the way Minew is drawn in both the first and last panels. Aside from Ruby's facial expressions, Minew may be my favorite thing visually about the comic.

[brasca]

Taking pictures like this is one of Zii's and for that matter Dillon's less than endearing qualities so I really don't want her to use moral relativism to convince Ruby that there is nothing wrong with this.

That ship has sailed, I'm afraid. Ruby may not see it as spying, because it was more of a public scene, but she did sneak a peak at Dillon kissing Ray, then tried very hard to persuade them to repeat the scene despite Ray's evident discomfort, then kept saying that Ray should be kissing Dillon rather than Amber, again despite Ray's own preferences. And she put far too much effort into trying to work out how she could excuse damaging Dillon's book, contrary to her usual truthful nature.

I'm afraid that Ruby's hormones are being rather bad for her moral sense. Buying a digital photo that she ought to know is an invasion of someone's privacy is just another instance of this. She's nothing like as bad as Zii, and given the evident scale of the hormonal surge, and the fact that she's been repressing this stuff for years, I'm inclined to forgive her and reckon that she'll get back on more of a moral even keel when she unwinds a bit and finds a few outlets for her libido. But just now, well, she has swung to somewhere near Zii's position.

Perhaps when this coffee break is over Ruby will view yaoi as the safer alternative to voyeurism and hedonism. She would not be objectifying or exploiting anyone since it is fictional and drawn. Zii isn't a terrible person, but her choices are not without consequences that Ruby would prefer to avoid. If Ruby sees everything as a slippery slope then she will crack up at some point, but if she can embrace her yaoi and go no further she'll be fine.

[Spidrift]

She's already using yaoi as a safety valve, though she may not be consciously aware of the fact. Her libido has woken up and started kicking, and reading that stuff - and sneaking peaks at definitely-very-gay men - is a relatively consequence-free way of testing her own instincts. Thirteen-year-old girls going through this phase become fans of boy bands; as a twenty-something graduate, Ruby has to be a bit more cerebral about it.

But she's unlikely to stop there. She's a healthy young woman, and her libido is likely to start demanding more physical release soon. She may start by acquiring her own BOB, though of course that won't be the end of the story. Plus, Andy is still after her for that second date, and she looked like she did actually quite enjoy the kiss despite herself. Stuff is going to get tricky, but if she just admits that she has these impulses, she has enough good sense and genuine friends that she should be able to work things out by easy stages. But she won't let it be that easy for herself, of course, because comedy.

So the next question is where this conversation with Zii will go. Zii will doubtless exploit Ruby's promise of honesty, and if she carries on being as nosy and empathetic as she has been so far, will probably get a lot of these details. Her instinct is likely to be to push Ruby into moving faster (especially if she ever sees Andy and starts using Ruby as her fantasy proxy for getting some of that smooth young flesh), but Ruby is likely to push back against that sort of pressure, and if Zii has turned really cool and smart on us somehow, she might play this more effectively.

[brasca]

In time Ruby will probably grow bored with yaoi and proceed to the next step, but she does not seem all that particularly interested in dating. Even in her own dreams she is more fixated by replacing herself with another man so she can watch yaoi. Finding a job could be complicated enough if she has to juggle dating too so it is best to embrace a healthy alternative for the time being.

[Spidrift]

Nitpicking that, I doubt that she'll get bored with yaoi, any more than Zii is; she'll likely keep it around as a minor pleasure even if she gets herself a full rich sex life. More easily, in a way, in that a passing interest in yaoi will be the least of the things she'll have to justify to herself in that case; why feel guilty about the yaoi if you've got a flesh-and-blood man in your bed to worry about?

(Though I guess that she might do a Marigold Farmer, and pass her collection off to a friend on the grounds that she doesn't need it any more.)

Her dreams suggest that her fear of and guilt about sex run deep; she can't see herself indulging there any more than she can in reality. But it's possible that she could resolve her issues (more or less) on every level at once, and move from here to experimenting with the real thing and fantasising about it in one go. Also, she's given away in at least one dream that she regards herself as - or fears that she is - boring; she may have this rather sad idea that Ruby Larose is just someone that exciting stuff doesn't happen to, whether or not that she wants it. Both Dillon and Zii seem likely to tell her that's not true, of course.

I'm not saying that she's likely to jump to a sexual relationship any time very soon; she's got some mental adjustments to make. But it's entirely possible that making some cautious moves in that direction would actually help the job search, not disrupt it. Stress and tension really aren't good for anyone's concentration, and frankly, the poor kid could probably use a cuddle.

I'd also hope that Zii's line to her in the next few strips isn't so much "You should have sex" as "Ask yourself why you don't want to have sex". She's the type who, if she feels pushed, is just likely to push back; but she's also the sort who can be fairly good at reviewing her assumptions, honestly, if someone suggests it.

[Don Alexander]

Ah, finally, the cat is the center of attention!

[Spidrift]

Unless Ruby carries that cat everywhere from now on, I'm going to assume authorial brain fart for its presence in this scene.