The situation wasn’t quite that bad yet, it just had the potential to be if I wasn’t careful. I was just afraid that if the timing for everything I needed to pay in the coming days wasn’t planned carefully, and if my car repair bill was too much, I’d be completely broke. I’ve come close to it before,...years ago there was a time when I only had like...$32 in my bank account for two weeks. O_o

My car repair was expensive, but not super expensive...I was able to afford it and now my dash is now fixed...lights up again! Thank goodness it wasn’t too steep.

BUT crazy thing today...a Secret Santa paid the car repair bill! I think I know who it was, but that really did come as a very nice surprise! I needed that break, oh my gosh.

Thank goodness...this makes the upcoming holidays a little less stressful for me now!

There was rising concern that I began hearing rumblings about by fans regarding a TERF stance that the comic was taking. Because it never got “explicit” about it (at least from the strips I mentally processed rather than skimmed during morning webcomic roundup binges), I passed it off as, “lack of representation, but not specifically TERF’ish.” (by the way, I’ve had no clarification on this - there are some who’ve looked into it on his old forum, but I gave up worrying about it a long time ago) Then, the storyline took on a very specifically anti-prostitution, anti-sex worker, and anti-pornography stance. It did coincide with many of my own concerns about the sex industry and seemed to be over-the-top satire and storytelling, y’know, as he do. Leaving out some perspectives to tell a particular story. Okay, no problem, right? I write. I understand that selective process. Risky, but, understandable.

But, I would check in on the forums from time to time (which is becoming a problem for me - webcomic forums are nuts - Menage a 3′s community takes that strip WAY too seriously) and over time, they began to point out some interesting observations that the comic was moving into radical feminism rhetoric and ideals portrayed in the characters and situations. This particularly showed up with the Sisterhood and the black-and-white logic/perspective regarding prostitution as a concept in the series, The D-Man character, Uncle Sam, and more. Again, at first I thought this was simply lack-of-representation to tell a story. That Tatsuya had an idea for how the plot/characters were going to go and he was merely making observations, same as his big push with the Eastern religion themes many moons ago and the development of some characters regarding that. (I feel this is when the strip peaked, maybe `07-`12′ish?)

Then, the strip attacked libfem types, utilizing the Johnbie characters in the strip to do so. He conflated anyone trying to be sex work-positive as yet another pervert (and quite a few on the forums who were making these remarks of “SWERF issues” and “this is an unbalanced perspective of the industry” were actually women themselves). There’s likely more elements that showed up and more occasions this has occurred, which the forum-goers have done a much better job of keeping track of. (I’d rather not do an archive dive myself, but I can see if I can find you some forum links to master posts)

Which then leads to a rather major shift that happened while I wasn’t looking, which was Tatsuya finally decloaking his intentions. Currently on the Sinfest page, the update talks about his new forum he opened. And that it was to spread the “message” of the comic, promoting radical feminism over liberal or conservative feminism. The existing forum, a phpbb, brought this matter up and I think most of my feelings on the subject are better expressed by the people there. Xzenu in particular.

But, before finding that post, I wandered into the new forum to see if the balance and discussion that the old one was known for was maintained.

Holy shit, it was not.

Quite possibly, this is my first encounter with “radfem” types, but wow, these people are intense. And like, I understand that I am not someone I think most would consider a “feminist ally,” but, I believe in the equality and equity of humankind and I really, really want to see rights honored, freedoms given, and social justice prevail. Choice is important, perhaps the most important in this matter. Moreover, I’ve personally felt one of the most challenging things about trying to open one’s eyes, to get “woke” or what-have-you, is to have a flexible mind and heart. What you think now may change, what you feel now will change, and if I’ve learned anything in the past 5 years, since I made some extremely bullshit statements privately and got called out for being an idiot about it, is that we are always ignorant, even after we learn something. The more intense someone gets about a subject, the more radicalized or zealous they get, I keep seeing it turn people into these boulders, dense and immovable, causing more frustration rather than enlightenment. Wisdom becomes scripture, begetting arrogance and stubborn attitude.

What I find in the sycophants following Sinfest’s “logic” is a bunch of high-and-mighty moralists that are trying to define reality rather than keeping an open mind to listen to what reality is telling them. They deny the experiences of people who are sex-worker positive, in a rather patronizing fashion. They even talk about being ‘libfem’ and becoming radical, in ways that honestly? Remind me of people who convert from something like the Baha’i Faith (which tries, despite some major failings imo, to be inclusive) to Evangelical Christian or Mormonism. It looks to me like a step backward, not forward.

Anyway. This took longer and went on longer than expected. I’m hoping this is what response you were looking for, related to the comic itself.

I do consider myself a feminist, if that was your concern from my original post. I wouldn’t categorize myself as any of the particular sub-groups, primarily because it’s a level of feminism philosophy/theory that I’m not versed on anywhere near enough to accurately label myself. I just want to see this world free itself of the patriarchy, systemic racism, post-colonial oppression, and all of that. Fuck, people call me crazy, sure, but I believe that world peace is possible and actually? I believe it’s inevitable.