I always wondered whether UNITY had any inclination to do things like that, and then chided myself for having a weird mind and that the comic wouldn’t go there.
Today, I stand reassured that this comic’s creators are a strange as me.
I didn’t know she could do that, but it almost makes sense. Wonder if she got it from Remy? (If she did, Sweetheart might give her an extra, also from Remy.)
…..okay, that was weird, my comment from below posted here. What it was *meant* to say was: You mean she has a Unity unit? (not that this makes much more sense than ‘immediately’ does, but whatever.)
UNITY just identified *herself* as a man. thats not conflating gender and parts, she is defining herself as a man voluntarily. shes probably genderfluid or genderless, since she can switch out parts at will and her true form is a body-stealing black goo. Its not like she does anything overtly feminine other than wear pigtails and using female pronouns- no makeup, gender nuetral clothing. and shes dated both men and women.
She can identify as whatever she wants, but she’s still nanomachines. She isn’t human, so she’s neither a man nor a woman. She has no physical sex – and technically neither does her host body, because it’s an amalgamation of who knows what pieces from what “donors”.
Gender is another matter, but a moot one – all humans are in reality “genderfluid” or “genderless”, because those are learned cultural behaviors which can be changed. Physical sex is irrelevant to “gender”, because gender itself is completely arbitrary.
Because gender is made up, UNITY can be whatever gender she wants – as can anyone else in the world. Gender is a stupid concept, and the longer people cling to it as a means of determining how they should treat other people, the longer we’re all going to be stuck arguing over nothing and treating people badly for no reason.
Nope. Some people have a strong instinctive emotion to consider themselves one gender. Gender expression, on the other hand, is more of a learned trait.
It’s ambiguous… maybe she meant “nope, you are third” or maybe she meant “yeah, and I’m third”. Like when kids are arguing over some sort of order thing: “I’m first!” “I’m second!” “Third!”
And since when did you expect Unity to “know better” about, well, anything really? She’s about as delicate as a wrecking ball. Tip might say something crazy despite knowing better; Unity might say something crazy.
But besides that, she never said anything like “I primarily identify as male” or “I’m a male despite identifying as female”. She’s essentially saying “I have some male bits”. As others have noted, she might be genderfluid, which is appropriate since the real Unity is a black fluid.
(I can imagine Unity saying something like “when I feel like being male, I get some male parts and add them on.” Not really an option for most genderfluid people, but totally an option for Unity.)
And besides besides, she is probably a hermaphrodite. She said she came “extra” prepared, so I’d guess that she made an addition rather than a replacement. I guess she might not be squeamish about chopping out pieces of herself and then letting her nanites heal her injuries, but nothing she has said implies that she would even think of doing that let alone actually do it.
And finally, this comic has crazy humor that is built on some pretty dark events that I wouldn’t laugh at if they were real. It’s strongly implied that Unity has eaten people, and we have no reason to think that they were all properly convicted murderers on Death Row, or that they weren’t conscious at the time. The current women-only survivors of the End of the World should all be pretty much insane just from remembering the horrible things they did (like chewing a man’s face off… and there was a very strong implication that he was still alive and conscious when it happened… ugh, I don’t want to think about it).
I urge you to meditate on the MST3K Mantra: “It’s just a show, I should really just relax.” And I should too meditate on it too.
And there’s another relevant song, that doesn’t even need filk treatment. By Uncle Bonsai; its special moment was being referenced in a Supreme Court decision (no really).
Needless to say, NOT SAFE TO VIEW AT WORK.
–Dave, also, WUV her little bitty smile in panel 2
If Unity used her new “parts” for that purpose, what would happen? I know she’s got the black nano-nastiness inside her that she occasionally – shoots – something with . . . would the recipient get that? Yikes.
Oh, and the ‘undead penis animated by oozy black oil nanogoop’ image. Could have done without that one. Or the effects of…ahem…exposure to Unity through that vector. Or any number of things really.
three thumbs up
FOOT NOT FOOLED. THAT NOT THUMB!
–Dave, also, replies are now posting instantly?? wassup wid dat?
I always wondered whether UNITY had any inclination to do things like that, and then chided myself for having a weird mind and that the comic wouldn’t go there.
Today, I stand reassured that this comic’s creators are a strange as me.
I didn’t know she could do that, but it almost makes sense. Wonder if she got it from Remy? (If she did, Sweetheart might give her an extra, also from Remy.)
Least she hasn’t started doing things like sewing dead snakes to her head for a medusa halloween costume.
That would be a really good Halloween costume, though.
That we know of, anyway. . .
Maybe she went back and read about Helen and Dave’s adventures with gender bending 🙂
OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD! SHE’S GOT A LIL’ UNITY UP IN HER TROUSERS! ALL BETS ARE OFF!
IMMEDIATELY.
…..okay, that was weird, my comment from below posted here. What it was *meant* to say was: You mean she has a Unity unit? (not that this makes much more sense than ‘immediately’ does, but whatever.)
“…You call it the Trouser Titan?”
“NOT THE POINT!”
I’ve always preferred “Rod of Lordly Might”.
I think Jeff and Shaenon took Craft Disturbing Mental Image as their feat this strip…
This isn’t the first time this happened. It’s just the first time we’re seeing her do this on purpose.
What was the first time?
When she put her head on the swamp’s husband.
Despite sounding like word salad, that’s something that actually happened, I swear.
Yeah, I kinda forgot to add a link to that one.
Awright, who *else* just pictured Madeline Kahn’s “selection scene” from
“History of the World Part One”?
“Yes, no no no no no no yes”…
IMMEDIATELY.
Not sure which answer would be less horrifying: Where’d she get “it” or who helped her attach it?
She probably did it herself; I mean, she’s shown off her sewing-skills before (remember when she had the werewolf paw?)
Quick question: how do people always know which webcomic to bring up?
Would you like to rephrase the question? I’m not quite sure what you mean by that.
Something to do with clicking on a link.
She’s had it for like a day and she outranks him?
(Also, the social workers don’t know better than to conflate parts with gender? :C)
Unity’s made from bits and pieces, could well have been mixed gender already.
UNITY just identified *herself* as a man. thats not conflating gender and parts, she is defining herself as a man voluntarily. shes probably genderfluid or genderless, since she can switch out parts at will and her true form is a body-stealing black goo. Its not like she does anything overtly feminine other than wear pigtails and using female pronouns- no makeup, gender nuetral clothing. and shes dated both men and women.
She can identify as whatever she wants, but she’s still nanomachines. She isn’t human, so she’s neither a man nor a woman. She has no physical sex – and technically neither does her host body, because it’s an amalgamation of who knows what pieces from what “donors”.
Gender is another matter, but a moot one – all humans are in reality “genderfluid” or “genderless”, because those are learned cultural behaviors which can be changed. Physical sex is irrelevant to “gender”, because gender itself is completely arbitrary.
Because gender is made up, UNITY can be whatever gender she wants – as can anyone else in the world. Gender is a stupid concept, and the longer people cling to it as a means of determining how they should treat other people, the longer we’re all going to be stuck arguing over nothing and treating people badly for no reason.
Nope. Some people have a strong instinctive emotion to consider themselves one gender. Gender expression, on the other hand, is more of a learned trait.
Unity isn’t genderfluid, her gender IS fluid. Literally.
..And water coolers.
It’s ambiguous… maybe she meant “nope, you are third” or maybe she meant “yeah, and I’m third”. Like when kids are arguing over some sort of order thing: “I’m first!” “I’m second!” “Third!”
And since when did you expect Unity to “know better” about, well, anything really? She’s about as delicate as a wrecking ball. Tip might say something crazy despite knowing better; Unity might say something crazy.
But besides that, she never said anything like “I primarily identify as male” or “I’m a male despite identifying as female”. She’s essentially saying “I have some male bits”. As others have noted, she might be genderfluid, which is appropriate since the real Unity is a black fluid.
(I can imagine Unity saying something like “when I feel like being male, I get some male parts and add them on.” Not really an option for most genderfluid people, but totally an option for Unity.)
And besides besides, she is probably a hermaphrodite. She said she came “extra” prepared, so I’d guess that she made an addition rather than a replacement. I guess she might not be squeamish about chopping out pieces of herself and then letting her nanites heal her injuries, but nothing she has said implies that she would even think of doing that let alone actually do it.
And finally, this comic has crazy humor that is built on some pretty dark events that I wouldn’t laugh at if they were real. It’s strongly implied that Unity has eaten people, and we have no reason to think that they were all properly convicted murderers on Death Row, or that they weren’t conscious at the time. The current women-only survivors of the End of the World should all be pretty much insane just from remembering the horrible things they did (like chewing a man’s face off… and there was a very strong implication that he was still alive and conscious when it happened… ugh, I don’t want to think about it).
I urge you to meditate on the MST3K Mantra: “It’s just a show, I should really just relax.” And I should too meditate on it too.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MST3KMantra
Within the context of the subject at hand, she counts as a “man”.
I think I need some brain bleach…
Aww, look at the flesh-eating, arm-hacking, trigger-happy zombie trying to look all innocent. It’s so cute!
Oh now, that’s just…wrong.
But fascinating. First one to find a fan drawing on deviantart has gotta post the link here.
Now I can’t get out of my head a bumper sticker with Unity pissing on the ford logo
I want to see this now!
Why the ford logo?
Tradition, because it’s what Calvin pees on and he’s defined the canon for it.
–Dave, cartoon characters represent YO!
Didn’t they just have this restroom issue back at the new Skin Horse office?
Yep
(TUNE: “Both Sides Now”, Joni Mitchell)
Testicles, vas deferens,
A nice thick shaft that never ends!
It’s really good for making friends,
Although a bit perverse …
So Unity brought parts to switch;
She didn’t know the restroom sitch!
Man, the apocalypse’s a bitch!
That’s it, we’ve made it worse!
She’s come equipped with both parts now!
Both boy and girl! Prepared, and how!
Poor Sergio’s left on the shelf …
He tells her to go **** … herself!
So naughty. And so good.
*Slow Clap* and a standing “O”
Excellent! And good that you’re back!
And there’s another relevant song, that doesn’t even need filk treatment. By Uncle Bonsai; its special moment was being referenced in a Supreme Court decision (no really).
Needless to say, NOT SAFE TO VIEW AT WORK.
–Dave, also, WUV her little bitty smile in panel 2
I would totally prefer Sergio in this scenario. Surely some of the apocalypse survivors would have similar taste? is Tip’s mojo THAT strong?
Considering that his mojo has resulted in teleportation….It probably is that strong.
If Unity used her new “parts” for that purpose, what would happen? I know she’s got the black nano-nastiness inside her that she occasionally – shoots – something with . . . would the recipient get that? Yikes.
At best, you could say that she’d be reproducing after her(*) own kind.
Also, that prospect probably justifies Sergio’s evaluation.
And that, boys and girls, is your cautionary tale about the dangers of Unfashionably Long Sideburns for today. Sleep tight!
What’s with the transphobia, Mendoza?
I think it’s just well-founded Unity-phobia combined with the uncomfortable question of “where did she get ‘it’?”.
That, and generally not wanting to imagine Unity having sex in general.
Oh, and the ‘undead penis animated by oozy black oil nanogoop’ image. Could have done without that one. Or the effects of…ahem…exposure to Unity through that vector. Or any number of things really.