Normally I like XKCD very much. It smart, funny, unoffensive, and original. And, it ran the ‘how it works‘ strip, quite possibly the coolest webcomic panel ever.
I really didn’t like XKCD’s most recent comic, though. Here’s the joke:
- Guy likes a girl.
- Guy’s scared of rejection, so he becomes friends.
- In the hopes that she will become attracted to him
- Punchline: In the meantime, he disapproves of her relationships.
Ha. Ha.
So, here’s the problem with modern inter-gender relationships: Everybody seems to think that the purpose of interacting with the other gender is to find a mate. Yes, everybody has a few opposite gender friends, but rarely as many as same-gender friends, and rarely are the friendships as significant. Also, even people who have lots of opposite-gender friends are often just trying to improve their chances! (I’m basing this mostly on personal observation and a few studies, so I could be wrong here, but I think it seems about right). Worse yet, when combined with the tendency of women to not make any real same-gender friends at all (see the book Girlfight, etc.), and you have this weird situation where men are friends with: A. Girlfriend/Spouse, and B. “The Guys”, and women are friends with: A: boyfriend, and B: Nobody.
Now perhaps I’m biased – as a lesbian, I’m not exactly interested in a romantic relationship with man. Still, the above seem incredibly absurd, regardless of orientation. In fact, I think that a good deal of gender problems are caused by this – when everyone sees the other gender as ‘other’, as nothing but potential sex partners, then a communication breakdown is inevitable.
The comic would be great if it was making fun of the tendency to see others in that way. Instead, it’s just making fun of the guy – “Ha, ha, stupid! Just ask her out and then get over it…” In other words, girls aren’t for friends, just sex.