Dykes to Watch Out For: Difference between revisions

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* [[Art Evolution]]: Very noticeable if you get the ''The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For'' compilation, especially Lois and Clarice.

* [[Artifact Title]]: The seed of the strip was a drawing titled "Marianne, dissatisfied with her morning brew: Dykes to Watch Out For, plate no. 27", "as if it were just one in a series of illustrations of mildly demonic lesbians." She drew more and more "plates", and kept the title when it shifted to a strip format about various aspects of lesbian culture, and also when it shifted to the serialized format with recurring characters. As the cast grew to include people of other genders and sexual identities, she lampshaded the title by titling a recent collection of her strips ''Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-based Life-forms to Watch Out For''.

* [[Useful Notes/The Bechdel Test|The Bechdel Test]]: [[Trope Namer]]. This was featured in an early strip before the comic moved to the serial format with recurring characters. It passes, by the way.

* [[Bi the Way]]: A minor early character (Naomi) is bisexual; after she fades from the strip, Sparrow, one of the main characters, begins to identify as a bi-dyke, starts a relationship with Stuart, and eventually has a child with him.

* [[Bratty Teenage Daughter]]: Janis, a trans example of the trope.

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: The series occasionally has strips where the main characters are aware that they are the stars of a comic strip, discussing past plot developments and suggesting future ones. This is taken to a high meta level in one strip, where Thea complains that she's not being presented as "a whole, 2-dimensional character"; apparently, in the world of comic strip "actors" who lack a third dimension, "two-dimensional" means the same as "three-dimensional" in our world. Alison Bechdel herself also [[Author Avatar|appears]] in a couple of the meta strips.

* [[Manufacturing Victims]]: Averted & Lampshaded - As Mo turns into a therapy junkie as a way of avoiding dealing with her life, her therapist actually throws her out. (But it turns out that it was all a dream that Mo had after dozing off while waiting for a chiropractic adjustment.)

* [[Married to The Job]]: Evil academic Sydney, whilst researching polyamory, has the epiphany that she is in a polyamorous relationship already- her work is her primary relationship, while Mo is 'the other woman'. This also happens with Clarice and Toni, with Clarice's job as a lawyer almost immediately putting a strain on the relationship; and ultimately, when {{spoiler|Toni cheats on Clarice, it's with Gloria, with whom she's buried in Freedom to Marry activism.}}

{{quote| "I think I am a [[Butch Lesbian]] in a man's body."<br />

"''Soft'' butch. ''Maybe''." }}

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Sydney's last name, Krukowski, is frequently mispronounced.

* [[Not Making This Up Disclaimer]]: Thanks to Bechdel's use of [[Kent Brockman News|parodic newscasts]] in the background, she had to use one of these when recording General Wiranto of Indonesia publicly singing "Feelings." The following news item, in turn, gets a "Made Up" disclaimer. And when Mo is babysitting Raffi, she watches ''The 700 Club'' and there's a disclaimer saying "All 700 mClub dialogue guaranteed overheard".

* [[Politically Motivated Teacher]] / [[Strawman U]]: Played with – Cynthia campaigns against what she sees as the liberal bias of her university, with much skepticism from the other characters.

{{quote| '''Cynthia:''' The evidence speaks for itself. On a faculty of 250, there are only 15 openly Republican professors. <br />

* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: Inverted. Originally, all the characters were female, not just because it was a lesbian strip but also because Bechdel wanted to force male readers to identify with the women in the strip, as women are frequently forced to identify with male characters. However, after she decided to make Clarice and Toni's child a boy, she started to introduce more male characters, such as Carlos and his boyfriend Trevor, Jerry, and most prominently Stuart.

* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: Mo and Sydney's courtship. When they first meet, they can't stop arguing (well, Sydney can't stop baiting Mo). Sparks fly. Matters progress.

* [[Strawman Political]]: In the character of Cynthia, one of Ginger's students, who began as a one-note right-wing conservative gadfly. Over the course of her [[Character Development]] she comes out as a lesbian, becomes conflicted about her upbringing, and is gingerly welcomed into the main characters' circle, but does not drop her conservative beliefs.

* [[Tastes Like Diabetes]]: According to Sydney, her chemo clinic.

* [[Transsexual]]: A trans woman character named Jillian was introduced in 1994; she hung out for a few strips. Later, a atrans man character named Jerry was introduced; Lois developed a crush on him, which later moved on to a fairly durable friendship. Finally, Jasmine's child Jonas became more and more insistent about identifying as a girl, and eventually started living full-time, taking hormones, and identifying as Janis, with Lois's support. Also, for a while, irritated by Mo's transphobic attitude, Lois lets her believe for a short time that she is transitioning, asking to be called "Louis." After Mo slowly comes to accept this, Lois tells her the truth, although she does identify as genderqueer. ("I enjoy being a girl... in a perverse kind of way.")

* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: With two characters being academics, and Bechdel herself a bibliophile, there are many academic and literary references well outside the usual [[Small Reference Pools]]. This troper took a gender theory class where she recognized quite a few theories and writers she had first heard of through this strip. The occasional latin pun crops up as well, and many political issues get discussed in depth.

 

{{reflist}}