Dykes to Watch Out For: Difference between revisions

* [[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.

* [[Butch Lesbian]]: More nuanced. Several characters are butch-identified, but are fully fleshed out, nuanced characters, not mere stereotypes.

* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Mo has always been neurotic and uptight but in the early days would occasionally sing to herself, something it is extremely difficult to picture Mo of today doing.

* [[Comic Book Time]]: Averted. Characters age pretty much in real time, including Raffi, and reminisce about the past from time to time with reference to how long it's been, with real time and strip time matching.

* [[Disabled Snarker]]: Thea in her first appearance, when Mo is being a jerk about Thea being disabled.

{{quote| '''Thea:''' Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe, Mo, but the wheelchair doesn’t impair my hearing at all. }}

{{quote| '''Sydney:''' She won’t break up with me! I have cancer! I can do whatever I want. }}

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: The first few years of ''Dykes to Watch Out For'' had no regular characters or an ongoing plot; back then the strip was more like a lesbian-oriented version of ''[[Life in Hell]]''. The ongoing story started in the late 1980s, with the introduction of Mo and Lois.

* [[Magical Negro]]: Intentionally avoided or inverted in the character of Jezanna, the bookstore owner. Bechdel states in ''The Indelible Alison Bechdel'' that she hates "that stereotype of the big, wise black woman who nurtures all the spiritually deprived white people," so she made Jezanna a grumpy and hard-assed (though not [[Mean Boss|mean]]) boss who runs her bookstore in a strictly hierarchical fashion, and is rather out of touch with her feelings.

* [[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.)

* [[Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy]]: Stuart and Sparrow.

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

* [[Meaningful Name]]: A few minor characters have [[Meaningful Name|Meaningful Names]] of varying levels of [[Viewers Are Geniuses|obscurity]]. Harriet's girlfriend after Mo, for whom Mo entertains a major hate-on and who later cheats on Harriet, is called Ellen Tufel, "Teufel" being German for "devil" (at one point Mo calls her "that she-devil"). Toni and Clarice had hoped to have their adoption case heard by sympathetic Judge Fairchild, but are instead heard by strict, conservative Judge Booker. Sydney's oncologist, whom Mo finds rather militaristic, is Dr. Rommel. And the creepy joined-at-the-hip perfect couple are named Liz and Beth - complete with daughter Elspeth. Also, Sydney's long-standing bit-on-the-side is a Comp. Lit. professor named Madeleine Zeugma. A zeugma is a figure of speech.

* [[Metaphorgotten]]: Clarice's attempt to explain the branches of government to Raffi by comparing them to the members of her household.

** And Wii backers can just vote for Ralph Nader.

* [[Nobody Over 50 Is Gay]]: Averted; several minor characters are older lesbians, and most of the characters are now in their late forties.

* [[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.

* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]]: The name or the exact location of the (fictional) city the strip takes place in is never revealed.