Looks like Tom said a thing and people didn't like it.

[zimmyhoo]

In this situation, I'm just going to keep my mouth firmly shut because I don't know what's up or down.
So he said this:

And people didn't like it, you can see in the replies.
He reblogged some without adding anything, and people really didn't like that.
Then he said this:

And people are now very flustered and rather angry.
And then this:

~
Now this:

People are starting to calm down now.

I really shall not say anything, because it will probably be offensive to somebody.  Shucks, I'm thinking of removing everything but the links, but I'll have to trust that everybody will be fine.


...In other news, he's in his new, non-haunted house and things are good!

[Covalent]

Ehh.. I don't touch any SJW topics. Not even with a 10 m pole.

[Rasselas]

This whole thing made me really upset and sad, I don't think Tom deserves this.

People should've given him some benefit of doubt. I think these grief-seekers look for people who are vulnerable to this type of concern-abuse. It's a nasty social dynamic and I don't have much sympathy for people who do it.

Despite having sympathy for the general problem, and being a minority myself who faces problems, I still wouldn't do that. And I bet those same people make outrageous jokes themselves, just not about their pet peeve so it's "okay."

[TBeholder]

Trolling the protozoa with Superman and measuring tape? I can't claim never doing anything like this, but really?

[judgedeadd]

Mar 3, 2014 1:27:33 GMT zimmyhoo said:

I really shall not say anything, because it will probably be offensive to somebody.

the 21st century in a nutshell.

[Rasselas]

Yeah, when I saw what happened, my first thought was, if I was Siddell I would not dare say ANYTHING on twitter ever again. Because that's my impulse reaction to such things. Then, I felt mad because it sucks not to dare speak because someone somewhere might get it wrong.

[Señor Goose]

I had to scroll for a bit to try and find the Tweet that could be considered offensive, then I realised that that was the offensive tweet. Honestly, it's a dick joke, and not an especially god dick joke, just A dick joke. I'll ask one of my transexual friends tomorrow what she thinks of it.

[KMar]

Is there anything to discuss? Why should we discuss this?

[ebaaus]

I find it best to just ignore the internet complainer types. Whatever you say they're going to find something wrong with it. If you apologize they'll call you a sexist pig and if you don't they'll call you a sexist pig. Some people are just offended by everything and love nothing more than creating drama and bullying.

[Señor Goose]

Mar 3, 2014 8:17:10 GMT KMar said:

Is there anything to discuss? Why should we discuss this?

>Tom makes a crude dick joke
>some of Tom's followers get Fannytroubled
>Tom bleeds his heart apologizing
The internet.

[Le Sexy Fish Horse]

There is overreaction and then there is internet overreaction. People will try to find anything that offends them, at any time. There is no limit for that. Even without the context (man of steel movie) it was meant to be (ironical) compliment how to make character with the manliest (notice how in our time manly is not really attached to male but works as unisex compliment) attitude possible.

Only thing that made all this into offensive form was people with their own issues, people who often get offended by stuff, any kind of stuff. Tom didn't made any mistake, that was just simple random text. But it is easyer to attack and try to correct someone else than get over your own problems. Like in this particular conflict seems that people barely can accept who they are, and see every line of text as attack to them.

So in the end, there isn't anything to discuss, this pattern is common in the internet. If you are popular person, you will get people offended without actualy doing anything purposely.

This is my first post, but I have been lurking thiese forums and following every thread for few years now. This is me, trying to show support Tom. Society as organism is totaly damaged.


P.S. Anything I mentioned in my post is nothing to do with any particular phobia or orientation, helth state ect. This was ment for everyone who happend to be offended without realy analysing weather peron ment something else not only what you understood. Why I am addressing this, is that those people are the loudest in the internet, and will make huge fuss about everything that is in theyr way, so please, let them be and leave them where they are.

P.P.S english is my secondary language, apologies for missuse and grammar.

[jessie]

I'm not familiar with the quote, but it sounds like it's just a crude way of saying you don't make a good female character by just having her be the best at everything. Hollywood has churned out a lot of boring cookiecutter gurlpower crap you know? No reason to give Tom a hard time either way.

But it does make me think, what would Gunnerkrigg be like if the girls had no flaws and the character building we've been enjoying was just gone?

You would never have seen Kat blush, think about that.

[jasmijn]

My personal reaction to the first tweet: "I'm confused. It looks like he's saying something that's incredibly rude on multiple levels, but he might also be sarcastic? Only I can't figure it out, because there is a lack of clues one way or another."

Second tweet: "I'm more confused. This has even less clues than the first one, and this probably intensifies the way I should feel about the first tweet, once I figure out how to feel about it."

Third tweet: "A non-apology. Okay, that is quite a dick move."

Fourth tweet: "Okay, a proper apology. That's good."

These things don't concern me personally, and so I wasn't offended, but I can see how people would be really pissed by the second or third tweet. We can talk about internet overreaction, but we can also talk about "think before you tweet".

[sapientcoffee]

I'm going with "drunk tweeting movies might not be the best plan". This is more tweets in one day than I've seen him make for weeks.

[philman]

Mar 3, 2014 9:09:39 GMT jessie said:

I'm not familiar with the quote, but it sounds like it's just a crude way of saying you don't make a good female character by just having her be the best at everything. Hollywood has churned out a lot of boring cookiecutter gurlpower crap you know? No reason to give Tom a hard time either way.

But it does make me think, what would Gunnerkrigg be like if the girls had no flaws and the character building we've been enjoying was just gone?

You would never have seen Kat blush, think about that.

Yeah that was kind of my view when I saw it blowing up on twitter yesterday.

Tom criticizes a line in a movie a woman utters about measuring dicks supposed to make her look tough, and a load of people come down on him for insulting transgender people? That really is an over-reactionand seeing something that isn't there. If you're going to get insulted over that then you're going to get insulted any time anyone mentions a sexual part of the anatomy...

I did think re-tweeting their responses was a bad idea, that DID make it look like he was trying to wind people up. People over-react about anything, no need to antagonise them more.

[artezzatrigger]

It seems like whenever theres the slightest comment about genitalia or gender, no matter how irrelevant it is to their group, it always seems to bring a crowd of hostile and bitter people attacking the person who said it. And somehow it always gets twisted around so that they're the bad guy while all the attackers expect to get off scot free because "muh trans". Its like every other group or minority doesn't matter except theirs.

I'm sorry, but no. Its hypocritical, but more than that, its disappointing. This isn't full scale war, you don't beat hate by attacking anything that even slightly relates to your minority as if they just smacked your grandmother in the face.

Really, theres nothing more to be said. Don't be a dick to someone just because they made a throwaway comment that has a minor tangential relation to your group at best.

[Tom Siddell]

This is all on me. I should not have said or done anything, and being drunk was no excuse.
I will be severely reducing my online interactions from now on. The comic will continue to update as usual.

[Chancellor]

Well hello. Didn't expect to ever see you in my lifetime.

[philman]

Mar 3, 2014 9:38:43 GMT Tom Siddell said:

This is all on me. I should not have said or done anything, and being drunk was no excuse.
I will be severely reducing my online interactions from now on. The comic will continue to update as usual.

Aw, I usually like your twitter posts. Sorry to hear that.

Seriously though, the post some people got offended by seemed to me to be you criticising something, and some people thinking you were agreeing with it? I don't get that.

[sapientcoffee]

Mar 3, 2014 9:46:30 GMT philman said:

Aw, I usually like your twitter posts. Sorry to hear that.

Same. That's how I found out about Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. And I enjoyed the puns.

[csj]

Mar 3, 2014 9:38:43 GMT Tom Siddell said:

This is all on me. I should not have said or done anything, and being drunk was no excuse.
I will be severely reducing my online interactions from now on. The comic will continue to update as usual.

For a drunk post (presuming this is confirmation), it wasn't that bad, I think it's the catch-22 of having a large socially-liberal audience.

In all honesty, this is one of the few awkward moments, other than this your twitter feed is pretty great. Your second forum post this year is one apologising and saying you'll post less. I sincerely hope you aren't taking the negative responses to heart.

[Deleted]

Mar 3, 2014 1:27:33 GMT zimmyhoo said:

In this situation, I'm just going to keep my mouth firmly shut because I don't know what's up or down.

Bleargh




yep

Mar 3, 2014 9:38:43 GMT Tom Siddell said:

This is all on me. I should not have said or done anything, and being drunk was no excuse.
I will be severely reducing my online interactions from now on. The comic will continue to update as usual.

Your Tumblr holds some of my favourite artworks of yours (hi-res pointilistic Hetty, Frasier Crane/Q-Bee, Khepi in full colour). I hope you will continue to update that one, at least. I really don't want you to vanish from anywhere, but then again, I've never been in such a situation. — I don't know what to say here, honestly.

I think you're swell and your webcomic excels, accept no substitutes. I hope that helps.

----

Edit: I think people might also not be realizing that immediately before the first linked tweet, Tom quoted the news reporter Lois Lane from the movie »Superman of Steel«, verbatim, which is kind of important context. Because she says that thing in the movie, and some people apparently thought that spells STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER incarnate, like girls don't usually say »dick« or such when men are present, but if they do, oh boy is that a radical breach of social norms, she sure showed those men (laugh track)

I mean one could get worked up about that, too. It's like Frank Wedekind never wrote any plays at all. Or Schnitzler. Or Ibsen. Those guys all lived a hundred years ago, by the way

[imaginaryfriend]

Oddly enough some people on twitter do not always check back to discover the context of tweets before they react to them or if they do they may not always understand them completely. But that is the nature of the internet. It allows us to communicate very quickly but that permits misunderstandings to multiply.  Case in point:

[damian1335]

Jesus I never actually care/get into this kind of stuff. But.
He didn't say anything offensive to Trans people!. He didn't even say anything offensive. If its needed I can go into full detail fucking tearing apart the comment with each possible meaning that people could misunderstand it. Thats like me saying, hey I really liked this girl character shes really manly.
Then people jumping on me because I used a sexist phrase that offends manly, feminine women, feminine men, and clearly dogs.
Tom shouldn't be apologizing for anything, because ahem. Social Justice Warriors jumped at him for saying something they thought was possibly offensive in the slightest meaning of the word.
Pardon for the incredibly ranty and douchebag nature of this post, but people blaming Tom for being in the wrong because he hurt their 'Tealings' on a minor joking comment, that was both a quote and NOT FUCKING OFFENSIVE unless you're the most sensitive person on the planet. (See SJWs)

[zimmyzims]

Mar 3, 2014 9:09:39 GMT jessie said:

I'm not familiar with the quote, but it sounds like it's just a crude way of saying you don't make a good female character by just having her be the best at everything. Hollywood has churned out a lot of boring cookiecutter gurlpower crap you know? No reason to give Tom a hard time either way.

Same thoughts, although apparently there was more than that in the character even. I have not seen the movie and do not therefore know the context, but to me it comes out so that there was a whole bunch of people acting like dicks, and Tom was not one of them.

[zimmyzims]

Mar 3, 2014 13:06:05 GMT damian1335 said:

Jesus I never actually care/get into this kind of stuff. But.
He didn't say anything offensive to Trans people!. He didn't even say anything offensive. If its needed I can go into full detail fucking tearing apart the comment with each possible meaning that people could misunderstand it. Thats like me saying, hey I really liked this girl character shes really manly.
Then people jumping on me because I used a sexist phrase that offends manly, feminine women, feminine men, and clearly dogs.
Tom shouldn't be apologizing for anything, because ahem. Social Justice Warriors jumped at him for saying something they thought was possibly offensive in the slightest meaning of the word.
Pardon for the incredibly ranty and douchebag nature of this post, but people blaming Tom for being in the wrong because he hurt their 'Tealings' on a minor joking comment, that was both a quote and NOT FUCKING OFFENSIVE unless you're the most sensitive person on the planet. (See SJWs)

Welcome to the forum. Somehow I feel we won't see much of you, but nevertheless, quite a first post this is.

Well, technically, he was a little bit offensive to, hmm.. the director and playwright of the concerned movie, wasn't he?

Okay, it was not them who got offended, nor was anybody offended for them. I kind of agree with this: it is utterly wrong that just because somebody has got offended you have to apologise for deeds that were not offensive per se, it is simply to give the people the power to decide any matter by expressing how their feelings have been hurt. But getting offended does not mean that there was anything wrong in what other person did or said, these are two completely different things.

[mercuryp]

I never thought I'd see the day when people were complaining about perceived transphobia from Tom Siddell of all people. I mean seriously, he's a guy who writes extremely compelling female characters. He understands gender.

Of course, it's impossible to speak for every trans woman, but I really don't see any transphobia here and I find it very disheartening that this happened. Tom barely communicates at all already, and shouldn't have to dial it back further just because people are far too quick to jump on the "we must fight!" train when it comes to trans issues. It's a cause worth fighting for, but at least pick the right targets.

[damian1335]

Mar 3, 2014 13:22:08 GMT zimmyzims said:

 Snipit

Yeah I liably won't be on here to much, often not to much of an active forum goer, this is just one of the times I was just. This needs to be said, these people are acting like complete idiots.
And as the person above me also stated, Tom does write diverse, well written female characters. I admit-ably often don't like being rude/offensive to be people in a serious manor (I'm often sarcastic/joking about it, but people I do talk with genreally know how to take a joke, and or not over react at the smallest of comment.), But when people start to  offended over the smallest of things then thats when they start to deserve people being rude to them, because they're either striving for attention. Theres also the whole thing of, the 'White Male Hetrosexual Actor.' Who won a grammy or what have you from playing a transexual, so of course everyone is calling him a Cis scum, and everything.

[GK Sierra]

Mar 3, 2014 9:38:43 GMT Tom Siddell said:

This is all on me. I should not have said or done anything, and being drunk was no excuse.
I will be severely reducing my online interactions from now on. The comic will continue to update as usual.

First, being drunk is ALWAYS a good excuse.

Second, here is how outrage works on the internet: everyone pretends to be mad, but they continue to read your comic anyway. If you doubt me, look at the traffic stats on Prequel after he stopped updating for three months. EXACTLY THE SAME. You have a Grade-A+ webcomic, and if anyone says they're going to stop reading it because they're offended, I would give you excellent odds that they are lying. It is almost impossible to get rid of fans.

Third, I don't see anything offensive in that tweet. It is other people's decision to be offended at something that was not offensive to begin with. Just because you were having a good day and decided to get a little tipsy and post some funny, outlandish comments on twitter does not mean you've done something wrong.

Bottom line, this is a non-issue. It would have been offensive if you said "Wow, chicks with dicks really make me sick", but you didn't. You have nothing to be ashamed about, you're on top of the world.

What do you drink usually? I'll send you a bottle as a late housewarming gift.

[exdevlin]

To be fair, the tweets posted in this thread were taken out of context. Scrolling back through Tom's history shows he was mocking other stuff about a certain movie. It was not meant to be taken the way people took it, and anyone from the outside can see that.

Overly sensitive people peeve me sometimes.

Keep up the good work Tom. Don't feel like you need to shut up about stuff just because of this. I actually really enjoy your movie nights.