Man, I regret not following up with Louise after this. Did I subconsciously believe a woman’s career in pornography, and thus her life as we know it, is over when she has a baby? This is another rough moment for Jane where she’s being nice and helpful to a girl who turned her down. I’m not sure how much I planned to follow up on Julie and Jane – I think I wanted to at least have them go on a date at some point – it just seemed way too boring. Instead it’s a pretty quiet example of the kind of dead-end pursuits Jane got up to, and how it painted her view on dating. |
Is Louise on the verge of plunging into a depression?
Wow. I didn't think of Louise's work as pornography at all. Or even particularly erotic. More shock-valuey, funny/ironic, zeitgest-y. Was it meant to be arousing? No one at her art show seemed to be reacting that way.
Is it really that hard to be friendly with someone who has told you they don't want to date you? I feel like if we assumed this about a guy it would be giving him a really uncool pass for only being interested in a person if he has sexual access to them.
On the other hand, so much happens off screen in this strip. If you've turned someone down, it's not cool to start leaning on them emotionally. If this is a once-off it's fine, but if Julie is pouring out her problems to Jane on the regular, that's taking thoughtless advantage of her romantic interest/vulnerability. And that definitely fits with Julie's sweet but mopey & needy character.