(after Lilith explains)

(Little Hermes) Aww, Lilith feels sad!
(Little Lilith) (flips hair) I’m also funny. And I can kill. (claws)
(Little Hermes) (nods) Oh yes; I love to kill. I do it all the time.
(Little Lilith) One time I killed a wizard, and I ate his eyes. Now I see the world as he did.
(Little Hermes) One time I killed…. A plant! (beat) It had protein! I’m a vegan!

Lilith and Hermes make the perfect team, because Lilith protects Hermes, and Hermes shapes her public image, you know.

Anyway, it’s like feminism as a cartoon, right. So it’s like feminism without the self-mangling thrashing (like, suggesting that gay men aren’t as good as lesbians, ah! The seventies!), and cartoons without the vaguely chauvie folksy chumminess, (ah! The sixties!—and every other decade!), you know.

(shrugs) And of course, not every formal intellectual analysis of gender is a mental self-destruct, and not every folksy cartoon is necessarily reminiscent of the Negative Thinking Seminar hub of the world—Forks, Washington—…. And they even Call it, FORKS; I still can’t believe she didn’t have to make that up….

But yeah. I mean, if we’re done here, I need to go find the mother so that she can give me my lollipop. The mother always protects us, you know.

…. Anyway, if I wanted to depress myself, I’d note that a lot of what I call “positive or fun” actually divides into “fun/negative” and “positive/calm”, you know. Not a whole lot is actually BOTH positive AND fun, you know. This is certainly fun/negative, right. But hey—if we could just be positive OR fun, maybe half the time, at least…. God knows we’re not taught that in school. We’re also taught to shy away from the popular. So look at it. It’s popular AND fun, if a little negative, so even if it’s not perfect/fun, it’s still like, you know, enough to make your English teacher turn into a motorcycle harpy from Ancient Greece and/or Georgia, you know. So that’s something. I mean, I’d rather be smacked down by Clarisse or someone a little younger like that than Mrs. Dodds or whoever (I’m Percy Jackson-ing, btw)—I’d rather be killed by life, than killed by death!—but hey, we still have to let people have good roles even after they leave teen theater at nineteen, right, so….

But don’t actually roll over when your teacher says roll over, you know. (“Children, you must not be popular, positive, or fun! People are dying out there in the poor countries, and it’s because the liberals are winning! People are winning! They’re happy! If only they were sad! That would be more noble!”) If you do that, you’ll just attract someone else who rolls over, and what fun is that—you might not even WANT them to roll around with you, right.

And, yes—you can also learn how to respect people, not shower them with contempt wherever you go, etc. etc…. a lot of comics are kinda leaning up against that Enneagram Eight person, but a lot of their work is often about the harm Eights do—the Eights they don’t like, anyway, kinda you know, “You think you’re a person! You’re really a bug! I’m almost happy! 😀”, you know.

And some of it is about Threes I guess, the sort of Three that has to be a real man because he’s deeply traumatized that he’s a heart-type, and not an Eight when he thinks he should be, right…. (shrugs) It’s a lot.

And yet, it’s a cartoon! 😸

…. I mean, there are even times when I disagree, you know, with the implicit argument, I guess, since there are times when people being more feminine Is ‘nicer’ and good-in-a-good-way, you know. You know, like: Kyle, I have this crazy idea but I’m just going to throw it out there; you could do your job~ instead of, you know: Kyle, you lazy son of a bitch! Why aren’t you Working!, you know. But it is gendered far more than it should be; I mean, I suppose there will always be more feminine women than feminine men, but the way we have it now is Rigid & Exaggerated, you know; it’s kinda weird….

I mean, it is hard to appreciate femininity when it comes from fear, you know, and when it’s always the same way. Sometimes you do want them to kinda…. Not be that way, right. I’ve had that feeling myself.

…. I’m sorry, but there is NO SUCH THING as unnecessary emojis. Maybe she meant to write NECESSARY emojis? 😸👽🧢

So yeah, 80%. I guess I’m 80% feminist. The duckling is in the details, after all. 🦧😸

…. And remember, people, mountain gorillas are part of our world. They’re part of all of us. 😸

That’s not a gorilla, is it. Oh well. This is a cat. 🦁

…. I guess I do love to explain things. 😹

My revenge for being made fun of: I’ll sic my underling, the Giant Tooth Monster on you. Prepare to be eaten! 🦷 👹

That’s what you get, girlie. 🦧😸🦖✅

…. (Hermes) One time I was afraid of my dad. (popcorn)
(Athena/Therapist) Uh huh.
(Hermes) I was like, all worried about what he would think, about things that were really none of his business because it’s not safe to make it his business.
(Athena/Therapist) How did that make you feel.
(Hermes) Hmm, like crap for a long time, but I guess I feel better now…. Can I call my mom and have her pick me up?
(Athena/Therapist) Of course; I’m just here for you. But didn’t you drive yourself here?
(Hermes) Oh yeah…. (popcorn). Popcorn?
(Athena/Therapist) (shakes head) I’m fine.

I loved this book. It made me laugh so many times or nod my head in agreement. Which, honestly is depressing because it shows how terrible men can be in the workplace. I’d recommend every woman get her boyfriend, husband, male boss, guy she sees on the bus to read this book! ( )

Hilarious but true!

After seeing the author on MSNBC, I immediately bought three of her books. This is the first one I read, and I laughed all the way through. Of course, it is based on truth or it would not be so funny. You just have to read it and see! ( )

This is a very smart, (sadly) relevant humor book.

The changing formats between illustrations, graphs, tables, even "worksheets" and a choose-your-own-adventure, etc were a good choice for keeping the book from turning stale. The jokes were sometimes subtle and often dug deep, making them hit all the harder.

The book balances well the humor with "actually no of course this is all absurd" to keep the readers from yeeting themselves into the sun in frustration. Major kudos to the author for not yeeting herself into the sun while writing it. ( )