Ask An Adventurer – Frigg Do What Frigg Want
HAWM, Guildies!
Well, I’ve just got myself set up and situated in a workable position again, hooraaaaaaay. It took a lot longer than anticipated, I have to say. We’re going to be extending our break by one more week, unfortunately.
Regular comics will resume on 3/24/2014.
But in the meantime, we’ll have a special feature running this week from a SUPER old bonus story script we wrote back when there were only 6 protagonists, drawn by one of my favorite comic artists on the planet! So STAY TUNED!
Did you know there are people alive RIGHT NOW who don’t know what ‘Captain Planet’ is and don’t understand references to the show? What have you done, personally, to spread the word? Remember, Planeteers, the Power is Yours!
Yes! Caught that reference immediately with “Wheeler” & “Fire away!” :D
And of course, North America;)
*happily and defiantly raises hand*
Gah! Why do they even allow saving the images if you can’t link to them? And why do they disable linking when all you have to do is select the url field and press Enter?
I got that right away. And then I thought that no. . . it can’t be. It has to be some kind of crazy coincidence.
I’m glad I’m not the only old timer here.
I got it. Okay, I’m old, but “Wheeler from North America” followed by “Fire away!” was full of witty nostalgic win for me.
I didn’t see that when I read the comic but when I saw your comment I realized
Ah to be like Frigg and to not be called crazy when I rage when someone snarks about my armpits. Sometimes being a cartoon is so much easier.
I’m sorry, but is your gravatar from Dragon Age
As a woman, I shave because it’s more comfortable without hair. I cannot for the life of me imagine walking around with hair everywhere and sweating from the extra heat, or putting more deodorant on because body hair amplifies smells, or catching hair – down there – in my jeans zipper.
Now I’m interested to know whether that’s actually true, or not.
You do not want a pit-hair getting caught in chainmail…trust me. The sneaky buggers will worm their way around or through any under-padding you have just to cause you pain.
Well if nothing else I know something new about armor for that fantasy novel collecting dust in my sky drive.
Good point. I wonder if it means that all the Heavy Weapons guys in the SCA also shave their pits.
If they have any decency to anyone around them when they remove their armour, they should
Why not? After all, actors in those western films that have to ride horses a lot used to wear panty hose under their pants to prevent chaffing. ‘Tis Truth!
Those boys were soft! Chaps are for preventing chafing, not silk or nylon.
Chaps are for keeping the thorns in sagebrush and tumbleweeds from grabbing a hold on you and ripping your hide open as you ride past on h=your horse.
Chaps do not go under your jeans!
Real cowboys wore long johns.
At least in my kingdom, SCA fighters tend not to wear much chain except for at ceremonial occasions. It tends to restrict mobility too much. What they do wear tends to be open at the armpits since that is an unlikely spot to get hit and there is no armor requirement there. The coats they wear under the armor are famously stinky, though, yes. Probably wouldn’t smell much sweeter if they did shave their pits though. Frigg’s armor in this comic is rather similar to what gets worn in the SCA, actually, you will notice that she isn’t armored under her arms. In real battle one might choose to wear a chain coat to protect there, though many historical armies tended to sacrifice some protection in return for having armor that soldiers could actually march long distances in.
Sir, because of your comment I found out about an awesome place to train archery close to where I live. Thanks for mentioning the SCA :D
I’d shave my pits, back, arms, legs – anything that could possibly get said hair pulled from. Yes – even shave ‘the boys’.
It’s the same reason why guys are more comfortable with wearing the codpiece *under* any other metal armor, *especially* chainmail. Heck, I sometimes have a similar problem with just cotton underwear & NO armor…
You tell ’em, girl!
Yeah, pit hair retains sweat and increases the stench. It’s just generally a good idea to shave it.
Speaking as someone who has spent a moderate amount of time walking about in chainmail… if you just wear ordinary clothes under it (i.e. the kind of ordinary clothes that have sleeves), arm-pit hair won’t get caught in the links.
Also… armour is only as hot as the padding under it, generally. Metal conducts heat… it doesn’t insulate. That said, you still wouldn’t want to spend an extended time in the summer sunlight with it on…
Air doesn’t conduct heat well, though. Anything that blocks convection is going to trap heat, even if it is a good thermal conductor.
Frigg calm down, you’re stanking up your armour.
I <3 Frigg.
From a safe distance.
…And upwind…
New fetish created: armor sniffing.
Smell the latest rage.
Can never understand that Japanese fetish of licking/sniffing the underarms (but then again, also don’t understand the fetish with literally sucking on each others tongue, sort of a reverse French-kiss)
Remind me not to be your lover…
I don’t understand alot of what turns people on, but it’s all good stuff for my visual anthropology studies.
I also get a kick out of telling some prudes about it and and watching their reactions.
For science, of course.
tame. now, licking each other’s eyeballs. eeehh…
HA! licking eye balls is so last five seconds, now licking hyenas now there’s a fetish, it never catches on though…
I think my cat also has this armpit-licking fetish.
Heard once that that’s actually because some people’s underarms smell like mama cats, and so they start nuzzling and grooming like they would with their mother.
Well, we’ve learned that Frigg, our troll supreme, is particularly vulnerable to trolls by MRAs and/or TERFs posing as feminists… not particularly surprising.
Huh. Thank you, I learned two new acronyms today.
Is it just me, or is Frigg wearing one of those old fashioned drawer handles on her chest?
Granny drawers? On Frigg? I can’t handle that.
No, dresser drawers, not undies (when not in her stinky armour, Frigg goes commando, everyone knows that)
That’s known as a gorget; it’s an armor component that protects the neck. Hers looks a bit low, but it is a functional component.
Without it, the neck of such armor becomes a shot/blade trap, with attacks deflecting off of the chest piece straight up into the neck.
Not to start a debate, but this is one of the things that bugs me sometimes. I’ve been in arguments with a feminist or three that usually revolved around what they think all women should be like, and they view any women who thinks differently than them as misled victims of men. For example, apparently women (like my mother) who want to be stay at home moms are just yielding to what men think they should do and don’t actually want anything to do with their kids.
I don’t like absolute statements, especially when they are wrong…
Many, MANY humans define ‘freedom’ as ‘everyone else doing what I think they should do’. The only one with any actual freedom is them, everyone else must be like them or they are wrong.
Real freedom is being allowed to CHOOSE what you want to to do. If you want to be a girly-girl because it appeals to you, as long as its your own choice, go for it. You want to be a girl so manly that you make Randy Savage look like Cindy Crawford, hey, its your choice. Want to be a CEO, more power to you. Want to be a stay at home mom, go for it.
Its about YOU deciding what you want to do (and being able to do, if you can’t pull it off, well, it happens – don’t have to stop trying though). Not men, not feminists who have just as rigid a definition of what a woman should be as the 19th century men they decry. Not your mom. Not your dad. Not your church. You, no one else.
And yes, there will ALWAYS be some ass trying to tell you how to live your life – there is always somebody who thinks they know what’s best for everyone else. Tell ’em where they can stick it, and carry on.
How are they supposed to tell, though? Some people AREN’T free, and some people freely choose to do some of the things that people in the first group do, and some people in the first group claim to be in the second group for various reasons. The world needs people who are eager to help strangers, even at the cost that they’re not always going to get it right. It seems like the polite thing to do is acknowledge their good intentions.
Dear Frigg,
Contrarily to what you insinuate in panel 5, balls don’t get hot. They remain cold. That’s why they’re external, contrarily to ovaries.
Oh snap!
Balls remain suitably warm, thermal regulation permitting.
Also: armor with the necessary undercoat + sun + physical activity? You will drip from the perineum, literally.
they only stay cool if they can drop away from the body. therefore, packed in steel = hot as balls;D
An extension pouch is often woven into the pant fabric, or a style of pants known today as “chaps” may be worn to allow proper lower extension.
The Scotts knew exactly what they were doing.
i thought the scots wore nothing under their kilts;)
Yes exactly.
Really have no idea how to reply to this
Frigg. Keeping it cool.
That’s feminism right there. I do it because I chose to, not because someone else chose for me.
YES! That is what its really about. Too bad many so called feminists (including several of the biggest names in it) don’t seem to get that. And that is why feminism is not a popular word, its still too often about telling women what they should do and be like.
Its why I prefer the term humanism. Respect for all. Everyone getting to choose. Doesn’t matter if you are male or female, gay or straight, white or black, or whatever. Treat everyone with respect, and respect their choices.
I don’t see how this would be a problem with the term “feminism”. There are a lot of so called humanists which are giving humanism a bad name but still it’s a valuable concept.
I only argue because I often encountered the argument “Why not just say humanism instead of feminism?” from people who didn’t even believe that feminism had a real cause. I don’t want to imply you’re one of them.
Respect for all is fine, obviously. But you can claim to do that (and truthfully so) and still discriminate against women. I know I did. (And perhaps, do.)
Partially because ‘humanism’ hasn’t acquired the same level of baggage. For many the term feminism – including many quite strong, liberated, and independent women – has picked up too many negative connotations of women telling other women how to live, and of course outright misandry. There is the additional problem of the word itself is emphasizing one gender, combined with how too many have acted it achieves the unfortunate implication of not being about equality, but instead being about replacing one set of bad behavior with another.
You are certainly correct in that people can say they are one thing and not act like it. One of the most noteworthy is Christians, it is rare to actually find one that actually acts in the manner that Christ taught, but lots of people claim they do. This is not a new problem, when Gandhi was asked about bringing Christianity to India he replied “I would suggest first of all that all of you Christians, missionaries and all begin to live more like Jesus Christ.”
Respect for all people is no different. You can say you have it, and not live it. Of course, the occasional poor choice of words, or ill advised action doesn’t make you a hypocritical bastard either, everyone has off days. Its a question of consistent behavior.
Also related to your point, is that a woman I know – who is definitely not a shy little girl dominated by men (the notion is laughable) – who says that while she cannot identify herself as a feminist, she doesn’t like the term humanist either. Such labels aren’t necessarily helpful, and words are cheap. My mother would probably say that it doesn’t matter what you call it, or what you claim to be, it matters what you do.
First of all, obviously your mother is right. Still I’m inclined to believe that words are important. Words can carry ideas which otherwise would deflagrate without effect.
“Feminism” can be one of those words. It’s the name for a movement (or for many waves of such a movement) that is very important. I’d never argue that humanism is without worth – the opposite is the case. Because I consider myself a humanist I consider myself a feminist, too. But this doesn’t mean that “feminism” as a term is superfluous. Because it points to specific problems which we should look at and try to resolve.
Whoever honestly tries to understand what feminism is about, won’t be fooled (as you weren’t) by the implication of “being about replacing one set of bad behavior with another”. And whoever really wants to help this cause won’t be deterred from the bad example some feminists gave. He*she will instead take to heart what your mother probably would say: It matters what you do. And because it matters to communicate the need for social justice regarding (among a lot of other things) gender, the term “feminism” matters, too.
So … Wheeler thinks that women shavings pits are subjects to men, while those who look like disgusting hairy trolls are feminist.
Can’t feminist be, well, feminists AND have some sense of minding their appearance?
What does shaving pits have to do with patriachy, anyway?
…..I’m a guy. And I sometimes shave my pits. I can braid that shit if I let it go for longer than a few months. Lemmee tell ya. Not a pretty sight.