feel like it’s way too judgemental to say a teenager going thru a horribly traumatic moment is “going full psycho mode” and comparing them to their awful parents. I think beth already made it clear that her feelings regarding jeordie are too messed up for her to handle being around him and that can’t be fixed right away. knowing this and acting accordingly is one of the more mature things beth was trying to do here. it might suck but jeordie’s just not the person she needs now.
I don’t totally blame jeordie for following beth, considering the state she’s in, but this can’t help her mental state at all. probably would’ve been better for him to recognize that she’s already in a house with people who can actually help her and to leave it for now. but he’s also a teen and this is a hard position to be in so I can’t be surprised he didn’t act perfectly.
I honestly have to disagree I don’t think any of her actions to this point have been mature. It’s been a mix of her insecurities and her self hatred complex where she projects her own self hatred onto others. She assumes any care shown to her is fake or control. Jeordie offered to get help from his mom for her and she yelled at him, he’s breaking his parents strict curfew to look for her and see if she’s okay and she accuses him of always having to be liked. He’s trying his best with someone determined to see nothing but bad in him.
Or maybe it’s not all about him, and what she’s determined about is getting away and he’s not letting her.
These are two kids. Two basically good kids. Both immature and making a lot of clumsy and damaging mistakes, even when they have good intentions. Because they’re kids. No need to be calling them psycho or “her mother’s daughter” or the other really harsh judgments I’ve seen.
One of the things that makes Gladys such a bad parent is how insistently she passes judgment on her kid, reads the things she does in the very worst light, and boxes her into some prebuilt narrative. We’re just readers and not these fictional character’s parents but still. Why do that?
Let’s remember to be kind when there are real teenagers and children who do go through the rough stuff that we can’t see. While the behavior might seem “annoying” to some, this is a cry for help, even if Beth doesn’t realize it. Lots of teenagers fall through the cracks, especially in a system where most of us would prefer to turn a blind eye and pretend nothing’s wrong and would find behavior like this annoying. Beth is an example of adults failing her. She’s acting out because she doesn’t know what to do. She’s stuck in a situation outside of her control and she’s lashing out at others and expressing her self-loathing because it’s all she knows how to do.
I’m also speaking as a teacher for 10+ years who HAS seen this kind of behavior in teenagers. Thankfully this comic is a work of fiction and not real, but let’s just remember to be kind to kids who do go through hell.
i agree 100% with you MonkeyThief and i don’t know why everyone is treating beth as if she’s real. nobody is saying anything that they’re necessarily applying to actual kids because beth is fictional. and even if she were real, she has been nothing but an absolute jerk these last few pages and just because she’s going through traumatic stuff doesn’t mean she isn’t being a huge dick about it. the thing is that trauma doesn’t justify being awful to everybody – it’s a reason, not an excuse. you can have sympathy for someone lashing out and still realize the best thing to do is distance yourself from them. just because someone is in a troubling situation doesn’t justify their bad behavior.
we see her mom is between a rock and a hard place in her shitty marriage but we can see how it doesn’t justify how she treats beth, so the same is true of beth (and i don’t care if beth is a teenager because sometimes people seriously infantilize teenagers when they, too, can be really malignant and terrible people to be around just like adults can be). i love the drama of it all but it does get tiring to see beth be so self-pitying, toxic and cruel to jeordie and anyone who cares about her. that’s how you wind up alone.
I also dislike how folks are treating Jeordie as if he’s an adult and fully aware and not just a dumb teen like Beth. Like I don’t get the logic of it. Beth is a silly teen with feelings so we should pity her but Jeordie should know better somehow? He’s concerned for a friend and neither are handling any of this well.
it’s really fun to read a comic like Rigsby, WI with really genuine & compassionate portrayals of how people are and act and are messy – to see you in the comments calling a teen a “full psycho”. It feels like a strange way to engange, but I guess there’s all types. In the future, I would love it if you’d tone down the ableism. if i wasn’t being nice i’d say go fuck yourself for that one.
And I’d like it if people toned down the adultification of Jeordie and infantilization of Beth. Do you know why I call Beth a psycho? Because she’s acting like her mother in that she’s taking out her frustration and her difficult position on someone who genuinely cares just via proximity. Just like her mother yelled and took it out on Gladys Beth is taking it out on Jeordie even tho, as Jeordie rightfully pointed out to Anna, he is having a serious identity crisis on his own sexuality and spent all that time with her just for her to throw it in his face like he doesn’t care. Also really disrespectful to play the ableism card when you know nothing about someone.
I actually think that Jeordie following her shows a great deal of care as her friend. Despite her aggravated state, he saw that she was physically injured and walking alone in the snow at night. He gave her the freedom to make the walk herself, but followed quietly behind to be there in case of any given danger between point A and B.
I don’t even disagree with you on Jeordie, so I’m not sure why you brought it up? It’s like, a good point to make on how commenters (though explicitly not under this page) treat him, but it’s not related to calling Beth a psycho. That said, “play the ableism card”. Jesus you’re not worth talking to, and I’m sorry I tried.
I’ve been SO perplexed by the folks who think Jeordie was just supposed to let his hurt friend, who he thinks is at risk of further hurting herself, just run away on a cold snowy night, with no idea of where she was going.
Anyway, hoping the best for all of em <3
Jesus she’s going into full psycho mode and putting all the blame for everything on Jeordie. She really is her mother’s daughter.
feel like it’s way too judgemental to say a teenager going thru a horribly traumatic moment is “going full psycho mode” and comparing them to their awful parents. I think beth already made it clear that her feelings regarding jeordie are too messed up for her to handle being around him and that can’t be fixed right away. knowing this and acting accordingly is one of the more mature things beth was trying to do here. it might suck but jeordie’s just not the person she needs now.
I don’t totally blame jeordie for following beth, considering the state she’s in, but this can’t help her mental state at all. probably would’ve been better for him to recognize that she’s already in a house with people who can actually help her and to leave it for now. but he’s also a teen and this is a hard position to be in so I can’t be surprised he didn’t act perfectly.
I honestly have to disagree I don’t think any of her actions to this point have been mature. It’s been a mix of her insecurities and her self hatred complex where she projects her own self hatred onto others. She assumes any care shown to her is fake or control. Jeordie offered to get help from his mom for her and she yelled at him, he’s breaking his parents strict curfew to look for her and see if she’s okay and she accuses him of always having to be liked. He’s trying his best with someone determined to see nothing but bad in him.
Or maybe it’s not all about him, and what she’s determined about is getting away and he’s not letting her.
These are two kids. Two basically good kids. Both immature and making a lot of clumsy and damaging mistakes, even when they have good intentions. Because they’re kids. No need to be calling them psycho or “her mother’s daughter” or the other really harsh judgments I’ve seen.
One of the things that makes Gladys such a bad parent is how insistently she passes judgment on her kid, reads the things she does in the very worst light, and boxes her into some prebuilt narrative. We’re just readers and not these fictional character’s parents but still. Why do that?
Let’s remember to be kind when there are real teenagers and children who do go through the rough stuff that we can’t see. While the behavior might seem “annoying” to some, this is a cry for help, even if Beth doesn’t realize it. Lots of teenagers fall through the cracks, especially in a system where most of us would prefer to turn a blind eye and pretend nothing’s wrong and would find behavior like this annoying. Beth is an example of adults failing her. She’s acting out because she doesn’t know what to do. She’s stuck in a situation outside of her control and she’s lashing out at others and expressing her self-loathing because it’s all she knows how to do.
I’m also speaking as a teacher for 10+ years who HAS seen this kind of behavior in teenagers. Thankfully this comic is a work of fiction and not real, but let’s just remember to be kind to kids who do go through hell.
i agree 100% with you MonkeyThief and i don’t know why everyone is treating beth as if she’s real. nobody is saying anything that they’re necessarily applying to actual kids because beth is fictional. and even if she were real, she has been nothing but an absolute jerk these last few pages and just because she’s going through traumatic stuff doesn’t mean she isn’t being a huge dick about it. the thing is that trauma doesn’t justify being awful to everybody – it’s a reason, not an excuse. you can have sympathy for someone lashing out and still realize the best thing to do is distance yourself from them. just because someone is in a troubling situation doesn’t justify their bad behavior.
we see her mom is between a rock and a hard place in her shitty marriage but we can see how it doesn’t justify how she treats beth, so the same is true of beth (and i don’t care if beth is a teenager because sometimes people seriously infantilize teenagers when they, too, can be really malignant and terrible people to be around just like adults can be). i love the drama of it all but it does get tiring to see beth be so self-pitying, toxic and cruel to jeordie and anyone who cares about her. that’s how you wind up alone.
I also dislike how folks are treating Jeordie as if he’s an adult and fully aware and not just a dumb teen like Beth. Like I don’t get the logic of it. Beth is a silly teen with feelings so we should pity her but Jeordie should know better somehow? He’s concerned for a friend and neither are handling any of this well.
it’s really fun to read a comic like Rigsby, WI with really genuine & compassionate portrayals of how people are and act and are messy – to see you in the comments calling a teen a “full psycho”. It feels like a strange way to engange, but I guess there’s all types. In the future, I would love it if you’d tone down the ableism. if i wasn’t being nice i’d say go fuck yourself for that one.
And I’d like it if people toned down the adultification of Jeordie and infantilization of Beth. Do you know why I call Beth a psycho? Because she’s acting like her mother in that she’s taking out her frustration and her difficult position on someone who genuinely cares just via proximity. Just like her mother yelled and took it out on Gladys Beth is taking it out on Jeordie even tho, as Jeordie rightfully pointed out to Anna, he is having a serious identity crisis on his own sexuality and spent all that time with her just for her to throw it in his face like he doesn’t care. Also really disrespectful to play the ableism card when you know nothing about someone.
Alice*
“Psycho” is an ableist slur.
I actually think that Jeordie following her shows a great deal of care as her friend. Despite her aggravated state, he saw that she was physically injured and walking alone in the snow at night. He gave her the freedom to make the walk herself, but followed quietly behind to be there in case of any given danger between point A and B.
I don’t even disagree with you on Jeordie, so I’m not sure why you brought it up? It’s like, a good point to make on how commenters (though explicitly not under this page) treat him, but it’s not related to calling Beth a psycho. That said, “play the ableism card”. Jesus you’re not worth talking to, and I’m sorry I tried.
Ah that was supposed to go to Monkeythief one up. My b!
I’ve been SO perplexed by the folks who think Jeordie was just supposed to let his hurt friend, who he thinks is at risk of further hurting herself, just run away on a cold snowy night, with no idea of where she was going.
Anyway, hoping the best for all of em <3
Respect for writing unstable teenagers realistically. Nights can 100% spiral out of control like this.