Skip to content

Webcomic Header

19 Comments

“It’s home.”
“It’s… possessions?”

If this is possessive, no apostrophe.

—————

So, evac and debriefing time? I’m sure these actions didn’t go unobserved by others—given the coverage of spy satellites and drones. There are always eyes watching.

Also, how is our guardian faring?

Regarding spy satellites and drones remember we are talking about Shiden and his gynoid army.

Android is the preferred term. Gynoid is a rather specific term and a lot of its uses involves sex doll androids. So you have android- which just means humanoid robot, and you have gynoid, which means female humanoid robot often used as a sex toy, and that just isn’t what the androids are. You might argue its official definition has nothing to do with sex toys, but strict definitions aren’t how we use language. Gynoid is a step above “Fembot”, and in general, android is just a better term for the android girls of Yosh. That and I am personally sick of people trying to tell me I have to call them Gynoids and not androids which is beyond silly to the point that every time someone comments Gynoid I make a big post about it! 😛

It’s definitely a confused issue. The average person has no notion of “gynoid”, despite it being the (not talking about your comic) accepted term for female-presenting robot and “android” for male-presenting robot.

The names derive from the prefixes “andr” and “gyn”, and you’ll see them in a lot of other places in English:
Polyandry (multiple male partners)
Polygyny (multiple female partners)
Gynecology (women’s health)

The argument about these is made yet more complex given history’s naming nomenclature tended to consider male to be the default sex (yeah, I know that’s silly), and hence android became the default word for robots that looked like humans.

———

That said, it’s interesting to have some insight to the worldbuilding you’ve done on this. I could totally see one of the girls taking offense to being called a gynoid by someone, thinking that it somehow objectifies her.

As I’ve said before, it is completely untrue that Android is for Males thanks to the context it has been used for for literally hundreds of years. So you have “Android” which has no specific gender and you have gynoid which has a specific gender. It’s like if i say “Hey, can you hand me a Kleenex?” and your response was “No, because Kleenex is a brand name that makes facial tissues, what you want is a facial tissue. I can’t hand you a name!”. So my response to the whole thing is similar- “Yes I know what a Gynoid is, I don’t like the term, everyone knows what an android is and it’s not wrong to call them that!” I do not accept “gynoid” as the “accepted term” to describe my androids because in the same way that history and context proves android is used for both sexes, Gynoid is 1 – not nearly as cool sounding as android! and 2 – Often used to refer to “sex bots” which undermines the characters as individuals who can be whatever they want and not just be what the word limits them to.

Now, if in the future all the kids are talking about how cool Gynoids are and how it’s such a cool word and it isn’t stigmatized with all the cyberpunk and scifi fembots made to service peoples sexual fantasies- then maybe Gynoid will be appropriate – but I am sick of people telling me I should be calling them Gynoids when it doesnt make sense, it’s not a good name, It’s not well known as a term at all for most readers leading to unnecessary confusion, those who do look it up then comment everywhere with a female robot and tell them they need to use the term Gynoid now, and it is stigmatized. The Cons are overwhelming for such a pointless distinction.

I get really tired of people saying its wrong to call a female android an android, when every definition of android is without gender bias in the same way that I can call everyone “man” or “dude” or “guys”. I’m not being insensitive to gender, if someone prefers for me to call them something else I will try but i dont use those terms with a gender meaning. Man in our language is synonymous with human, dude is just a familiar way to refer to someone, and guys is an all inclusive term to refer to a group regardless of their genders. I’ve had far more people complain about my use of “y’all” than calling a bunch of female people and one male – “Guys”.

I’m not angry or anything, so please don’t feel like I’m attacking you, Like i said before- every time this comes up- this is what I have to go through. I’m considering seeing if I can just auto-spam filter the term Gynoid so if anyone says it- their comment just never goes live and I can ignore it. People think they are educating me, but instead they just keep giving me the same wrong information over and over telling me to change what’s not wrong. Besides… What if there is a male android in Shiden’s army? Doesn’t seem possible right? But they’ve been shown to modify themselves before! New eyes, different systems, some even swap bodies. No one will ever know though because 1- I don’t do full nudity, and 2 – there’s no situation someones sex needs to be physically shown. Any jokes based on sex reveal is usually in pretty poor taste or like no one would care. If an android in Yosh were to correct Phil saying “Actually im a guy” Phil wouldnt freak out and start coughing and question his manhood- he would just be like “ok, cool.” I don’t think I have any characters that would be insensitive enough to even try to turn that into a joke. Even Blue…

The term Android, a mobile robot usually with human form and is not gender biased, has been in use for almost 300 years whereas the term Gynoid (oh hey spellcheck knows it’s not accurate) was invented only 40 years ago the word Gynecoid (spellcheck again) which means typical or characteristic of the human female has existed for just over 100 years.

So in short the word gynoid is stupid, offensive, and has no reason for existing other than someone wanted to feel special (Gwyneth Jones).

Also Sage this post in not meant for you but hey it’s your site and your comic so if you read this please do what you want just know I’m on your side.

To ask a silly question – how did the lost-language-talking-girl suddenly become fluent in English? I get that it sounds like Death is now working ‘with’ her on at least a temporary basis, and it certainly makes things convenient and jokes like these possible, but it seems almost a bit too easy to be overcoming that particular barrier.

Also whatever happened to the communication drone Shiden had left on the island? Unless the Twins destroyed it, shouldnt it still be around and hence a way to call home?

Drone bit it in the battle up top- but it wasnt vital enough to share it’s fate when so much else had to be taken care of. As for Death- I was hoping everyone would realize that with the magic personas are sharing the language with them since they are functioning together.

While I very much saw what you were going for, within the last few pages there was still a strong enough division between Life/Death and their ‘hosts’ that it didnt seem like that kind of cooperation was already taking place – doubly so because of how it’s been stressed that Life and Death aren’t like the other Magi. Even the previous page had split conversation between Life and its host, so jumping from that to Death’s host speaking clear English is a bit of a transition. Granted Death seems to be the more cooperative twin at the moment, and has had a few minutes’ more time with Phil to shake up her equilibrium.

In the grand scheme of things it’s a minor quibble and not very important, but it caught my attention all the same.

Leave a Reply to DamagedCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar