me arey here Anisha is a Japanese woman
who in her own words draws
autobiographical and fictional butch
lesbians stories of an androgynous woman
in often failed pursuit of an
androgynous girlfriend from the webtoon
description of her comic me arey is an
unfeminine otaku that's only interested
in androgynous women with short hair the
problem is they never liked her back
these are the autobiographical train
wrecks of a single woman who loves women
trying to make hot butch women notice
her will she die single or find the hot
androgynous girlfriend of her dreams
here Anisha makes a lot of blanket
statements and her observations about
dating other women which surprised me
and felt of all off putting it first
but she does go out of her way to not
portray her experience as the end-all
be-all experience in fact while she uses
butch an androgynous pretty
interchangeably which I wouldn't do
personally she makes sure to mark her
personal opinions and experiences as
such and she acknowledges repeatedly in
the comic that definitions vary by
person she also includes the T when
talking about the LGBT community so the
comic does not come across as turfy
either its story is just a specific
person describing a specific experience
and has clearly marked as such versus
some kind of comprehensive explainer on
the universal queer experience which I
would say doesn't really exist I just
wanted to get that out of the way so no
one went in expecting the latter and for
people who really want to avoid anything
that could be interpreted as
essentialist
I really love this comic though the girl
that can't get a girlfriend is super
super funny and endearing it's deeply
self-deprecating without ever being self
pitying or depressing so it's a light
and entertaining read that's relatable
thematically dealing with subjects that
in a different comment could be heavier
or more upsetting romantic frustrations
feeling inadequate struggling with
whether or not it's worth you changing
yourself specifically your gender
expression to be better liked and so on
so far it's also very PG with stronger
profanity censored and it focuses on
these social and romantic aspects of
dating rather than anything explicitly
sexual so it would definitely be
something I'd recommend for people with
certain content sensitivities and for
younger readers in like middle school
which I can't say for a lot of what I
review or read myself even though it's
such a specific experience
and I wouldn't say it should be
extrapolated out to stand in for any
kind of Universal lesbian experience for
me is someone who is not a lesbian I
find it really interesting and at times
informative of a lifestyle I'm not super
familiar with tyranny she being Japanese
also impacts her dating life in ways I
as a white person don't have to deal
with and while it's not a focus of the
comic so far it has come up especially
in jokes journey she draws herself very
simply and draws women she's attracted
to and in almost over-the-top shoujo
manga style to emphasize her own
self-consciousness compared to her
infatuation with these women one of my
favorite panels has the person she has a
crush on drawn as a goddess while she's
drawn as a level 1 cockroach the writing
outshines the art for this comic though
he ranae she uses meme and nerd language
and really blunt and brutal self
deprecation for great comedic effect
without ever coming across like a
trihard phone nerd or speaking in a way
that will date the comic or in a way
that's a downer are self pitying one
thing I really appreciate about the girl
that can't get a girlfriend is often in
media if someone is a romantic loser
you're supposed to relate to its a
down-on-his-luck sis straight guy and
women with romantic problems outside of
like idealized fantasy romantic comedies
are portrayed as really really pathetic
and weird and unattractive irony she
walks the line of brutal self
deprecation beautifully where she does
all these sad and embarrassing things
but never in a way that evokes disgust
but rather in a way that's relatable and
endearing and she usually circles back
to self love and the deliberate choice
to forge your own path and stick to your
preferences and beliefs regardless of
failing being made fun of or having
trouble finding a partner and does so
without being saccharine or cliched
because she's so brutally
self-deprecating the warm moments in the
comic actually feel earned rather than
contrived I know for me personally I
used to get a lot of pressure to grow my
hair out or wear makeup or otherwise be
more feminine to express myself in a way
that I didn't like and that made me
uncomfortable and just sacrifice the
comfort in exchange for being perceived
as more conventionally attractive and
more desirable to straightenin
specifically but also just generally to
anyone and I'm glad I never did it
because I know I would have just ended
up resentful about it and would have
hated it similar to how certain people I
knew in high school suddenly and
mysteriously giving me a lot more
attention after I lost weight in college
just made me feel weird and upset rather
than flattered it isn't a nice Hirt
rewarding feeling to know that someone's
interest in you was superficial and
official interests are interested me
based on me portraying myself in ways I
don't really feel comfortable portraying
myself or two things I do not try to
cultivate or feel good about when I do
cultivate them I won't spoil it but
there's a whole plot thread in the comic
about hearing AG going through similar
as far as struggling with preferring an
androgynous appearance and I enjoyed it
and appreciated it a lot I haven't had a
lot of the same dating or life
experiences as she has but I definitely
relate to the struggles of
self-expression and weighing the
sacrifice of authenticity to be liked or
or be considered conventionally
attractive that she explores in the
comic bruni she says in her patreon
comic that she's choosing to self-fund
and self-published through patreon
because most publishing companies aren't
interested in what she writes she says
they want to market their comics to
street men and straight men expect more
feminine women and their gay lady comics
so she's very deliberately working on
her own to bridge that gap which again
though her dating and general life
experiences vary a lot from mine and
some of her views differ from how I view
gender and sexuality and dating
conceptually I think that's really
really cool I love this comic and it's
super fun to read and I support here in
AC on patreon because I believe that one
shortcut to having more sustained
marginalized voices telling their own
individual unique stories is to support
them directly financially if you're able
or if you're not able which obviously is
totally understandable
just with stuff like retweets and
encouraging comments the comic is really
short now it's only three chapters long
so it wouldn't take very long at all to
catch up and keep up with her releases i
also suma pyrenees she made enough on
patreon she could maybe quit her day job
and make more comics so if you like the
comic check out her patreon if you want
to read a comic that is still uplifting
and sweet but that is darker and deals
much more with mental illness my lesbian
experience with loneliness is another
excellent autobiographical comic you
should check out I considered also
reviewing it for this video but I
haven't read the related comics that
came out after by the same author and I
figured I should do a video on all that
at once instead so I'll probably with
all the other stuff that I plan to
review I'll probably add that to the
pile thank you for watching I know this
is a shorter video but there isn't a
time to talk about for a webcomic that
is just three chapters long and I
couldn't find any like interview clips
with the author or anything else to add
to it but I really did feel like this
was worth talking about and just how
brutal and
it was and I can't promise I'll always
check them out but I'm always open to
recommendations for stuff like this
like weird funny obscure niche comics or
video games or anything like that I
don't even remember how I found this
comic I think it just showed up on my
Twitter or something so if you have
something like this or something else
that's different that you would like to
recommend feel free to put it in the
comments or tweet it at me at plenty of
alcoves or anything like that if you
enjoyed this video please consider
supporting me on patreon I also have the
cofee if you want some information on a
queer webcomic that is not light and
Goofy and pg-rated check out my review
for a feast for a king thanks