StrucciReads: the girl that can't get a girlfriend Review

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