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Assigned Male
), both are about equal on the shit spectrum. It could also be considered the transgender version of The Boondocks, but whereas The Boondocks manages to be lulzy sometimes, particularly due to the character of Uncle Ruckus, Assigned Male is just a boring soapbox.
"Plot"
—An accurate prediction | ||
[[File:Fat sophie.png|thumb|250px|Assigned Male creator Sophie Labelle in a picture showing what she looks like.
The comic's full title is Assigned Male: The Incredible Adventures of Stephie (who happens to be trans). This is almost totally inaccurate. No "incredible adventures" are ever actually seen (though "incredible" is accurate if one uses the outdated definition of "not credible; hard to believe; unbelievable"), and "happens to be trans" implies that this aspect of Stephie's character is a simple afterthought. Nothing is further from the truth. Assigned Male consists of little more than Stephie and her band of often queer friends regurgitating propaganda that they read on Tumblr in walls of text, using words that no 11-year-old would ever use, and Stephie going on and on about how she's a girl, despite being born with a penis. Much of the comics resemble a pro-transgender outlook. Chick tract.
Labelle often displays only basic knowledge (if any at all) on the issues she attempts to address and the causes she supposedly champions. For example, when she jumped on the "Justice for Leelah" bandwagon in late 2014, she did so by having Stephie say literally one sentence about it: "Who's Leelah?" which is probably exactly what Sophie herself said before doing a Google search five minutes before shitting out her latest comic. Instead of actually attempting to inform the reader about Leelah Alcorn, and how she tragically killed herself by intentionally getting hit by a truck because her parents forced her to act like the boy she wasn't, Sophie just shows how sympathetic and supportive she is by name-dropping her exactly once and never bringing it up again.
The author is also shown to be ill-informed on transgender people as a whole, despite being one herself. She has Stephie undergo hormone replacement therapy and take puberty blockers, seemingly unaware of all of that this could cause (note: Sophie has mentioned Lupron before, so this is the drug we're looking at). One could try to defend this by saying "well, Stephie's 11, she's supposed to be a bit naive," but that's bullshit due to the fact that Stephie's characterization is and always has been that she knows absolutely everything, and no one in this universe is smarter than an 11-year-old girl, and also because there's not even an instance of, say, a doctor appearing to warn Stephie and/or her mother about the potential risks and them deciding to go through with it anyway. There's literally no mention whatsoever that maybe this isn't such a good decision after all, although in the vast majority of cases transitioning is absolutely the correct choice. Stephie's decision to undergo hormone replacement is treated as nothing but positive, despite the comic's purpose being to educate the reader on trans issues. So, either Labelle doesn't know about these side effects, or knows about them and chooses to omit them from the comic because having anything bad ever happen to Stephie would require her to have some actual depth as a character, and we can't have that, now can we? Though, it would be pretty interesting to see Stephie continue her hormone treatment and be affected with such things as "deep muscular and bone ache," "diarrhea and dizziness," "insomnia, anxiety, and depression," "degenerative disc disease," "fibromyalgia," "blood disorders," "AML cancer," and the host of other problems that could come about from her decision to take puberty blockers. If nothing else, it'd finally give her her comeuppance for being such a spoiled little brat, and maybe learning that maybe she doesn't know everything. But of course, seeing as how in this universe Stephie is the Transgender Jesus, that won't happen.
It rivals fellow shitty webcomics CTRL+ALT+DEL and Sonichu in terms of overuse of text walls and Mary Sue self insert main characters, but it's so much worse than either of them due to the fact that it spouts off retarded Tumblrisms in a misguided attempt to educate the reader. The characters are completely one-dimensional. Stephie has no characterization outside of being transsexual, and serves no real purpose other than being the author's mouthpiece to deliver her transgender-sympathizing rhetoric. She is always right, is portrayed as smarter than every single other character in the comic, even medical professionals who have gone through years of medical school, routinely lectures everyone around her about being transgender, and for seemingly no other reason than to fill the Mary Sue quota, is unnaturally strong for a child, being able to lift a large rock with relative ease.
The other characters are just as wooden. Stephie's friends (whom she calls the "Gender Pirates") are each defined more by their gender and/or sexual preference than by any sort of personality. For example, if one were to take away Stephie's transgender identity and Sandro being "non-binary," then the two would essentially be the exact same character. Additionally, they serve no other purpose besides acting as organic receptacles for Stephie's text walls. They are better described as friends of Stephie than by any of their own traits (save, of course, for their gender or sexual preferences). By failing to make Stephie act like a realistic 11-year-old, the comic fails to achieve its stated goal of portraying the issues that trans children, who know near nothing about reality, face in a world dominated by prevailed people. Seeing as how no 11-year-old (or anyone, really) speaks with the same unnecessarily elevated diction as Stephie, it talks down to its audience rather than getting on their level to deliver its messages. The comic is directed at children, whom the author claims to work with, and everyone knows how much children love being preached at and talked down to.
The only character with anything resembling a relatable struggle is Martin, Stephie's father and literally the only non-throwaway character with difficulties accepting Stephie's status as transgender. Especially in this day and age, one could easily read the comic and identify with Martin, who sometimes wishes that his child wasn't transgender at all. However, even he has little characterization beyond this, and is often just used as a straw man for when the author realizes he's gone five pages without having Stephie disprove someone. As Martin slowly begins to cave into the pressure of everyone else around him, he starts to lose his one character trait and as a consequence, he loses much of his prominence as a character as the comic goes on.
At first glance, Assigned Male appears to be a parody of Tumblr feminists and transgender activists. However, upon closer inspection, one will find that Sophie Labelle has an entire online store dedicated to it, and defends it far too much for it to simply be the product of a troll (see "Assigned Male Vs. Criticism" below).
Art
[[File:Assigned Male faces.jpg|thumb|left|250px|An example of the amazing art featured in the comic. Note: Four of these faces are of the same character. Try and guess which ones.]]
Like most webcomics, Assigned Male features art that is rather below the standards of professionally (or even amateurishly) done comics. In what is likely a display of Sophie's poor facial recognition skills, most of the recurring characters share the same four or five faces, and are distinguishable mainly by skin tone, hair, and clothing. Other forms of media with simplistic art styles, such as South Park do this on purpose and even use it for comedic effect on occasion, but it is highly unlikely that the same is true for the creator of Assigned Male who doesn't seem to be able to draw a straight line if his life depended on it. The adults are able to be distinguished from the children only by being taller and the fact that the children tend to have higher foreheads and wider cheekbones. Going by the art style alone, if a midget character was introduced into the comic, there would literally be no way to distinguish them from the rest of the children unless we were told.
As seen in the image to your left, most of the one-off characters are much more distinguishable than the main characters, who all look generic and plain. Animals rarely appear in the comic, likely due to Sophie's inability to draw them. On one occasion, a bird appears on the windowsill of Stephie's house and its wonky face makes it look mentally deficient. Backgrounds are always very sparsely detailed if not just solid colors as though the characters have become trapped in a void of changing colors. While Sophie Labelle has proven herself to be a slightly better artist than Tim Buckley or Chris-chan (by reusing the same two faces instead of just one, mostly avoiding the "B^U" face, and keeping his characters fairly proportioned), her art style is still grades below something you'd see made by a preschooler. Much like the aforementioned, characters rarely if ever close their mouths (this is prevalent amongst the child characters; drawings of Stephie with an open mouth greatly outnumber those of her with a closed mouth), making the comic appear to take place in a world inhabited by stroke victims. Notably, every time someone climbs up on their SJW high horse and delivers a lecture to another character/the reader, their faces get incredibly smug-looking. As if you need another reason to want to punch the characters (or the author) in the face.
One of the comic's most notable artistic flaws is Sophie's inability to position the characters' pupils correctly. Characters having conversations with each other rarely look at one another, and sometimes just appear to be staring off into space as if they've zoned out. Though, given the fact that most of the comic's dialogue consists of transgender-sympathizing text walls, it probably is a common occurrence for characters to just zone out and pretend to be listening as Stephie rambles on for the millionth fucking time about how the patriarchy is oppressing him and his girl penis. Most notable is Hamza's mother, whose default expression is a deer-in-headlights stare which indicates obliviousness to the world around her. In other words, a perfect representation of Assigned Male people who refuse to understand others can be different from them and believe that humanity has to be exactly like them in order to be normal, such as the majority of transphobic people.
Ultimately, everyone in this comic looks like the were made out of sagging, undercooked dough with twigs and buttons stuck to it to create a face, like some sort of Pillsbury snowman. Which might explain why all the characters look like each other throughout the comic, but somehow not like themselves from panel to panel. The art improves ever so slightly as the comic goes on, though overall it's still complete shit. It still looks like something that an infant shat out in about five minutes with MS Paint.
Sophie Makes a Coloring Book
In May of 2015, Sophie Labelle decided to make a coloring book for awful SJW parents to give their kids. Much like Assigned Male this coloring book features a focus on transgender children, as well as terrible art. An odd and unexplained theme in the coloring book is the inexplicable appearance of anthropomorphic alligators in various drawings. It is unknown what, exactly, this is supposed to represent. It could possibly mean that Labelle associates alligators with negativity and oppression. Some pages from the coloring book can be found below in the "gallery section," if you want to judge how it is for yourself. According to some people who actually bought the coloring book, it's printed on shitty, low-quality paper that makes it hard to color on, anyway. Given the fact that SJWs typically want to get the most amount of money for the least amount of work, it's possible (though highly unlikely) that Sophie purposefully used the cheapest, shittiest paper that she could get so that she could make more money.
Characters
- Stephie: The main character, and the author's self-insert. Born as Stephen, Stephie is a spoiled, pretentious 11-year-old transgender child who forces this part of her identity down the throats of everyone she meets. A sufferer of a very severe case of Special Snowflake Syndrome, Stephie wants everyone to know that she's trans, and will mention it any time she can...except for when somebody else says it, in which case, she gets triggered and locks herself in the bathroom, possibly because she's only okay disclosing such a personal part of her identity by her own means. While she is presented as being exceptionally smart and mature for her age, Stephie is shown to be an outspoken kid from the very first comic, when she throws a temper tantrum at the doctor's office after the nurse misgenders her. Also, when debating Kevin, a gay speaker, she literally says "let's pretend I didn't hear that," when presented with counterarguments instead of choosing to educate him. Stephie is also sometimes drawn wearing clothes that are a bit too revealing for someone her age, with bare-shouldered shirts being a common trait.
- Alice: Stephie's mother and the main reason why she's learned to stick up for herself, Alice, left her husband Martin.This was likely added in because Sophie wanted to show not all parents are heterosexual and cisgender. Alice spoils Stephie and bends over backwards to serve her every whim whenever possible. She's friends with a bunch of people in the LGBT+ community, including a gay couple, one of which is a pregnant trans man. It's implied that Stephie's long-winded rants that the comics are centered around are ideas she's heard from Alice.
- Martin: Stephie's father. He's one of the reoccurring characters in this webcomic that don't accept Stephie for who she is. Despite the fact that he is clearly shown to love his daughter and strive to be a role model for her, he is treated as a terrible parent for not believing that an 11-year-old can make up their mind about huge things such as identity, although it's true that many transgender people have known that they were trans since early childhood. Eventually, he sees that Stephie being transgender is not a choice and generally accepts her, though it's somewhat apparent that he doesn't genuinely believe that Stephie is a girl and is still trying to wrap his head around the concept. He later joins what is perhaps the most stereotypical MRA group ever portrayed, but gets kicked out after attending one meeting because he doesn't act like how Sophie thinks MRAs act. Afterward, he pretty much disappears from the comic, having lost his main character trait. After a long absence, he finally came back, but unfortunately still questions Stephie about her identity. Early in the comic, Martin exhibits many stereotypical "deadbeat dad" traits. However, after accepting Stephie as a girl, his appearance becomes noticeably cleaner.
- Sandro/Ciel: Stephie's non binary friend.. A gender nonconforming child Stephie's age that can inexplicably shoot "gender-neutral" laser beams from their eyes in what is otherwise a slice-of-life comic. They gets their ass kicked on a regular basis for being anything other than what's considered "The Norm", but rather than making the comic cool by using Sandro's laser eyes to go on adventures, they just bitch about the "cis-tem" and relies on another transgender girl to fight their battles for them. In one comic, they hurt Stephie by telling a random girl that she's trans, despite the fact that Stephie herself talks excessively about it. This causes Stephie to admit she fears that the girl will now only think of her as "that trans girl," even though Stephie goes as far out of her way as possible to remind people that she's trans at every given opportunity. Much like Stephie, Sandro believes that they are a special snowflake and chooses to identify as neither a boy or a girl, and uses the pronouns "they, their, and they're". They also have a little brother, but he doesn't appear very often so it's unknown if he's anywhere on the queer spectrum, but it's safe to assume that he's a tad too young to think about those topics yet. In one recent comic, they get upset when a woman calls them a boy and says that she bets "the girls are all over him". In a recent comic, they decided that "Sandro" wasn't a good fit for them, so they decided to rename themself "Ciel," because this comic wouldn't be complete without showing the readers it's perfectly okay to change a name you're uncomfortable with. It was revealed in a recent comic that their grandfather gave their mom shit for letting her child act like anything other than what fits a 1940's mindset.
- Lea: Another one of Stephie's friends, and one of the only ones who isn't considered LGBT. Instead, she gets to fill the role of the[token black kid, and that's pretty much it. She has even less characterization than Stephie's other friends and literally serves no other purpose besides being black to make Stephie look accepting (as well as serving as a receptacle for Stephie's ramblings, a role shared by all her other friends). Once white knighted Stephie by yelling at a random innocent man who mistook her for a boy and made Stephie start crying. She was curiously absent from Ciel's "new name party," which included even one of Stephie's nameless cisgender friends.
- Myrick: Stephie's male transgender friend. He was assigned female at birth, but in actuality is a boy. Stephie is hinted to have a crush on him in one early comic, but this plot point never went anywhere, and Myrick slowly began to disappear from the comic as it went on. However, at least 100 years later, Myrick finally began to appear in the comic again, making a nonspeaking cameo at Ciel's "new name party" after they decided that they wanted to be called "Ciel." The plotline of Stephie's crush on Myrick also returned, with Stephie making a half-assed attempt to get him to ask her to the dance, then getting annoyed when he doesn't. Stephie's crush on Myrick is indicative of the fact that, for all her tolerance preaching, she's just as ignorant as she claims everyone else is. She pays no mind to the possibility that Myrick could be attracted to men, or he could not want to be in a relationship at the moment.
- Hamza: A young kid whom Stephie babysits while their moms heads out. However, since Hamza didn't understand at first, Stephie enlightens him in all of one panel and he grew to understand what being transgender really entrails, because listening really does make a world's difference.
- Stephie's other friends: Several other kids who listen to Stephie's rants on a regular basis. They have about the same amount of characterization as Lea, but without the added bonus of being token minorities, or having names. Like all of Stephie's friends, they serve no purpose besides giving Stephie something to preach at.
- Kevin: A gay man who speaks at Stephie's school about tolerance. He's a very minor character, only appearing in two back-to-back comics, but he's fairly important because he's used to show that Stephie isn't above insulting fellow members of the LGBT community. Before he even gets a chance to begin his speech, Stephie starts debating him for no reason, and actually calls him homophobic when he says that Stephie's points make no sense.
Assigned Male Vs. Criticism
The creator of this comic is quickly gaining a reputation as an easily trolled, butthurt person that can't handle any constructive criticism. She once stated in an interview that she believes that all her critics are either trolls, Men's Rights Activists, or "truscum" (a Tumblr word). Sophie seems to believe that she can't have faults and that anyone who dares to criticize her writings are just an uninformed moron or a sexist agent of the Patriarchy. Here are a few examples of Sophie's inability to take criticism:
Assigned Male Vs. Asalieri
In some sort of cosmic alignment of lolcows, the author of this comic and the |infamous Asalieri crossed paths when Asa decided to review this comic in their usual artistic manner.
If you're perceptive then you will notice two things. The first: that this review is utter shit. The second is that this video is a mirror. Yes, the creator of this comic, who is as thin skinned as Asa is overweight, sent false reports to YouTube, claiming that Asa is harassing them. In response, a bunch of people who mirrored it all over YT just to spite the creator of the comic. Asa himself uploaded another video, wondering why the hell it was taken down.
Assigned Male Vs. The Bad Webcomics Wiki
—Bad Webcomics Wiki, describing this comic | ||
At some point, the John Solomon wannabes at the internet shithole called "The Bad Webcomics Wiki" picked up on this little gem and decided to write one of their crappy reviews about it when even the trannys on that site thought that it was a pile of shit. In response, Sophie, proving that he is incapable of handling critique from even the most obscure and disreputable sources online, made an account called "TransphobiaIsNotOkay" and vandalized the review by changing every point of criticism in it to a glowing endorsement. It is important to note that the comic was called bad by one transgender person and the review contained a quote from another saying the same thing. Nonetheless, Sophie removed the quote in his process of blanking because I guess even other transgender people are transphobic.
Although it can't be proven for a fact who vandalized the article, some signs point towards it being Sophie.
Assigned Male Vs. Other Transgender People
Not so much to do with the comic itself, but apparently not even other transgender people are safe from Sophie. She posted on Facebook about how she was kicked out of her local transgender group for "Questioning how another trans-person shouldn't be forced to discuss medical steps in their transition and how non-binary people as well as a trans woman were called 'trannies' during the evening".
Given what we've seen Stephie do in the comic, it's highly probable that what we're seeing in the picture to the right is Sophie whitewashing her actions there. It's far more likely that she got (rightfully) triggered by the implication that transgender people aren't the gender they identify with and lashed out at other trans people for the umpteenth time. Seeing as how they probably had to suffer through these lectures about how "even though trans women have penises, they're not nor were they ever men", they probably finally had enough of her arguing. Seeing as how Stephie is quite obviously Sophie's self-insert, it's very possible that Sophie even called the other people in her group transphobic because, unlike in her comic, they didn't immediately admit defeat and bow down and start worshiping her as their almighty empress. Even from her own Facebook post, it's apparent that Sophie believes that she can tell other people what is and is not offensive. The debate may have been sparked by the fact that some transgender people embrace the word "Tranny", though the majority regard it as extremely derogatory.
Additionally, as mentioned above, Assigned Male is so bad that even other trans people have mistaken it for a parody. Sophie has yet to respond to these people, but if she ever does, you can bet that she'll label them as "evil truscum transphobic members of the patriarchy" just as she does with all her other critics.
TVTropes drama
The folks over at TVTropes decided to get on the fun as well. After someone added Assigned Male to their "So Bad It's Horrible" page, others got mad and called for its removal. The result was a huge debate about whether it was transphobic to include Assigned Male as a horrible webcomic or not.
Rage Quit
Labelle's comic came under fire after use of the words "suck my dick" in a comic, resulting in her getting banned for the day. Labelle was furious and went to twitter to talk about how misgendering someone is absolutely atrocious.
Gallery
The shitty comic
Shitty Tranny Propaganda About missing Pics
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Sophie's coloring book
Sophie's poor excuse for a coloring book About missing Pics
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{{{5}}}
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(Often Offensive)Parodies and edits
Actually Funny Stuff About missing Pics
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Chick Tracts remixes
Copypasta
1984
“Do you remember,” [O'Brien] went on, “writing in your diary, ‘Freedom is the freedom to say that penises are male sexual organs?” “Yes,” said Winston. O’Brien held up his left hand towards Winston, and pointed at his crotch. “What are penises, Winston?” “Male.” “And if trans activists say that penises aren’t male but female — what are they?” “Male.” The word ended in a gasp of pain. The needle of the dial had shot up to fifty-five. The sweat had sprung out all over Winston’s body. The air tore into his lungs and issued again in deep groans which even by clenching his teeth he could not stop. O’Brien watched him. He drew back the lever. This time the pain was only slightly eased. “What are penises, Winston?” “Male.” The needle went up to sixty. “What are penises, Winston?” “Male! Male! What else can I say? Male!” The needle must have risen again, but he did not look at it. The heavy, stern face and hallucinations of biology books filled his vision. A male sexual organ appeared before his inner eye like an urechis unicinctus, weird, blurry, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably male. “What are penises, Winston?” “Male! Stop it, stop it! How can you go on? Male! Male!” “What are penises, Winston?” “Female! Female! Female!” “No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think they are male organs. What are penises, please?” “Male! Female! Male! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop harassing me!” Abruptly he was sitting up with O’Brien’s arm round his shoulders. He had perhaps lost consciousness for a few seconds. The bonds that had held his body down were loosened. He felt very cold, he was shaking uncontrollably, his teeth were chattering, the tears were rolling down his cheeks. For a moment he clung to O’Brien like a baby, curiously comforted by the heavy arm round his shoulders. He had the feeling that the trans activist was his protector, that the pain was something that came from outside, from some other source, and that it was O’Brien who would save him from it. “You are a slow learner, Winston,” said O’Brien gently. “How can I help it?” he blubbered. “How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Penises are male.” “Sometimes, Winston, sometimes they are female. Sometimes sexual dimorphism doesn’t exist. Sometimes they are just a feeling. You must try harder. It is not easy to become a submissive supporter of identity politics.”
The Questionnaire
It's Stephie's first day in middle school, and her new teacher wants all his students to fill out a questionnaire, so he can get to know them before class really starts. Stephie fills out the first few questions easily, her name was Stephie, she was eleven years old, her hair was brown. She stared at the next question: "What's your favorite movie?" It seemed to mock her. She had been stumped on quiz questions before, but never this badly. She skipped to the next one. "What are your hobbies?" Again, she drew a complete blank. Scanning down the page, she found yet more unanswerable questions. "What's your favorite band?" "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "What's your favorite class?" Time was ticking. Most of her paper was blank. Finally, the answers presented themselves to her, grabbing her pencil, she filled each one in quickly. Later, the teacher read over her paper. He didn't learn much about Stephie. In fact, she used the same answer for many of the questions. Placed in most of the blanks were two words: "I'm trans."
See also
- Transgender
- Tumblr
- Manic Pixie Nightmare Girls
- Asalieri
- I Dislike Cis People
- Lizzy the Lezzy- More unfunny SJW cartoon bullshit
- Leelah Alcorn- An innocent transgender teenage girl who killed herself by intentionally getting run over by a tractor who is referenced briefly in the comic
- Billy the Heretic- The White Nationalist version
- The Boondocks
- Chick tracts
- Ahuviya Harel- A noted fan of Assigned Male
External links
The comic on Tumblr
The creator's Twitter (It's all in French)
The creator's Facebook (Again, in French)- The comic's Facebook page
- Sophie Labelle's French blog site
- Bad Webcomics Wiki review of the comic
- The creator's attempted changes to the review
- Another bad review
- Lolcow.wiki article
- Kiwi Farms thread with discussion of the comics and more lulzy edits
- LaBelle uses the font Anti-Hero in his comics. Download it here.
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Assigned Male is part of a series on Visit the Social Justice Portal for complete coverage. |
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Assigned Male is part of a series on Visit the Faggotry Portal for complete coverage. |
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[Read me!]
Assigned Male is part of a series on Webcomics | ||||||||||
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| Featured article May 13th & 14th, 2015 | ||
| Preceded by TheRalphRetort |
Assigned Male | Succeeded by Leoian |
