Kuldra got the sass-wiggle goin’ on
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I enjoy seeing common slang in here because it makes me wonder just how that’s being communicated in their subsonic language.
it’s english, just subsonic
oh no, she’s a hummy.
Kuldra’s favorite pastime seems to be “shipping” people, and I think if she could take a pill that would make her human, she’d take it. I think the wig needs a little work though. 😆
Kalgkur has been summoned to see the Trademaster! Does this mean what all the fans want it to mean?
Hopefully, considering how many years Kalgkur has been an unconnected side-plot…
Man, I love Kuldra so much! She’s the most expressive and sassy Baxxid my goodness!
His knowledge of human brain chemistry is slightly concerning.
Also wait how would they know about brain chemistry in this kind of technological era? That’s some pretty advanced stuff, to know that emotions and thoughts are driven by chemical signals.
I feel like this may be a case of accidentally slipping modern language through the fourth wall.
“Her”. Kuldra is very heavily female-presenting.
Sure, by human standards. But the nature of their sexual dimorphism is completely unknown, and there has been, as far as I’m aware, no actual indication as to the sex of any baxxid that can’t be explained as people making assumptions.
And in English, masculine serves as the neutral.
First off, she likely learned every thing she knows about humans from books and stories, as well as frequent interactions from humans.
second, Kuldra is very much female-presenting, and even the author of this comic refers to Kuldra with she/her pronouns. Regardless of the lack of physical gender dymorphism, it’s very clear that Kuldra is (and identifies as) a woman.
third, what ye olde arse dialect are you getting your facts from? Masculine has ceased to be the neutral gender term for a while now, and it never really was since back when it was used in documents, it was used at a time when women didn’t have as many rights as men, and thus men were front and center in everything, with women merely being an afterthought. That’s why nowadays people say “people” instead of men when referring to a group.
Not to mention that in her very first appearance, once of the guards referred to her as “she” and also in english “They/them are what’s nowadays the gender-neutral pronouns.
(god do I wish you could edit posts to fix typos T_T)
I hadn’t considered author comments as a source, and couldn’t remember any instances of baxxid using gendered pronouns when referring to one another. Again, humans aren’t a reliable source as they’re making assumptions; as far as we’re aware the baxxid do not let people know what sex they are.
You say she’s female presenting but she’s just wearing a wig, she’s cosplaying as a human, the indicators she’s wearing are meaningless to the baxxid.
Also it hasn’t even been established that baxxid HAVE a sense of gender identity.
Masculine is still a valid neutral whether you like it or not, and “man” and “men” as a neutral is very much still normal, however afraid governments may be of using them for fear of being labelled various ‘ists’.
Firemen, tradesmen, a few good men, etc.. They have zero gendered connotation, English is a complex language and that usage is sourced from (I think) the germanic roots, where it merely means human.
I made a reply that’s awaiting moderation, probably flagged for all the links I made to pages on this site. In case it remains there in limbo, I’ll sum up: The “Cast” page is a helpful reference when you’re not sure about a character’s gender, and in-character dialogue shows that both Kuldra and Zhretta are known to the public as females, while Kalgkur is known to the public as a male.
Well that’s pretty cut and dry, lol.
On the other hand, I didn’t know if Elder Varakses was male or female until I saw his entry in the “Cast” page, and it doesn’t help that even his own daughter referees to him as “Elder Varakses” here in the last panel, instead of something more familiar like “my dad.” And apparently baxxid children don’t develop any sexually distinguishing traits at all until what I can only assume is something like puberty, so I don’t know what pronoun people would use for them. Finally, of course, there’s Kassen Akoll, who has become less cut and dried than should be possible. 🙃
Kuldra isn’t the only ones to use gender and pronouns, you know. If you do your research, you can see that the baxxid reffer to others using pronouns all the time, even in their subsonic language. Kalgkur has he/him pronouns, Zhretta uses She/her pronouns, He who knows what he did has his fucking gender in his title… the list goes on.
This only adds to why Kuldra, who adores humans, would want to wear a wig. She really wants to have a visible gender despite her biology. She’s very endeared to the kinds of relationships humans have, and with how much the baxxid’s culture has changed thanks to living with humans, than her “human cosplay” should be expected for one like her.
Lastly, I must refute what you say about masculine still being a valid neutral gender. Go ahead and call any woman a man, and you’ll get slapped. No one, and I must explicitly repeat, NO ONE uses masculine as a neutral gender anymore. times have changed. gender is a social cunstruct, our understanding of these things have changed. you don’t say fisherman if it’s a woman, you say fisher. you don’t say craftsman if it’s a woman, you say craftswoman. I could go on, but you need to admit that you’re wrong here.
also crafter if it’s gender neutral. gonna cover my bases here.
firefighter, trader, a few good people… or folk if you prefer… there’s a gender-neutral term for everything.
Well clearly my memory failed me on the way they speak, I recalled them referring to baxxid exclusively by name. And for Kuldra: she fancies the trademaster, so dressing as a girl makes sense in that context; it’s not like physical sex even matters in species so vastly different.
Masculine works best as a neutral when the gender is unknown, when it’s known then it can be a bit weird linguistically.
I would absolutely refer to a female tradesman as a tradesman (also tradesman refers to things like carpentry, not trading FYI, maybe it’s an Australia thing), a female fisherman as a fisherman, “fisher” is such an awkward word that I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually say that.
Firefighter is very common but I doubt you’d find many people who object to fireman as neutral.
I certainly concede that the masculine pronouns as neutral are rare these days, but that doesn’t make them invalid.
But the masculine nouns are very much normal as the neutral.
I’ve never heard people nowadays use masculine for genders that is unknown. you’re the only one I know that would use it. most people still use they/them for unknown genders. YOU’RE the odd one out here. it’s not just uncommon, it’s just completely unused by 99% of native English speakers.
i’ve heard multiple people do it, including zach weinersmith, earning them the hatemail they so dearly crave
it’s so notable that there’s a page on wikipedia called “generic he”, which redirects to a section detailing its usage
this is the wikipedia page i was talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Generic_he&redirect=no
the splitting into two comments is in fear of the spam filter claiming another life
Wikipedia says there are ~1.5 billion people in the world who speak English as either their first or second language, and I doubt anyone is familiar with all the different global varieties of it. Since “they” is plural, “you” is second-person, “it” is impersonal, and “one” seems formal, I’d like to find a different alternative. The wiki page that jan-pi-ale linked to has a big list of suggestions from across the centuries, so maybe one of them will catch on, as “y’all” has been doing across the USA as a second-person plural alternative for “you.” I don’t feel like any single alternative is as universally accepted in English as “on” is in French or “man” is in German.
I swear to god I’m gonna sound like a broken record. I’m talking about NOWADAYS, not last century. Things have changed, especially with how being trans and non-binary is more socially acceptable, and misgendering such people is becoming less socially acceptable. That’s the whole reason why it’s so important to state why this is the way it is now.
“Singular they” has been around for a while; it’s probably best to use if you don’t want to mislead others about a person’s sex, or imply that the generic person is male and females are an exception. It can be confusing in isolation, but the context usually clarifies whether you are talking about one person or many of them (e.g. accompanied by nouns with singular vs. plural forms, or ‘themself’ vs ‘themselves’).
The use of presented gender, rather than sex, to determine language is a matter of debate – in some places it is definitely accepted, in others it is not; people in each think the other an anomaly. In the comic’s case the Baxxid don’t have obvious sexual characteristics, but it might be reasonable to assume that they’re using such accessories to present as the sex that they are, assuming that makes sense anatomically. It may be that they are hermaphroditic or reproduce asexually (unless this has been covered somewhere).
I think you’re being a bit hyperbolic in your estimate. I’d be extremely surprised if you’d actually never heard it used that way, unless you’re like 16 or younger. Most likely you have and have simply never registered it as unusual enough to notice.
And it may also be a hint at something: I have a theory they are actually interplanetary colonists who went through a cataclysm and lost their technology. Either that, or that’s just an underestimation of how well they can understand concepts like brain chemistry: remember that the first western civilization to write down the hypotheses of brain chemistry, as far as we know, was the Romans or Greeks. It’s not a wild guess to see the brain has chemicals.
Field Guide 136, about the “Antiquities,” supports your theory of a cataclysm and dark age, but the baxxids seem to have become civilized only 115 years ago, according to Field Guide 8, so Kuldra’s knowledge of psychology and brain chemistry probably goes back to pre-dark age human knowledge rather than ancient baxxid knowledge. But who knows, maybe the baxxids went through a societal catastrophe that was so long ago they don’t even remember it?
It’s always interesting to see what kind of “hair” and makeup Kuldra will wear next. (: The pigtails kinda suit her.
I feel like this one is the most elaborate by far…
I think this is only the second wig we’ve seen Kuldra wear. Haven’t we always seen her wearing the orange bobbed wig with the red & orange plume in front? This is also more makeup than she usually wears. Maybe she’s dressed for a formal event?
nnnDoes this mean Kalgkur joins the Ivenmoth expedition team and cultural exhange programme?
It dawns on me that as much of a humie weeaboo Kuldra is, we’ve yet to see her directly interact with a human in this entire comic. It makes me curious how well her use of human phrasing and slang comes across when delivered with her non-subsonic hgggrrrr-speech.
…It’s also a pretty good indicator that she’s a genuine admirer of human culture, rather than just doing it to impress or fit in. She has herself decorated like a human (even the tips of her little legs are painted like nails!) and mimics human body language way down below where no humans can see her, implying she’s a true humie weeaboo through-and-through. It makes me believe if Kuldra went through the same test of character Kalgkur did, she would probably go full murder-worm just like he did.