New, Improved! Dykes to Watch Out For (DtWOF, #3) by Alison Bechdel

New, Improved! Dykes to Watch Out For (DtWOF, #3) Reviews

• 
  Katri

  Mitä enemmän hahmoihin kiintyy, sitä enemmän tästä pitää! Vielä yksi albumi jäljellä.
• 
  Scott

  Alison Bechdel makes me laugh out loud. These books always remind me that none of the arguments and debates I have with my friends/family/etc are remotely new - they're decades old (at least). Reject the institution, or infiltrate and work within it? Therapy as elitist self-indulgence, or as a tool of feminist empowerment? At moments, DTWOF makes me think "God, here I am, reinventing the wheel and thinking I'm so cutting-edge and progressive. Ha!"
  
  I've been surprised by some of the trans-ignorance and gender policing that pops up every so often in these books. I guess I missed that when I skimmed these a while back. Maybe Alison Bechdel's shifted with respect to that stuff...
• 
  Amy Layton

  I can't believe I'd never read Alison Bechdel's Dykes, though I'm pretty familiar with her other works.  And, as I always do, I manage to start right in the middle of everything.  Luckily though, this makes perfect sense without having read the previous in the series.  And man, what a great book it was!
  
  Bechdel's style absolutely lends itself to the narrative of this story--the simultaneous simplicity and complexity weaves itself well into the graphic novel's reception.
  
  I couldn't believe how much I identified with Mo...so, saying that, I think this book affected me in ways that I can't quite articulate yet on a personal level.  But, aside from the soul-searching I have to do, I just loved the commentaries on different people and feelings and ethnicities and stereotypes and so on.  I loved the discussion on existing in pro- and anti-lgbt spaces, and the little traditions friend groups and cities partake in.  There's so much to say in the fear of commitment and the want to see absolutely everybody.
  
  Overall, this book, though I can't contest for the rest of the series on account of I haven't read it, does a great job of pilfering through the intersections of homophobia.  I absolutely can't wait to read the rest in this series!
  
  Review cross-listed
  here!
• 
  Salome

  This is the third collection I read so far and it was as hilarious as #2 and #7. She is a national treasure.
• 
  Erica

  This was my first foray into DTWOF. I purchased this book from the sale selection of the lovely queer library I volunteer at...last year? But for some reason never read it. COVID has made it harder for me want to read novels, etc., so I’ve been picking up the unread comics and graphic novels on my shelf. And now I’m wondering...WHY DID IT TAKE ME SO GODDAMN LONG TO READ THIS?
  
  First of all, if we are picking characters we identify with, I AM MO. Overthinking, anxiety, always bringing politics into everything, glasses, gay haircut, CATS. Secondly, the topics covered in these comics are timeless, as we are still having the same internal fights and discussions about how to change the oppressive capitalistic patriarchal white cis male dominated world we live in. I felt a pang or loss reading this as there aren’t many women/queer owned independent bookstores left in the world. THEY MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS!
  
  Third, this was very easy to get in to even though I had never read a collection of these before, and thus, did not know the characters. If you have one sitting on your shelf or find one at your local library, queer or otherwise, please do yourself a favor and pick it up ASAP.
  
  I just checked out “The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For” from my local county library’s online catalog, as COVID has shut down the physical locations, and I am QUITE EXCITED to see how the strip plays out over 20 years.
• 
  Emily

  There is Mo (aka Alison) working in a bookshop, Harriet (her girlfriend) a human rights lawyer, Clarice and Toni, Lois (the serially minded butch), Ginger, teaching right on English at the university and Sparrow, guilt tripping the others in between therapy sessions. Mo’s grievance against the world is not simply an opposition to US militarism, but a concern that her mother hasn’t kissed her since she was seven. Mo has commitment issues. Lois is about to get seriously out-trumped falling in love with someone committed to non-monogamy. Clarice commits the error of having an affair when she loves Toni and Toni wants a baby. Collective living isn’t all it’s cracked up to be – especially when Milkweed comes to visit from a lesbian farm and doesn’t wash the bath. The biodegradable soap powder is called Dinge.
• 
  Andy

  It's such a great feeling to read a book knowing you're going to like it and then liking it. Minor content warnings in the spoilers.
  
  A good book for younger queers to read, especially those born after the 1980s. It's so easy to think of being queer as so ahistorical, so separated from culture and time, that even reading about lesbians in mullets is a kind of unexpected homecoming. It's also a good reminder for baby-queers and young people that our queer theory comes from somewhere.
  content warnings: minor cisnormativity (the phrase "opposite sex" and only once) minor misogyny but from a pain-in-the-ass-character, mentions of sexual assault but just the word, a cheating partner, and a character not getting the aftercare she needs after a one night stand. One of the characters has a lot of anxiety attacks about the environment and politics.
• 
  Ananya Garg

  Another great volume! I love getting to watch these characters develop through the books, I can't wait to read the next one.
• 
  Bryn (Plus Others)

  I'm enjoying the character development, although I do get tired of Mo from time to time -- but then, so does everyone in the strip.
• 
  Skyler

  With a wider focus on various characters than the previous collection, this book feels more like a great sitcom and less the neurosis of a single woman.
• 
  Julia Cretaceo

  I love everything about it!!!!!
• 
  Judith Rich

  This made me laugh - there's quite a lot I can relate to. Mo getting so worked up about the news while it doesn't bother her partner or friends reminded me very much of my husband and me (the other week I literally threw the newspaper across the room, yelling "HOW CAN YOU READ THIS??")
  
  I'm sorry the earlier volumes are so expensive even second hand because I'd like to read them.
• 
  Krisztina

  Holds up! Still in the early stages in this one so drawings not as detailed yet.
• 
  Nine

  While staying with honorary lesbian
  Ste McCabe, I took the opportunity to re-read possibly the only DTWOF book I don't possess myself. These strips are from twenty years ago (!), which rather drives home how much Alison Bechdel's work has progressed since then, in terms of artwork, attention to detail, punchlines ... everything. But, it's still good, because DTWOF has always been a delightful soap opera.
  
  Ste and I discussed which characters we were, and we were both pretty sure that I'm Lois, but there's this bit where Mo has a crisis and hits political burnout, which I relate to a lot. I like it when she wails, "I'm tired of recycling all my bottles and newspapers! Why can't I just throw them out like everyone else?!" And there's the storyline where Lois gets involved with an older woman who already has a primary partner, and feels out of her depth. And Clarice has her affair with Ginger and then proposes to Toni. It's also the one where Mo comes out to her parents, urged to do it by Jezanna because it's National Coming Out Day. If I remember correctly, I think I came out to my own family within a few months of reading it - not primarily influenced by a book, no, but compelling arguments are made in these pages - and in retrospect I wonder if I should've waited longer. But that's a whole other story.
• 
  Eve Kay

  I felt like Bechdel is getting better and better, the only thing that made me not give this five stars is the fact that this was more political and fact based as opposed to funny. To me it is definitely not a bad thing but I was hoping for more laughs for it to make it to five stars.
  Anyway, I was very happy to read about "my gals'" views on for example war and American politics. This book also took a look at marriage and having children from quite a few perspectives, which was good.
  I re-learned about checking you breasts and about how a common cold can affect the wonderful female body, oh! and about pre-menopause. Meaning: I knew all this stuff before, it was just brought to my attention again.
  Thank you for this book Bechdel. I love these women.
• 
  Christy

  I'm losing my hunger for Bechdel's DTWOF at this point. Which sucks, because I was really tearing through her earlier stuff. I'd be thrilled if she'd do some more novels with the same depth as Fun Home. In serial form, fictional, real, whatever. The story lines in DTWOF are a bit too pat, easily predicted and resolved at the moment. :(
• 
  Ricky

  It's amazing to me how similar the conversations are today within the lesbian/queer community as they were in the late 80s in Bechdel's comics. politics, racism, global warming, monogamy, babies, capitalism, internalized homophobia, war, etc.
  still as relevant as ever <3
  and comforting to know people have always been dissenting <3
• 
  Julie Rylie

  so.. another great volume of DTWOF <3
  
  Mo is still in a relationship with Harriet, Sparrow continues on her therapy group sessions, Lois fucks everything she sees, Ginger doesn't get any (lol) but is in a long distance relationship, Clarice and Toni are on the last phase of being pregnant and another character appeared: Thea.
• 
  Matt

  This is where she starts to find her rhythm. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For cut out the plot line about the judgmental, inconsiderate, moralizing Milkweed and all of Mo's resistance to attending therapy.
  
  There's no extended bonus stories in here, but it was still fun to read.
• 
  Imogen

  I was sucked into this one, but not particularly dazzled. K.
• 
  Mel

  Brilliant!