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Old 08-13-2015, 09:40 AM   #1
Ascot
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She’s wild about me.
 
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Default Betty and Veronica

I'm moving at the end of the month and I keep telling others, likely with the hope that it will actually come to pass, that I am embracing this move as an opportunity to purge a bunch of crap. To date, I've made it as far as the rummaging stage of that process.

The other day I came across two boxes roughly the size that a set of pans might come in. I've not looked in them for eons. Literally years. I remembered them as soon as I saw them and knew that any progress I was making in that moment was going to cease immediately because I had to dig in. Comic books. Tons of comic books that I've had since I was a kid. Most of them date probably to the early 70s. Super heroes (Thor always took himself too seriously for my taste), spookies, some of those weird Classics Illustrated that were actually based on famous literature, a few Caspers (those have to be my little brother's) and Archie. Lots of Archies. I loved the gang from Riverdale High.

Betty and Veronica, and to a lesser extent, Midge, are my earliest memories of exposure to the good girl, not so good girl archetypes. (Please don't let this devolve into something about how they were degrading and set the women's movement back.) I was quite drawn to both of them. I was a baby butch and I loved girls. All girls. Even comic book girls. At 8 or 9 I didn't have the language for it, but I well knew that what I best liked was the contrast between Betty and Ronnie. It felt like loving sunshine and finding nighttime equally appealing. I had a sense that between the two of them, they'd cover all the bases. Had no idea what those bases might actually be at the time, but I was certain they'd be covered. There's no way that having immersed myself in those stories for several years didn't, at least in some small way, inform some of the preferences that would emerge as I matured. Femininity, wholesomeness, edginess, light and dark, playfulness, the sort of mind that keeps on my toes; all attractions that were nurtured when I was quite young. Archie, the lucky thatched haired bastard, got to date both of them. As far as I was concerned, that was the life! The right girl for every occasion.

As I got older I was elated to find that those qualities of which I'd been so fond from so early on could sometimes be found in one person. When I want a partner, I still seek the right woman for every occasion, just in one package. The older I get, the more selective I find I’m becoming. (I prefer that to ‘rigid’) As I’m sure all of us do to one degree or another, I have those non-negotiables, the I-can-work-with-that stuff, the “damn, that would be awesome!” list, the “whoa, didn’t see that coming” willingness, all these things that I love, want and believe I need. I also, finally, have a decent idea of what I bring to the table. With all of that in mind, with decades of life on me, with having known many, many women…even with all that, sometimes, when I interact with a lovely new woman, this little voice whispers from the back of my head, “So whaddya think, bud…is she a Betty or a Veronica?” It’s not the reduction it might seem. I realize I’m engaged with a fully formed, wonderfully complex being. I think it’s simply a nod to the particular template I developed as a kid. At least for me, it’s hardwired.

Anybody else find that to be the case, that your earliest attractions were the foremothers of your current desires? I have a friend who was wild about Natasha from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. I think she’s still seeking her in every woman she dates. Maybe it’s the same for everyone and it’s just on my mind more right now because I’ve been tripping down memory lane with these comics. If you’re willing to share, I’d like to hear your version.
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