Tinder Skitty is a WHOLESOME Comic (That Subverts Toxic Heteronormative Tropes!)
Originally posted to YouTube on Feb 14, 2024.
I’m going to start this video by explaining Pokémon, which I don’t feel like I have to do because, well, at this point, who doesn’t know about Pokémon? The franchise has been around for so long that the kids who are playing the games now are most likely the children of the people who grew up playing the original Gameboy games. It’s become so culturally ubiquitous through the cartoons, trading cards, and merchandise that you don’t even need to have played the games to know what Pokémon is.
But, for the sake of argument, let’s pretend that you don’t.
So, Pokémon. Pocket Monsters. A game where you catch monsters and put them in your pocket.
When the series first premiered with Generation 1, Pokémon didn’t have gender–that is to say the creatures known as Pokémon didn’t have gender. With the notable exception of Nidoran and its evolutionary line, and gender-coded Pokémon like Jynx and Kangaskhan, most Pokémon in the games were essentially genderless. You could catch any Pokémon and give it whatever name or gender identity you wanted. You want to make your Magmar a girl boss and call her Ember? You could do that!
That all changed in Generation 2, which, like Victorian England, introduced the concept of the gender binary. Now the Pokémon you caught could either be male or female, with some Pokémon being only one gender. Better yet, if you left two Pokémon of different genders at the daycare center, if they were friendly enough with each other, they could produce an egg. This opened up a whole world of possibilities through Pokémon breeding, as hatched Pokémon possessed unique stats and moves depending on their parents.
Problem was, breeding Pokémon proved to be a real case of trail and error. With the notable exception of pairing two of the same Pokémon, or pairing a Pokémon with a Ditto, unless you had a guide, there was no way to know which Pokémon were compatible with each other. You just had to drop two Pokémon off at the daycare center, cross your fingers, and see if they produced an egg.
Again, that all changed in Generation III with the introduction of Egg Groups. Egg Groups took the guesswork out of breeding. Now, Pokémon were classified by what other Pokémon they could breed with. As long as they were they same Egg Group, they could make an egg together.
But even then, there were some eye-raising discrepancies. For instance, you’d probably never assume that a Skitty and a Wailord were compatible with each other. After all, they’re a cat and water type Pokémon, so you’d imagine they’d get along as well as, well, a real cat and water.
But while Wailord is part of the Water 2 egg group, interestingly enough, it’s also part of the Field egg group, which is the exact same group as Skitty. And, yes, you can produce an egg from them. People have tested this out. And, as can be expected, this odd pairing has made for plenty of memes.
So, here you have Skitty, a small pink housecat, and Wailord, a whale that weighs approximately 877 pounds. What happens when you pair these two seemingly polar opposites together? Well, you get the webcomic I’ll be discussing: Tinder Skitty.
Created by artist Aaron Schmit, Tinder Skitty is an unofficial webcomic set within a world of anthropomorphic Pokémon. The comic is about a Skitty and a Wailord who hook up over Tinder, start dating each other, and discover that they love each other very, very much.
And that’s essentially the comic in a nutshell. It’s about an odd couple that you wouldn’t imagine getting along well, but not only do they get along well, but they actually love each other–like, a lot! They love each other very, very much. Some comic strips are just them doting on each other and looking cute together. And that’s it! That’s the entire comic. That’s the entire gist of it: short, sweet, and simple!
So what more can I say? Well, a lot. But in order for me to do so, I’ll have to delve into some queer and feminist theory.
That’s right: come for the cute Pokémon. Stay for the socio-political analysis.
Guys, gals, and non-binary pals, the word of the day is Heteropessimism, also known as heterofatalism.
You may not have heard the word before, but if you’ve ever seen a family sitcom or a comedy routine by a middle-age comedian, you’re more than familiar with the concept.
“Hetero-pessimism”, also known as “hetero-fatalism”, is a term coined by writer Asa Seresin in her 2019 article in The New Inquiry.
As The Conversation explains: “hetero-pessimism is an attitude of disappointment, embarrassment or despair at the state of heterosexual relations – specifically about being in one…It’s a pervasive disappointment, ambivalence, if not doubt, about the quality of the lived heterosexual experience.”
Or, as Marriage.com explains more frankly: it’s “the belief that heterosexual relationships are inherently flawed and bound to fail.“
Essentially, we, as a society (mostly in the West) have, for the longest time, recognized heterosexual relationships as the one and only relationship goal that everyone should aspire to, yet, simultaneously and paradoxically, we, as a society, also seem to collectively believe that actually being in a relationship is one of the worst things ever.
Because, you know, men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and thus the sexes are always in eternal conflict with each other, yet you still need to be in a relationship because you won’t be whole without your other half, and yet once you do decide to get married, it will be a miserable experience because your husband will be a lazy slob and your wife will be your ball and chain because–women, am I right, fellas?!
And, like, I get it. Relationships are messy, and conflict is inevitable and makes for great entertainment, but, even then, with the way most heterosexual relationships are overwhelmingly depicted in media, it gives off the impression that these relationships are inherently dysfunctional and toxic–that conflict is less of a bug and more of a feature.
Tinder Skitty doesn’t have this problem. For one, the strips rarely feature any conflict. Just these two lovebirds–or rather, love Pokémon–being cute together. And whenever there is conflict, it’s never between the two characters. Usually the conflict arises from Wailord’s comedically large size or from an outside source, like this creepy Toxicroak.
In fact, the only conflict between these two was in one strip, where they were having an argument…over which one has the cutest face.
Aww! This comic…it’s so wholesome! Just so wholesome!
As such, Tinder Skitty usually avoids the same tired tropes too commonplace in romantic comedies and sitcoms, and when it does implement those tropes, it’s to pleasantly subvert them.
For example, take this strip where Wailord gets hit on by this hot sexy Ninetales. We’ve seen this trope before. Male character gets hit on by other female character, male character flirts back, then his significant other finds out and gives him hell for it.
So, we all know what to expect from this scenario, but thankfully, and quite pleasantly, Wailord does this instead.
Or how about this strip where Wailord decides to let Skitty join his D&D session. We all know what’s coming. Male character decides to let female character join in his personal interest, only for female character to act obnoxious and annoying, and thus the male character learns to keep his personal interests to himself because–men and women need to keep to their own separate spaces, don’t cha know!
And the strip almost goes into that direction. Skitty asks about LARPing and then suggests that everyone wears costumes. Everyone should act humiliated and embarrassed by this, right? Instead, everyone just seems to lean right into it and love it, actually.
And, oh ho, I know where this strip is going. Skitty is learning how to paint nails from a YouTube tutorial. But it’s not her nails she’s painting. She’s painting Wailord’s nails. Oh, this is an old as dirt trope. Female character forces male character to do something girly and feminine, and he’s embarrassed about it because it’s girly and feminine and REAL MEN don’t do girly and feminine unless they’re one of them gays!
But look at Wailord. Look at how much he loves his new nails. He just loves them so much. He is totally into it. His masculinity is anything but fragile. He’s like those fathers who dress up as Disney princesses with their daughters and proudly dance and sing along with them on video.
In fact, despite his comedically gargantuan size, Wailord is far from a toxic masculine stereotype. He is an adorkable himbo, a soft and comfy marshmallow. He is kind and caring, affectionate towards Skitty, completely comfortable with his masculinity, and totally great with children. If you look up “positive masculinity” in the dictionary, you’d probably find his face alongside these other characters under the definition.
In fact, this entire comic strip is pleasantly progressive. Far from giving every single female Pokemon character the exact same standard sexy hourglass figure, there’s a diversity of characters with different body shapes, sizes, and styles, gender and sexual identities, and even physical disabilities. Look at this male Primarina in a wheelchair. He’s a big-named celebrity in a wheelchair and it’s treated perfectly normal, as it should be.
And what’s great about all of this diversity is how natural it all is. There are plenty of LGBTQ characters and they just exist. The artist doesn’t go out of his way to make a big fanfare about them or use them to push some ham-fisted political message. These characters are just here and queer. And that’s all you really need.
In fact, the only strip that comes remotely close to pushing a message is when one of the band members of the Eevee 9 Girls comes out as trans. And everyone supports her. As they should!
This strip is just–mmm!, all of the good stuff. Just all of it.
This is a wholesome comic about a wholesome couple with a wholesome relationship and I love every bit of it. And perhaps the biggest reason I love it is because it’s such a radical departure from how most couples are depicted in media.
One of my favorite tropes are couples who just adore each other un-conditionally. The type of couples who have never left the honeymoon phase of their relationship and just shower each other with love and affectionate. The type of couple who you can just tell by they way they look at each other that they get busy frequently.
In fact, I love this trope so much that I incorporate it into my own work whenever I can.
And, you know, it’s a shame that, for as much as heterosexual relationships have been treated as the status quo, that they’re rarely portrayed in a positive light. And I know most people would argue that portraying relationships as anything but dysfunctional wouldn’t be realistic.
To that, I say, who’s asking for realism in fiction? Besides, can’t you see this is a self-defeating cycle. We need to show couples as being toxic in media because couples in real life are toxic? And since couples are portrayed as toxic in media, we can’t expect anything else in real life? That’s just the capitalist realism speaking. A better world is possible. Healthy relationships are possible. Yes, they’re not always sunshine and rainbows, but they’re also not all storms in a teacup either. Dysfunction doesn’t have to be the norm. The heteros do not need to be upseteros. The straights can be okay.
Maybe I’m just some guy who grew up with parents who hated each other so much that they slept in separate beds in separate bedrooms before the inevitably divorced–I, uh, have issues–but, if anything, we need to see more couples like those in Tinder Skitty. Couples who love each other and love being in love with each other. Because who doesn’t love seeing other people be in love? I know I do.
That’s a long way of me saying I really love Tinder Skitty.
I love Tinder Skitty.
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J.C. Alexandre 