Grace Lavery / Joseph Lavery & Daniel M. Lavery / Mallory Ortberg - "Straight with extra steps" couple trooning out to avoid "dwindling into mere heterosexuality"

[Aunt Carol]

Im never sure with Mal. Is she martyr type looking to throw herself into a cause (be it transgenderism, Joe, or hard work) or is she a masochist trying to punish herself for some fundamental unhappiness.

Activity aide is not hard work; the hours are roughly 9-5, you don't lift and you don't wipe. The worst that'll happen is if your coworkers or residents are mean/cliquey, and she's already weathering The Bingo Criticism. Well, maybe she'll lose a mirror trying to parallel park the short bus, or catch norovirus, but she's not going to work straight 16s or throw her back out.

This is just low-paid work. If @Potatis Salad is right that it's an ALF, the real game-changer is how Mal handles getting positive interactions with IRL people (not ironic people who live in the computer) and potentially sees some of them as parent-replacements.

 

[monstrous bubo]

She can spin it to online people as romantic under-employment, like Kafka at the patent office

I believe he was an insurance lawyer, but yeah, point taken.

Either way it's hard not to feel sorry for the girl

It really isn’t. Mal is absolutely getting something out of this arrangement, and is prepared to sacrifice her dignity and financial stability for it.

and potentially sees some of them as parent-replacements.

That is such an astute observation. Her entire schtick is self-infantilising, and surrogate parents / grandparents would only reinforce that. I wonder how all that could play out if she gets too close to one of the old folks. Of course, she might not be able to engage in too much crossing of boundaries if the old folks’ transphobia is too much. At least she could Chatner that shit, whichever way it goes.

 

[Trianon]

I love the Bingo arc. I think that is exactly the level of obstacle that Mal can endure and overcome. And I would read a book about it.

 

[Autistic Nonetheless]

drive away dolls waiting for meds

Standing in line for your mood stabilizer prescription. So Berkeley. So chic.

 

[Zemblan Physics]

I think ”Lala” is the worst person in this throuple. She’s even more annoying than Joe. She actually went into this très edgy situation willingly.

And just look at that pose. The tongue made me cringe so hard I almost became hypoxic.

Edited retardation

 

[Bookwork]

All but Rocco had a choice. Many times.

 

[Diana Moon Glampers]

It's going to turn out to be progesterone to maintain an early pregnancy, after she had one that didn't take earlier in the year.

 

[Constellationzero]

I think ”Lala” is the worst person in this throuple. She’s even more annoying than Joe. She actually went into this très edgy situation willingly.

And just look at that pose. The tongue made me cringe so hard I almost became hypoxic.

Edited retardation

Agreed one thousand percent. I absolutely laugh my ass off at Sideshow. Come here often to see his cOoKinG and think of Kitchen Nightmares. Mallory, I'm indifferent.
But the whore just legit pisses me off. And she drags a child into this on top of it.

Also--I know it's subversive and edgyand wrong--but why doesn't Sideshow just marry this ugly whore and let Mallory go? CLEARLY he prefers the whore's company going by all the photos (many with no Mallory in sight). He's ALREADY dwindled into MERE heteronormativity anyway.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

Agreed one thousand percent. I absolutely laugh my ass off at Sideshow. Come here often to see his cOoKinG and think of Kitchen Nightmares. Mallory, I'm indifferent.
But the whore just legit pisses me off. And she drags a child into this on top of it.

Also--I know it's subversive and edgyand wrong--but why doesn't Sideshow just marry this ugly whore and let Mallory go? CLEARLY he prefers the whore's company going by all the photos (many with no Mallory in sight). He's ALREADY dwindled into MERE heteronormativity anyway.

1. Because Mallory brings in money and serves as a free live-in housekeeper/nanny.
2. Because then they'd be a married straight couple with a kid and we can't have THAT.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

but why doesn't Sideshow just marry this ugly whore and let Mallory go? CLEARLY he prefers the whore's company going by all the photos (many with no Mallory in sight). He's ALREADY dwindled into MERE heteronormativity anyway.

Because getting these “modern feminist” women to live in a harem to take care of him, and his male progeny, is what makes it so special for Joe.

Joe’s life hack was putting on a dress and publicly lusting after cock. Mallory and Lilly finally feel like they got upgraded from fag hag status. They think a gay man finally fell in love with them.

 

[Bookwork]

Gotta think that Joe and Lily expected Mallory to run crying from the marriage during the Brooklyn sojourn (after Joe spent her house and Substack money), but she hung on like a deer tick, relieved not to be guilted into orgies anymore.

"Yeah, you two take the big bed and when we three aren't cuddling, I'll sleep on a cot in the little room with my adoring puppers."

"Lilz is preggers, Danny."

"Oh." Chokes back sob. "Ummm, wonderful! Ummm, I'm the daddy then! I'll start cleaning right now!"

 

[Anasa Tristis]

I promise you that I'm aware of that.

Just observing yet another way in which Mal - woman-boy, legal wife, inexplicably successful published author, wet nurse and breadwinner all at once - continues to be blissfully unaware of the degree to which she is being humiliated while her husband plays house with the mistress and their illegitimate child.

She’s aware and revels in it. Masochism 101.

genuinely: good for her.

Getting outta the house and caring for elderly normies helps offset the effects of the psychic vampirism she experiences constantly at home. It’s a much better move for her than being the Manny.

Is she a martyr type looking to throw herself into a cause (be it transgenderism, Joe, or hard work) or is she a masochist trying to punish herself for some fundamental unhappiness.

She’s both.

the real game-changer is how Mal handles getting positive interactions with IRL people (not ironic people who live in the computer) and potentially sees some of them as parent-replacements.

Exactly. It’s quite possible that the new job could change everything for her. Or it’ll serve as a new exquisite torture.

I think ”Lala” is the worst person in this throuple. She’s even more annoying than Joe. She actually went into this très edgy situation willingly.

Absolutely. The former PMC academic fangirl is now a stunning and brave artistic revolutionary herself. She’s living la vita iconoclasta, basking in Genius Joe’s aura with his gurgling baby on her hip. She’s also getting a cut of his online notoriety and adoration too. And then, last but not least, there’s the delightful experience of having a live in whipping girl who also minds their baby and keeps the kitchen tidy. Life is quite grand and exciting for LaLa these days. She gets to be Mistress, Mother, and Monster without shame or consequences. For now.

 

[monstrous bubo]

I think ”Lala” is the worst person in this throuple

Absolutely

The magic of the throuple is that each one of them is arguably the worst. For mine, Lala is the least offensive: she has a relationship with her mother, didn’t smear her family as pedophiles, published the best book of the three, and doesn’t spout nonsense online.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

The magic of the throuple is that each one of them is arguably the worst. For mine, Lala is the least offensive: she has a relationship with her mother, didn’t smear her family as pedophiles, published the best book of the three, and doesn’t spout nonsense online.

I don't know, can anyone truly claim that Mal is the worst? She's just pitiful, annoying, and frustrating, not openly malevolent like the other two. And I continue to firmly plant myself in the "Joe is a spousal abuser and belongs in prison" camp.

 

[It's Little Alex Horne]

I don't know, can anyone truly claim that Mal is the worst? She's just pitiful, annoying, and frustrating, not openly malevolent like the other two. And I continue to firmly plant myself in the "Joe is a spousal abuser and belongs in prison" camp.

Idk, I'd say she was pretty malevolent when she publicly accused her brother and father of being pedophiles.

 

[monstrous bubo]

not openly malevolent like the other two

She publicly smeared her brother and father as child rapists, despite a crushing lack of evidence, and promoted the claims of a total schizo that her dad was a rapist of adults. Apart from trashing her birth family, her writing can often sneer at the simple folk. Finally, as Dear Prudence she gave advice which often required total condemnation of others for political differences. All of this is documented in this thread. She definitely has a mean streak.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

She publicly smeared her brother and father as child rapists, despite a crushing lack of evidence, and promoted the claims of a total schizo that her dad was a rapist of adults. Apart from trashing her birth family, her writing can often sneer at the simple folk. Finally, as Dear Prudence she gave advice which often required total condemnation of others for political differences. All of this is documented in this thread. She definitely has a mean streak.

Fair enough, she seems to have chilled a bit in recent years.

 

[Constellationzero]

They think a gay man finally fell in love with them.

Did not think of that.

caught me off guard.

Now...

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

Did not think of that.

caught me off guard.

Now...

I think acting the artsy gay literary guy to attract these type of women has been Joe’s schtick his entire adult life.

He would obviously been treated as a fag by other boys in primary school, simply for being weak and effeminate. Buggery was tradition for English school boys anyway, so I’m sure more powerful or assertive gay men used Joe for convenient sex sometimes from adolescence onwards.

At uni most would have assumed he was gay, but he would have not rank well among gay men. He’s just not attractive and gay men value aesthetics over everything. He’d have to be far wittier, smarter and charismatic (or rich) for gay men to overlook his physical shortcomings.

However, an ugly gay man can be, and are, wildly popular among bookish, artsy, dowdy, etc…women. This has been true for a long time but x100 moreso in the last twenty years with the explosion of gross yaoi and tumblr degenerates.

 

[Anasa Tristis]

can anyone truly claim that Mal is the worst?

She's not the worst when compared to Sideshow or LaLa IMO. But upon close examination she's damn close. Just different. Maybe it's just my disdain for masochists and fake humility in action there.

Whether some of her more unpleasant characteristics are purely her own or were obtained by osmosis during her association with them is anyone's guess. She may have been a better person earlier in her life. I dunno. But our Mal is egotistical, disingenuous, and manipulative while feverishly insisting every chance she gets that she's not. She's the humble, virtuous, selfless trans man!

Lala is the least offensive

She selfishly and thoughtlessly created a life with that degenerate Sideshow and plunked an innocent baby right into the center of that vile cesspool. She sacrificed a child, her child, to the falsest gods going, and bound it to Sideshow. For life.