Guys playing girls (chime in, ladies)

[ngenius]

...
This is all "nature versus nurture", and probably should be lumped in with "religion" and "politics" in the category of things best left undisturbed on ENworld.

I think all things being equal - men and women really are the same, but things aren't equal - women have more estrogen, and men have more testosterone.

I'm reminded of a quote by a woman who was undergoing a sex-change operation, and they had given her massive doses of testosterone, and she said, "I now know what it's like to be a horny 17-year old boy now."

Our genetic and hormonal makeups *do* make us different people. How much nature plays a role and how much nurture plays a role will continue to be highly contested for years to come.

I would also add that the gender test thingy could be vastly simplified by asking more poignant questions:

1) Do you sit down or stand up to urinate?
2) If you lived in the early part of the 19th century, would you have had the right to vote?
3) Which is more important to you: having toned hips and thighs, or huge pectoral muscles?

Nice statement about the hormones, die_kluge, because they are one sure way to tell a male or female charater. Statistically, males with high testosterone levels once angered to extreme levels, reach a point of total stupidity and engage in "pissing contests". Once a character starts getting into stupid fights at the risk of life and limb, that character is most likely male with all his brains in his balls.

Personally (and this may sound stupid), I like playing female characters in RPGs because they usually come with better fantasy artwork (most artists love drawing women, whether beautiful or the lewd type). I prefer the beautiful strong types, that look like the ones who attract attention but are always ready to kick the idiots who do not respect them so hard, those masculine scum become eunuchs.

In reality, female characters have things more difficult since most human societies have tried to surpress the rights of women. And this once again maybe due to the fact that biologically speaking, women are superior to men. Biologically a race of all women can exist, because women can give birth to new offspring. Men are just useful for propagating variety in human genes. If creatures were more sensitive to enviornmental mutation, females can clone themselves and mutate enough to be a practical species.

Back to the gaming dilemna. I would advise that players simple study the cultures of the fantasy setting in which they wish to play and adapt their female characters as closely as possible to seem believable within that context. Same goes for the male characters. The Drow society is one where the females are domiant and is a good starting point for male players, since most males players may be used to enforcing dominance. Then they may try other cultures, to truly appreciate why females under oppression have complained for years about the unfairness of most societies.

Those desparate to use female sex as a bargaining tool, can also try playing in societies where the males are so few that it is now the females who are desparate to find a mate and not the males, with the males protected like treasured children.

Just my ideas.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I'm a man, but I'm thinking of running a female character in a PbP campaign (here). I've had female characters a couple of times before but never seriously attempted to roleplay them *as* females, and I'd like to stretch my RP muscles a bit.

IC, good for you! One should never bee scared to play the other gender and to be honest PbP is the BEST way to do it. (I've played more than a couple of lady characters, and though I've done it at the table its far easier via play by post.)

I have no specific advice... I should though; I've done it enough and honestly play more female character than male characters now.... How is it different? Well to be honest it's not much different at all, just because the character's gender is different doesn't mean their not humans. (I use the term loosely.) They have their hopes, they have their dreams, they have their fears and they have things that make them cry... Just brush out all the details like you normally would and I think you find it far more natural.

 

[mythago]

This is all "nature versus nurture"

And that's why you lost the debate from the opening shot. It's nurture AND nature, not the false, pop-psych dilemma of "biology is destiny" vs. "children are blank slates," both of which are blatantly false to anyone who has a) met a child and b) knows what the science actually says, rather than what the headlines about the reports about the science say.

We see what we want to see; when we see that a girl is shy and likes dolls, we say that it is because she is female, but if her brother acts the same way we say it's in spite of his being male. (And then we worry that he's going to grow up to be, y'know, funny.)

To try and keep this on-topic in gaming, as long as the male majority of gamers thinks of females as an interesting but different species, not anything like themselves except for being interfertile, of course we're going to have debates about cross-gender character playing and girl gamers and all that.

Wouldn't it be so much easier to stop insisting that girls prefer their miniatures painted pink, and just think of them as people?

 

[Incenjucar]

Yep. As usual, the extreme views are garbage. Everyone is affected by both nurture and nature, and to different degrees. We all have tendancies, strong or weak, and outside stimuli, strong or weak.

Same with gender, hence why you can have Amazon societies and such.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

bump

 

[S'mon]

As a male player I find my best-characterised female PCs have been the tomboyish ones - neither classically or stereotypically feminine, nor a man-in-woman's body; rather they are unusual women who seek out typically-male pursuits (like fighting) but definitely have a different attitude and demeanour than a male warrior would. Perhaps the biggest difference for D&D-type characters is that my women PCs have less testosterone than my male PCs and are much less likely to seek out comnbat _for its own sake_ - they'll fight for a reason (and enjoy it), but not just for the chance to kill things. They tend to be less emotionally closed off than male equivalents, and more willing to form deep emotional attachments with others; they may relate to others better, OTOH being more emotionally open they may appear less self-confident, though not indecisive.