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Will you make transsexual Elves canon in your games ?
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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7437422" data-attributes="member: 6779196"><p>Yup. Cis and trans are simply Latin anotonyms, literally meaning “next to” and “across from” respectively, and since nonbinary people are not cisgender, they are transgender. Transgender is an umbrella term that includes all non-cis genders. For a little while it was in vogue to put an asterisk after trans to indicate one was using it as an umbrella term rather than as to mean a person is transgender and binary, but that didn’t last long. Generally speaking, trans is always an umbrella term, and some transgender folks are binary and others are not.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Ehhh, aliens speak to each other in English when no humans are present to hear them in cutscenes in that game, so I don’t assume the writers put quite that much thought into the possibility of translation errors. But even if we assume that there is some degree of English having insufficient vocabulary to accurately communicate the nuances of the Krill caste system, I would still argue that the choice to “translate” their pronouns differently depending on the stage of life the subject is in is an indication that there is a concept at least roughly analogous to gender associated with caste and morphology at play in their society.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This is one of the things I love about fantasy. It gives us the frame of reference to ask questions like “would trans-ness still exist in a culture where gender was traditionally chosen rather than assigned?” despite such cultures not existing in real life.</p><p></p><p>I would say that yes, if elves did not assign genders to their children, elves would not be trans within their own culture, but could be trans to people from cultures that did have more rigid gender norms. For example, let’s assume that in Eladrin culture, it is considered normal for personalities to shift dramatically with the seasons, and the blessing of Corellon is at least common knowledge if not common occurrence, and so they never developed a cultural concept of “men” and “women.” An Eladrin who finds themselves preferring what humans would consider male sex characteristics but exhibits personality traits humans would consider feminine probably wouldn’t develop a strong sense of identity connected to womanhood or manhood, because those just aren’t part of their world. However, if this character made a trip to the prime material plane and encountered humans, those humans might have preconceived notions about this Eladrin based on their physical appearance, manner of dress, and behavior. They might be surprised to learn that this Eladrin is “male,” because of their own cultural gender constructs and related biases. Upon learning how humans view gender and sex, this Eladrin might even incorporate this new perspective into their own sense of self. They might be inclined to refer to themselves as a “woman” around humans, because they find this (admittedly foreign) concept more closely aligned with their identity than that of a “man.” In a human-dominant society, they are for all intents and purposes trans, because their identity as it relates to that culture’s concept of gender does not match the gender that culture’s norms would ascribe to them based on the culture’s own criteria. It’s effectively like having a gender assigned at contact with another culture, instead of at birth.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 7437422, member: 6779196"] Yup. Cis and trans are simply Latin anotonyms, literally meaning “next to” and “across from” respectively, and since nonbinary people are not cisgender, they are transgender. Transgender is an umbrella term that includes all non-cis genders. For a little while it was in vogue to put an asterisk after trans to indicate one was using it as an umbrella term rather than as to mean a person is transgender and binary, but that didn’t last long. Generally speaking, trans is always an umbrella term, and some transgender folks are binary and others are not. Ehhh, aliens speak to each other in English when no humans are present to hear them in cutscenes in that game, so I don’t assume the writers put quite that much thought into the possibility of translation errors. But even if we assume that there is some degree of English having insufficient vocabulary to accurately communicate the nuances of the Krill caste system, I would still argue that the choice to “translate” their pronouns differently depending on the stage of life the subject is in is an indication that there is a concept at least roughly analogous to gender associated with caste and morphology at play in their society. This is one of the things I love about fantasy. It gives us the frame of reference to ask questions like “would trans-ness still exist in a culture where gender was traditionally chosen rather than assigned?” despite such cultures not existing in real life. I would say that yes, if elves did not assign genders to their children, elves would not be trans within their own culture, but could be trans to people from cultures that did have more rigid gender norms. For example, let’s assume that in Eladrin culture, it is considered normal for personalities to shift dramatically with the seasons, and the blessing of Corellon is at least common knowledge if not common occurrence, and so they never developed a cultural concept of “men” and “women.” An Eladrin who finds themselves preferring what humans would consider male sex characteristics but exhibits personality traits humans would consider feminine probably wouldn’t develop a strong sense of identity connected to womanhood or manhood, because those just aren’t part of their world. However, if this character made a trip to the prime material plane and encountered humans, those humans might have preconceived notions about this Eladrin based on their physical appearance, manner of dress, and behavior. They might be surprised to learn that this Eladrin is “male,” because of their own cultural gender constructs and related biases. Upon learning how humans view gender and sex, this Eladrin might even incorporate this new perspective into their own sense of self. They might be inclined to refer to themselves as a “woman” around humans, because they find this (admittedly foreign) concept more closely aligned with their identity than that of a “man.” In a human-dominant society, they are for all intents and purposes trans, because their identity as it relates to that culture’s concept of gender does not match the gender that culture’s norms would ascribe to them based on the culture’s own criteria. It’s effectively like having a gender assigned at contact with another culture, instead of at birth. [/QUOTE]
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