Eberron: no sexism

[hong]

"Daddy, do warforged have bellybuttons?"

 

[Dirigible]

No, they have the far more efficient AutoLint Manufacturing Midrift Dimple Units.

 

[S'mon]

Is this why Eberron's population sizes are so small?

 

[Klaus]

You tell me what it says about Eberron.

Eberron, The Dragon Between -> Male
Syberys, The Dragon Above -> Male
Khyber, The Dragon Below -> Female

 

[DragonLancer]

I just noticed this: there's no textual support for sexism in the Eberron setting. The sexes seem pretty well equally represented as heads of state, Dragonmarked houses, et cetera. I don't see any evidence that wives are more likely than husbands to stay at home and cook/clean/raise the kids while their spouse goes off to work in the field/adventure/fight the War. A female adventurer (of any class) is no more or less unusual than the corresponding male. Other than in fashion, Khorvaire seems to be a gender-blind society.

Unless there are instances of gender discrimination or such that I haven't noticed.

Not Eberron related but on a similar vein... some years back I ran a homebrewed campaign for 2nd edition. For a couple months I had a female player join us for the start of the campaign, who had never played an RPG before though she knew what one was. The first question she asked was wether women were relegated to the traditional gender role in the game. My response was that I was sure that the traditional female roles of housewife, mother, cook and cleaner were there, it wouldn't impact what sort of character she could play nor would sexism raise its ugly head unless it was an integral part of the scenario/story being told.

Although I don't know Eberron all that well (I played in a brief 6 month campaign a couple years ago) I would imagine that it's left that way for the same sort of reason as I gave that young lady in my comment above. If you want gender roles explored then you put it into the game.

 

[Merkuri]

Can't be too secret if female is the generic gender in the core books.

It's not. They use the gender of the iconic character when talking about a certain class. For example, the rogue iconic is Liddia, so whenever they talk about rogues they use "she". The iconic fighter is Tordek, so when talking about fighters they use "he". And personally I think that's better than defaulting to "she" everywhere. In a game where males dominate it's just dumb to take the female pronoun as your generic, just to prove that you're not gender biased.

Eberron, The Dragon Between -> Male
Syberys, The Dragon Above -> Male
Khyber, The Dragon Below -> Female

Really? I always thought that Syberys was female. I don't remember where I got that idea, though. I also thought Khyber was male, but I wouln't be surprised if I was wrong on that count.

I like to point out places in our modern society that show gender bias (even the gender names themselves are biased... "female" is just "male" with a prefix, as if females were just a different type of male) because I'm aware we come from a long history of sexism and I believe we won't really start pulling away from that until we all become aware of it.

I like reading books based in historical periods that include this sexism. If a historical book about the middle ages has a female knight that nobody even comments on then it's not realistic. I'm glad, though, that they decided not to go for that kind of realism in D&D (as others have said, it's not just Eberron, the PHB itself says that females can do anything males can). I like being able to play a female knight (which I am in my current campaign) without having to explain why she decided to go against her gender role, and without having to fight the gender bias wherever she went. I'm plenty happy to leave the stuggles of a female trying to live in a male world to books.

 

[Remathilis]

Not to mention that in Eberron, many of the 'great' figures in it's history are female. You might have to squint, but if you look closer, its a virtual flood of estrogen.

Lhazaar, of the Lhazaar Principalities fame, first to lead humans to Khorvaire? Female.
Taratai, leader of the rebel Quori and founder of the Path of Light? Female.
Aeren, who lead the elves in fleeing Xen'drik to Aerenal (Aeren's Rest)? Female (Magic of Eberron is GLAHHHH!!!).
Mishann and Wroann, two of the key instigators of the Last War? Female.
Tira Miron, Voice of the Flame? Female.
Vvaraak, the Scaled Apostate, who taught the orcs the druidic path of the Gatekeepers? Female.

You tell me what it says about Eberron.

In the Modern time, you have Vol, Jaela (keeper of the Flame), Arulia (ruler of Aundair), the daughters of Sora Kell and (IIRC) the mayor of Stormreach are all female.

Three heads of state and two major religious leaders are female.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

I like to point out places in our modern society that show gender bias (even the gender names themselves are biased... "female" is just "male" with a prefix, as if females were just a different type of male) because I'm aware we come from a long history of sexism and I believe we won't really start pulling away from that until we all become aware of it.

That's a majorly politically charged statement there.

 

[Asmor]

How often do you see a half-orc, a human, a warforged and a gnome being pals? At that point, I doubt the peasants will be nonplussed to see that the half-orc and human are female.

Hmm... I'm probably pushing the boundries of Eric's Grandma here, but given all the other double entendre in this thread...

Glad you understand... 'cos it has to go! Plane Sailing

I understand if this gets modded. >_>

 

[Nifft]

Wow. Turns out Warforged pickup lines are actually the most innocuous element in this thread.

, -- N