Gender Issues

[Umbran]

Stereotypes aside, of all recognized minority groups in Police departments, Lesbians are the most professionally successful, and Gays are the most unsuccessful. Reasons for this are open to speculation, that is just the statistic based on career success in terms of hiring, retention, and upward mobility within the ranks.

Arcady, please. You know the rules around here. Don't try to do an end-run around the mods by using statistics (unsupported assertions of statistics at that) as a shield. How one comes up with it is not the issue - it is still a sexual-preference stereotype.

How about this - just don't go there. About the only way I can make it more clear is to close the thread, folks.

 

[roguerouge]

They can be chaste/asexual like Joan of Arc, or they can have romantic relations with women the same way the male warriors do. And IRL the military lifestyle is proportionately more attractive to lesbians than to heterosexual women, because the military lifestyle involves a lot of masculine activity like fighting, and lesbian women are more likely to enjoy such typically male actvities.

Or they could be modeled after Boudicca or Buffy or Sarah Connor or...

 

[roguerouge]

I just hate it when males play female characters and vice versa and I rarely use the term hate for anything in the creative hobbies. I've never seen it done well, though I've seen it done a great many times. Why discard the rare (amoung many groups as I understand it) opportunity to have true-to-life male-female interactions and reactions. It is sadly difficult in many gaming circles to have female players and then they play a guy while one of the males poorly portrays a woman. Bleh!

Just for the record, my mainstay group for many years consisted of three female players and 3-4 male players with me (a male) as GM.

AD

Why is this not a rule for you when you GM but it is a rule for all players? Not a snipe, a genuine question sparked by this thread: why is it that no one bats an eye at the GM gender-bending?

 

[Snoweel]

Why is this not a rule for you when you GM but it is a rule for all players? Not a snipe, a genuine question sparked by this thread: why is it that no one bats an eye at the GM gender-bending?

Probably the same reason he can play an NPC dragon/vampire/mind flayer while players can't.

Or it could just be basic necessity - you might only have to put up with your DM's poor portrayal of a female NPC for a couple of minutes a session. That's far less annoying than putting up with a player doing it for the entirety of every session.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Probably the same reason he can play an NPC dragon/vampire/mind flayer while players can't.

Women - the powergamer's choice. They should be nerfed, imo.

 

[Snoweel]

Women - the powergamer's choice. They should be nerfed, imo.

I always just gave them a hefty Level Adjustment.

Gestation is so broken it's not funny.

 

[Wik]

I just hate it when males play female characters and vice versa and I rarely use the term hate for anything in the creative hobbies. I've never seen it done well, though I've seen it done a great many times. Why discard the rare (amoung many groups as I understand it) opportunity to have true-to-life male-female interactions and reactions. It is sadly difficult in many gaming circles to have female players and then they play a guy while one of the males poorly portrays a woman. Bleh!

Unless you are exceptionally good at characterization or you're an improve actor by profession, your character is going to be some variant of you. They may be bolder, more cowardly, more romantic or dastardly but in the end they want what you want and think as you think (both the player and the PC are using the same brain after all).

Just be yourself.

Just for the record, my mainstay group for many years consisted of three female players and 3-4 male players with me (a male) as GM.

AD

You know, I have to agree here. Even though I don't like it.

I hate it when my male players play females, because we're not hardcore RPers, and so it really just adds confusion to the game without bringing much to it. The ONE time we had a good female played by a male situation, things were kinda cool. But most of the time, it's just a male in female's "clothing", as it were. And I know that sounds silly, but you know what I mean.

And the opposite is equally true! In my current group, we have two female players, and they both play males. I have no idea why. And I dislike how it works out, because the same things happen - we all forget that they have male PCs, and they do nothing to make it seem like they are playing characters as "male". Their characters act in all ways similar to the female characters they've played. Sucks.

In high school, I Gmed for a group that was pretty much entirely female, and it was fine. That group merged with an all-male group, so that we had a 50/50 split, and that also worked out fine (in fact, I think it was probably my favourite group, overall).

 

[Orius]

Unless you are exceptionally good at characterization or you're an improve actor by profession, your character is going to be some variant of you.

As these are fantasy games, I think our characters are often extensions of ourselves and express either what we would like to be in some way, or an ideal person we'd like to know, either as a friend or mate.

Yup, that's my angle. I'm not a method actor player, and I have little interest in playing a female character for the "challenge" or "experience" or whatever floats a method actor's boat. It's a fantasy power trip for me. So I roll up a kick ass warrior who smashes things up with a huge sword, or a wizard who fireballs anything that irritates him, or a paladin or cleric who smites down the unrighteous. I often feel frustrated IRL, so it feels good to occasionally grind up imaginary foes.

Why is this not a rule for you when you GM but it is a rule for all players? Not a snipe, a genuine question sparked by this thread: why is it that no one bats an eye at the GM gender-bending?

Because it's the DM's job to run the NPCs, that's why. It's one thing when the PCs tell the barmaid, "Grab me a beer, wench!" The DM doesn't need to go into in-depth role-playing. She could just do her job, do her job and give the PCs bad service because she's pissed, or she could be a real bitch about it and dump the beer over the PC's head (and he had it coming anyway). The players aren't expencting much else, certainly not some high drama about how she's overworked and underappreciated or something.

It's another thing when there's some immature player playing an overstereotyped female PC who either can't keep her clothes on around the male PCs, or some frigid virgin always looking down her snooty nose at them, or the man-hating amazon. That's not a supporting role like the barmaid, that's a party member so the nonsense is going on all the time at the table. And it's piss-poor RPing to boot.

 

[pawsplay]

I just hate it when males play female characters and vice versa and I rarely use the term hate for anything in the creative hobbies. I've never seen it done well, though I've seen it done a great many times. Why discard the rare (amoung many groups as I understand it) opportunity to have true-to-life male-female interactions and reactions. It is sadly difficult in many gaming circles to have female players and then they play a guy while one of the males poorly portrays a woman. Bleh!

Maybe female players are not necessarily interested in "true-to-life male-female interactions." Maybe they'd like to be seen as just another gamer.

Unless you are exceptionally good at characterization or you're an improve actor by profession, your character is going to be some variant of you.

I don't see that as a problem. Carl Jung posited we each have an opposite spirit, an anima or animus, that reflects how we perceive the "other" and influences our search for a romantic partner. I think a person's internal picture of the opposite sex is at least as good a guide for playing a person of the opposite sex than the average person's view of, say, a cop, is a good guide for playing a cop.

They may be bolder, more cowardly, more romantic or dastardly but in the end they want what you want and think as you think (both the player and the PC are using the same brain after all).

I don't think that's precisely true. There is to some extent we inject ourselves into characters. There is also an extent to which characters represent our own characteristics we have separated from our sense of self. But there is definitely a quality of imaginary characters that they represent other people we know, not only how we might see a situation, but how another person might see a situation that is different from us.

Just be yourself.

I think that very much misses the point of role-playing. Nor do I ascribe to the William Shatner school of acting; I think it's desirable to give each character a unique identity.

I can play a mutat superhero. I can play a three hundred year old elf. I think I can handle portraying a human being who happens to have a uterus, and although my portrayal may not withstand the scrutiny of a true expert, I am not applying to actually be one, so, so what?

Also, I think it's worth pointing out that it's probably not a good idea to go around telling people what gender characteristics they have. Not everyone fits comfortably into traditional stereotypes, and playing across gender is a fun away to express some traits that might otherwise sit on a shelf. To take it even a step past that, I've gamed with a number of transsexual individuals. Try telling someone with that kind of life experience what gender they can portray!

 

[pawsplay]

Yup, that's my angle. I'm not a method actor player, and I have little interest in playing a female character for the "challenge" or "experience" or whatever floats a method actor's boat. It's a fantasy power trip for me. So I roll up a kick ass warrior who smashes things up with a huge sword, or a wizard who fireballs anything that irritates him, or a paladin or cleric who smites down the unrighteous. I often feel frustrated IRL, so it feels good to occasionally grind up imaginary foes.

And it's never even a little bit appealing to grind up imaginary foes while wearing high heels? Come on, man!