Playing cross-gender PCs

[der_kluge]

So, in his thread, Desten wonders if he's weird for not allowing people to play a PC of the opposite gender. Since fully half of my PCs are female (and I am male), I have to wonder if I am weird for playing so many female characters.

So, I want to hear from people who regularly, and consistently play characters of the opposite gender. Why do you play female characters? Do you encounter resistance? What types of problems have you seen arise by playing characters of the opposite sex? Do you play them exclusively in PBP or PBEM games, or do you play them in RL games as well?

And just to make it interesting, I'll make this into a poll, so that everyone can at least participate on some level.

And just so I'm clear, I'm not interested in people telling me that you have no desire to play a character of the opposite sex. This thread is specifically meant for people who *do*.

 

[Rev_Spider]

I'm a straight male and I played a gay bard... does that count as a statistical anomaly? no? didn't think so. Only ever played male characters, though.

 

[der_kluge]

I'll start. Yes, I play a lot of female characters. I have for a long time. For the most part, I haven't encountered a lot of resistance to it, though I have played with people who were uncomfortable with it, or couldn't envision it. Frankly, I don't know why it's so difficult. In our last campaign, I didn't have any problem envisioning a minotaur, and a fire genasi ranger, among other things. So, I don't understand why people who are supposed to have a creative imagination, and play a game which is solely based on the imagination, suddenly have some sort of mental roadblock seeing me as a female character.

To that end, however, I've found it helpful to find online portraits of females and use them to represent my characters. My last character was a female peasant, who was a sorceror. I found a picture I liked, and even printed it on photo paper. During the game, I stood it up in front for all to see what my character looked like. This would at least help people stop referring to me as "he" during the game.

I don't know why I play a lot of female characters. I think it's true that a lot of people tend to play the same "kinds" of people over and over again. My characters tend to be sort of helpless, and naive. I like to have a lot of options at my disposal, and I like to plan my attacks, versus charging in with guns blazing. I tend to be a lot more subtle with my characters. To this end, I find that females fit the bill rather nicely. I'm fond of naive, youthful characters, and that fits a lot better with the female persona. I guess it's kind of like this girl I knew at work once. She was commenting about a flat tire that she had, and how someone stopped off and fixed it for her. I told her that it was because she was blonde and attractive, and despite the fact that I have blonde hair, no one would ever do that for me. But, maybe secretly in some way, I'd like for that to happen to me? There's something about that helpless, lost kitten, youthful feeling that I admire. I don't know. I'll let the psychologists ponder that one.

Or maybe it's because I grew up having two older sisters, and being really close to my mother. I tend to understand women really well. I think my wife would testify to that. Anyone else care to probe their psyche on this one?

 

[der_kluge]

I'm a straight male and I played a gay bard... does that count as a statistical anomaly? no? didn't think so. Only ever played male characters, though.

I think my propensity to play non-heterosexual characters increases by time period. In other words, I can't bring myself to play a lesbian or gay anything in a fantasy setting, since it doesn't really seem to fit. Those concepts don't strike me as particularly "medieval".

But, of my Shadowrun characters (of which there are a total of 4), I have a interesting breakdown:

female lesbian rigger
female heterosexual decker
male heterosexual physical adept
male ?? decker, with a propensity towards pedophilia. Although I'll readily admit that there's nothing funny about pedophilia, this character was done in a joking manner, and he never acted on any of his impulses. And it was in college, so that's got to count for something.

Although I have been known to make a few bi-sexial sensates in Planescape. But that just plain makes sense with that Faction.

 

[Cazic]

Ok I am sorry that this is VERY MUCH off topic, but a friend of mine found out about this place and sent me here to join the forrum. He said i need to post something saying "May i join this forum?" and to just post it where ever and this didn't seem to have to big of a heated discusion going on so i thought this would be as good a place as any. So.......

May i join this forum?

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I'm male; I usually play male characters. I have played some female characters.

I actually kinda prefer playing characters that are either sexless or characters whose gender is irrelevant to play-- lizardfolk or thri-kreen or doppelgangers or warforged.

 

[der_kluge]

Ok I am sorry that this is VERY MUCH off topic, but a friend of mine found out about this place and sent me here to join the forrum. He said i need to post something saying "May i join this forum?" and to just post it where ever and this didn't seem to have to big of a heated discusion going on so i thought this would be as good a place as any. So.......

May i join this forum?

Welcome to the boards, Cazic. You might start by checking out this thread:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=105513

 

[Jdvn1]

I've played... two female characters. That's probably 2% of my characters.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I am a male and 33% of all the PCs I have ever made were females.

 

[Turjan]

Well, I'm male and usually play only male characters. I don't have any objections to playing female characters myself, and as a GM I don't restrict cross-gender PCs at all (I have a player who usually rolls for gender), so this is not a principal problem. Perhaps it's just that this part of roleplaying never comes to my mind when I construct a character.