Playing the Opposite Sex

[N-Aldwitch]

How many people play the opposite sex in Cantr, and how many of their opposite sex do they play?

[scarlet_claret]

I keep thinking I should at least try, but I can never seem to bring myself to do it...so no

[deadboy]

I Have a mix of 7 opposite sex charris and 8 my sex charris

[tiddy ogg]

I have but one such, but that is, I think, my favourite char, at least at the moment.

[formerly known as hf]

Exact same topic done here: http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2986

Although without the misleading poll.

That poll needs some work - where do people who play only those of the opposite sex put their answer? It also assumes everyone has 15 characters by saying 'the rest are my own sex' - I have five characters, three of which are the opposite sex. Not only do I have two choices: 1-3 and 3-7 (which seem really random ranges to choose), but it is misleading as it assumes I have another 12 who are my own sex.

I'm now going to have to go off on one. Apologies to all of you who have heard this rant from me before...

Sex, as in the biological sense, has no 'natural' relation to gender. Gender is a social phenomenon, whereby we construct 'ideal' femininities and masculinities, and we consider that these are somehow linked to biological sex. This is just not the case. Gender is a very fluid conception, and we all experience it in a variety of ways, in both having a gender scribed onto us by others - in assuming women should 'be' a cartian way, and by enforcing our own gender identities by either conforming to the stereotype or challenging it, or even just ignoring it.

Playing the opposite sex is not, and should not be seen, as something inherently difficult, weird or strange in any way. 'Men' are not all so very very different from 'women' that a woman cannot conceive of playing a male part. If you are worried about the man being too feminine, or the woman being to masculine - ask yourself - why is that an issue? Why can't women be masculine? Why can't men be feminine? Both types exist in large numbers in Cantr. AFurthermore, there is no reason at all that a man who considers himself masculine, would be unable to RP a feminine woman. Or a mesculine woman RP a feminine man etc.

Thankfully, this 'poll' will show that the Cantrian commuinty is relatively comfortable with the idea of RPing someone of a different sex or gender, for those of you who are not, please just consider what it is which makes you feel like you do not want to, or cannot play someone of the opposite sex. It's likely that you have some fixed perceptions of what a man or woman must be like, and there's no harm in challening those perceptions.

[Sunni Daez]

My first account, I played males.. and females were very aggressive to them...I had no problem with the RP ... I just made females this time around, mainly because, females tend to be given more things not all...but a fair share do. I try to play a range within my charris.. but they all do tend to fall back into the conceived female roles. As, I have one that doesn't flaunt that she is female publicly..just sometimes when she speaks to her lifes partner....one who is very..female....the typical ideal of the pretty, shy, soft spoken girly type. One who acts more childlike...though not childish..... think about watching a group of 5 year olds play.. most are not fully aware, if aware at all, that there are preconceived ideals about the behavior differences between males and females..they are just who they are...

Being male and female is just a part of life in general... just about everything, plants, animals, humans... all have what is refered to as male or female parts..some even have both. With what I do.. I meet people, many people every day.. though these short meetings hardly give insight to who they truely are... you get a genral idea of personality. I have met many males, with very feminine qualities(society defined), who's wives are there with them.. and vice-versa.

Though I believe Cantr needs both male and female charris..in order to leave some things open for furthering the developement of Cantr... There is absolutely no reason a male charri has to be strong, tough, gruff, ruff, while the female is prim, propper and prissy.... give them a personality to start.. let it develope according to thier surroundings....

eeeeek I hope that atleast made a bit of sense to someone...

[goitre]

10 chars, 5 males, 5 females. Several of my females are quite butch, while one of my males is rather girly. It's true that some females are given a lot of stuff by males, in Cantr and I usually choose females for online games because of this.

In my opinion: females are more fun to play in Cantr.

[Marian]

Nine characters, two guys. The guys aren't really very deep though, and one of them is a run-of-the-mill psycho. When I RP I just have a much easier time 'channeling' females, for obvious reasons. Even when I'm justwriting fanfic, the main characters are always girls because I know how they think and its more realistic.

[Doug R.]

All the guys love my "masculine" lady character. I swear I could get a husband in every port. Cantr dudes dig tough chicks.

[sanchez]

I agree witih HF.

Though this poll did prompt me to figure I've chosen about equally. And I love it about Cantr that the range of gender expression from players and chars is broad enough to render M/F pretty meaningless.

So how come we can't see 'a person in their twenties'?

[Doug R.]

I suppose they either figured that people would just genderize their charries though their names, or they always planned on implementing procreation. I guess they also could have thought having gender neutrality would have been simply too weird.

[Missy]

I prefer to play males. I've got 9 males vs 6 females. Males are easier for me to play. I see no advantage in playing females for some reason. None of mine ever get hand-outs. But maybe that's because they say whats on their mind instead of bat their lashes at someone they don't care for. But even still, when playing my males.....Women think they get hand-outs from the men characters? My chars don't give em without a price. lol You give hand-outs, you get something in return. Usually loyalty and a crush.

[Marian]

And I actually don't see (or play) all that many sensitive, 'girly' females. And the overly flirty ones really stick out in a town and annoy me slightly, no matter what gender my char is. Cantr may be basically a mideval setting, but on things like equality it's pretty modern...that's almost a shame, really, I think it'd be kind of cool to see a town that has a rule like 'only girls sew, only guys hunt' or whatever. Right now most of the towns seem exactly alike, we need more weird regional stuff to start fights over.

[Solfius]

Sex, as in the biological sense, has no 'natural' relation to gender.

The have been studies which give evidence to dispute this: certain areas of the brain known as sexually dimorphic nuclei (spelling?) may affect a persons sense of gender (as opposed to physiological sex). The studies suggested that larger SDNs were characteristic of masculine gender identities, and smaller SDNs were characteristic of feminine gender identities. I believe this study was conducted among transgendered individuals, although I can't find the details of the study to check (I think it was held in Norway/Sweden or somewhere like that, possibly Holland...)

[west]

I have eight characters; four are female. That surprised me, actually- I had to look it up.

Of my four female characters, two aren't particularly girly. Of course, they're old now, but they've always been fairly brusque and not flirty. The other has been extremely flirty, and is considerably more feminine-acting, but is also not afraid to bust a few heads. The other is a newspawn and really doesn't have a personality yet.