Being Gendered Correctly

[Remilia_Nightfall]

I appreciate what you're saying but that line really rubs me the wrong way. (no pun intended)

We really need to stop downplaying ourselves like this. We're not slavering beasts.

Hah well, just take it as you will.

Of course I did not mean to "downplay" our entire gender, please do not misunderstand - I just believe that, generally speaking, males have a tendency to be more "open" about their sexual desires and tastes than females. With due exceptions, of course - but I believe there is a reason that...peculiar industries were born mainly to satisfy the needs of men.

This is just survival instinct, nothing more - it's not like we managed to survive all this time by focusing our attention on the asses of other males. It's in our DNA :P

[Merle]

You are partly wrong. No one should get offended if someone wrongly guesses his/her gender. If you do, you have personal issues that should be dealt outside of this, or any, online game.

Also, like someone said in the Marriage thread (heh, btw, closed...), when you're playing a MMORPG you should keep on mind that a character is an AVATAR. Playing with a female character doesn't mean i'm a girl. Playing with a huge Roegadyn doesn't mean i'm strong in real life... NOBODY can know who you are in real life based on the appearance of your character, so is stupid to be offended because someone assumed your gender wrongly

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Nothing more then a joke or are we seriously gonne start opening another can of worms?

Sorry, not sure what you mean - you think it's a joke?
I don't understand what's so odd about it - isn't it quite accepted that a gender is usually visually attracted by the opposite one?

[Takeva]

Sorry, not sure what you mean - you think it's a joke?
I don't understand what's so odd about it - isn't it quite accepted that a gender is usually visually attracted by the opposite one?

Assirra was basically telling Demetirus not to take what you wrote to heart. You made a light joke about how guys tend to think with the brain between their legs.

[LineageRazor]

Blame the English language for having no gender neutral terms to use. "They" is grammatically incorrect, and even if it's starting to catch on it cannot be assumed that everyone will be comfortable using it. Consider the use of "he" to be similar to the use of the word "mankind" in such cases - the speaker doesn't honestly know (or care) whether you are female or male.

They may not even know whether your CHARACTER is male or female; a commonly female name isn't a giveaway either, as many use such names ironically (such as making a big, buff Highlander Hyur and naming him "Tiffany"). When I join an instance, I rarely pay much attention to the characters around me - my eyes are on the enemy if I'm PLD or SMN, or they are on that row of HP bars if I'm WHM. That glamour set you spent 3 million to build, or that character you spent hours designing in the character editor to get just right? Lost on me. I probably won't even know what race you are.

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Assirra was basically telling Demetirus not to take what you wrote to heart. You made a light joke about how guys tend to think with the brain between their legs.

Ah, ok. Sorry.

It wasn't...really a light joke but it might be better to leave it as that :P

[Karnyboy]

When I approach a bunch of girls in real life I always slip out "hey guys." or something like that, by mistake, I am pretty sure none of them went and cut themselves and cried themselves to sleep because of it. It's nothing personal it's human nature to refer to things most common to us.

Like the last few have said, it's not a personal attack so stop treating it as such. There's a lot of things on the internet people shouldn't really take to heart...EVER....

[Demetirus]

I assume its just a a follow up for the internet meme "i rather stare at a female ass then a male ass all the time in an mmo".
Nothing more then a joke or are we seriously gonne start opening another can of worms?

You're very correct and it's not something that needs opening. It's just very much a hot button topic for me. I wasn't being too heavy about the matter, was I?

Of course I did not mean to "downplay" our entire gender, please do not misunderstand ... -snip-

Of course, I understand. I do apologize and am not trying to call you out specifically but it's a topic of concern for me.

Assirra was basically telling Demetirus not to take what you wrote to heart. You made a light joke about how guys tend to think with the brain between their legs.

Indeed and Assirra was very right! I'm not overly offended, thankfully, just somewhat passionate about the topic.

[Odett]

So because a lot of men play as female characters, we should default refer to them as "he" until told otherwise? If a character is male, I will refer to them as "he" unless corrected, and female as "she" unless corrected. TC isn't being outlandish at all. Telling TC to "get over it" while saying that female characters should not initially be referred to as "she" because there are males behind said characters IS what is outlandish.


If anyone is catering to anyone, it's initially referring to female characters as "he" because you give more importance to a potential male being behind the character than a female ("he" is not gender-neutral, it's "they"). Excuse the vulgarity, but you do not get to strip a gender of their identity because you enjoy "looking at hot miqo'te ass" when you play the game, and if you fail to see that, then that is privilege.

As a side note, you can't invalidate someone's feelings just because their concerns are no big deal to you.

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Snip

What.

You can call people however you want. She, he, it, they, fish, moon, lightpole.
Who cares.

As said previously, it's just a matter of probability. It's safer to assume that behind a female avatar there is a male player because, well, that's how things have always been since the beginning of online play. We are not roleplaying in this game, character gender has nothing to do with anything in our daily in-game communication, so using the in-game sex as criteria is not that obvious or logical.

If people want to see something "deeper" than this, it's their problem - screaming "sexism" all the time is just making the word itself carry less weight than it should, and THAT is indeed a problem.

I still think that calling a female avatar "he" (without any prior knowledge, that is) is hardly the same as "stripping a gender of their identity" but whatever, carry on the drama, it's fun.

EDIT: I am not invalidating anything. I am just stating my view on this matter, as everyone else (including the OP) is doing.
You can't invalidate my observation just because of your personal feelings.