Being Gendered Correctly

[-ipsen-]

this. a million times this. i'm tired of being labeled as a girl, but i'm also not the type of girl who'd like to announce everytime she's a girl. so please, use 'they'

[Caiera]

lol I know what you mean, I am male and have several characters that are both Male and Female, and when I'm on a female character I sometimes get referred to as she, so it does happen to guys too

[Pantz]

Believe it or not, no one is being personal.

It's just how some people are used to just using "he". Especially on the internet where you have no idea who the person behind the character is. Just politely correct them. Type "*she" when they use "he" and most would be willing to correct themselves. Those that make a big fuss out of it are just childish and you should just ignore them.

[nesh]

Believe it or not, no one is being personal.

+1

Also, after being on the both end of a lot of chat conversation pranks in the my (loooong) time on the nets its much safer to assume "he" first until proven otherwise (on comms)

OTOH I did had people in the corp/guild/fc/clan/... or even strangers that stated from the start their preferred gender for the conversation and I always tried to respect that regardless of their in game character gender and name.

p.s. as for male's playing female avatars ... I can't help it -- i always get the image of the guy from the Gamer movie playing RL FB thing there /ducks

[Gilraen]

Generally speaking gender neutrality can be difficult for some people to think in. It's largely a cultural thing where language supports, or doesn't, neutral verbage. English has alot of gender specific words but only a few gender neutral identifiers (specifically it, them, their, they), one is generally used in identifying a thing instead of a person and the rest are generally used to reference many people instead of just one person. As such, it's difficult for those taught first in English to think outside the binds of gender identification. The Japanese, though, have alot of words for 'they' and use them alot in their writing. But I digress. I generally just ignore it unless it becomes an issue, I'm too old and set in my ways to let how I'm identified in absent speech bother me. Not saying you have to roll over and accept it, just that there's more pressing things to get bent out of shape about.

[starcrusher465]

I honestly play both male and female characters because i like having the option to play both but the hassle is that i have to level both up. Plus im doing a little experiment right now with my female black mage(not giving the name) to see what people would say when i start tanking on my MRD to see if people would treat me differently.

[Huntington]

Last person I figured was a girl because of the PC ended up being a guy, I'm just going to consider everyone guys until further notice. I myself if I was playing on a Female PC would say it in my Search Info, "I'm a guy who's playing as a Girl PC, don't pester me about it." You're free to play as what you want, if people can't respect or acknowledge it appropriately than ignore them.

[SSJ4Goku]

As a female gorilla who identifies as a male gorilla I, too, find it very offensive to be referred to as a carp. I just want to kill dwarves all day, and I keep getting my privilege checked by these gosh darned atom smashing drawbridges.

[Diavolo]

Why be offended? You can't fault people for taking the safe bet. I assume everyone's a guy until notified otherwise. If they want me to know they're not a male, they'll speak up.

[Dreamer]

Why be offended? You can't fault people for taking the safe bet. I assume everyone's a guy until notified otherwise. If they want me to know they're not a male, they'll speak up.

I know I assume that other players in the game are male until being told or shown otherwise. Character gender aside, it's mostly guys playing the game, so most of the time that assumption is going to be right.

If it bothers you, just correct people. I'm sure no one means any offense by it.

Except it's NOT a safe bet. Roughly 1/3 of the playerbase is female.

Methinks it would be interesting to start referring to everyone (including male characters) as she just to see how people react when the shoe's on the other foot.