Cross-Gendering as an Art Form
Number of Views :251WARNING: This post is inflammatory and full of generalizations. It is not meant to offend. However…
Here’s something that’s always bothered me: cross-gendering.
You know what I mean: male players going out and playing female characters. It very rarely works out, and I’ll tell you why:
I have only on occasion seen someone play a girl who was not someone who will never have the opportunity to see the inside of a woman’s pants. The female characters are very nearly always played by the guy at the game store that even the LARPers shun.
They never play a female like a female. The characters spend their time trying to seduce any man that walks by, or is often a lesbian so that the player doesn’t have to spend any uncomfortable time making eyes at the DM.
I have a co-worker who is the epitome of a girl-playing player. He has no social skills and doesn’t even know how to talk TO a woman, much less talk LIKE one. Whenever he tells me about his previous characters (against my will, mind you), he begins describing the character, and then introducing the dreaded word: SHE.
The only times I feel comfortable with guys playing girls is if… You know what? Never.
The only female characters in a game should be played by females.
Think I’m being a little harsh? Disagree completely? Agree? Let me know by leaving a comment.
So when you GM, there are no female NPCs in your worlds?
And do females playing male players not count as cross-gendering, or do you just know no female players who do that?
I don’t disagree, but some females play females that way too
I agree as being a difficult thing to do, but with mature people, you can pull it off.
I once got teased by a gaming group for “always playing females”
I then did the math, and found out that for that game group I’ve played four females … and four males.
I’ve known the kinds of people you talk about, and I hope I’m not like them. Usually I play a female character only because that gender fits with the character concept I have in mind; if such a character was male, even if everything else was the same, the concept would be different. I might have the problem of creating too many character concepts that require a female gender, but I honestly find it easier to create them than male.
Ummm. In my current superheroes campaign, 3 out of 5 central characters are women, and they’re all played by guys. My own characters could be either men, or women, depending on which gender suits the character concept best. One of my long-running fantasy characters was Esmaera, a female dwarven Wizard – without a beard.
Saying men can’t play women is like saying comicbook writers can’t write about superheroines, or male authors can’t write about women protagonists.
Granted, it takes a certain degree of maturity (and skill) to do it, but the same could be said for playing anything that’s outside your comfort zone.
I disagree utterly. With the exception of That GM We Try Not To Talk About, who ran every single one of his female NPCs as condescending manipulators with no redeeming value whatsoever, and the one fellow who had never role-played before, all the male players I’ve played alongside have done a blasted good job with their female characters; similarly, I’ve seen several very well done female as male RPs face to face, and I myself have done cross-gender RP by chat so convincingly that a newcomer to the game didn’t even realize I was a girl until several months in.
I could understand laying ground rules for guys playing female characters and vice versa, but forbidding it entirely? No.
While I have gamed with players that match the stereotype you write about, I’ve gamed with many more guys perfectly capable of playing female characters (as well as women who have played male characters).
I don’t think there is anything intrinsically wrong with a male playing a female character, it’s just a matter of maturity level.
Others have brought up great points that agree with, from GMs having to run female NPCs to male writers writing about female characters.
What Joshua said. If the male GM can play female NPCs, the male players can play female characters.
Yes, it’s often true that they roleplay females badly. But the sort of bloke who roleplays females badly will also roleplay dwarves, orcs, Bengalis, Russians, medics, wizards and small furry animals badly.
I agree with Kiashu’s comment. I pretty much play exclusively female characters, mostly to round out a group (as I play with people who play usually exclusively male characters).
Also, I can’t say I find much of a point point to a post that admits it is over-generalizing and broadly applying crude stereotypes based on bad experiences, and then saying “But you’re welcome to disagree!” And this is coming from the guy who’s posts are for the most part composed of swearing and insulting the reader’s intelligence, family and pets.
I’ve never met a guy who plays girls that way. Of course, I do my utmost not to game with idiots in general – the type of guy who’d do that is the type of guy I’d kick out of my game for other reasons anyway.
I have a guy in my group right now playing a girl. She’s a little girly, a little bit of a misandrist, and a little bit of a flirt.
I’m a girl, and about half my characters are male. I don’t think I’ve ever played a gay male character, though my current male character is for all practical purposes celibate, since his beloved lives far away. Most of my guys are just as flirty as everyone else’s.
I have had bad experiences with players playing cross gender, and to be honest, it’s statistically more likely than from other causes. Despite that, it can be done well– as several people have pointed out, every GM has to create female NPCs or the world is lopsided.
I suspect Elves and Dwarves would be even more incensed by our shallow, sterotypical. “humans in funny ears (or with beards)” play– but being mythical, they don’t get a vote. Still, sometimes you see someone play an elf with flair and really get that alien but recognizable feel… and sometimes you get a skinny human who carries around a bow.