i need some input

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Created Jun 15, 2021 15:20:00

I was talking to a couple friends last night (not friends on rpr, but other friends that do roleplaying on Discord and such) and I asked them "why are people so afraid of things feminine or being perceived as girls?" In rp spaces lately, and what's often been the case in video games, I've seen a lot of people say "I can't play female characters" or "I can't write female characters." The reasons I've heard have varied and I think a lot of it is due to people projecting themselves onto characters or thinking characters are a reflection of themselves and thus, if they don't want to be seen as feminine or being a girl, they choose to instead play/write male characters.

I can't say I relate to this. I'm a cisgender woman. I feel comfortable writing female and male characters of all types; from hypermasculine to hyperfeminine and all points in between. When I write, I see characters' personality traits that I like and play off of those or when I play video games, I pick ones that appeal to me most whether by aesthetics, personality, playstyle, etc. For me, all characters kinda blend into the same archetypes; I would personally write Zhongli and Ningguang pretty similarly, for example, since they both have mature personalities with minor differences in their tones.

All of this coupled with my own personal experiences of roleplaying as male and female characters has made me really ask why do some people only write one type of character. It doesn't just have to be gender either, but that's mainly what's been on my mind. I can't imagine limiting myself to writing just women or just men, so if anyone has insight, feel free to let me know.

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dogblood 2 years ago

Internalized homophobia mostly. I felt the most comfortable with a female partner yet I anxiously avoided female f/cs unless I was playing a guy. I didn't have much luck with straight relationships as a guy though. Always felt inferior to other rpers with male f/cs because I wasn't masculine enough. Now that I have resolved my gender issues too, I think it was because I chose my f/cs based on the gender I was feeling. If I felt hyper-feminine, which was rare, I went for females. If I felt hyper-masculine, which was rarer, I was confident as a "straight" guy. Otherwise, I played any pretty boy, usually a "switch" though no one bought that. In my head agender equaled pretty boy. Why could it never be a [n androgynous] girl? No idea.

Besides those, maybe it's to do with the internal male gaze too? I felt I should act a certain way if I were to play a female (which was why my female characters were just soft). I also experimented a lot with my male characters and I felt free to do so. I couldn't carry the same enthusiasm while playing a female one, not until my final year of rping.

seunghan 2 years ago

im guilty for always rping one specific guy and cant do anyone else to save a life shdjdjdh i sometimes do girls too, but i always end up giving up and saying damn i really cant do girls cuz sometimes i feel like i ruin my little princesses with my chaotic self dhdjdjd so i just choose to rp specific guy muses that i know are canonically chaotic and that their known personality reflects my own in some ways LMAO

plus i read more fanfics from male povs (bg stan) than i did girls so it was easier to write from the standing point of a male even tho im a wahman hshshsh

2688df5c8e7741e3a585 2 years ago

I try to push myself out of my comfort zone with female characters however it's mentally challenging. I'm Transgender male so protraying a female fc is mentally not for me. I do get your points though as they are vaild.

madmarks 2 years ago

speaking for myself only, my female muses are Dom like my male and there's no male who can match my strength so I leaned more toward my male muses.

basically I rarely sub so I just... wither with my female muses.

b01c2c525dc935984cb3 2 years ago

now this is an issue that i personally had when it came to rping as women but i feel like a lot of people forget that women can be badass, can be whatever you want them to be because we're sounded to seeing them as overly feminine, weaker than men, all that jazz. and it took a lot for me to realise "yeah my character doesn't need to be a guy to be really ing cool".

but also it's a comfort thing. most straight/cis women stan male groups and most straight/cis men stan female groups (not all just most) so it's understandable that your muse is going to lean towards people that you're comfortable with and that you know. and sure there's a whole bunch of people across the uality and gender spectrum who stan differently and all that but most male groups are inherently more popular than female groups so you see more of those muses. now there's also the few bunch who rp male muses who behave exactly like women do except they have a for some good old fashioned gay but the amount of rpers who do ise gay relationships has actually lessened in the past couple of years (and as a stan since second gen i have noticed that it's something very prominent in older stans, that they tend to give a gay relationship the man/woman stance, but a lot of people have gotten over that).

hope that helps!

jester 2 years ago

Some women have internalized misogyny

a958b6ef268dd914bcee 2 years ago

i used to go through that ("mom, it's not a pHAsE"). it really depends on what the person is comfortable with and what they prefer. this is roleplaying after all, and if they prefer writing as men, that's alright. if they prefer to just write as women, that's cool too. i was uncomfortable roleplaying as a girl.

ngl i had the short haircut, huge baggy shirts, and pants, no skincare look when i was younger (i started roleplaying when i was in high school). but these days, i am more comfortable with writing for both men and women characters. some of my characters are flamboyant, a himbo, or too serious, a nerd, and a crybaby - it really depends on what people are okay with.

once they are ready to try something new, they will do so. just be there to support them when they do!

amateur_writer 2 years ago

Personally I try to roleplay both genders, males and females, good and bad, hetero and homo, nice ordinary, corrupt and out of this world.
I try everything and that is because besides roleplaying I write, and I roleplay not necessarily because I’m a fan of this idol or that, but more because I feel roleplaying helps me both creatively and with “upgrading” my writing style..
I most confess though, I lean mostly to female characters when I roleplay and that is because I’m a woman, I don’t feel I can describe some things that I don’t experience, just like a guy can’t describe something only females go through for example the pain of giving birth, the loss and the hurt of going through miscarriage, the mood swings and hormones and so on..

chikookiehope 2 years ago

If im being honest, I just find that my personality is much more accepted with male characters. Plus, I don't know many female fcs! I prefer rping as a cis gendered/straight male. I think also it's like you said, I find a sense of comfort rping something that I I not.

I am a cis gendered woman, who can go both way with uality. But i am also not very ual irl.

However, i am much more open about ual lifestyles with my male characters. When I rp females I think I have a sense of discomfort because I visualize myself? Idk owo but I do like rping girls! I just have to find a fc in very comfy with