Playing as the opposite gender?

[LegoLad659]

So, logic would state that a given roleplayer would generally stay within the familiar territory of playing as their same gender, because they understand that gender more than they do the other. Or maybe a male roleplayer has a few female characters, but mostly has male characters.


Then there are people like me, who have mostly characters who are the opposite gender. Out of my 25-or-so character roster, only about 3 or 4 are male. And I was wondering, does anyone else do this? Is this common? I don't have a specific reason for doing it, it just sort of happened. I just like playing as girls ( )


Maybe I'm just insane or something xD

 

[call me rae]

Lol well to quote someone from a different site


Roleplaying is about using your imagination


Therefore you should be able to write any gender, nationality, species, etc.


Sure you might tend towards people with similar traits or life experiences as yourself but that's a personal preference.


I'd say I probably play women more often then men but that's purely random.


I don't set out only to play women I just find them easier to find references of and a good many of my current roleplays have female protagonists.


So really if asked I'll play either gender. But in practice it's women because it's easier to find pictures.

 

[Chiken]

I can play both genders equally. Men and woman are build of the same material, breath the same air, and bleed just the same. Both can experience tragedy, feel pain, and everyone has an equal possibility to do good or evil. I would think that roleplaying the opposite gender is more challenging than playing the gender you are born with. Personally I have no preference about gender, I usually try to fill in the roles that are needed in an RP.

 

[Reiyumi]

I have a tendency to like to play male characters more. I don't really mean to, but y'know....it happens. Most of my characters are female simply due to the fact that I sometimes get stuck with doing so, but it's not as enjoyable. I have no clue as to why I enjoy playing male characters more.

 

[Mordecai]

Mmm, I do play both genders, but I tend to play males more often than females, and I am a female. I'd say my male:female ratio is about 70:30.

 

[DiamondJack]

An interesting proposal. I am a male, and I would wager that 80% of my characters are male, but some of my favorites are female. I also have this weird thing where, when given the option, I rarely play human characters. Actually, I don't know if that is odd. Hmm...

 

[Kylesar1]

Most of my characters are my gender, Male. If I ever make a female, it'll be accompanying my main character as part of the same character, like a servant or an adviser or thoughts or something


I've made exactly 1 female character that's not accompanying my male character

 

[Snowy Halation]

It is pretty much the same for me. About 80% of the characters that I play as are female. For me it's different though. Role playing or online gaming for me is a way to distract myself with the real world for a little bit. Don't get me wrong I love my life but being a guy irl and sticking to that same set of rules and standards in a fantasy world sounds pretty boring for me.

 

[LegoLad659]

[QUOTE="Snowy Halation]It is pretty much the same for me. About 80% of the characters that I play as are female. For me it's different though. Role playing or online gaming for me is a way to distract myself with the real world for a little bit. Don't get me wrong I love my life but being a guy irl and sticking to that same set of rules and standards in a fantasy world sounds pretty boring for me.

[/QUOTE]
That makes a surprising amount of sense, actually. We roleplay to essentially become people we can't be in real life. Maybe that's the real reason why I rarely play guys, because I'm like "I'm already a guy, why do I need this?" xD

 

[Snowy Halation]

@LegoLad659 Pretty much. Role playing is all about exploring your imagination and expanding it as a result. I pretty much know most if not all there is to know about being a guy and women prove to be a much more challenging (and fun!) psyche to explore!

 

[Lil Shirou]

I play alot of female roles. Different personalities though. I can play both roles easily. It just alot of rp I do lack female roles typically.

 

[AkuTheWolfOkami]

TDR the posts after the OP, but Most of my characters are female. for the 15 + years I have been roleplaying, most have been male, so the last few, have been mostly female. Playing the same thing gets boring. :3

 

[Gilzar]

I actually prefer to roleplay as the opposite gender. It's much more challenging, yet a lot more satisfying. I really can't say what it is, but I just love a good female protagonist rather than the typical male protagonist.

 

[authinsi]

Well I can say that reading all that's above that I have a smile upon my face, after having some people in chat roleplay concerned that people play opposite genders or just generally assume you would play your own gender. I always refer to what 'roleplay' means and what the goal of any roleplay is and what roleplay is being done at the time, where each of these factors says it is A-O-K. As a male, I play both, though depends on what the roleplay is, what the plot is, for which gender I feel I could play better in the circumstances (or to level my roleplays if my male:female ratio is off-balance). If writers can write for both males and females as a male or female themselves (JK for example), then perfectly well for roleplayers, as writers, to write for both too

 

[Sunbather]

I don't think it's necessary to stay within your own sex to roleplay realistically. People are people. Yes, people are shaped by how society treats them, which leads to differences amongst the genders, but when it comes down to it, that's only true so much. Mostly, a character can be 100% applied to either gender. Then you obviously have cliches, like gymbro, high school cheerleader slut and so on. Many people hate them, I'm indifferent to them. People like that exist in real life, so there's some merrit to their existence in rp'ing too. However, these stereotypes are so broadly known and trite, everyone can play them. So yeah, I don't think staying within your gender is required to RP a male or female accurately, despite beeing female or male.


I kind of just always end up making female characters 'cause I prefer it, not because I can identify with it more. It just happens. When I do make a male character, I enjoy playing them just as much though, and I like to think on an equal, qualitive level.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

I'm a weeabu, so I choose cute grills because they're cute. Although I stink at the whole feminine thing, so it's a lot like playing a female barbarian in Diablo 3. it doesn't really matter what gender I choose, because if my idea is going to involve insanity or being a naive kid, the personality will stay the same.


Except maybe my girl character will stay away from romantic connections like the plague because it's weird enough in real life.

 

[Myot]

What about society's view on a particular gender.?

 

[LegoLad659]

What about society's view on a particular gender.?

What exactly do you mean by that? I'm just talking about the gender of the characters themselves.

 

[razorrabbit]

While most of my mains are female I tend to notice that most side characters I make that I like the most are male and sadly really really underused as well, like one rp I had going with a friend my favorite character was actually a young son of my main character, I'd often find myself enjoying writing him more than my main. Course that could be because he was so flipping adorable and destructive. I tend to judge how I roleplay my own characters a lot to an unhealthy point of worrying about offending anyone when I go outside my comfort zone (like the time I nearly had a meltdown trying to write a character that had always seen herself as gay and later realize she was bi.) so I often don't write male characters for the stupid reason of it makes me feel guilty makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong and hurting someone somehow by doing it. Though that just falls under any character that is outside my normal comfort zone but it tends to happen with male characters the most. It's weirdly selective though on what I feel uncomfortable with or what will suddenly rush at me with 'you're doing this wrong you're making all x look like y and you should feel horrible for it'

 

[Myot]

What exactly do you mean by that? I'm just talking about the gender of the characters themselves.

Women's stance in a particular society for instance.

 

[Reiyumi]

Society's view of someone is not really the point of the thread. I could go off topic and try to explain how I feel about Society's view of women, but I will not as it would be both against the rules.


Honestly, I view that as entirely different matter than what is being discussed.

 

[LegoLad659]

Women's stance in a particular society for instance.

That's not what this topic is about... So really, I find your question irrelevant.

 

[ApexisNexion]

I even it out pretty well, but I tend to be more attached to my male characters for some reason. They tend to have attributes and characteristics that I like more than my female characters, even though I write each according to how I want them to be and with qualities I find appealing at the time and appropriate for them. The only female OC off the top of my head that I can think of as genuinely enjoying is my sci-fi mercenary, Shale, who is quite masculine anyways.

 

[Lexielai]

A lot of people won't agree with each other over the reasons they do or do not play the opposite gender, so you probably won't be able to get a real, scientific answer. I do have an opinion though, which may or may not be wrong, but I think is valuable in a discussion.


For me, playing as the opposite gender provides a sense of detachment that allows me to more comfortably explore things I'm uncomfortable with. When I play a character of the same gender, I feel a closer similarity. It's more difficult to tackle harsh topics like slavery, depression, betrayal, and all that interesting jazz I want to look at without feeling uncomfortable because I imagine it happening to myself. I don't realize it logically; it's a subconscious process that I don't tend to think about.


When I play as the opposite gender, it no longer hits as close to home. It's not as uncomfortable to have bad things happen to my character because we're not the same. I empathize and I see from the character's perspective, but I don't feel like I am personally affected by the character.


If you didn't already know, this sort of reasoning is the same basis as for science fiction. I don't want to go to in-depth on it, but the growing appeal of science fiction in the 1900s came about because there were a lot of issues in society that people weren't comfortable dealing with. So, they took to science fiction, which brought a sense of detachment since these issues occurred in distant futures or other realms. Novels like "Brave New World" and "1984" reflected a lot of the growing fear of communism, for instance.


In my opinion, something similar can happen when you play a character of the opposite gender. You become more comfortable with expressing certain things because it's no longer so personally impactful for you. I definitely don't believe this applies to every circumstance; people are complicated, and there's a whole lot of reasons for why they might do certain things. I just think this could be one explanation for certain behavior.

 

[determinator]

Difficulties with a certain gender, particularly cisgender roles, tends to be a bit overwrought; I've found that many people who complain of being "unable" to play a certain sex place too many expectations on the characters based on what they expect them to act like due to what genitalia they have, as if the sexual characteristics of a person determine who they are. This view is understandable to a point due to how (Western especially) society treats gender and sex, but when it comes to writing, it's good practice to get all sorts of characters under your belt and repertoire, even if you prefer a certain type (and there's nothing wrong with that).


The majority of my characters are male or LGBT/MOGAI female. I don't think I have a vanilla straight person in my crowd, although I do have cisgender characters. I don't write romance as a focus, so I tend to let the characters dictate their own tastes; I have a lot of pansexual and asexual characters. I have more non-binary than trans, though. I could understand why a person that is not trans would have an issue writing from a trans person's perspective; I'm skirting around the issue for the same reason, because I do not directly experience what the majority of the trans community does.


That was long-winded but I hope I got my point across. Moral of the story: people, fictional or not, are never just their genitalia.