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Why Does Nobody Choose Transgendered/Intersex Avatars?

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Reaver Glitterstim
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#61 - 2012-06-21 19:08:23 UTC
FloppieTheBanjoClown wrote:
PinkKnife wrote:
Try a non-crowd sourced definition

http://www.glaad.org/transgender

Also, Simply because a definition of a pejorative word doesn't include that it can be offensive, doesn't make it not-offensive.

Anyone can choose to be offended by any term used to categorize them. Every new generation tries to change the words used to describe them if they have the slightest notion those words might have been

I could *choose* to be offended when someone calls me "white", because my skin isn't white and my heritage is far more diverse than is implied by that word. I'm not because I understand that it's the most accurate description of my skin tone without getting far too descriptive for casual conversation. In truth I'm an anglo-irish-franco-german-spanish-african-native-American with a slightly darker skin tone than most non-mediterranean European-descended Americans.

So calling a transgendered person a tranny is an accurate and acceptable term so far as I'm concerned. It's concise and descriptive and obvious as to its origin. Whether it offends anyone in particular...Frankly, I don't care. We've developed a culture where we're expected to know which words are and aren't in style for every given group and are labelled bigots or worse for using the wrong ones. At the same time we use our language to dilute important concepts. Just listen to Carlin's bit on euphemisms for a good example.

You know what offends me? "Human resources". They used to call it "personnel". There was nothing wrong with that term. It accurately described the purpose of the department and didn't have any discriminatory undertones. The only way anyone would be excluded would be if they couldn't be considered a person. But at some point someone decided we needed to a less personal-sounding term and invented "human resources". The new term implies that we humans are simply resources to be consumed. But hey, no one is out there complaining about no longer being persons. They're too busy getting mad about people not using the FOTM word.

I am a tranny and I approve of this message.

Dersen Lowery wrote:
As far as gender goes, nobody knows your gender in space; your portrait only shows your sex. So that would come down to character behavior, which can currently only be expressed in chat and on voice comms.

My character avatar and my voice comms (whenever my stupid mic works) tell people I'm a man. I prefer to think of myself as a woman, but I'm not going to get all bothered when people don't automatically know that.

FT Diomedes: "Reaver, sometimes I wonder what you are thinking when you sit down to post."

Frostys Virpio: "We have to give it to him that he does put more effort than the vast majority in his idea but damn does it sometime come out of nowhere."
Dersen Lowery
The Scope
#62 - 2012-06-21 19:21:51 UTC  |  Edited by: Dersen Lowery
Reaver Glitterstim wrote:
Dersen Lowery wrote:
As far as gender goes, nobody knows your gender in space; your portrait only shows your sex. So that would come down to character behavior, which can currently only be expressed in chat and on voice comms.

My character avatar and my voice comms (whenever my stupid mic works) tell people I'm a man. I prefer to think of myself as a woman, but I'm not going to get all bothered when people don't automatically know that.


And that's kind of the punchline, actually, because if you take away any obvious cues (the different-on-average voices, for instance), what exactly is the difference between the way a man behaves and the way a woman behaves? 90% of people's judgment is going to rest on their socially constructed expectations, which have nothing to do with the way you identify yourself.

I mean, if you wanted to be identified as female (as opposed to identifying yourself as female), you might not say that you prefer to wear jeans and the same pair of sneakers you've had for years, that you hate shopping, and that one of your favorite pastimes is taking a wedge, a maul and an axe and splitting firewood, but that's my wife.

Proud founder and member of the Belligerent Desirables.

I voted in CSM X!
FloppieTheBanjoClown
Arcana Imperii Ltd.
#63 - 2012-06-21 22:13:39 UTC  |  Edited by: FloppieTheBanjoClown
Dersen Lowery wrote:
if you take away any obvious cues (the different-on-average voices, for instance), what exactly is the difference between the way a man behaves and the way a woman behaves?.

There are some rather significant differences in brain structure between men and women, and that seems to be borne out in our well-document differences in perspective.

For example, men are more likely to compartmentalize thoughts and be objectively dispassionate about things while women tend to connect everything and find relationships between things that men will typically completely miss. This has nothing to do with social order and traditional gender roles...it's evolution. Men benefit from being able to "disconnect" thoughts from their emotions, an important ability when fighting or hunting. Women's brains have evolved for the complexities of child rearing, and then in the more complex social environments of the community that the men were more frequently away from.

Of course all things biological work in degrees, so there are women whose brains work more like men and so on. Any discussion of things such as this have to be qualified with the point that this is a discussion of averages. I stand 185 cm (that's 6'1 for my fellow Americans). I could say that I'm taller than most women and someone can immediately retort that they or their wife or their sister is 190 cm. That one anecdote doesn't change the fact that the average woman in the US is 163 cm, significantly shorter than me. On average men and women do have some significant differences in behavior that seems to hold true across cultures.

Founding member of the Belligerent Undesirables movement.
Reaver Glitterstim
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#64 - 2012-06-22 00:25:01 UTC
FloppieTheBanjoClown wrote:
For example, men are more likely to compartmentalize thoughts and be objectively dispassionate about things while women tend to connect everything and find relationships between things that men will typically completely miss.

This is perhaps the best explanation I've ever heard for what makes me feel like a woman. Most people who find out I'm straight can't understand why I don't feel I fit in with other men. Well there it is, and I couldn't have described it better myself. And it doesn't really matter that much, it's just a significant factor in forming relationships with people because they expect me to think and act like a man, and I just don't and I never will.

FT Diomedes: "Reaver, sometimes I wonder what you are thinking when you sit down to post."

Frostys Virpio: "We have to give it to him that he does put more effort than the vast majority in his idea but damn does it sometime come out of nowhere."
Goa Vibe
Clan Kalderash
#65 - 2012-06-23 16:14:38 UTC
I think until we can use said gender parts ingame, the issue is irrelevant.
Bree Okanata
Perkone
Caldari State
#66 - 2012-06-28 08:18:11 UTC  |  Edited by: Bree Okanata
Culmen wrote:
Seriously CCP.

It offensive that gender is a boolean value.
It should be a slider.


If you read the comments regarding this, you will understand why it is a bad idea. EVE players are not mature enough to handle it. No MMO has a mature enough community to handle it.