Noah Brand
At the Good Men Project: why men play female characters in video games.
Ozy Frantz
At the Good Men Project: rerun of The Knight/Beast Dichotomy.
At AlterNet: The Absurd Myths Porn Teaches Us About Sex. Technically cowritten, but it goes under my section Because I Said So.
About ozyfrantzOzy Frantz is a student at a well-respected Hippie College in the United States. Zie bases most of zir life decisions on Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and identifies more closely with Pinkie Pie than is probably necessary. Ozy can be contacted at ozyfrantz@gmail.com or on Twitter as @ozyfrantz. Writing is presently Ozy's primary means of support, so to tip the blogger, click here.
The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek died Monday, he was 74 years old.
Despite men being statistically less healthy than women, global health funding has been largely focused on women.
More than 100 days have passed since the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay started, and with no progress being made, an American minister has joined the strike.
Peace Corps Deputy Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet today announced that the agency will begin accepting applications from same-sex domestic partners who want to serve together as volunteers overseas.
Chantele Theroux on how to live and love like the Man in Black.
An easy, energy efficient way to brew tea in your kitchen.
Justin Cascio talks to T Cooper, author of Real Man Adventures, about writing, crying, and being a real man.
This is a comment by Cameron Brown on the post “Makeup for Men? Why?”
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As a male who sometimes played female characters in text-based online games for over a decade before WoW even existed, I can safely say it wasn’t for the view.
I’d agree with with the curiosity aspect some mentioned, people do treat you differently based on gender, with female characters getting gifts and questions like “r u hot?”, but overall I didn’t notice so much difference back then. Maybe graphics make a difference in how people react to gender?
Sometimes also it’s about roleplaying different personalities, and people react differently to some character stereotypes in one gender than the other. I never felt the need to sexualize my female avatars, not even to get gifts and favors (though I did get offers). Mostly I played them as facets of myself, but then online gender identity tests tell me I’m androgyne, so maybe that was a factor?
@daelyte: I saw a lot of men playing women in text-based online games in the pre-MMO era and many of them did sexualise their characters, usually with lovingly detailed descriptions about their breasts and skimpy clothes. Lesbianism was common, too.
@Hugh:
Yes I saw plenty of that that too. I also saw some male-on-male action, with character descriptions that were clearly not written by male players. I’ve heard it said that MUDs were primarily populated by adolescent boys and their mothers, certainly matches my experience..
That said, it’s far from being the only reason why someone would play opposite-gender characters, but those may be less likely to advertise the fact.
I read the article on Alternet. Am I the only one getting the feeling that the part about the male penis was bolted on as an afterthought? A lot about female issues, not very much about male issues.