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[Gessenier]

I've given away free stuff to both male and female characters and players but that's more a case of me having enough assets that I'm comfortable giving things away if I'm in a generous or charitable mood, or if they happen to be a corpmate in need. I tend to be more ambivalent towards providing handouts to female characters/players unless I know them in most cases because I don't want to give the impression I'm being generous due to tits. This also becomes a factor when I'm playing a male character and want to interact with a female character and I actually have to consider how not to give the impression that I'm only doing so because boobs are involved. I think I've curtailed a lot of RP on my end due to being self-conscious of the fact that in playing a male character a difficulty exists in trying to break out of perceptions of only being in it to get laid when approaching females.

I've only very recently attempted to play female characters because I have never attempted it before and I thought it might be challenging and engaging to try and pull it off. From the limited time I've spent playing females (As a man) I've found:

- I feel I RP better because there's an additional IC/OOC boundary in playing the opposing gender. I take more time and care considering background history, personality, and interactions with others. It's easier for me to take a step back and gauge effectively how to react and respond and a lot less potential bleed through of me the player into the characters.

- Less emotional investment and attachment to the character. This may or may not be a good thing.

- I've gotten this vague sense female characters are perceived to be less threatening overall and as such more open to talk to and approach.

- Some male players forget the general rule to assume everyone is a man on the internet and then trying to figure out how to let them down gently in telling them that the woman they seem to have fallen for in a pique of nerdgasm is in fact a man. Even if it is amusing.

- It's really creepy being flirted with and/or propositioned to by male nerds on the internet through random convos and mails.

In all though I'd say playing the opposite gender is interesting because it allows, to some extent, an ability to experience things from a different perspective. It's been eye opening to say the least.

[Seriphyn]

As Gessanier pointed out above, RPing the opposite gender provides the opportunity to minimize bleedover and maximize character distancing.

Personally, I find myself playing an "idealized" version of a woman that I would prefer IRL...which is not surprising, given the occurrence of playing characters of our own gender as "idealized" versions of ourselves.

As a result, all my female characters tend to trend around the same personality, which is a bit annoying when I want to try and RP differently. Anette is basically a miniature version of Rhea (if anyone remembers her); confident, self-assured, hyperfeminine. Kiam's not far off either.

Guess I'll just stick with one man and one woman for all my RPing needs. I don't picture myself able of RPing a male character very different from Seriphyn either, unless it was a fundamentally different build (Amarr zealot or something)

[Katrina Oniseki]

I kinda miss Kiam.

[Ciarente]

I have noticed that some male players with female characters portray their characters in a way that accords with cultural stereotypes about feminine behaviour - i.e. as types of characters I recognise from fiction, but have never actually met in real life.

I've also seen a number of conversations in OOC over the years about how particular RPers with female characters were 'doingitwrong' because their characters weren't 'like real women' - they were too strong, opinionated, and independent.  Ironically, on each occasion the players singled out as 'not knowing how women really are' were, in fact, female players.

In my experience some players have their characters treat female characters differently and more positively than male characters where those characters are played in a way that fits stereotypes of femininity.

[Kaldor Mintat]

Of course, people give me a lot of stuff; is this because they know I am a woman IRL?

"showers Ava with items (of course its all IOU notes but the thought counts"

Back on actual thread topic. Yes, noticed a clear difference. while my actual rp been light for a year or so now i tend to get more rp on the female char i use the most than on my 3 real mains (which are all male).

[Ava Starfire]

I have noticed that some male players with female characters portray their characters in a way that accords with cultural stereotypes about feminine behaviour - i.e. as types of characters I recognise from fiction, but have never actually met in real life.

I've also seen a number of conversations in OOC over the years about how particular RPers with female characters were 'doingitwrong' because their characters weren't 'like real women' - they were too strong, opinionated, and independent.  Ironically, on each occasion the players singled out as 'not knowing how women really are' were, in fact, female players.

In my experience some players have their characters treat female characters differently and more positively than male characters where those characters are played in a way that fits stereotypes of femininity.

So much this.

[Casiella]

I have noticed that some male players with female characters portray their characters in a way that accords with cultural stereotypes about feminine behaviour - i.e. as types of characters I recognise from fiction, but have never actually met in real life.

I've also seen a number of conversations in OOC over the years about how particular RPers with female characters were 'doingitwrong' because their characters weren't 'like real women' - they were too strong, opinionated, and independent.  Ironically, on each occasion the players singled out as 'not knowing how women really are' were, in fact, female players.

In my experience some players have their characters treat female characters differently and more positively than male characters where those characters are played in a way that fits stereotypes of femininity.

Generally speaking across my entire RP experience, I either try not to play female characters or, when I do, I try to give as little thought to their gender as possible. I am not holding this up as an example of doing it right, but a G.I.R.L. friend (LOL) in SWG played a strong woman largely based on himself. He was amazed how many people told him he played a believable woman because he made no efforts in any direction to feminize or masculinize (why is that not a word?) his character. So I tried to follow his example with Casi.

Because of this, I intentionally play(ed) Casiella as a "strong, opinionated, and independent" woman who also eschewed romantic relationships. I never really noticed much difference in her IC treatment, though I saw a lot of supposition IC and OOC that, because she always turned guys down (or because she was played by a RL male), she must have been a lesbian.

[Matariki Rain]

[....] masculinize (why is that not a word?) [....]

It is.

[Casiella]

OK then it's just my browser's spell check that's behind the times. Thanks! Carry on!

[Seriphyn]

Actually, other than getting inspiration for Anette from various 11-year-olds I've taught here and there, I stole some personality inspiration from the eyebrow girl.

But yeah, Ciarente is right about the unrealistic femininity thing, so I try to keep it believable. There might be some license as far as EVE goes, though. Gallentean finishing schools that teach such concepts, I 'unno.

[Vieve]

I have noticed that some male players with female characters portray their characters in a way that accords with cultural stereotypes about feminine behaviour - i.e. as types of characters I recognise from fiction, but have never actually met in real life.

I've also seen a number of conversations in OOC over the years about how particular RPers with female characters were 'doingitwrong' because their characters weren't 'like real women' - they were too strong, opinionated, and independent.  Ironically, on each occasion the players singled out as 'not knowing how women really are' were, in fact, female players.

In my experience some players have their characters treat female characters differently and more positively than male characters where those characters are played in a way that fits stereotypes of femininity.

Generally speaking across my entire RP experience, I either try not to play female characters or, when I do, I try to give as little thought to their gender as possible. I am not holding this up as an example of doing it right, but a G.I.R.L. friend (LOL) in SWG played a strong woman largely based on himself. He was amazed how many people told him he played a believable woman because he made no efforts in any direction to feminize or masculinize (why is that not a word?) his character. So I tried to follow his example with Casi.

Because of this, I intentionally play(ed) Casiella as a "strong, opinionated, and independent" woman who also eschewed romantic relationships. I never really noticed much difference in her IC treatment, though I saw a lot of supposition IC and OOC that, because she always turned guys down (or because she was played by a RL male), she must have been a lesbian.

I could just quote this and leave it here, but y'all just can't be that lucky. 

I ran an experimental alt recently¹.  Modeled her personality after what I remember of my own as a twenty-year old, modulo a handful of my eccentricities that are hardly worth mentioning².

It took about oh, three, four weeks before she got ICly accused of being a lesbian.   Never got accused of being a guy playing her, but since I didn't have any OOC conversations with her, it's possible I didn't give anyone the opportunity to do so.


¹Like none of you do that.  Don't judge me! 
²Yeah, I have more than a handful. I have a list that I keep in a 3-ring binder.
³Casi, she bored you to tears.

[Casiella]

She bored me to tears? I don't remember interacting with people that much lately, mostly because the entire Summit often bores me to tears. (And I know I never accused anyone of being a lesbian. )

[Gwen Ikiryo]

On topic: I've never run into a roleplay community where female characters weren't treated (and played) vastly differently then male ones. But then, roleplay is always just a reflection of real life, so it's not really surprising that it's the case. I mean, we don't live in a post-sexism world, and lots of people are trained to be more forgiving to women and harsher on men (and well as innumerable other things) by the society they live in. And roleplay is, though it's a grim way to put it, basically just the real world dumbed down and with a different coat of paint- People play what they see... And often what they see in media rather then reality, which adds an extra layer of conformance to stereotypes and expectations. Especially when playing characters vastly different from oneself, where there's no real personal context to add into the mix.

In regards to the tangent about female characters being played poorly, well... I worry a bit sometimes that I might have made Gwen a little too "Fragile", in personality terms, and set a bad example or annoyed others. Just to clarify: I'm a girl in real life and almost always play really strong, unfearful (and often villainous) characters, regardless of gender. Gwen is one of the only exceptions to this rule, who I've tried to present as someone utterly out of their element and feeling weak compared to those around her for legitimate, relatable reasons. But... When other new/first-day Capsuleers stream in already extremely confident and with a strong set of ideals, which seems to be how things roll, she ends up just sort of seeming weak-willed and "innocent", which is, to some, stereotypically feminine.

I intended her to be down-to-earth, introspective and quietly defiant and independent in spite of her having considerable anxiety and fears, and I think I've stuck to this in most cases. But I feel like it's easy for others to perceive her as a bog-standard frail waif, so to speak, and when people treat your character a certain way consistantly, it's easy to sort of "slip" into that role by accident. And I think I have fallen into it a couple times, which is no good.

I'd hate for her to end up that way full time or it just to be how everyone see's her. Maybe I need to change how I approach playing the character a little.

[hellgremlin]

Hmm.

I've had considerable experience being other people in Eve Online. Some of them were girls. At first, I sought advice from my chick friends on how to act girly... but that mainly confused and frightened the male objectives I was working on. I discovered something interesting shortly after that.

An actual female operative is less effective at convincing male objectives to do things, than a guy roleplaying a chick is. The reason for this appears to be that guys are better at pretending to be an ideal adorable chick, than actual female operatives are. I've had a few broads in my corp, hoping to take advantage of some obscure effect, but it just never happened. A guy pretending to be a chick is WAY more enticing than an actual chick.

I'll leave you all to ponder the implications...

[Khloe]

Men know better about what men really like? You don't say!