I was originally going to post this anonymously, but decided against it. I hope everyone can stay respectful and not make personal attacks and try to stay away from 'urdoinitrong' comments...
"Space Lesbians"
We use the term a lot, most of us. Some of us preface our characters by defining whether we are one or not. Some of us jokingly or seriously prod at other characters using the term. Others make judgments about RP based on it, or imply judgments. The word has started to become synonymous with role-play that isn’t serious or as worthwhile as heterosexual or male/male relationships.
But what is a Space Lesbian? Is it simply any character changed in homosexual role-play between two females? Is it the aforementioned type of character but played by a male in RL? Is it suggesting that lesbians in EVE should only be played by actual females? Is it a character whose purpose is primarily sexual? Does it suggest promiscuity? Does it mean the player is sexually insecure? Is being a space lesbian ‘doinitrong’?
In a way I think the term space lesbian is part of the neo Puritanism and implicit demand for conformity that has come to dominate the game in recent years. Powerful external groups have decided that eve is a terrible roleplaying game and its only acceptable to play in certain ways (tear harvesting, griefing, mockery, deprecating background etc etc) spaceships became Internet spaceships, villainy and honour became e-villainy and e-honour and gender roleplay became space lesbianism. Lets be realistic, without men playing female characters the game universe would look more a prison shower block party, but hetro men being hetro men its easier to roleplay attraction and sex with another female avatar than it is to portray the same towards a male avatar.
95% of players are male.
50% of the avatars
Of those 47.5% of men playing female avatars most are hetro so find it easier to portray attraction to another female avatar.
Is not rocket science simply human nature and preference.
But neo-Puritanism mingled with the deprecation of eve as any kind of roleplay game holds this evident human nature up to mockery and disparagement because that's what all the cool kids are doing. How dare anyone play a character of a different gender, how silly is that? These people would love to see eve as a universe more accurately reflecting ooc gender and would love to mock the prison yard butt-pirate imagery if it ever came to pass. Would mark a critical stage in the devolution of eve the rpg towards simplistic lord of the flies simulator with your enemies and victims filling the role of piggy on the island.
It is powerful though, I wonder myself how many existing characters would change sex and name if CCP delivered a cash payment system for such. I must admit I'd be tempted, for as much background and personality and history I have associated with Jade I must now consider that I don't see much continuing reason or motivation to play her as a female character in the game universe of eve online given cultural leanings and CCP's own apparent disdain for roleplay in their game world.
The problem with the term 'space lesbian' is that it's become so common and used in a derogatory way that some of us may not realize how offensive it can be. There are many female characters who are involved in serious and monogamous homosexual relationships in EVE played by people who put a lot of effort into their role-play. There are those who are gay or lesbian, or otherwise queer, in real life who could feel bothered by the comment. While it’s understandable that not everybody is accepting of homosexuality, those who are should be more careful when using the term.
Problem is that eve itself has been subsumed into a more mainstream North American young male gamer mindset where casual homophobia and abuse becomes the norm. We get the ostensibly "anarchistic" something awful style where everyone is free to say anything they want and since its on the Internet nothing matters its just an e-insult; freedom to offend, becoming a pretty conservative peer pressure driven drive to conformity, where sure you are free to offend, but if you don't offend the same targets everyone else is offending you'll be ostracised and risk becoming the next target. Absolute freedom quickly becomes absolute tyranny where the strong and the numerous dominate the weak and the minority. Gamer culture is becoming neo Puritanism where minorities are victims and hate figures and abuse is simply a code word for conformity.
I deeply regret the way eve has slipped to the mainstream here. It used to be a game where we had weirdos and bizarre people, our kinks and queers and alternative subcultures, gays, straights, cross dressers and virtual prostitutes rubbing shoulders with fanatics, politicians, anarchists, loyalists, soldiers, mercenaries and pirates and it felt, it genuinely felt like some outworld cantina where literally anything could happen and you were always going to learn something strange and new in late night conversations while hunting war targets.
Now it seems just like pick up gaming in any one of a hundred identikit online gaming clans. Aside from the griefing and mocking suicides; look how much of a sociopath I am! theme it's portraying these days, it doesn't feel much like Star Wars or the culture anymore - something wonderful and profoundly scifi has disappeared beneath the weight of prudish conformism that insists we ape only the deeds of the paragons and never depart from the norm.
In many societies, being homosexual can get you excluded from society, placed under judicial punishment, or worse. This isn’t reality. This isn’t a call for gay rights. This isn’t a cry for help. It is however a petition for those who share this role-play community to be careful instead of casually throwing the phrase around. There are players, friends of yours even, who play lesbians in EVE – and who might be offended. Let’s all try to be more accepting of other’s choices in role-play.
And in eve right now playing the game in the "wrong way" will get you mocked, derided, demeaned, bullied, marginalised and ultimately purged from the body politic of social norms - it's not that the prevailing ideology particularly hates queers and lesbians and transgendered alternative gender roled diversity. It's that they hate people who will not laugh and point and jeer alongside them with the mockery.
It's okay to be a space lesbian as long as you also take the piss out of other space lesbians, then you are some kind of transgendered Uncle Tom who still "gets it". Question the mockery and suggest its a symptom of parochial ignorance? Oh boy, guess who gets to be the next hate figure in the cooking pot!
Author
Topic: "Space Lesbians" (Read 29001 times)