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Saturday, 9 August 2014

gender roll, thoughts on encounters and blogging


So I read this comic
and I started thinking about all the lady presentations* it missed out and making a table here to include them, But then I started thinking about how basically the majority of them would be localized to the last ten years and in the western world and then only certain parts of it. And would it be an interesting or awkward anachronism to put them in a fantasy world?
*my favourite is monster drag

Considering all the forms underground gay culture takes (link, another link, , also fuck madonna and watch Paris is Burning asap, and shit one lesbian link what is with that?)
(feel free to share better more informative links in the comments oh mysterious audience peoples)
And consider "other" genders and the awkward/colonist attempts to make them fit in the current modern western way of thinking of gender identity. Anyway my point is people are big and weird and diverse and horrid and cruel and small.
Also that drag/gender performance/ sexual identity/ gender impersonation for career advancement  blur .

Anyway here is some gender rolls/identitys that attempt to be not modern concepts awkwardly shoehorned into different worlds  but mostly still are and also some actually historical influence.

(by male / female I am meaning that which is commonly thought of as male /female in the society with the conventionally anatomy that usually implies )

(also I don't think there is not a single gender identity which isn't someone else restrictive stereotype that they have spent their life fighting against. So if these concepts feel like they are mocking you, that wasn't there intention but I will listen to any grievance you have thoughtfully)

(also it might seem that I'm implying that all the societies mentioned below marginalize or objectify even when they supposedly celebrate an other gender , using a mythologizing process to contain a gender deviance like cyst or a pearl , so it does not spread further. Okay that is exactly what I am doing because I am fucking cynical and bitter.

This is not an analysis of other cultures other genders however because that is an extraordinary difficult and loaded proposition


Audarana:
doomed but noble hyper performative.

Audarana (singular and plural) dress as their "opposite" gender in an exaggerated way. The exaggeration is in an earnest  way rather than a satirical way. For example a male role Audarana will have a elaborate beard , a epic swagger and a ringing hearty laugh. A female role Audarana will have long long plaited hair , the daintiest of bearing, and the softest disposition. An Audarana will be the most noble fairy tale version of their gender role, yet it is still obvious to the society around them that they are something else. The male role Audarana's hearty laugh will be too melodic for a man, the female role Audarana too boastful in her dutifulness and providence. The path society sees for them in tale and song is that of the doomed romantic, a
Don Quixote whose attempts to be the archetypical lead them to destruction. Audaranas themselves maybe naively unaware of the patronizing patronage of the culture around or they may slyly manipulate to their advantage.
Pronoun : as their presented gender

Drull:
androgynous troubleshooters

Drull are from a culture that is very into a pantheon of man spirits and woman spirits, with extensive protocol to do with all activities. Most protocol involves gaining the spirits approval. Society believe that when you die the pure bit of your soul goes to the after life and then all the bits that were to do with society hang around as spirits and help guide and strengthen people.

This society (let's call the Da-Pu-Und  ) however is pragmatic to understand that there is situations that come up that are,  or can be best dealt with by being, outside of the protocol. These are the realms of the Outside spirits.
The Outside spirits however are extremely disinclined to be helpful and only the Drull may talk to them and try and get their favour.

Anyone in the Da-Pu-Und who does not live up to their expected gender will quietly and pointedly shuffled in the category of Drull, which is more or less Androgynous. They are ignored and pitied but also tolerated for their perceived ability to find solutions and compromise where all else has failed. They face scorn however if they are perceived as being too manly or too womanly. Most of them leave Da-Pu-Und , especially the ones who would happily be a woman or man but can't stand the absoluteness of the roles in Da-Pu-Und. Some Drull however enjoy the weird social mobility they have and/or find it hard living outside Da-Pu-Und where other cultures don't recognize their "inbetween" gender.

Pronoun: Their or It. Often awkwardly in the 3rd person.
( "awkward 3rd person" is fair translation of Drull actually.)


okay this is taking too long, which brings me to this thing about blogging;
my interest is more lying towards working on bigger more elaborate projects rather than opening a blank page here and seeing what I am going to type today.
That's when I have the most fun here, the numerous posts that I had no idea what the content was going to be and discovered it as I typed it. The post that kinda grind are the ones where I have a clear idea and then am having to try and explain it. Not a fan of explain myself as you can prob tell.
This post is falling under the second category, like I have been chipping away it for awhile and I could of used the crucial and rare"hey I can be bothered sitting in front of the computer and actually concentrating on one thing" time on something else bigger and ongoing.

So what I am saying is I can never be bothered to do reviews and if I just occasionally update with the skeleton of an idea it is because I am working on something totally sweet.

Here is more gender skeletons that if I fleshed out this post would be delayed another week or two

Barren Mothers:
scarred truth tellers

Weapon Birthers
mothers to munitions

Indollers:
father christmases chaste saint

Wolf whores
as long as they do not have language they can live beyond manners

Gruz:
SAS gaylords (SPARTTAAAAA!!)


ENCOUNTERs

keep changing my mind on the numbers here but I'm thinking , when exploring a large area atleast, 1-2: monster 3-4: plot hook, location or evidence of wider machinations happening in the area 5-6 : "nothing" but use this as a chance to have a quick description of the local environment, or signs of the resident monsters or a false alert encounter. So if you start describing the environment the players can't immediately assume its roll initiative time

4 comments:

  1. I'm looking for the actual displacer beast, but it isn't where I think it is. ;-)

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  2. this is cool. queerness is always injected into scifi but never fantasy and that bums me out.

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  3. Part of me wants to say that Sir Ward has been an Audarana this whole time, since it would explain a lot - but alas, no beard.

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  4. Rey, I had that sense about Ward which significantly complicates Eusyram's lusting wanly after him like a doomed Etonian waif.

    Scrap this is great even though skeletal. Imma think about it more and maybe write something one day when I've retired.

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