A rant on writing perspective

[Drexis]

Hello everyone, How's it going? I come before you today with an opinion and I would like feed back on this.

I was wondering what's so wrong with a guy writing from a female perspective. I see females writing from the perspective of a guy all the time. Do we question them? The answer is maybe yes maybe no. I understand everyone has a different perspective on this and I would love to hear what those are. Please mention exactly how you feel without using one word answers. Full sentences would be nice. I'm confused I thought the world was more open minded than what it appears to be. Please help me understand why you think this is wrong cause I don't get it at the moment.

My opinion is that Who cares how someone writes as long as there is a story to be told that is interesting, fun and full of twists and turns.

Look If Someone wishes to write a certain way( female perspective) I believe we should support them because maybe they want to learn to write in different ways. Isn't that what anything you want to do is about? Getting better at what you enjoy doing.

 

[Star Pupil]

I'll write feedback but something tells me I'm not the audience this is directed to.

Since I am female, I always have my main character be a female unless I see there are too many females involved in a group roleplay. My one on one roleplays however require multiple characters so of course I'll make a male character or two and same for my partner. They will play males and females too. I've never once had a problem with my partner playing from a female perspective, even the ones who have no idea how to play females.

Now when it comes to one on one smut roleplays, I would assume that would work a little bit different. The reason why people roleplay smut, or at least the reason I roleplay smut is so I'll have something to masturbate to. A lot of (straight)guys would feel uncomfortable masturbating to something they knew they wrote with another guy, and that's why they prefer or require their partner to be female.

So yeah...there's nothing wrong with a male writing from a female perspective, but you can't force someone to accept what you want to do, and it's their right to have a preference over who they roleplay with and what they roleplay about. If someone chooses to only write with females who don't call themselves submissive then that's their choice, just like it's someone choice if they refuse to write with players who think one liners are perfectly acceptable.

 

[Mr Quixotic]

I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all, and you'll find quite a number of males on here play as female characters. Some make it known on their threads, and some don't. Saying that, as a male, I prefer to write against female writers. The main reason is that what intrigues me is the completely different perspectives males and females can have when placed in the same situation, and that's what I look for in a story.

I've been approached by a number of males wanting to play as a female character, and I've found that males, as a gender, subconsciously tend to use similar phrasing, and have ingrained ways of thinking, or reacting, to certain situations. Each time I've been approached, it's been obvious just from the usage of certain words, or 'tone' of the request, that the person behind the screen is a male. Knowing that, and/or being constantly reminded that the other person "is only attempting to act as how he thinks a female would/should act", by having it bleed into the roleplay itself, would take me completely out of the scene, and also not give me the true female perspective that I'm after.

What I'd prefer to see, rather than people feeling a need to switch genders in order to write from a different perspective, is that they instead be more willing to switch the perspective from which they write their gender.

 

[Chai]

What I'd prefer to see, rather than people feeling a need to switch genders in order to write from a different perspective, is that they instead be more willing to switch the perspective from which they write their gender.

This is refreshingly true. Switching genders in a story (assuming you write both as developed characters), isn't always going to change the perspective from which a writer writes. Sometimes both characters end up sounding exactly the same, but one just has very feminine mannerisms.

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to roleplay the opposite gender, and I'll always encourage writers to try and improve on their ability to write both the male and female mind. But as a female, (and I noticed you touched on this in your rant), I don't prefer when girls play guys, and I've really only met two male roleplayers who could play a woman that was true through and through to a woman's psyche. It's not about smut for me, but the actual character interaction and aspect of 'realism' I like in my roleplays. Like Quixotic said, what I find interesting are the different outlooks men and women have on different situations, and if I'm playing against a male (who is roleplaying as a male), I would get more authenticity and less of the 'holes' that tend to cone up in characters written by the opposite gender. Of course there are writers who are able to switch their perspective in a situation fluidly, so it's not something impossible.

I do care how my partners write because if I'm not feeling it, then it shows in my own writing. What's fun and interesting for me is that quality character interaction.

But also keep in mind that there's also nothing wrong with not wanting to roleplay with someone who is not playing as their own gender. Whether it's for mastrubatory reasons or writing reasons or whatever reason, it's just a preference, and your can't really force what people don't prefer.

 

[Karameida]

Well, I know a lot of guys don't want to RP with another male whose writing as a female because to those types it ruins the imagery they have in mind since all they are after is smut.

I don't know how it is for a female...but meh.

I personally don't see anything wrong with it at all. I write as Male, Female, Shemale / Herms and what not. And I don't care at all what gender my partner is so long as they can write well enough and the story is interesting enough. Some people like to RP and make THEMSELVES as their character. I do not. I write for my characters but me and my characters are two different beings entirely. My character is interacting with my partners character. It's not me interacting with my partner. I don't think those people understand that concept.

If any of that makes sense...

 

[Vampyress]

Gender of the writer themselves means as little to me as the colour of their socks when they make the post. I know a lot of other people are very much uncomfortable with the idea of role-playing with the same sex (I won't use the mxm example or fxf to avoid pointing figures at one particular gender) but I think that's just something that goes into an entirely different discussion. To stay on topic with what was mentioned here, I actually have a zero care preference as to what gender you are when you role-play with me. There is only one situation where I may be a bit nit picky on the subject of which sex is taking the spotlight opposite of myself in an RP. That situation is when it's important for one person to play one type of sex just for the plot sake and be expected to do a good job at it.

I understand that male and female often tend to have a somewhat noticeable writing style but I don't really look much into the fine details on this as it's never really been something that's been much of a concern to me. All I care about is your ability to remain in character, regardless of your actual sex in real life and provide a good show of character with all out of character gender facts aside.

Though I will admit, there are some people who do crack me up.. Mostly the one's that you can tell right away are definitely playing at a gender that's very outside their own but still it doesn't cause me to become disturbed or unmotivated to continue, since it really comes down to the character in the scene and not the writer for me.

~

 

[Hahvoc The Decepticon]

As someone who is apparently considered of questionable gender identity, it really shouldnt matter who is behind the character as long as they are respectful.

However, some people do have a problem with it for a multitude of reasons. From my experience on the site, a lot of it has to do with personal sexual preference.

 

[Esyel]

Personally, I see nothing wrong with this either. In fact, my husband will sometimes RP as women, even better or as good as his male characters. I don't care. I think, however, as a lot of others have said, the problem is a stupid one. For some, it probably does ruin the imagery especially during the steamier scenes to know a guy is actually portraying the woman rather than an actual female. But like Hahvoc said, it may also be linked to their sexual preferences somehow. I really don't think it matters and, honestly, it seems more restricting (from my point of view anyway) to not RP with someone just because they're playing a character that doesn't match their gender. It'd drive me nuts to do that to myself but ... that's just me. And it takes a lot to genuinely make me uneasy in the first place.

Hope this kinda helps though.

-Esyel
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