Gender in Simming

[Valdivia]

Part of the appeal of simming and Star Trek more generally is in Gene Roddenberry's vision of a brighter future. Throughout our diverse community, we have a wide spectrum of people who identify differently in terms of gender and sexuality. From the androgynous monogendered J'naii to the tri-gendered Laudeans Star Trek gives us space to explore these aspects of human experience widely. We even have the Lambda Alliance forum to support those who either identify with the LGBT community, consider themselves allies or who wish to know more and perhaps try simming a point of view different to their own.

What we want to ask is, whatever your character’s gender and sexual orientation are, what brought you to choose them? Maybe you had not even thought much about it until now, or maybe you tend to choose the same you identify with. Or maybe not, maybe you wanted to give visibility to some option or explore the stories your choice could bring.

This is a new post in our category Simming Questions. Here we will be asking questions about our community, our characters and our writing, and how you interact with it all.

[+ Trellis Vondaryan]

When I created Trellis I specifically didn't want to label him as anything and let his sexuality grow based on the relationships he made. As a writer I was open to any and all aspects of who he might prefer. It ended up he identifies the same as me, though I definitely think there's more fluidity available.

[Oddas Aria]

I guess its because I'm sort of lazy.  In every game I've played since I was a kid I played a female character and its just been natural to me.  I don't really give it a second thought anymore and it was almost muscle memory at this point.

[+ Taelon]

Despite being female I play almost exclusively male characters, albeit ones that fall just about everywhere on the 'manliness' scale (for lack of a better way to describe it.) I'm not sure why I do this, honestly, but I find myself more comfortable writing and playing as male characters. I tend to identify with them more easily, as well. 

As for sexuality, I do tend to struggle to play characters that aren't my sexuality, though it took me a long time to realize that. I'm asexual and haven't ever felt genuine sexual attraction to other people, so honestly I don't quite understand how to portray it and haven't yet found any good resources to help me in that regard. I always try to let a character's sexuality and personality develop as I write them, so they sometimes surprise me in the ways they change from my original plan. 

 

[Gorn]

Gender-wise I tend to play whichever one suits the character concept better. I don't generally give it much more thought than "does this archetype work better as a male or female?" I haven't really run into any difficulties writing for a non-male character, and I don't personally find their to be much difference in style between the two. 

2 hours ago, Taelon said:

As for sexuality, I do tend to struggle to play characters that aren't my sexuality, though it took me a long time to realize that. I'm asexual and haven't ever felt genuine sexual attraction to other people, so honestly I don't quite understand how to portray it and haven't yet found any good resources to help me in that regard. I always try to let a character's sexuality and personality develop as I write them, so they sometimes surprise me in the ways they change from my original plan. 

 

This is pretty much the same as me, writing characters experiencing feelings I can't empathise with is very difficult, and being asexual that applies to any sort of romantic or sexual desires. 

I have written for a character in a lesbian relationship before, and I found it very challenging, if an interesting experience. Most of the romantic scenes between the two were written almost entirely by the other writer, with me chipping in the odd one or two lines here and there provided they weren't too cliched. (My only basis for relationships is from action films, so it's not particularly accurate dialogue) It doesn't really help that I find any sort of intimacy beyond a quick kiss somewhat repulsive, (I have to close my eyes watching sex scenes in films) so writing that kind of closeness with a person is incredibly uncomfortable for me. While I did find the experience enlightening, and am quite fond of the character, I still don't feel anywhere near confident in my writing to portray a relationship past platonic.

 

[Sal Taybrim]

As a female writer with two male characters (and a host of NPCs both male and female) I feel much like some other voices in the thread.  My characters are a personality first, and should a relationship find them I take it from there.

Sal is certainly one of the most fluid characters I have created, and in some strange way I like the idea that he comes from an enlightened yet matriarchal society.  That, in my mind, places him closely to my own gender experiences in living in a progressive, yet still patriarchal culture/region.  

[Ishani Kasun]

Most of my characters tend to be straight and female, which is what I identify with in real life. I've become more comfortable with playing non female, non straight, and non human characters over the years (weirdly I find it easier now to play a non straight or non human character than a non female character), but I tend to reuse character concepts a lot and since my two main go to characters are both female and tend to be straight, most of my characters are still female and straight. Character wise the two of them are like a pair of worn in super comfy jeans, it's super easy to slip into their mindset and write; where as other characters require effort on my part to get into their head enough that I can write out a post/sim with them. 

[Iniko Mpeba]

I'm nonbinary, so as soon as I thought about creating a character I immediately knew I was going to make one that was neither male or female. That isn't an opportunity I get very often. I decided to choose from a species where that's a pretty normal biological thing just because I wanted it to be something of a non-issue. It still comes up pretty often when deciding what to wear off duty or interacting with very binary-gendered species, so it also provides some interesting narrative opportunities.

[Valdivia]

I identify as male, and I am more comfortable simming as one. Not that I can't sim as another gender option, and I have had different PNPCs, but, as someone was saying before, it is easier for me to get into the male mindset. And, to be honest, I am not completely confident in my ability to faithfully sim a woman. So my main characters, and a possible new character I am developing is also male.

 

As for sexuality, however, I chose Valdivia's (and that's ages ago) and I used the same one I identified with, and he has been evolving in the same way that I have. That would not be necessary (as I have only simmed to relationships for him in all these years, and separate in time). But I have stated that Valdivia is poliamorous, because he has evolved the same way that I have, and I found it important to show that evolution.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Valdivia

[+ Salkath]

Though my current character is male like his writer, and most of my main PCs through the years have been male, I am also comfortable writing as a female character. In almost all cases, the human condition is exactly the same regardless of gender, and prose comes out exactly the same whether the character is male or female. The only time it becomes an obvious chore is when a writer tries to lean too heavily on archetypes or stereotypes, and an unfamiliarity can become a little more obvious when these are over-utilized.

Thanks to the inspiration and guidance of a writer I heavily respect, I had a chance in the recent past to write for a non-gender species, and that honestly was a much heavier challenge than writing for a gender opposite of my own as a writer. It forced me to realize my own pitfalls as a writer into falling into gender roles, and I think it will definitely help me moving forward in writing for the opposite gender or non-binary genders.