Cross-Gender Rpers?

[RisingLife]

You may or may not have met one of these types of people, but a cross-gender rper (that is what I call them) is a person who is one gender in real life, but rp's as the opposite gender. For example, lets say you meet a male lion in a TLK rp, and in group they tell you they are a female in real life. Now recently I've seen many people get mad at the cross-gender rper for doing this, saying that they were gay/lesbian or gross/freak and mixtures of these. Some reactions are more extreme then others, but still I am shocked by this. Personally I do this myself, for in my main rp there are an overflow of females and not many males. So for the sake of kits being born normally, I rp as a male. I do not mind cross-gender rpers and I usually defend them when others start yelling at them. But I am curious to hear your opinion about them, so feel free to comment on your stand point on these people

[Lady_Alizarin]

I see nothing wrong with people roleplaying as a character of the opposite gender. I myself do it too. I play female characters and I also play as male characters (I actually more males than I do females). None of the people I RP with really question me playing as a male character when they know I'm a female in reality. They don't really care about that at all, because it's just roleplay. Most of my male characters are more popular than my female characters because I am more active with them.

I think a big number of people cross-gender roleplay on this game, even if they don't admit it. I find it silly and childish when people bully other players all because they are playing as a character that is the opposite gender of what they really are. It's just ROLEPLAY, people! Lighten up -.- It's nothing to fuss about and it's nothing to be ashamed of either.

[RisingLife]

That is exactly how I feel. And yet people think that if you are a Cross-Gender Rper then you are weird and gay/lesbian -.- It's just been recently though that I have been noticing this, so it must be a new batch of members doing this :/

[mkljkl]

Im a Cross-Gender RPer myself i just don't tell people much because of reactions i don't want to be "Punished" for being a Female IRL and male in game im a male because theres always to many females or because I just don't feel like being a female Wolf/Lion ATM

[Haruki]

I find it very ironic when people put down people who roleplay as a different gender. Let's look at the definition of roleplay: The assumption of one's self as someone (or thing) other than one's self.

By definition, we should all be acting as something we are not, and the opposite gender is fair game.

Plus, let's be real here, we're a group of people pretending to be animals. Social norms are a little skewed here so lets not try to assume regular roles of "gay/lesbian" tendencies to ourselves.

[WhiteLightHeart]

*Points to own signature* xD

I see nothing wrong with cross gender roleplay, since all it is, is collaborative storytelling. Writers out in the real world don't (usually) make every character in their books the same gender, or even their main characters the same as their own gender. It's really no big deal, as Ali said.

While I have seen some people get weirded out by cross gender roleplayers, it's usually because they see Rp as a kind of branch-off of real life, and picking a mate for your character also seems like you're also selecting a mate for yourself, or your account.
Which, as a general rule of Rp, it simply isn't. Cross gender role-playing, again, is really just storytelling, like every other character. It's just not one of those things that need to be taken so heavily. ^^'

[BouncyLion101]

Well, I have never seen anyone being bullied or harassed because they rp as the opposite gender of themselves in real life.
But the thought of that is just silly.

Roleplay is when you are acting as a character, something that you made up. It's not intended to be anything like youself in real life, unless you want it to be.

[Genesis9]

As someone who almost exclusively plays as characters that are the opposite gender, I'm a little surprised to hear that there are people out there who are shocked and disgusted to learn about cross gender role players! I've never encountered any 'hate' when someone finds out the true gender of a player that is the opposite of their character, normally it's just mild surprise, and I hope that this doesn't start to develop into a trend. As some people have said above, authors who write books tackle both genders and don't just stick to one, and role playing is not much different.


I think if anything, it must be the younger audience here on Feral Heart who just can't wrap their head around playing as another gender, or perhaps they're getting angry because they see it as deceitful? But the characters we play are hardly ever carbon copies of ourselves. They range in emotion and back story and I think it rather narrow minded that some people believe that we should only role play as our real life gender.

[Silvertide]

^ The reason is pretty much what Genesis just said. I used to not like when people of opposite gender RPed another gender. I felt it was wrong, I can't exactly remember why but I felt like I was being deceived basically. XD

[Fivael]

I'm a fellow Cross Gender roleplayer. I don't really see anything wrong with roleplaying as the opposite gender than yourself. Many people do so all the time.