Different Gender Characters Rant

[thoughtless]

I am trying too.

I mean, I understand what you are talking about...

I just have trouble saying what I want to say....

But, I really can't, because you guys covered it all...

I might as well leave....

[Tokoa]

I think its just fine for females to be males and males to be females on FeralHeart.
I could care less on what they want to be.. but thats just me.

[Nyancatgirl]

For some reason people can't respect anyone's opinion these days..Ah..Children..This generation is horrible.

[WhiteLightHeart]

Aye, it is kinda rough when you're just randomly judged by your character. However, when this happens, why not just calmly explain why it's no big deal that your character is different from your real gender?
This way, maybe you'd be able to make peace, and let them see 'why' people make different gender characters.
After all, the characters we play, are played because we like them. Simple as that. *Shrug* It's not an avatar that is exactly what we look like, the same way their character doesn't look exactly like them. We don't have (actual) humans running around here, anyway, and all humanoid characters are used on an animal model. So in that case, every character is really quite different from whoever made them.
It's just a favorite character, and if you like them, that's what matters. <3

But, if they still heckle you? Myeh. Let them run along, then. xD Chances are, if they don't like your character, they'll run off eventually to go do what pleases them.

[Tearless]

It has never made sense to me why someone would be bothered by RPing a different gender, even in romance-centered plots (if the gender of your character's mate's RPer matters, you're probably getting way to into it). I mean, you're already roleplaying as a different species, and this is what you choose to be concerned about?

[inuyasha1086]

Tearless has a good point. I personally have main characters that are both male and female. Usually I create the character and give it a gender after the design itself is done, based on how the character feels. Sometimes I'll go to make a female character and it just won't feel right, so I make the char male, and then give it a name based on the gender.

As for people asking my gender in the game, unless they specify that they're asking my real life gender, I just say the gender of the character.  One time, in my dragon rp where all of my chars in there are male, I happened to mention to a friend in passing (I've known her for a while and she already knew) that I was a girl in real life and everyone in the map was shocked at the realization, but no one had a problem with it. They just all genuinely thought I was a boy. I was laughing my butt off. XD

[Lady_Alizarin]

There, there Feareh... don't be upset. I think you need a hug.

Tell Lady Alizarin all about your troubles 

I think you handled that situation well by blocking them. You really don't need to explain yourself as to why you roleplay as male characters. I don't think anyone should really have to explain themselves as to why they roleplay as a character of the opposite gender. Don't let that person get the best of you.

Oddly enough, I haven't had anyone really tell me that I am "weird" for playing male characters. There have been some times when I play as a male character and someone will say "Wait a minute... you're a female?" and I'm like, "Duh! look at my username for crying out loud."
No one has really questioned me when it comes to me playing as male characters. In fact, I don't ever get teased for it... I get a bit of an opposite effect. My male characters often times get the attention of mate-beggers, even when they know I'm female in reality. I don't know if it's because I play a convincing male character, or if these people really just don't care and only see it as roleplaying. Who knows?

Like most of the others said, most of the ones who say those kind of things are just kids who don't know any better... yet. They might change their ideas about cross-gender roleplaying over time. They will grow out of it eventually and learn to accept this kind of thing in the world of roleplaying.

[Sukani]

I totally agree with this, it's not like you're gonna go on a real date with your FeralHeart 'mate', 'buddy' or whatever in real life.
I mean you're here to have fun and RP, not to judge others by what gender they are playing as, right?
I personally enjoy playing as a male character mainly for these reasons:
-It's fun to try being the opposite gender once in a while.
-Just to try what it's like and facing the advantages of the other gender.
-There aren't as big an amount of males as females.
And honestly I see no good reason for others to care about what gender others in FH are in real.