Poll: Is my DnD Character Transphobic?

[BanicRhys]

My main DnD character is currently a female dwarf battlemind but I use this [http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/images/315146/M_Dwarf8.png] as her portrait, I make a point of roleplaying in a particularly gruff/deep voice and she is described as being "indistinguishable from a man". The context of the joke being:


My group loves her but lately I've been wondering if the whole "dude looks like a lady" joke is just a wee bit offensive to transgendered people.

Sometimes, I think I can hear the Social Justice Army massing outside my window at night.

Help soothe my tortured conscience.

 

[Twintix]

What? Don't be silly.

If it's established that dwarf males and females look alike, it's just following the lore. I love Discworld, and there, dwarf males and females look so similar that getting married is a gamble: You won't find out what gender the other is until the wedding night. But dwarves hardly care about gender, anyway. I doubt that Terry Pratchett is transphobic.

If anything, shouldn't dwarves be a positive example of gender politics? They don't give a shit about your gender, you're expected to be able to do the same amount of work as anyone else. (On the other hand, dwarves do have a certain build...)

All in all, I don't think you have anything to worry about. As willing as some people are to be offended by things, I doubt that a character of a fantasy race where it's established that males and females look pretty much the same is high on anyone's priority list.

 

[nykirnsu]

As long as you tell that Social Justice Army that it's a joke about Tolkien's dwarfs I don't see why they'd have a problem. As someone who is fairly interested in the whole social justice subject - and does come down fairly harsh on the worse characters at times - I got the joke immediately, so don't worry.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'm a transvestite, in case you couldn't tell from my username, and I don't take offense.

 

[Harpalyce]

Nah, I think you're good.

It depends on how you roleplay her I guess. If you constantly make the joke that in-character she's a "trap" (like the existance of trans folk is just to capture people off-guard or something, lol) and play this up as something that's deviant and weird and really disgusting, that's... well, that's gross. That's not really having a character, that's more using a character as a bad joke meant to screw people over.

To be honest, though, it sounds like you actually care a lot about your character. As one roleplayer to another, and as somebody who's pretty interested in these social justice issues (cis myself but with a heck of a lot of trans friends by coincidence, lol) I think that what you're doing is exactly the right tactic.

You have a character that expresses their gender in a way that's different than what we expect, and that's just one aspect of her character instead of *all* of her personality. One of the great parts about fantasy is we can explore the idea of social norms being different by considering non-humans, and that's what you're doing. Basically, just keep her a rounded character instead of a walking "lol it's like she's a tranny lol!" joke, and you're good. The fact that you're actually worrying about it, I think, is proof that you know this already. If you didn't care and were out just to be offensive, you wouldn't be worrying about this.

But hey! It's really cool of you to step back and ponder this even if the answer is that you're flying straight and true. So thank you for being aware of stuff like this and taking some time to think it over. c:

 

[Abomination]

Identifying as a female but looking like a male and acknowledging one looks like a male is not offensive, it's just being rational.

I guess, if anything, it's benign sexism? One assumes they're male because they look like a male, act like a male, sound like a male, and perform a proportionately male dominated role.

If you see a large fuzzy ursine creature rushing at you through some bushes you'll probably assume it's a bear and act accordingly - SURPRISE, it's a dude in a bear costume! How "specist" of you for assuming otherwise!

 

[Ratty]

Nah, I think you're good.

It depends on how you roleplay her I guess. If you constantly make the joke that in-character she's a "trap" (like the existance of trans folk is just to capture people off-guard or something, lol) and play this up as something that's deviant and weird and really disgusting, that's... well, that's gross. That's not really having a character, that's more using a character as a bad joke meant to screw people over.

To be honest, though, it sounds like you actually care a lot about your character. As one roleplayer to another, and as somebody who's pretty interested in these social justice issues (cis myself but with a heck of a lot of trans friends by coincidence, lol) I think that what you're doing is exactly the right tactic.

You have a character that expresses their gender in a way that's different than what we expect, and that's just one aspect of her character instead of *all* of her personality. One of the great parts about fantasy is we can explore the idea of social norms being different by considering non-humans, and that's what you're doing. Basically, just keep her a rounded character instead of a walking "lol it's like she's a tranny lol!" joke, and you're good. The fact that you're actually worrying about it, I think, is proof that you know this already. If you didn't care and were out just to be offensive, you wouldn't be worrying about this.

But hey! It's really cool of you to step back and ponder this even if the answer is that you're flying straight and true. So thank you for being aware of stuff like this and taking some time to think it over. c:

^Yeah pretty much. I'm glad you're thinking about these issues. Transphobia is very real and very harmful to the most vulnerable group in the LGBT spectrum. The rates of murder, suicide and general violence against trans people is heartrendingly high.

 

[DoPo]

If it's established that dwarf males and females look alike, it's just following the lore.

Really? Here is the full picture [http://i.imgur.com/4dVYszZ.png] where OP took the character portrait from. Page 36 on the 4E PHB 1, chapter 3 Character Races, the dwarf section. this [http://imgur.com/4E31oAM] is a female dwarf cleric and this [http://imgur.com/DyTFK95] is a female dwarf wizard all from the PHB. All race males sample [http://i.imgur.com/CE753VO.png] from the 3.5 PHB, and all race females sample [http://i.imgur.com/smFKIaN.png].

It seems the establishment of lore in D&D is kinda sorta...bad, if what you're saying is true.

 

[Ratty]

If it's established that dwarf males and females look alike, it's just following the lore.

Really? Here is the full picture [http://i.imgur.com/4dVYszZ.png] where OP took the character portrait from. Page 36 on the 4E PHB 1, chapter 3 Character Races, the dwarf section. this [http://imgur.com/4E31oAM] is a female dwarf cleric and this [http://imgur.com/DyTFK95] is a female dwarf wizard all from the PHB. All race males sample [http://i.imgur.com/CE753VO.png] from the 3.5 PHB, and all race females sample [http://i.imgur.com/smFKIaN.png].

It seems the establishment of lore in D&D is kinda sorta...bad, if what you're saying is true.

I think the 1st 2 examples are from 4th edition (which I don't have, I read it shortly after it came out and thought it feel too much like a wargame, not enough like an RPG) and as you said the last 2 were from 3.5

I haven't gotten ahold of a copy myself yet, but I'm told this is what the new 5.0 edition says about it.

D&D has been fairly progressive since about 3.0, with the pronouns tending to be "she" or "her" in the books like "the player rolls 2d6 for her character". So this is an evolution of that.

Besides which, one of the best things about tabletop RPGs is the group (particularly the Game Master) can remold the world however they see fit for their particular game.

And there are many different settings in D&D with different races/history/worlds etc. Some of these aren't developed for anymore sadly (or have even been written out of official canon) but you can still play in Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Planescape, Ravenloft, SpellJammer, DragonLance and others. Not to mention your own homebrew worlds! In fact many point to the abundance of settings as one of the reasons TSR[footnote]The original publishers of D&D, later bought out by WotC/Hasbro[/footnote] failed, since trying to support them all led to publishing too many supplements no one bought.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

D&D has been fairly progressive since about 3.0, with the pronouns tending to be "she" or "her" in the books like "the player rolls 2d6 for her character". So this is an evolution of that.

While I like that it's more inclusive, I don't really get how making it all female pronouns is progressive (just cos it seems like they could use neutral stuff like the player rolls 'their' character and women have always played DnD). I did like that when they did characters in 3.5 it felt like a crap-shoot (if I remember right, they gave a stock example of a character and just did all the pronouns as if that was the one in use so it was just a case of what their example was and it wound up a 50/50 split or near enough). But... yeah, I'm not sure what I'm really bugged by. I guess just that replacing 100% of one with 100% of another doesn't feel like a split.

 

[Ratty]

D&D has been fairly progressive since about 3.0, with the pronouns tending to be "she" or "her" in the books like "the player rolls 2d6 for her character". So this is an evolution of that.

While I like that it's more inclusive, I don't really get how making it all female pronouns is progressive (just cos it seems like they could use neutral stuff like the player rolls 'their' character and women have always played DnD). I did like that when they did characters in 3.5 it felt like a crap-shoot (if I remember right, they gave a stock example of a character and just did all the pronouns as if that was the one in use so it was just a case of what their example was and it wound up a 50/50 split or near enough). But... yeah, I'm not sure what I'm really bugged by. I guess just that replacing 100% of one with 100% of another doesn't feel like a split.

I see what you're saying and I've thought that myself before. But since it was already the norm to have everything be in male pronouns the change up could make the game/hobby seem like less of a "boys only" club. Even though it's definitely true that women have been playing RPGs since very early on, the popular image is still usually that of a bunch of nerdy guys who can't get dates sitting around a table pretending to hack up Orcs. And that conception has probably kept a lot of women from trying the hobby when they really would have enjoyed it either for the hack'n slash, the collaborative storytelling or both.

 

[DoPo]

-snip-

Point was, the person I quoted said it was established in the lore, when it wasn't. The poster probably mistook LotR and Discworld for D&D lore.

 

[Ratty]

-snip-

Point was, the person I quoted said it was established in the lore, when it wasn't. The poster probably mistook LotR and Discworld for D&D lore.

Maybe. But it's possible it's just a conscious homage. Or they could be playing in the Middle Earth setting. Don't think there have been any official RPGs set in Middle Earth since the 1980s (EDIT: Nope, looks like the last was a film tie-in from 2002 - 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth_Role_Playing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Rings_Roleplaying_Game ) but I'm sure a lot of people still use it as a setting.

 

[DoPo]

-snip-

Point was, the person I quoted said it was established in the lore, when it wasn't. The poster probably mistook LotR and Discworld for D&D lore.

Maybe. But it's possible it's just a conscious homage. Or they could be playing in the Middle Earth setting. Don't think there have been any official RPGs set in Middle Earth since the 1980s (EDIT: Nope, looks like the last was a film tie-in from 2002 - 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth_Role_Playing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Rings_Roleplaying_Game ) but I'm sure a lot of people still use it as a setting.

Yet is that not jumping to conclusions? As I said, poster claimed it is established lore in D&D. Do you agree or disagree that is the case? I don't see the point of going "but, if, maybe when" and so on, since the poster didn't bother doing so. It was a straight claim, which I addressed as such.

 

[kickyourass]

Well, one good sign is that you're worrying about this at all, shows you probably aren't a dick about this sort of thing usually. I would ask, are you actually playing a trans-gendered dwarf? How are you playing the 'looks like a man' aspect? How much focus do you give this aspect of the character? The answers to these and similar questions and how you feel about those answers should tell you whether you're playing a trans-phobic character or not.

 

[Ratty]

Yet is that not jumping to conclusions? As I said, poster claimed it is established lore in D&D. Do you agree or disagree that is the case? I don't see the point of going "but, if, maybe when" and so on, since the poster didn't bother doing so. It was a straight claim, which I addressed as such.

I see what the problem was. I had misread your quote and thought you were addressing the OP instead of Twintix. My apologies, I'm a little harebrained/distracted today trying to pack things for a move.

 

[Coppernerves]

It sounds like your character, despite being female, presents as a male without identifying as a man.
This makes a great deal of sense in a setting where sex and gender are tied together in her culture and mind.

It sounds like she's an unwitting transman, making herself comfortable, while sacrificing some of that comfort for her perceived integrity, due to the impression that her sex means "she isn't really a man".

Assuming this is the case, modern social constructs of gender would categorise her as a man, while more traditional ones would categorise her as a woman, so subjectively, she's both, and objectively, she's neither, merely a female with male morphic orientation.

As a male with female morphic orientation, I'm not offended at all, but feel quite sorry for her being reminded that she's female by her own admission, and consider her quite heroic to quietly put up with it just to be honest, if somewhat misinformed.
Dwarves eh?

I suppose another possibility is that she has female morphic orientation, but as dwarven men and women are so alike, being mistaken for a male is only a problem in situations which actually require dwarven male primary sexual characteristics.

 

[Beautiful Tragedy]

Trans woman here... no offense. I think It's amusing. I CAN be a little sensitive, but I can also tell when someone is being mean, or being clever... you're fine.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

My main DnD character is currently a female dwarf battlemind but I use this [http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/images/315146/M_Dwarf8.png] as her portrait, I make a point of roleplaying in a particularly gruff/deep voice and she is described as being "indistinguishable from a man".
My group loves her but lately I've been wondering if the whole "dude looks like a lady" joke is just a wee bit offensive to transgendered people.
Help soothe my tortured conscience.

Actually, your portrayal sounds kind of sympathetic to transgender individuals. From a certain point of view, your character could be considered to be transgender (at least she would be viewed in a similar fashion within human/elven society) so you would be putting yourself not a situation via roleplay that many trans individuals are themselves in.

So yeah... I think you're not only okay, I think you're actually heading in the other direction towards supportive.

But that's just me. **shrug**