Diversity Representation in MU*ing

Auspice · Jun 4, 2020, 9:14 PM

I think the reason a lot of people in this thread are getting frustrated is this:
most people in this thread already do play POC. They also play white people. They play all kinds of characters.

So the implication that 'if you have a white character right now you're a bad person and racist' is what's ruffling feathers. Is that what @egg intended? Maybe not. But that is how it has come across.

The whole 'MUsSoWhite' and implied going onto games to shame any PC who has blue eyes (I mean, as discussed, that'd be a bad idea on a place like Arx where you can be any color of skin with any color of hair with any color of eyes because it's fantasy so please don't do that there) is just a bad take on encouraging diversity.

Tinuviel · Jun 4, 2020, 9:17 PM

@Auspice I also hesitate to think that what race the PCs are is any indication of diversity. Sure, they're diverse characters... but that's not remotely the same as an actually diverse game. If the latter is the goal, then being grumpy when white people play white people is so not the way to fix it.

Kanye Qwest · Jun 4, 2020, 9:18 PM

@Auspice i don't think it came across like that at all. shrug

surreality · Jun 4, 2020, 9:23 PM

@Auspice Meanwhile, most of the people not doing it have had various stripes of 'I could hurt real people and I don't want to do that in everybody's funtimes' as a fair bit of the reasoning, which is very much not 'Aryan man of might is the superiorest dominant being of beauty and power and I shall either be him or worship at his mightiest of wangs'. (S'cuse me, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.)

Like, @Kestrel mentions one of these shitheels, and we've had some trolls with gross viewpoints crop up on the forum over the years, but they aren't in this thread. I doubt they'd care what anybody thought about the topic anyway.

Kestrel · Jun 4, 2020, 9:25 PM

@Jeshin said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

For those wondering what crazy facist @Kestrel is talking about, pretty sure she is refering to Az from HavenRPG aka Cullen.

Honestly he's not even the only one but he's probably the worst. Or maybe the best? I dunno. He's so nice when he isn't on a murder/rape/stalker spiral. And by contrast there's Ppurg who just unabashedly spouts antisemitic vitriol -- calling me 'a corrupting jewish influence' with regards to Daed, and openly declaring that women lack superior male intelligence, but at least that inability to help himself makes his toxicity transparent.

insomniac7809 · Jun 4, 2020, 9:28 PM

@Rinel said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

I mean it to say that if I fuck up on Rinel (and boy have I fucked up), I'm just someone who doesn't understand Oathlands culture. If I fuck up on Marion, I run the risk of being really offensive.

Which is also something I've considered in WoD games, especially since my PC defaults are frequently some variant on "petty criminal." The optics on that are different if I make the character a PoC.

I've also been mulling over how I play Thesarin, just because the "barbarian" fantasy tropes have some uncomfortable origins.

I don't know. Maybe more people could consider making their PC something other than their own phenotype, just because why not. It doesn't need to be a Statement about the X experience (probs should just not be from a not-X).

Plus... I don't know. The biggest valley girl I know IRL is second-generation Chinese. While I get that people have problems playing across gender, my big secret for going undetected as "dude playing a lady PC" is "don't bring up her tits unprompted."

Auspice · Jun 4, 2020, 9:29 PM

@surreality said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

we've had some trolls with gross viewpoints crop up on the forum over the years

please don't summon the one nazi dude

Wretched · Jun 4, 2020, 9:30 PM

@insomniac7809 But then how will people know my pc got these tiddies?

reversed · Jun 4, 2020, 9:31 PM

@Wretched said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

@insomniac7809 But then how will people know my pc got these tiddies?

That's what paragraphs three through five of a desc are for.

sahin · Jun 4, 2020, 9:32 PM

My input. Mixed ethnicities. Surname sounds like a one that matches my pale-ass skin and hooded eyes - but it's Middle Eastern.

My great grandmother in Puerto Rico was Taino. All eight of my great aunts looked like her. So does my grandma. My grandmother married a fellow from Spain.

My mother is and looks Puerto Rican -- she calls herself Nuyorican because she and every cousin in that generation were all first generation born New Yorkers. Some of them married into a Filipino family with an excess of brothers. So many cousins. My nieces are a gorgeous - glorious mix of both sides of the family.

Then me. I am me. Pale and awkward about my background. I can't dance. I can't tan. I can't speak either language my mother nor my father speak. I've been told: "That I'm white enough to pass."

Which makes me angry, always, because I am not. And there's a kind of dysphoria (is that the right word) attached to that.

But then I need to acknowledge that there's privilege there.

It's weird.

Ultimately, I play characters that are opposite of who and what I am because I can.

surreality · Jun 4, 2020, 9:33 PM

@Wretched said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

@insomniac7809 But then how will people know my pc got these tiddies?

<calmly wipes down the monitor>

In all seriousness part of my escapist fantasy is playing women with smaller boobs than mine. Because a strapless dress is part of my fantasy dream world, goddammit.

I honestly care about this more than hair/skin/eye color or combination thereof by miles and miles and miles.

Auspice · Jun 4, 2020, 9:37 PM

@surreality said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

Because a strapless dress is part of my fantasy dream world, goddammit.

strapless dresses
tank tops/tshirts without a bra
bikinis
the 'sports bra and yoga pants' workout look

so on and so forth.

Same.
I don't do it to 'be hawt' I do it because I can't IRL.
I wear a bra at home, alone, because if I don't, my back hurts.

surreality · Jun 4, 2020, 9:41 PM

@Auspice Preach. I think we can all understand wanting to play something that is 'not us'. Just, we're never going to hurt someone's feelings going down a few cup sizes.

Auspice · Jun 4, 2020, 9:48 PM

@surreality said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

@Auspice Preach. I think we can all understand wanting to play something that is 'not us'. Just, we're never going to hurt someone's feelings going down a few cup sizes.

But what about all those empty hands

reversed · Jun 4, 2020, 9:49 PM

The cup sizes you don't play get donated to the fetish art community.

surreality · Jun 4, 2020, 9:50 PM

@Auspice I kept waiting to see someone some day on Shang be a human bra, holding up someone's giant boobs while trailing dutifully along behind them, but alas. I mean. You'd think somebody would be into that? Not me, as either end of that train, but. I would have hi-5'd them in spirit.

Tinuviel · Jun 4, 2020, 9:52 PM

@Auspice said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

But what about all those empty hands

You've got an arse.

Sunny · Jun 4, 2020, 9:57 PM

@surreality said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

@Auspice I kept waiting to see someone some day on Shang be a human bra, holding up someone's giant boobs while trailing dutifully along behind them, but alas. I mean. You'd think somebody would be into that? Not me, as either end of that train, but. I would have hi-5'd them in spirit.

Oh hey, thanks for the character concept.

Auspice · Jun 4, 2020, 9:58 PM

yeah now I wanna see that

I mean my favorite Shang char is still the wagon of dildos with the squeaky wheel but now it would be the human hand bra

surreality · Jun 4, 2020, 9:59 PM

I blame a friend of mine from the con years who actually had a seriously kickass metal bra with cups in the shape of hands. Her cups also often runneth-ed over, so. Idea!