Salabra said:
I was tempted to fire off a nasty reply to this, but I took Mark Twain’s advice, put my communication on my virtual mantelpiece and let it percolate for a while.
Good for you. You showed much more restraint and intelligence than most do on forums.
Your post engendered several trains of thought for me:
• On “cute” — It seems to me that most males (and this is an outsider’s PoV, so I look forward to some replies from men) see, eg, Gil Gerard as Buck Rogers and think of themselves AS that character, both in reality, and when they create a Traveller persona. If others won’t see them the same way, that is the fault of the others — there is nothing wrong with the perception of the men themselves, and it often takes a catastrophic experience to convince them otherwise.
...
After all, there are some 3.35 billion women in the world and only seven or eight supermodels! In terms of appearance, Whoopi Goldberg in TNG was a positive example of an “everywoman.”
Yup, as a kid day dreaming about being Buck or James Bond or Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, just to name a few. Other than James Thorpe and some of the real life astronauts, Most of the want be types/heros were fiction characters (even the actors were not real because they acted and used acting names.)
Later, by college time, I rarely wanted to be the hero/ladies man. It was just too much work to roleplay and if there were females in the gaming group the other gaming guys would be daying dreaming/distracted about them instead of playing (no matter how they looked.)
In one game, we had one female that would always (RL) dress up real nice, like going on a date, low cut top, clingy cloths and were perfume to the game session. IT would distract from the actual game because she would flirt OOC alot.
So, to strike back, the GM let me play a female, hot looking, gun bunny that had lots of brains and muscles too. Several of the players (3 guys, and one gal, we had 5 males and 3 females in the group) took offense to it (a male playing a female character). Especailly when one of the players asked the GM what my character looked like. He handed them a picture that had been well done with the flirts head on a gunny bunny's body. He and the one female above were mad, the rest of the players thought it was hilarious (even the flirt).
So after that game session, the GM came up with a dress code and OOC conduct. My character and one of the female characters had it out. She (PC) died afer which the (PC) horny robot and my female character left the party, because the point was made. (after careful hours of talk to explain that RL issues are not to be part of the Table talk during a game.
(I made a new character)
• On the Eastenders — Do you really think that by the thirtieth century the Socialist Revolution will have progressed so far that we will all have had our bodies irrevocably sculpted to look like Heroes of the Republic? Or, if you prefer, will the capitalist draughthorse have been fed enough oats by the time of the Third Imperium that even us sparrows picking through the dung on the road will have enough to afford repeated bouts of body remodelling? I don’t think so — I think that, apart from the aforementioned seven or eight supermodels, the “perfect body” will still be the preserve of a wealthy few, while the rest of us (women and men alike) get old and wrinkled and put on a few kilos here ‘n’ there.
I believe that there will be some societies/cultures/worlds where this is true (for both sexes). Just look at the past history of this planet. But, no I don't believe that be a galaxy wide or Imperium wide concept.
What I am saying here is that the roleplaying hobby will benefit from depicting a range of people of different appearances if it is to grow beyond its current demographic — and especially if it is to attract more women.
Well, as I have suggested many times to those who say this, great start developing, promoting and educating both sides to the advantages of this.
OR
Start your own RPG were the target audience is one that wants that type of thing.
This is not being negative or nasty. Currently, sex sells. And as many companies find out that the hint of sex sells better than the actual thing.
I love the female form but to be honest, I have rarely seen that many naked females that I find perfect (if you are talking physical only). I am sure that there are even fewer 'perfect' naked male forms out there (but what would I know, I am a guy thats into female not male
You would not believe how excited I was when Sally Ride became an astronaut. That was awesome.
Yeah, yeah, I know — I’ve moved on from “Women in Traveller” to “Are you in the game to play a gorgeous arse-kicking hero, or a real person?” I’m also aware that I’m swimming against the tide of “Western Civiilization,” from Homer to Hollywood, where — despite all the proverbs about books and their covers — people continue to believe that external appearance in the best gauge of inner worth. So I’ll crawl back under my rock, waving my fistpart at the person who refers me to these threads, knowing that my hothead views will get me into trouble!
Well, as one good female friend of my said,
Yeah, I look at the man's body for an indicator of how great of a partner they would make.
If they don't take care of it, why should I bother with them? It just means they will not take care of me either. (Ie if they don't care enough about their own body, why would they care about anything else in life.)
Dave Chase
