Viewpoint Do you ever play the opposite gender? Do you prefer it?

[rae2nerdy]

I'm a female, and we're bitchy as hell. Therefore, I like to create male characters. I struggle so much with female characters for some reason.

I'd say assuming women are bitchy might have something to do with that

In all seriousness it could just be you don't like traditionally feminine roles? I've seen that come up a lot in this thread and in interest checks. People play a specific gender because they don't like it's opposite gender role.

Like when people say they prefer Masculine characters because (romantic lead) females are always just pretty eye candy with no narrative impact. Or when they assume the female will be the passive character and the male will be the active character.

Or if your not into romance roleplays it could just be a habit thing. You've played males so long that you just sort of default to male characters without thinking about it. So playing outside your comfort zone is more difficult.

 

[Lightna]

I've always had a preference for playing as male characters despite being female. My male characters always come out more natural for some reason? And my female characters always feel a bit off. I have no idea what happens in my mind to make this happen, and it's incredibly frustrating. I've also been playing around with gender lately! I now have a few trans characters as well as some nonbinary characters, which is interesting to say the least.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I've always had a preference for playing as male characters despite being female. My male characters always come out more natural for some reason? And my female characters always feel a bit off. I have no idea what happens in my mind to make this happen, and it's incredibly frustrating. I've also been playing around with gender lately! I now have a few trans characters as well as some nonbinary characters, which is interesting to say the least.

See my above post. Do you find that you sort of play all your females as a certain archetype? Like if they are female they must behave a specific way?

Or do you find in real life you gravitate more towards male friends than female ones?

It could be an unconscious bias.

 

[Lightna]

See my above post. Do you find that you sort of play all your females as a certain archetype? Like if they are female they must behave a specific way?

Or do you find in real life you gravitate more towards male friends than female ones?

It could be an unconscious bias.

It's more like my female characters somehow always become a carbon copy of myself, even though I try to make them otherwise. I don't have this problem in actual writing, either. Just RolePlaying. It's honestly baffling because I don't have this issue with male characters, so I don't know what's going on.

 

[rae2nerdy]

It's more like my female characters somehow always become a carbon copy of myself, even though I try to make them otherwise. I don't have this problem in actual writing, either. Just RolePlaying. It's honestly baffling because I don't have this issue with male characters, so I don't know what's going on.

It could as I said an unconscious bias. Like your not a male so when you make a male character you have to think about making someone who is not yourself.

But with women you sort of default into what is familiar so you basically make them yourself.

Something that might help is just do a pronoun switch. Like make a male character and then just go back and change all the pronouns from he to she.

But still play it like it’s a male. So I guess kind of trans only the character is themselves just a female but your thinking of them as a male? I don’t know if that makes sense.

 

[cock_cocker42]

I don't prefer either

 

[Caligula]

For some reason, in my early group roleplay days, I would almost always have one female character with a supporting ensemble of male characters. Now I like playing female characters because I'm a woman, but I also like playing males equally. I just don't like the baggage that comes with either. If I'm playing a woman, it seems like people will almost completely ignore the character, especially if they don't fit an acceptable aesthetic. When I play men, it sometimes doesn't even matter if they're ugly, I'll have people flock to me with shipping tunnel vision which is a completely different but similarly annoying issue.

 

[ShiyaRose]

To me it depends on the sort of roleplay, I've played more female characters because as a female it's more familiar I guess? However I love Roleplaying guys and is something I really want to get more practise with

 

[koshka]

Definitely.

I’m female but sometimes playing male is a lot more entertaining.

I don’t think there’s any reason someone shouldn’t be able to play both genders. That’s my opinion.

 

[Mishima]

I feel like when I first started RPing every RP I joined had 50 million females and 2 males so I just got used to playing males to even the playing field I guess.

 

[blinkie]

I tend to play male, female, and nonbinary characters equally. Gender is usually one of the last things I decide on when I'm making a new OC

 

[Yuki_Ishii]

I play both because it helps to break up the routine I get myself into. I have a lot of times even run across groups where you have so many females and lack of males that playing a male character just has to be done for the sake of sanity.

 

[Winter_Wolf]

I'm a guy who RP's guys--I guess it feels more comfortable. Although recently I started an RP with my first ever female character. I'm not sure how well I'll play them, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyhow.

 

[SageQuill]

I enjoy playing both, equally.

People are people and writing is fun.

 

[Lukrecia]

I'm an odd one on this. Most of my OCs are female and I enjoy playing them, but when it comes to playing (and even cosplaying) some sort of canon character, I very rarely pick females, usually preferring males. Not just for mxm, too, I just enjoy playing them

 

[Hufflepug]

I have certain plots in mind that I prefer a female role in, but generally I'm fairly flexible on gender. Within group RPs I find myself taking a role of each if doubling up is an option.

 

[OrangeAxolotl]

I'm trans, and back before I was aware of that fact, I played a lot of male characters because I could "connect with them better". Surprisingly it took me like 4/5 years of roleplaying before I realized that I played male characters so often because I was a guy as well. When I first realized I was a dude, I may have had a bit of a knee jerk reaction and refused to play any female characters because I wasn't confident in my masculinity at the time.

But now? My OCs are pretty evenly split. Half the time I don't consider a gender when I'm first coming up with their concept. Though I have noticed that many of my OCs that have gotten the most love have been male or nonbinary(barring one female OC, I love her she's a robot), and I tend to default to male characters if I have to make them up on the fly, and I think that's because I subconsciously use them as a way to express myself in a masculine format.

 

[Nobelia]

I always wrote male characters, lol. Feels something like having a shelf of collectibles, or at least to that nature.

 

[Morlock]

I've played female characters a few times. Once I played a RP with a Female where she played male and I played female. I don't have an issue with that kind of thing as long as it doesn't become caricature/parody.

 

[SalmonSwimmer]

I enjoy playing both genders equally and have satisfaction in writing for all sorts of characters. It's come to my realization lately that a lot of people will only play their own gender in such tales.

I also like to dabble between many genders, it can be interesting to explore a different perspective in such a way.

 

[Janslow]

I like juggling between male and female. It's great to experience absolutely everything in a roleplay with either gender. Im bisexual, so I'm much more comfortable with it that some other people might though.

 

[h2h0e]

I do prefer playing as the opposite gender, but I don't most of the time. Why? I don't know.

 

[CarmineSunset]

I play both female and male characters and genuinely enjoy it. As a female, my favorite character that I ever played was male.

 

[RlyRlyKoolKid]

It would be boring to play the same gender every time, I like switching it up. Not only does it give me more ideas, but another perspective to a situation that I may have thought of in another light. It's fun and keeps the mind going.

 

[Uriel]

I find no major difference in gender with my preferred roleplay style. Therefore roleplaying as either gender is comfortable for me.