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Sep 1, 2015 10 years ago Official
Rah
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Rah

Oh yes, please do weigh in if we use incorrect terms. I'm all about the learning, I just didn't want to umm and aah over this post for days/weeks trying to be PC to everyone, when the important thing is having the discussion and moving forward with the representation!

Thanks!


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Sep 1, 2015 10 years ago Official
Rah
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Rah

Quote by Ryxe
Personally, I think you should create a new character rather than using Jim, since it would feel more like an "active" attempt at representation. While making Jim transgender could potentially develop his character more, it also feels a little less intentional since it wasn&;t a part of Jim&;s character from the very beginning. You could also honestly have both a new NPC and Jim; more than one character for representation wouldn&;t hurt.

Quote by strange
I&;d probably prefer if the trans character was someone who already exists, because it A) reinforces the idea that "hey, sometimes people are just trans, including people you know and care about", which is true, and B) avoids it seeming like a token attempt at diversity. I&;m a little worried if we create a character specifically to be trans that they&;ll show up once or twice to teach players about being transgender and then never show up again, and...that&;s not really helping? Our lives are not 100% about being trans, and representation is not just being like "THIS IS JANE SHE&;S TRANS" and then having her stop existing when the site doesn&;t specifically need A Trans Person. (But I definitely agree on multiple trans characters. Multiple anything characters, really.)

To be honest, most of our characters aren't really fleshed out very much. We hadn't considered their pasts in quite so much detail - they're just art on a page 'working' their required function (somebody who trains pets, somebody who sells gardening supplies etc). So to me, when somebody suggested Jim being trans it wasn't so much 'let's change his entire story' it was more 'Let's flesh out his backstory, why can't he be a trans character?' - just like we've had Nico come out as Ace, Quentin refer to themselves as non-binary, Emma and Esther reveal themselves to be dating (they haven't outright come out as lesbian, but they are in a non-straight relationship), and of course Jaxon and Ian's relationship.

Multiple trans characters is definitely a possibility. I have created this thread to get a feel for both giving Jim a backstory and the potential to create a new (MtF maybe) trans character. I do predict controversy as with the gay marriage free gift post, but we stand behind gay marriage on Subeta and we also support trans people and feel that representing them on our site is what we want to do - both in new characters and in old.

Oh, and thanks for the information on binding tape! And the trans flag pin is a great idea.

As I said in my initial post, if you'd like to talk about anything in private instead of in public, please do Smail me! I would actually be very interested in having a few transgender people to confer with/test art with before release. I have a contact or two, but they're not Subeta players and I'd like to have some people that are actually playing the site to discuss with!

[Edit] Huh, for some reason, I was looking in the 'neutral' characters for Jim, and had completely forgotten he had an article in the 'good' section. I actually still find his article to lend itself quite well to him having transitioned at some point. He could very well still have been bullied for being scrawny and then started hormone therapy in his early teens.


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Sep 15, 2015 10 years ago Official
Rah
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Rah

I'm going to go ahead and lock this board now - there's been some great response and we have a lot to think about and work with. If anyone has something important to contribute that hasn't already been said, you can still smail me!


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