Gender-locking ROs, gender flipping, and importance of gender in relationships

What’s your point exactly? That someone is asexual doesn’t necessarily mean that they can’t have sex, or that they can’t enjoy it. They’re just not doing it for the sex itself.

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Actually, it could be. As I’ve said before and what everyone seems to forget is it’s a lack of sexual attraction and desire, but that doesn’t equal a hatred and disgust towards the act of sex right off the bat.

They’re prolly not gonna have sex for the bonding with their partner or to relieve sexual tension, but sex-positive asexuals might, among other things, enjoy the sensation, like how one might enjoy idk, tennis. Of course, they might not, or might not like any idea of sex at all, or not really care either which way.

Some aces have sex for kids. Some aces have sex for like, stress relief or like, health benefits or whatever. Some have sex because the physical nerve stimulation, even if there’s no attraction or desire to have it. Some just don’t and won’t and won’t ever have sex.

Asexuals are a broad ass spectrum.

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Asexual here. The sex (or general physical stimulus in itself) does nothing for me, but seeing my partner happy is more than enough reason for me engage in sexual activity.

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I’m asexual too! Hello! Friend!

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Yeah, my best understanding is that aces don’t feel like they need sex like non-asexuals seem to, and there isn’t the thing of feeling a desire for sex with a specific person. But the actual attitude to it can range from ‘ew no’, to ‘meh’, to actually liking it (for the sensation or a host of other reasons, like @Laguz says). It’s a tough thing to generalise though because there’s not a whole load of perspectives out there.

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This is the definition my bi friends use (unequal attraction to different (more than two) genders), and the one I worked under when I thought I was bi. For one of my friends, the difference between bi and pan was that pan was “regardless of gender”, implying (for her, but obviously not for all bi or pan people) equal attraction ability to all genders.

Some of us are. I recommend this link

To get an explanation of some different ace attitudes towards sex.

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I wonder how many I could count, even in my own house :thinking: though they’d probably all be cishet female protagonist or rpgs outside of a guy, maybe you should’ve slightly broadened it…

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https://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/Video-Game-Protagonists-Brown-Haired-White-Guys.jpg

https://thumbs.mic.com/YjhkY2ZiN2Y2OSMveE9RVU85NEIxYmprVDByQ2cwWkV4dXNwRlNrPS82eDA6OTAxeDU2NC8xMjgweDYyMC9maWx0ZXJzOnF1YWxpdHkoNzUpL2h0dHBzOi8vczMuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbS9wb2xpY3ltaWMtaW1hZ2VzL2NkMThhOWJiYjlmZjBjMTliNmNhZjQ1OGQ5M2UxZjA5NjljNDVlOTIyYWYwNGMxNjVjNWI1OGEzMzhhMzNlODMuanBn.jpg

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The Bioware guys, Shepard and Hawke can be played as something other then white or straight.

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Why is Hawke and Shepard on there?

Nathan and Cole clearly had the best bromances of all those characters with Sully and Zeke respectively.

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Look at the packaging and default, trailer, internal menu movies and canonical material. Shaved head, white male, implied het.

A bromance is not gay.

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Huh, even within the parameters of white and male, most of them look about the same :cold_sweat: tough, grizzled, and very serious.

Indeed it is not. It’s the disappointing knock-off version :angry:

(Or, okay, it can be nice to show platonic intimacy and bonding between characters, but billing it as a stand-in for actually homosexuality, which is something the media does all the time, is no replacement.)

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Trailers doesn’t make it canon, doubly so for Shepard, who had female commercial advertisement for at least Me3. Don’t they avoid mentioning mc’s is tie in material?

Also, Hawke is shaved?

Implied?

Just me remembering things.


Isn’t 47 ace?

Also Drake repeats. And cloned Starkiller. And Grey And Ezio…

I don’t even remember a romance in Bulletstorm, the only girl was way younger than Grey and he killed her father…[quote=“idonotlikeusernames, post:159, topic:23002”]
can be played as something other then white or straight.
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I can count my non-white protagonists? Oh phew, my list got bigger.

The alternative promotion materials would be cishet black male or white female and you know it, fact it they won’t to gay or lesbian or non-binary promo’s anytime soon, outside of the very few materials specifically aimed at those groups.

Yeah, it’s rough not identifying with any of it, but you know what? I wouldn’t identify with, in fact I would probably identify less, with cishet black men or cishet white women either.

In the US the most likely “backup” for those tough, grizzled white men would be the strong, tall, bald, authoritarian and oh so straight too black leader guy. Again not an image I identify with much either.

Well they can’t go and show smiling cute pretty-boys either, cause that might be interpreted as gay or effeminate or something. :unamused:
Besides it’s what every straight white boy wants to be right? (or at least the media execs certainly seem to think so) :unamused:

I will say that this was a problem with the games of my youth, whenever the male protagonist wasn’t explicitly straight he wasn’t sexual at all whether that’s because he was married to his job or simply asexual I don’t know, but in any case video game protagonist couldn’t be shown to be anything other then straight or entirely non-sexual or asexual.

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Do you not see Jackie Estacado?!

Glorious locks of hair.

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While I can’t speak for every hetero straight white male, I always make my characters tough, grizzled and stoic.

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I remember reading a Hitman novel set before Absolution and it basically confirmed that 47 is pretty much asexual, indeed finds it tricky to have any solid relationship akin to being a ‘friend’ outside Diana his handler. It’s what makes him such an effective assassin, basically.

Also it’s probably just me but I do hate it when people insist that well established bromances have to be sexual. Kirk and Spock, Holmes and Watson, Wolverine and Nightcrawler, even Poe and Finn (though in that one’s case I suppose it’s up to Disney and Lucasarts if they go past being bros).

And I like tough dudes like most do, but heroic straight nerd types are awesome as well. Spidey and the Doctor are fav characters of mine and whilst Peter is strong he’s not crazy buff.

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Ezio and Corvo are both latin. Not that I disagree with your main point, it’s still 2/3. I just like being pedantic.

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Yup. The marketing of mass-media works by an established formula wherein the largest identity groups are preferentially courted in order to maximize the return on investment. The smaller your identity group, the less likely it is you’ll find representation in anything that isn’t considered a “niche” product.

From my own personal experience of being on the receiving end quite often while growing up, “pretty boy” is most often used as an insult, not a compliment, a way to challenge a boy or man’s masculinity. And yes, there is often a thinly veiled implication that the target may be gay or effeminate.

As unoriginal as it is, surveys show that this sort of hero gets a positive response from the largest number of viewers, and so it’s become part of the standard formula.

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I don’t know, the white heterosexual cis male guy who I’m friends with seemed to play female characters fairly often :thinking: but those might’ve been tough and grizzled women :confused:

I think there’s value in showing people can be very close without it being sexual or romantic, especially with heterosexual men who are often reluctant to express affection for each other lest it be seen as gay, but I don’t like when it’s used as a substitute for gay relationships or to string LGBT viewers along. Or when it’s used to make cheap gay jokes without actually including anyone actually gay. [quote=“P_Tigras, post:169, topic:23002”]
From my own personal experience of being on the receiving end quite often while growing up, “pretty boy” is most often used as an insult, not a compliment, a way to challenge a boy or man’s masculinity. And yes, there is often a thinly veiled implication that the target may be gay or effeminate.
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Which is so infuriating! I hate seeing men being called pretty in ways as if it were an insult. Like women are the only ones who can look nice and it’s somehow a problem if men do too, which is insulting to both women and men :unamused:

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