i think the context is clear here. the example in this sentence is medieval fantasy–wasn’t Christianity the dominating religion of the medieval era?
1 Like
I think everyone should refocus on the thread’s topic.
“Historical Accuracy,” “realism,” and limitations based on these creative choices should have its own thread or be discussed in private.
12 Likes
I don’t know if it is better to restart an old thread or start a brand new one, so mods, feel free to say If I should create a new one.
I have a character with a very low deep chocolate voice; when PC meets her, all is engulfed in pitch-black darkness.
I fear the stereotypes people have about gender representation, like deep low voices being masculine, all cause the public to hate the character without allowing them to know her. Should I hide the deepness and strength she has until I can make sure the PC can ask her gender pronouns?
At the same time, I think she should be proud of being strongh and have a pretty low voice, and we women come in different shapes and are all women.
I don’t know; I don’t want this character to fail as I am fond of her.
5 Likes
I think it’s fine to describe the character’s voice as deep - maybe avoid pronouns or refer the character as “they” before introducing the character properly as “she”? Or you could just describe something like “it sounds like a deep woman’s voice”. Totally agree that women look and sound in a wide variety of ways!
9 Likes
The issue is you are in a place where you don’t know anyone and you just wake up in a pitch darkness.
I don’t know if a Pc is able to distinct from a deep baritone male or female in that situation; and I don’t want to be over showing and cause that the scene lost inmmersion and the fear atmosphere. I am already using on her neutral terms as Pc can not know a gender in this situation.
I just will let character personality speak for herself, and if reader has stereotypes is the reader problem not Balinda’s.
I love Balinda’s name, It is from Uganda and means endurance fortitude and strong roots.
2 Likes
I would say that you should either describe the voice as deep but feminine. Like it’s deep for a woman. Or you can have something in what she says, or the environment tip the reader/character off. Like, if she’s wearing perfume
2 Likes
The thing is all those are stereotypes. I am a woman and doesnt like use perfumes a lot. You are in the darkness and you only have the voice as guide. I am totally incapable of difference between two deep baritone voices.
Balinda is a strong no bullshit actitude vampire that was a former slave. She doesn’t like use modern-day stuff or perfumes all or that makes her thinking in the decadent people that slaved her family.
So no high heels no perfume nor any other Female stereotypes. All that are stereotypes anyway.
2 Likes
Sorry for being unhelpful here but I had to say it: Balinda sounds like a total badass. And women with deep voices? Divine. 
7 Likes
I’m sorry, but aren’t you describing her without using visual clues already? Besides that traits and her deep voice, she seems to have a strong attitude you could depict using only her word expression maybe?
A deep voice that doesn’t necessarily needs to sound masculine, no perfume but also not a strong smell of man sweat, and an a rather threatening no bullshit attitude that you would much rather have as a friend than an enemy.
1 Like
My problem is that you dont know the gender and talking with my father and relating him the scene He believed Balinda was a man,
The whole determined and strong way she talks made automatically thing that The commanding and strong voice is from a general, a leader she is that, so my description is accurate.
Again stereotypes but is how many people brain is wired. It makes me sad as I think people wont treat her fairily.
Balinda''s picture in case someone is interested
4 Likes
Could you give a hint that despite all the traits portrayed there’s something that makes you (the reader) not categorize her as a man? Or that’s what you want to avoid? Despite being a deep voice some times there’s minuscule tones and shapes on the sounds that make us realize if it’s masculine or feminine, maybe you could clarify that to leave it out of the reader interpretation. (Yes, I can see the picture and it is pretty accurate, nice work there.)
3 Likes
I feel like this is largely not an issue. Most people won’t automatically like or dislike a character based solely on the pitch of their voice. Obviously stereotypes do exist, and even though people might be likely to form an initial impression founded on some, it doesn’t mean “non-conforming” traits and such will necessarily be negatively recieved.
If her traits are relevant to the situation she’s introduced in, there’s no reason to hide them. If her first appearance is in the shadows and is effectively only a voice, then use to show who she is. Not only in how she sound, but what she says, and how she says it. As for pronouns, I personally find it awkward and stiff in games like these if the characters are forced to ask an NPC’s pronouns; leave it as an option, but don’t force it on the player. No matter what, since you’re writing the story, the character will still be whatever you as the author want her to be.
2 Likes
I think this sounds like the best way of handling it. “Feminine” in this instance wouldn’t mean “stereotypically feminine”, but would instead just mean that the voice sounds like that of a woman, albeit a deep one.
6 Likes
I am incapable of distinguishing gender voices if they are deep. It happened many times hearing music. But I see many people are capable to maybe I can include it.
1 Like
I think it’s reasonable for the player character not to know what gender this mystery person is, and then be introduced to her as a woman once they’re meeting her properly. If a player assumes she’s male before talking to her properly, maybe that will encourage them to think before assuming.
9 Likes
Yeah, I am also think that, I wont use any adjective or behaviour that doesnt fit my characters. If a reader think X is a masculine behaviour or only femenine is their problem. I have males dressing high heels in my game so maybe I have to do a disclairmeer about it?
I just dont want to have the damn X can’t be male uses higheels comments.
1 Like
You could give some kind of choice as to how the reader interprets the character. Like a gender choice, but not really, because the choice wouldn’t change her gender, only how the MC sees her. That could lead to some dialogue where Balinda corrects the MC if they assumed that she is a man. But that would give the player the choice to actively misgender your character, so I get it if you rather wouldn’t give this choice.
Those are always some valid options.
I know that it’s not always easy, but if someone makes those kinds of comments, ignore them. Your characters can wear whatever they want and if someone has a problem with that, that is just rooted in bigotry, that’s on them and not you.
2 Likes
One downside to this is I think players would assume they’re being faced with the very common ‘select your preferred gender for an RO’ choice, and then feel disappointed when they realize their choice didn’t actually have the impact they expected it would.
6 Likes
You are right, but that doesn’t necessary need to be a bad thing. It could challenge the expectation people have for this kind of choice but it very much depends on how it is written. Someone who wants to do something like that should definitely avoid doing some sort of gotcha thing where they antagonize the reader for assuming that this is a typical ‘select your preferred gender’ choice.
2 Likes
I think the question you should ask yourself here is wether it’s important or not for the player to know the character’s gender in that particular scene.
If it’s not, then you should channel your energy into other parts of the game. If it is important, then the only options you have is to resort to stereotypical gender signifiars to a certain degree or have the character tell the player their gender.
Looking at this from a strictly logical perspective, there is no 100% foolproof way to cement in the reader’s mind what a gender a character is unless you tell them explicitly (there can be women with deep voices, men with soft skin, high heels clacking the darkness, voice inflexions which can be feminine, but the speaker identifes as male or nb, etc). It gets even more complicated when you factor in the culture from which the reader comes from/ how familiar they are with gender related topics.
6 Likes