Sexist outlooks towards video games:

[Jin]

This is an excellent topic for a thread, though I suspect most won't take it as seriously as it deserves.

Do you tend to go for characters of your own sex?

I do, yes, for two reasons. First, I often like to lose myself in a game and to properly do that, I need to be able to relate to the character I am controlling. I find it much easier to do when playing a male character as their personalities are usually based more on things society characterizes as "male", characteristics that I have also taken from society to define myself as a "male", which brings me to the second reason. Society and culture tell us what is male and what is female and most of us believe it whether we want to or not. Even those of us that believe gender is nothing more than a construction have difficulty escaping from it and as such, we're all sexist, men and women alike, whether we mean to be or not. As such, I find it far more difficult to accept females as main characters as "saving the day" is something I usually view as a male thing to do - being saved, the female. This is culturally imprinted on most people, myself included and although I'm aware how stupid it is, it's difficult to escape cultural conditioning.

Do you think characters of your opposite sex don't, or do, suit roles for particular reasons?

Not in any essentialist manner, no, I don't think either sex suits a specific role better. But within my own, skewed worldview, of course they do. Men serve either as evil masterminds or the heroes of the day, whereas women either require saving/protecting or, when given agency, are morally impure and often dangerous, usually with a high level of sex appeal, something that is often flaunted by these female agents.

This is absolutely a sexist view, but I think it's roughly in line with how our culture depicts women in general. It's one thing to know that one's worldview isn't an objective one that's "true". It's a whole 'nother thing to remove its influence from one's so called common sense. I often wonder if that's what Buddhists consider enlightenment.

Have you ever noticed/ known somebody that won't play as the opposite sex? (Give examples)

Myself and most of my male friends. Also most of my female friends will play as their own (though they seem to be far more likely to play as the opposite sex than myself or my male friends). It's interesting. If my male friends ever do play a female, it's usually for the reason of sex appeal.

Your views on this-

I think the rest of my post gives my view on this, but I'll sum up again. Gender (not sex, gender) is a cultural construction. The divide between those with penises and those with vaginas is a physical difference, perhaps grander, but no more significant to one's personality than the difference between having a large nose and having a small nose. The cultural construction of gender defines what is male and what is female and firmly places it within our common sense. Women wear dresses, men don't - this is a cultural construction with no essentialist meaning. But it's not so easy as knowing to escape its sway. Look at most gender historians and you'll be unlikely to find anymore men in dresses than you would in any other population. The same is true in my case. I have my own assumptions as to what is male and what is female that could absolutely be classified as sexist. But even knowing this, it is beyond difficult to remove these notions from that which I consider common sense. I think most people are this way.