Gender and Setting
Simon JB:
I'll get straight to it. If you read the following as a part of the setting description, how would you react?
Quote
Woman and Man
The Kingdom is a clearly patriarchal society. Even if there are nuances between different states within the empire, there is usually an overwhelming majority of men in most ruling circles, both in the political and the financial sphere. Because of the ever-present war for domination of the planet, the military has a central role in society, and there the male dominance is even greater than in politics or finance. There are some armies or regiments that have more women soldiers than others, but they still make an extreme exception.
The Church, however, is quite the opposite. The highest religious offices are only open to ”Brides of the King”, and many Orders Militant belonging to the church are all female.
In private life there is a widespread view that relations should be monogamous and that the husband has the responsibility to provide for the family while the wife cares for the household and the children. There is also a greater acceptance for violence from men and for passivity in women.
This order of things is in no way given by nature nor exactly the same in every human society, but it appears to have taken root quite thoroughly in most of the lands of Man. In many academic circles there exists an ideology of equality, but it is extremely different from country to country how well spread and well accepted this is.
Discussion about gender in rpg settings in general is also welcome in the thread, but I'd like to see this as a starting point to refer back to if the discussion becomes very unfocused.
Paul Czege:
Hi Simon,
A game text telegraphs a game's important themes. I'd expect players exposed to this text to create characters that take sides on gender issues in the setting. You're telling them gender issues are going to be important.
Paul
Eero Tuovinen:
What Paul said. Also, your last paragraph sounds like Nordic apologism - I've read similar affirmative denouncements from writers and designers who are keen to discuss an issue they feel is extremely sensitive and where they themselves wish not to be branded as regressive. This is typical of the progressive cultural politics here in the ultra-liberal Nordic countries; even raising the questions of gender equality, religious freedom or ethnic diversity is largely impossible without being apologetic about it. It makes you seem vulnerable when you do that in a fictional account of a fictional setting, though - you'd seem more confident if you'd let the art stand for what it is and trust in the reader to realize that you're not advocating sexism even when some characters in your setting are.
Also, speaking personally, this text alone is a bit ambiguous in functional terms: should the player created character advocate or challenge the status quo, or just take it for granted? You could just outright say which you want; even if the game is Solar System and the assumption is that the player can challenge whatever he wants, you'd still do a service to your setting if you telegraphed your intent unambiguously. Do you want a patriarchaic society because it's necessary background for something else, or do you want it so player characters can challenge it? I know that I've played my share of fantasy games where the patriarchal society has not been the point of contention; I like historical tropes, and doing gender-egalitarian historical fantasy just seems awfully shallow to me. So when I present a patriarchal society in that sort of game, it's definitely not because I want players to zoom in on this perceived injustice and start toppling it.
dindenver:
Simon,
It looked great. A very thorough treatment of the setting. Until you got here:
Quote
This order of things is in no way given by nature nor exactly the same in every human society, but it appears to have taken root quite thoroughly in most of the lands of Man. In many academic circles there exists an ideology of equality, but it is extremely different from country to country how well spread and well accepted this is.
If you are really sensitive about presenting your stance on sexism, save it for the designer's notes. Your clarification right next to the setting text draws attention away from your setting text (which is a shame, because it seems like a good treatment).
My reaction reading this was standard medieval setting, until the female religion bit. Then I forgot all that when I saw your little disclaimer.
Good luck with your setting!
Simon JB:
Very interesting points about the apologism and the ambiguity. I wasn't aware that the text communicated that until you told me, but I see what you mean.
My intention was for all of this to be setting description. I'll wait with including more about the specifics of the setting, but there are fantasy elements that separates the setting from our reality, so "this order of things is in no way given by nature" was intended as a piece of setting fact, but I can see that it looks like a designer's apology, and that's not good for what I want.
Would you read it differently if it looked like this instead?
Quote
This order of things varies between different parts of the Kingdom of Man, and in the academic circles of Paradise City there is a strong ideology of equality that has spread to other large cities. Also in the old nobility it is quite common for the Lady of the House to take the active part in politics.
I can add that the Kingdom of Man is a large empire made up of many smaller countries and city states.
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