Post by Whim on Oct 31, 2012 4:13:32 GMT -5
I said from the start that sexuality has nothing to do with Impression on Cat's Paw, so yeah, there can totally be gay bronze riders (and have been, even if they're not PCs). And I've been working on a similar idea for flights with M'tu; he's repulsed asexual, so his opinion of people is that they're ugly and sex is 'EW EW EW OH GOD THAT'S DISGUSTING,' but during flights, that doesn't matter because flight. (M'tu is also really, really extreme and I should feel bad for supporting that stereotype, but... well, he's demanded to be that every time I've ever written him, and I cannot argue with my characters at all. Anyway!) So, yeah. Sexuality is irrelevant to Impression and to flights, though I imagine a rider who got too freaked out and resisted could have some minor impact, especially on a chasing dragon.
Negative traits for dragons: I've generally avoided that with hatchlings, apart from things like 'pride' or being obsessed with rank, largely because I think most people would not be happy about getting a hatchling that's then described as selfish and amoral. I'm fine with people creating not-so-moral dragons, though; I'm just not going to force anyone to have one.
Flight-caused sex/rape: My opinion is... complicated. I view it essentially that it's not something you can blame anyone for, the male dragon's rider isn't a rapist, since they have no more say in it than the female's rider does. (Or vice versa, for that matter.) But I also see it as having the potential to be quite traumatizing, even if it's not really anyone's fault (except the dragons, but no one's going to do that; they don't really have much say either). (This is, actually, how I view Tai and her situation; she was raped, in the sense that she went through the experience and the trauma, but since it was flights, no one really raped her, in the sense that the other riders had absolutely no say in it either. Which probably made the situation worse for her, since if there's no one guilty and she's traumatized by what other people view as neutral to awesome, most peoples' next thought is 'well then, it must be my fault,' which would also explain why as far as I can tell she never really tried to do anything about it. But! Rambling.)
As for rape... I have several very strong opinions, which just keep getting reinforced, and I'm sure no one here needs to be told that rape is bad, so I'll skip the rant. In characters: I have seen it used just as drama for backstory, which I... intellectually understand the motives of, but do not like. So what I am trying to get around to saying is that rape-as-instant-backstory is one of the things that will actually get an absolute 'no' from me on an app, instead of some variant of 'convince me that there's a purpose for this.' So, unless someone manages to be incredibly sneaky, hopefully that will not be an issue, regardless of who joins the site in the future.
As for rape vs. the PG limits... my suspicions are that, with Proboards' restrictions being as vague as they are, it falls into something of a gray area, so whether we get away with referring to it or not will probably depend largely on whether anyone complains. (Personally, I would not be surprised if Proboards follows the 'delete anything that gets complaints' model of rule enforcement, though I have no proof for it. I still don't want to test it.)
And, now that I've had a new thought on feminism: the women in the Weyr do have it much better (if not by our standards good) than the hold and craft women do. So far, that hasn't caused much, which makes me think that the women in the weyr either don't think about it, or get to 'well, I'm glad I live here,' and not past that, while any feminist-minded hold or craft women either move to the weyr, or just don't manage to accomplish anything.
However, what about the reverse? Most of the time, when we refer to 'weyrbrats' we think of young, male candidates, whose fathers and sometimes mothers are riders, and who are raised in the lower caverns. But all those boys ought to have some sisters; what about a woman, raised in the Weyr with all the rights and freedoms that Weyr women get, who then for some reason moves to a hold or craft, dislikes the new restrictions, but (for whatever reason) can't get back to the Weyr, and instead decides to just demand that she get to keep the rights the Weyr gave her? It could be a bit difficult to pull back into the Weyr, but I'm sure we could figure out some way. And that way, while rape and sexual freedom could and probably would become an issue, it wouldn't be the origin of the movement, so we could keep focus off of it if we choose to.
Negative traits for dragons: I've generally avoided that with hatchlings, apart from things like 'pride' or being obsessed with rank, largely because I think most people would not be happy about getting a hatchling that's then described as selfish and amoral. I'm fine with people creating not-so-moral dragons, though; I'm just not going to force anyone to have one.
Flight-caused sex/rape: My opinion is... complicated. I view it essentially that it's not something you can blame anyone for, the male dragon's rider isn't a rapist, since they have no more say in it than the female's rider does. (Or vice versa, for that matter.) But I also see it as having the potential to be quite traumatizing, even if it's not really anyone's fault (except the dragons, but no one's going to do that; they don't really have much say either). (This is, actually, how I view Tai and her situation; she was raped, in the sense that she went through the experience and the trauma, but since it was flights, no one really raped her, in the sense that the other riders had absolutely no say in it either. Which probably made the situation worse for her, since if there's no one guilty and she's traumatized by what other people view as neutral to awesome, most peoples' next thought is 'well then, it must be my fault,' which would also explain why as far as I can tell she never really tried to do anything about it. But! Rambling.)
As for rape... I have several very strong opinions, which just keep getting reinforced, and I'm sure no one here needs to be told that rape is bad, so I'll skip the rant. In characters: I have seen it used just as drama for backstory, which I... intellectually understand the motives of, but do not like. So what I am trying to get around to saying is that rape-as-instant-backstory is one of the things that will actually get an absolute 'no' from me on an app, instead of some variant of 'convince me that there's a purpose for this.' So, unless someone manages to be incredibly sneaky, hopefully that will not be an issue, regardless of who joins the site in the future.
As for rape vs. the PG limits... my suspicions are that, with Proboards' restrictions being as vague as they are, it falls into something of a gray area, so whether we get away with referring to it or not will probably depend largely on whether anyone complains. (Personally, I would not be surprised if Proboards follows the 'delete anything that gets complaints' model of rule enforcement, though I have no proof for it. I still don't want to test it.)
And, now that I've had a new thought on feminism: the women in the Weyr do have it much better (if not by our standards good) than the hold and craft women do. So far, that hasn't caused much, which makes me think that the women in the weyr either don't think about it, or get to 'well, I'm glad I live here,' and not past that, while any feminist-minded hold or craft women either move to the weyr, or just don't manage to accomplish anything.
However, what about the reverse? Most of the time, when we refer to 'weyrbrats' we think of young, male candidates, whose fathers and sometimes mothers are riders, and who are raised in the lower caverns. But all those boys ought to have some sisters; what about a woman, raised in the Weyr with all the rights and freedoms that Weyr women get, who then for some reason moves to a hold or craft, dislikes the new restrictions, but (for whatever reason) can't get back to the Weyr, and instead decides to just demand that she get to keep the rights the Weyr gave her? It could be a bit difficult to pull back into the Weyr, but I'm sure we could figure out some way. And that way, while rape and sexual freedom could and probably would become an issue, it wouldn't be the origin of the movement, so we could keep focus off of it if we choose to.