The Cosmos: Sexy Tyrannosaurs Rex

[Dredge]

This blog is inspired by L1ef
http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=Nrnq4SZ0luc


I ran out of click baity titles so I just copied borderlands 2, so sue me. Hopefully you were just browsing and saw that and said "Mmmnn yeah why not?" Anyway let's do this thing, it's your favorite dude you love to argue with! Aaron! Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaahhhh!! Enough silliness though, there's something that I want to talk about and point out something that you people have all noticed already. And that is the topic of homosexuality on the board. And no I am not talking about the Lesbian Legion we have here, this is a blog for the men! For those awesome writers who go against a norm and write these openly gay, bisexual, pansexual whatever your character is on some hot dude on dude action. This is a blog that is a big thank you to them and a few things that I would personally like to see more of and address some feelings I have.


Let's start with a shout out. [member="Ashin Varanin"]. A black woman who is the head of a government in lesbian interracial relationship. Never change, ever. [member="Cryax Bane"] and the character that is your boyfriend, you guys are probably the best written male homosexual couple on the site and I love reading your stuff. [member="Krest"], I know Krest is bisexual and I really respect and love that about him. So let's get into the meat of this subject that has been bothering me.


People I don't think are one hundred percent comfortable writing these gay relationships with men, and I feel that it's a bit damaging to see. We have scores of lesbian relationships and that's more accepted than men for some reason (probably sexism towards women) but let me say something now, I am NOT telling you to write a gay character just for the sake of diversity or stuff. I'm just a little baffled that I see so little of these relationships that are just like any other.

I think that we as writers should not worry about societal standards or even personal beliefs upon homosexuality or gay marriage. We should think like that character and really debate saying that maybe just because I'm straight this character has to be straight. Taking a step back and thinking about the characters sexuality is a good thing. I think that people should spend a bit more time thinking about choices like that when it comes to writing male characters. Because gay male relationships are even still looked down upon by some people on this board. (I've been in Skype chats, it does exist.) Come on people it's the 21st century let's get with the program.

Now what I'm saying you should NOT do is write a gay character and have his only personality trait be that he's gay. And you could see that a lot in Hollywood movies and various films and TV shows where you have these one dimensional characters whose only aspect is that they are gay. Don't write characters like that, it's offensive and it's not good writing. When you write a character and you choose to make him gay you should definitely not make him a walking stereotype, add personality traits and what not. Again another good example of a great gay character we have here is [member="Cryax Bane"]. If you need a reference then definitely look at their threads, they are awesome in portraying a homosexual man in a relationship.

So it's like 3:30 in the morning and it's hard to organize my thoughts so let's just wrap this bad boy up. To all the writers who write homosexual men, THANK YOU. I love you guys and keep up the love. To anyone who has a problem with it, get with the program. If you are interested or on the fence about writing a gay man, go for it! It's a lot of fun . Join the rainbow side of the force, we have snickerdoodles. But if you do write that character don't make them a stereotype. Remember this is all just my opinion and personal beliefs that I think we shouldn't be afraid of judgment to write gay men. If you don't want to write one, don't. This is all your choice, but no matter what don't be afraid to do it. This is Aaron saying have fun and be chill. And have a totally gay day! ^_^

* prepares for rampant hatred*

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

Just saying that one reason for the lack of male homosexual characters may be the real life genders. Many lesbian characters over here are men in real life and they seem to find it very comfortable to write. But were a heterosexual man to write a gay character... it wouldn't be as comfortable. I don't know if the same thing goes for women.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Maria Natalja"]

I'm a more or less heterosexual man and I have no issues writing a gay character or men kissing or whatever. Though it is probably because I have been in a homosexual relationship and found myself loving that person but not being attracted to them. (Aka tried it found out I wasn't gay) but I think as writers we do have comforts of what we are and are not ok writing and that's perfectly understandable even with our gender roles. But I think that we shouldn't have to be uncomfortable with writing these relationships and characters because society has told us for so long that it was wrong. If love is love we shouldn't be uncomfortable writing love whether it be a man and a woman, two women a man and a man, transsexual asexual bisexual pansexual it's simply love at the end of the day you know?

 

[Lysle of the Hydian Way]

[member="Dredge"]
Lysle isn't homosexual, but he is bisexual. He has slept with men for political gain, and I'm sure given the right circumstances he would do it again. Gotta love playing with mens hearts.

[member="Maria Natalja"]
It is also reverse, as Cryax IRL is female. Heh. Though I am a heterosexual man writing a bisexual character. Sexuality doesn't really phase me. My thoughts are this;

Let's assume to make this easy that gay men are more prone to play gay characters, with heterosexual men being more prone for the obvious heterosexual character. IRL, the ratio of straight men to gay men is quite large, that is the same with RP sites. This would make it quite hard / rare to find another person willing to RP a gay relationship.


Oh and yeah, Dredge, good idea for the topic (not sarcasm).

 

[Soeht]

I've had a lot of thought about the sexuality of my characters (this includes Daella) as well as compare my thoughts with the norms in Star Wars cultures. Though, I've yet to write a character that acted toward homosexual attraction to someone.

Daella was pretty simple: she had her ambition and that was the point of her life. All else was secondary. There wasn't really a moment to reveal it, but Daella had made herself permanently sterile for this reason. I purposefully made romance a near impossibility for her, and no one tried to really crack her shell in ways that'd make me say, "Yeah, she appreciates that." In the end, she would have likely been attracted mostly to men - and her relationship with Diana Moridena was just as a sisterhood to her.

And Bestala, being Mando, does have a desire to marry a man and have a family. However, she herself has her own ambitions. Dedicating herself emotionally to someone that could likely slow her down or pressure her to stop is a roadblock to marriage - plus there's the fact that a pregnancy would physically debilitate her. She still has at least a decade and half before having to settle down, though.

 

[Reverance]

If you ever seen the American version of House of Cards (spoiler alert!) then you know Frank Underwood has a very ambiguous sexuality. His sexuality matches Rev's exactly. It's not so much the shell that attracts him, instead the power within. I can't find a term for it, but it's basically the attraction to power. Flesh is flesh in a sense.

That being said, I think for guys, a hetero relationship is far easier to develop as the mystique forms more casually in the written format. I'm a more likely to write Rev infatuated by a female by her prowess then I am a dude, mostly because he would find a challenge in that instead of something to be revered. If it were to come to anything, I think there could actually be something between Rev and the Dark Lord of the Sith - A mix of awe and envy and wanting to experience such power and all the damage that it could incure. But I think it's more important to realize that you will never...NEVER...find the terms of Rev's sexuality in my writing. Why? Because it's not what defines him and its something that comes out through implication of my writing. You wont be finding Bi-sexual on my character profile. I think it's irrelevant. But, me as a writer, I will never ignore the spontaneous chemistry that occurs between characters.

Does that depend upon my comfort? Nope, I don't dwell long in it. I am a heterosexual male in real life. But Rev isn't me in that respect. And I think it should be noted that Rev's level of infatuation and regard for a character is directly proportional to someone's ability to write, to give me a story to read. Hence why he holds [member="Matsu Xiangu"] in such high regard (along with the whole mystique of the character). I can't help that, but I'm more than willing to admit it. And really, to sum up that relationship and all it's complexity, in such inadequate terms, does it a serious disservice.

[member="Dredge"] If you are looking for a character that openly admits that what he wants in a mate, you wont find it in Rev. But let me quote Frank Underwood for you, so that you can know where Rev stands. "I want what I want."

 

[Louise]

I had a big spiel, but it kept becoming convoluted (as I tend to do).

TL;DR

One's attitude towards sex and sexual preference in real life will ultimately affect what characters they write, because that is simply what they are comfortable with.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

In his youth Kaine was addicted to sex and violence, which would later result in the crop of Zambrano bastards we're all so fond of seeing.

Nowadays he's mostly just addicted to violence and power, rather than sex.

As for whom he's attracted to; he's always been attracted to females as he's a typical heterosexual, but tbh in the end he doesn't care much about flesh.

Power is what this game's all about.

And mothafethin' money.

 

[Darth Ferus]

It should be noted that Krest is actually straight. (Kage on the other hand is indeed day, but also very alone :<)

Anyway, I use to know a couple (Like rl smooch smooch people) who were straight (possibly bi) who played a gay couple. Man on man. It was an adorable relationship, but I don't really think its a matter of people being uncomfortable.

If you look around, female with female is just a much more common thing to see on the internet and what have you. It's something that even though you yourself may not be a lesbian, you have a better understanding on what it is than being a gay man in an RP.

Basically, more reference fornlesbians than gay men from what I've seen. People play what they know to play, and bay men are one of those areas people aren't sure what is proper.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Also, never post from a phone before work. Those misspellings.

 

[Jalek Sathora]

[member="Dredge"], this would be [member="Cryax Bane"]'s boyfriend.

I agree with all the points made about not making their sexuality their only, or at least prominent, personality trait. There isn't anything wrong with including something about it in a thread here and there (Jalek is a master at flirting not-so-subtly), but overall it shouldn't encompass their character. It's just the same as writing a straight character, only it's not. Yeah. That makes sense.

Kudos to the topic choice, and I look forward to what everyone has to say about it.

 

[Cryax Bane]

Thank you for the well-thought out post, and for the kind words about my writing [member="Dredge"]. I'm pretty mindful of not making Cryax into a stereotype, especially since he is a villain of sorts. I try to make him an enjoyable and realistic character to RP with. And I agree with [member="Jalek Sathora"]'s writer that the way we write their relationship is just like any heterosexual couple on the site.

I honestly think that if Cryax gets any IC hate at all it will no doubt be for all the awful things he does and for his own stupid mistakes, not his sexuality. The character is riddled with personality flaws (seriously flawed characters are my favorites to write) and to be honest, with some of the things he's done on the boards, realistically, my Chiss should be dead. But somehow he still survives because fiction! Will Cryax use his sexuality to gain some kind of advantage in a situation? Will he toss it in someone's face IC because he knows it makes someone uncomfortable? Perhaps both. But that's because the character will do anything he can to take advantage of a situation. He is the ultimate wheedler and instigator.

The character is also a master of denial, which makes him psychologically able to accept his own criminal misdeeds. His sexuality actually might be one of the things that redeems him on an internal level, as coming out of the closet is one of the first times he's had to be honest with himself about well, himself. And as a writer, I find this aspect of his personality very interesting to write.

I'm also of the mindset that whatever your gender or orientation, you should write what you want for your own reasons, and no one else's. I personally favor reading well-written characters who don't fit stereotypes, but ultimately I just like to see people writing and having fun with it. Men writing lesbian characters gets alot of flak on RP sites and servers and to be honest, I understand where it comes from, but I don't consider myself the thought police over anyone else's fiction. If two men want to write a lesbian relationship, whether it be for rich character development or just for some kind of wish-fufillment fantasy, I say go for it. I'm not here to judge people's intent.

Write what you want and ***k em if people don't like it. After all, only in your own creative brain can you truly be free.

 

[Isaac Ideus]

If a man is writing a male character, he'll probably choose whatever sexual orientation he associates with himself because that's what he's familiar with and that's what he's comfortable with. I feel that bringing up this topic is strange, because I've never seen anybody have any problem with [insert sexual/racial minority]. That last thing this site needs are social and political cheerleaders because that will eventually lead to division.

People I don't think are one hundred percent comfortable writing these gay relationships with men, and I feel that it's a bit damaging to see

.
Should I take it that people who aren't comfortable with writing a character as homosexual are a problem? Or do you think that if you are uncomfortable writing a homosexual character are slightly bigoted? Or is it, perhaps, that the majority of people that would visit and post on this site don't care about sexual orientation and don't care to role play relationships (a lot of us have our own real life relationships to worry about)?

This isn't supposed to be a hostile post and it's not necessarily my own opinion, but I would wager that it reflects the opinion of quite a lot of people on this board.

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

I feel that bringing up this topic is strange, because I've never seen anybody have any problem with [insert sexual/racial minority]. That last thing this site needs are social and political cheerleaders because that will eventually lead to division.

That's exactly what they want.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Isaac Ideus"]

Of course not. People are agree to write what they want, I'm just saying that people should consider a characters sexuality that isn't their own at times. Sexuality can play a major part in a characters actions and problems. So I'm simply stating if you are going to write a homosexual male character then go for it. And when I think we should evolve as writers and be able to to write love in any form and not have to be uncomfortable about it. I've met real bigoted people on this site and hey that's them.

Now if you want to call me a social or political cheerleader for saying a few opinions on a blog then hey again that's your opinion. I don't think people who are not comfy writing a gay relationship are bigoted, I just find it strange that people are uncomfortable with it. Because at the end of the day you are just writing any other love story but with different bottom parts. this blog is simply a way for me to write and discuss politely with my friends and the community as a whole on topics I find interesting. But you are entitled to your opinion and I respect that

That's exactly what they want.

Gasp. How did you know my true plan to tear the Star Wars community apart with a small blog on homosexual relationships and how to not offensively write a gay character?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=V1j7lyRnxVE

 

[HK-17]

I would have to agree with Isaac. Not all of us here are here to role-play relationships. I don't necessarily care about it, irregardless of my status outside the internet. Usually I see IC relationships are forced and not organic, they're planned and don't come naturally.

 

[Boethiah]

I'm going to drop the bomb here a bit.

I'm not sure if Pansexual was just a spur of the moment thought or directed slightly to my character sheet but Anja is pansexual. Let's talk about that. Heterosexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality is just one basket with three eggs. There's a whole nother prospect out there. We have a ton of aliens and some of them aren't even humanoid, what's to say some don't have a cloaca or something else? Sexuality could be an extremely diverse part of roleplay if done right and of course withing the confines of PG-13. i.e. glossed over sex scenes.

But Anja is pansexual. She will have sexual relations regardless of race, gender, or orientation. Why? Well part of that is she's a zealous possibly insane mass murderer but also because when you have so many races out there in the galaxy, you gotta expect that at least one or two(million) of the trillions are going to get kinky with another race. Lyra? Yes the weird squid race -- no references here -- probably doesn't confine under normal gender standards of mammalian races. Yet, what's to stop a Chiss from having a relationship with one? I mean one might argue about interational sexuality (Even crossing into homosexuality) would go agianst instinct, but that's from a perspective that anyone sane wouldn't try to date an elephant. However. When one might enter a galaxy filled to the grim with a diversity of sentient lifeforms who also feel love, you're going to have to take a new look at that perspective and realize that the possibilities are there. It's legit.

Anyway, before I make children cry I'll drop the topic there.

 

[Isaac Ideus]

[member="Dredge"]

Of course not. People are agree to write what they want, I'm just saying that people should consider a characters sexuality that isn't their own at times. Sexuality can play a major part in a characters actions and problems. So I'm simply stating if you are going to write a homosexual male character then go for it. And when I think we should evolve as writers and be able to to write love in any form and not have to be uncomfortable about it. I've met real bigoted people on this site and hey that's them.

This is where I respectfully disagree 100%. Nobody has to do anything. And you find it strange that people may feel uncomfortable with writing about gay relationships or other relationships that they don't personally identify with? Hell, I'd guess most people would feel uncomfortable on this site writing about relationships period. Furthermore, homosexual relationships are quite different to bisexual relationships which are quite different to heterosexual relationships etc.-- why should anybody feel obligated to "branch out" when they probably haven't a clue how to properly write about such things?

With all due respect, for somebody preaching "tolerance" I'm getting some intolerant vibes from you. I've always been concerned with the rights (and depending on where you live, the lack thereof) of the gay community in real life, but because I would feel a slight sense of discomfort in writing a gay relationship in a star wars fan fiction site (due to the fact that the idea is not something I really find appealing nor is it something I understand enough or can identify with) I'm now "strange"? Let people write how they want with characters they enjoy-- people shouldn't feel some moral obligation to awkwardly shoehorn some "non-conformist" sexual or gender traits into their characters, and if people decide not to do it you shouldn't look down your nose with a self-entitled sense of disrespect at their creativity/comfort/lack of care.

Edit: I've read some more posts by OP and it's a bit frustrating. There is an *obvious* social-political agenda here, and even if you agree with it, in my opinion it does NOT belong on this site. This is a place to write interactive role-playing in a Star Wars universe with other interesting and fun-loving individuals, it is NOT a site to be chastised as intolerant or strange because you role play a white cisgendered heterosexual male.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Isaac Ideus"]

My friend, this is a blog. As stated above in it. Do or do not. Either way it's fine with me and just have fun. I'm not going to argue and get rilled up like last time. I'm sorry but it's really not worth having a relapse again. Sorry

 

[Cryax Bane]

I personally didn't get a sense that Dredge's post was chastizing anyone who didn't write gay male relationships.

It seemed to me to be more of a celebration of the writers who do. One reason being that there aren't that many of us. At least that's what I took away from it.