Do you prefer to write a specific gender?

[psychodrow 10]

Situationally, most of my characters are male because that is what circumstances call for. Most of the forums I find myself on have a severe dearth of male PCs, so it just makes sense that to maximize available playability, you play a male. This means that I've gotten super comfortable playing a gender I am not, and it is more natural to RP as a male.

 

This also means that on the few occasions I generate female characters, they are harder to play, harder to get into, and have a 100% failure rate - which feeds into that cycle of feeling unable to play them.

 

So... to answer the specific question? I prefer to play males if only because they have a higher success ratio, actually get to play, and feel most comfortable now.

[Huskerdust 625]

I want to play more girls. I often take want ads for them. But I do end up playing more dudes. I don’t have any real reason for this other than my rp partner and I just usually have a lot of male NPCs that become full fledged characters. 

[Royal_Poet 13]

Either is fine, but I always had a cast that was more male than female. I think that’s down to be being a bit of a tomboy in real life. High femme in many ways is more of a struggle and I have to think about. Tomboys or male characters more or less write themselves. 
 

 

[Tetris 7]

While generally I am open to any kind of gender, but I tend to play more heavy on the males.

[planet 1]

I have always preferred roleplaying as a male character and I'm not too sure why. Idk if it's because I'm female and attracted to the opposite gender or what, but it's kind of odd.

[August. 1]

I prefer to play females. I do play males from time to time but I never had a lot of confidence in it. I'm working on that though by pushing myself out of my comfort zone because I want to feel more well rounded. 

[Behemoth 1]

I prefer to play male characters. When it comes to playing female characters, I lack the confidence and the muse/inspo to keep a thread going. I might be able to keep up with a few posts, but it's not for me in the long-term.

[Detrimentum 2]

I really love writing male characters, I'm terrible with writing women (unfortunately) and because I'm bisexual, I tend to play women that are more like... attractive in my eyes? If that makes sense? Haha 

[Nightingale 3]

I tend to be more comfortable playing female characters, but the more sites I've rp'ed on the more I've realized that -- there really isn't a difference in terms of writing male and female characters. Because at the core of things, whether you're writing male, female, trans, nonbinary, or even a creature that doesn't identify in any particular way, a character is built on the foundations that they're given and that applies regardless of gender identity or biology. I've definitely been in situations where site ratios have determined what type of character I will build/play, but usually what is the determining factor is what my own roster looks like. While I prefer female characters, my actual ratios are close to 50/50.

[ulla 7]

I play most male or masculine leaning characters, and this largely has to do with the fact that I am a transmasculine individual and find a lot of dysphoria with the task of presenting feminine. More specifically, however, I find myself leaning heavily into writing transgender characters, and it's been very liberating for me. 

[MegHanSolo 13]

I always play gender fluid or masculine characters - and find I have an unsettling degree of discomfort playing characters who would solely identify as she/her or otherwise take a great deal of pride in their femininity. This probably says something about my own consideration of how I identify and my avoidance in thinking about it too much lol. Or maybe I just don't want to reflect on the character development that comes with experiencing the world as a woman because those are experiences I don't want to draw on. 

 I love writing with players who write characters who identify themselves as women, and it absolutely doesn't effect who or how I plot with others. Ultimately I don't think gender identification should play a vital role in character decisioning (even though I know I clearly have a preference), but I do think how a character identifies certainly shapes their story due to their experiences as that gender and ultimately how they are written. 

[TheOasisXYZ 5]

I most often write men, but I've recently become more comfortable writing women as well. I used to just be absolutely dreadful at writing women, so it's been a purposeful effort at practicing until I get better at it.

 

I was reading through this thread and I see that a few other people have this or a similar problem, in writing as the opposite gender. It makes me feel a little better to know I'm not alone, but also, I'm still hoping there's some advice to be shared! Anyone know of a decent way to get over this/get better at this?

[Chele 2]

I generally don't have much of a preference, though I find myself writing more male characters than female.

 

I think it's because, when I started RPing, there were a lot more female characters around, and they were desperate for someone willing to play men.

 

Less of a problem these days, which is nice.

[break_the_spell 1]

I'll admit I'm biased towards only wanting to write female characters. I simply have no interest to pick up a male's point of view as they are fully represented in the mainstream media. I want to write stories that are capable of passing the Bechdel test, that showcases the female experience that has been underrepresented for centuries. I'm not opposed to writing male characters if they are needed but my muse just isn't there for me when I do.

[Sylence 10]

More or less I am open to playing both genders. So I guess I don't have much of a preference when it comes to males or females? Though, I will  admit I tend to make my first character a female.