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[Duke 2.0]

Recent discussion leads me to an odd question re: gender in media. Has anyone seen, read, or played, something where the gender for one or more of the characters is literally not mentioned, at all? Hopefully the question isn't a derail, heh.

I know there is a short story out there somebody wrote which is primarily a lovemaking scene where the gender of each character was not revealed. A real literary tongue twister. I have no idea how to find it again.

[Rose]

adventure games typically have the  main character as an Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Adventure-person.

[Rose]

Spoiler: I just felt this picture belongs here in this thread. (click to show/hide)

[Criptfeind]

Recent discussion leads me to an odd question re: gender in media. Has anyone seen, read, or played, something where the gender for one or more of the characters is literally not mentioned, at all? Hopefully the question isn't a derail, heh.

I know there is a short story out there somebody wrote which is primarily a lovemaking scene where the gender of each character was not revealed. A real literary tongue twister. I have no idea how to find it again.

Must have been a very good writer to avoid the awkwardness involved in not using gender pronouns.

[kaijyuu]

Recent discussion leads me to an odd question re: gender in media. Has anyone seen, read, or played, something where the gender for one or more of the characters is literally not mentioned, at all? Hopefully the question isn't a derail, heh.

Basically everything here.

[G-Flex]

Recent discussion leads me to an odd question re: gender in media. Has anyone seen, read, or played, something where the gender for one or more of the characters is literally not mentioned, at all? Hopefully the question isn't a derail, heh.

I know there is a short story out there somebody wrote which is primarily a lovemaking scene where the gender of each character was not revealed. A real literary tongue twister. I have no idea how to find it again.

Must have been a very good writer to avoid the awkwardness involved in not using gender pronouns.

If it was a lovemaking scene, I imagine other things were a little stranger to make ambiguous.

[ChairmanPoo]

TBH I don't think that entertainment must by necessity conform stories to make the heroes more "diversified" along racial or gender lines. Or, at the very least, if this is done, it must not be the main purpose of the story.

I say this because a couple of examples which did this come to mind (in particular, the Earthsea saga, and some fairy tales remake stories a national politician wrote a few years ago,-among other things, she made the mayor of the village the good guy "in order to instill democratic culture in children, because nowadays they don't get elected by nepotism, but by DEMOCRACY!". I probably would be more impressed by her intended if the national political parties weren't so grossly corrupt, TBH), and I found them to be rather boring.

[Vector]

Meh, I wrote a fanfic about a character that used no pronouns whatsoever for the person in question--not even ze, hir, etc..

So, uh, at least one exists!

[Rose]

Did you use one of those gender-neutral names that only girls actually ever use like Sam?

[Vector]

Nope.  It was the personified country of Russia, in a fandom that does a lot of rule 63.

So, uh, now you know!

[Rose]

Hetalia fanfic?

Also, Russia's totally a girl.

I ship her with Germany.

[Criptfeind]

So you used It? Or am I missing something?

Also, not'ha same is'it? Between a It and a He/She but we don't really know.

[ChairmanPoo]

Nope.  It was the personified country of Russia, in a fandom that does a lot of rule 63.

So, uh, now you know!

Spoiler: ? (click to show/hide)

[Leafsnail]

Many subjects disagree on the true nature of the universe.  Science has its opinion; world religions, another.  There's no reason to get so upset about it, unless folks are also going to get upset about pi=3 not being taught in math class.

I'm not sure if I'd be happy teaching children that the scientific process generates only "opinions".  Ideally you'd also explain how the scientific process and theories work (and the evidence for such theories).

Recent discussion leads me to an odd question re: gender in media. Has anyone seen, read, or played, something where the gender for one or more of the characters is literally not mentioned, at all? Hopefully the question isn't a derail, heh.

Yes.  Unfortunately I'd spoil the story if I told you what work it actually was.  I think this one might've been a case of noone knowing the gender of the character.

[Vector]

It frankly depends on how much stock you place in your senses.  If you believe in God, then it seems that it's necessary for you to trust the concept of science (cf. Descartes; otherwise you'd have T->F, and you cannot have trusted in God's omnipotence/geniality, which would not set out to deceive the human race at every moment; reason is one of the side effects of ensouling); if you trust neither God nor reason nor your senses entirely, then yes, everything tends to unfold into opinions (cf. paranoia).

In the end, science is ... well, let me put it this way.  We think it works.  So far, it's been a good way to move from a class of assumptions about the world to a fairly consistent set of laws, rules, etc.  But, even if it is a very strong opinion, and something one has to believe in if one accepts certain ideas and systems, it is not rock solid.  Everything we teach in school is our best guess.  It is not Truth.

I suspect we're using different definitions of the word opinion, as you seem to think an opinion holds only statements without backing up argument, and I use opinion for almost any statement whatsoever; either that, or you have a lot more faith in the assumptions of science than I do.