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This month I’d like to talk about "women’s issues" in role playing worlds
(and no, I don’t mean issues like "female problems". For the record, when
I’m playing or GMing, I pretend they don’t exist. That’s why it’s called a
fantasy game). If your gaming group consists entirely of men who only play
male characters, this really isn’t relevant for your game and I won’t blame
you if you skip right by it. For the rest of you, stay and enjoy the ride!
I’d like to start by saying that I don’t really consider myself much of a
feminist. Feminist conjures up images of rampant, gung-ho, man-hating equal
rights activists. It’s not a fair judgment, I know, but I can’t control my
mental images. I do consider myself a "woman of the 00s" (I sure liked "90s"
better as a word). Sure, I married young, and I’m content in my role as a
housewife, but my ambitions don’t stop there, and I’m not a meek, submissive
housewife, either. I believe that women should have the freedom to vote,
have careers, live without a man in their life, and have a wide array of
birth control choices to keep them from starting a family until they’re
ready. I’m glad I live in a time and a country where all these freedoms are
available to me.
And I’ll admit, I really like the idea of a female-dominated society.
Recently I was reading about trolls in the "Denizens of Earthdawn" book
(yes, I am still on an Earthdawn kick), and I came across this wonderful
line at the end of the section "On the Ordeal of Birth": "For two moons
after the birth, the father shows gratitude to his wife for their child by
becoming her personal servant and granting her slightest whim." Hell yeh! I
want to get in on some of that action. Troll women also initiate the
courtship... We’re talking about some real liberated women here. It’s funny,
women are equal in ork and troll societies, but almost all the pictures in
the books portray men... That probably says something about the artists, but
I’m not here to psychoanalyze them.
As nice as a female-dominated society would be, I can’t think of any
historical examples of such a thing. Yeh, we’ve had societies led by queens,
and with goddesses factoring heavily in their religion, but has there ever
been a society led and dominated entirely by women? If anyone knows of such
a society, please, by all means share and I’ll be glad to share the
information in my next column.
When creating a fantasy world, you need to decide how much you’re going to
stick with reality on this. I personally enjoy having a mix of societies,
some with men in charge, some with women in charge, and some with true
equality. Oh, I also had a race with male, female, and neutral, where the
null-gender was in charge and the men and women were around just for
breeding. I must have been in a weird mood when I made that one up!
The important thing is to stick with what you decide. If a player in your
game decides to play a female character in a very male dominated society,
she’s going to face persecution. Be sure to warn the player of this, and if
they go ahead with this, you have to play it out. The same goes for male
characters in a female dominated society. This can actually make for some
very good role playing situations, as can having a group of characters from
an equal, free society spend some time adventuring among a society where one
gender is very dominant. It can also cause some tense situations, so you
need to judge if this is the sort of game your players will go for.
More important than that is historical accuracy. If you’re running a game
set in Earth’s history, you owe it to yourself and your players to research
women’s status at that time. And you need to stick with it. When I ran a
Mage game set in the Renaissance, I actually gave female characters a few
extra points and a bit of an experience bonus, simply because it was tough
to be an independent woman back then, and the characters were facing a lot
of difficulty. I recommend using this tactic... But I don’t recommend
telling your players about it, otherwise they’ll all create women to get the
extra points!
If you can’t play your NPCs in such a way that would reflect the cultural
opinion towards these female characters, then simply don’t run a game where
this would be an issue... Just like I wouldn’t recommend running a game set
in Nazi Germany or on a plantation with slaves if you have a problem with
racial slurs and the ugly, ugly side of humanity (God knows I wouldn’t play
in such a game).
Serious stuff aside, you can have a lot of fun playing a rampantly feminist
character. I’ve done it before and it was a kick. A character who refuses to
believe that a man can be better than her and who will at times even refuse
help from a man lest her pride be hurt makes a good addition to any game
where you want some character interaction. Good characters to throw into the
mix would be a chauvinistic man, or a meek woman, or a guy who has a crush
on the feminist and keeps getting cruelly rebuked. This sort of character
interaction is one of my favorite parts of playing and GMing! (actually, I
really miss my feminist, she was also a psy who refused to use any magic
items... difficult characters are great!)
In closing, how to deal with women’s rights (and, in fact, human rights in
general) is a personal choice that should be based on your vision of your
world and what your players can handle. Don’t be afraid to create a race of
sword-wielding Amazons who have developed a magic ritual to make the MEN
carry the babies. Bwuhahaha!
(ok, so maybe I am a feminist at heart)
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