sonofgranite | Munday - Character Sexuality and Gender Questions

Today's prompt is a survey about gender roles and character sexuality. Answer as many or as few of the questions as you like.

FYI, my answers apply to the following characters:

admiral_adama - Bill Adama (BSG 03)

kia_holtz - Kia Holtz (BSG 03 OC, also working on strictly OC version)

sonofgranite - Ruairí MacEibhir (The Grey Horse)

thehorseman - Anraí MacEibhir (The Grey Horse, mostly OC)

fey_fire - Rory Stone/Rory MacEibhir (The Grey Horse, mostly OC)

gifted_hands - Tadhg MacEibhir (The Grey Horse, mostly OC)

a_chaitlin - Caitlín MacEibhir (The Grey Horse OC)

breaker_street - a collective journal for the members of Rory Stone's band, Breaker Street. Of course all five of them are now demanding individual LJ's ... *headdesk*

di_monty_pippin - Monty Pippin (Keen Eddie)

c_for_caroline - Caroline Todd (Green Wing, not too active at present)

1. What gender of character do you play more of, male or female? Why?

My present ratio, if I take in everyone even remotely current, is 5 females to 9 males. This reflects circumstance more than inclination; when I started playing my characters from The Grey Horse, canon handed me four men right there. I gave Ruairí a daughter because I felt he needed one. Overall I'd say I'm as likely to write or RP women as men.

2. Is this different or the same as your own gender?

2/3 different. Woman is me.

3. Do you find that your gender makes it easier or more challenging to play your characters?

Writing men poses certain challenges, but really they're no different from writing any character with a background and point of view different than my own. Of course I've never had direct experience of possessing male anatomy and hormones, not to mention all the societal baggage that goes with them, but I learn what I can by observation and asking questions. When it comes to writing women, I have to keep in mind that my experience =/= all of female experience, so there are challenges there too.

4. What sexuality / gender identity do your characters have?

My characters so far range from straight to bisexual; feel free to check out my Kinsey Meme post for details on given characters. As for gender, I've written men who are very strongly masculine and men with some decidedly feminine tendencies. I've written tomboys, strong earthy women, outrageously feminine girly-girls and women who can blend characteristics from all of the above.

5. How does your character's sexuality and gender identity define / affect their personality?

As in real life, sex colors many aspects of my characters' personalities and interactions with other characters, but it isn't always the driving focus. It certainly can cause personality-shaping conflicts.

For example, Ruairí's children (Anraí, Rory, Tadhg and Cait) get to deal with all the fun contradictions between their púca heritage and being baptized and raised Irish Catholic. Rory had to deal with a storm of family issues related to his bisexuality, particularly with his mother, and Cait has also felt the stress and pain of having to be closeted in her homeland. Ruairí of course had fifteen centuries to settle into his sexuality before becoming a Christian, but even he is not entirely without issues.

I'd say that out of all my characters, Monty Pippin comes the closest to being defined by his sexuality, simply because the man is more than a little sex-obsessed. He hits on his male partner, skirt-chases with considerable skill and persistence and pretends to be married to his friend and flat-mate Audry so that they can attend swingers' parties together. And that's just the canon.

6. Do you tend to predominantly play characters of a certain sexuality? If so, why?

See #4. I have been gradually edging my way around to writing a gay muse. Fear of my own (hopefully lessening) ignorance of LGBT issues has stopped me so far, but I'm working on fixing that.

7. To what extent to you write / play your character's sexual or romantic life?

Again, it varies. I've written and/or roleplayed romance for just about all of them and sex for most of them. And yes, that does include the fiftysomething Kia Holtz and sixtysomething Bill Adama. ;) As far as the sex is concerned, sometimes I'll do the fade-to-black, sometimes I'll keep things R-rated, and often things get *cough* more detailed. In RP, I generally have no problems adjusting to other people's comfort levels as far as parts-naming and such.

8. How has the character's romantic life affected his character development?

Oh, man. Rather than inundate you with paragraphs for each character, I'll give a few examples. Feel free to comment with questions on anyone I don't mention. ^_^

Rory: Um. He's a bit of a mess right now, is Rory. Though more than a century old and very mature in some ways, he is also a pretty, pretty man who has charmed his way through much of life and only invested his deeper emotions a few times in his romantic past. The most recent of those with Pippa Kerr (

sand_andwater) has smacked solidly into a brick wall, leaving her running off to Venice and him in an effed-up ball of what the hell do I do now. He's trying to put on a brave front as his band's first CD gets released and first tour approaches, but Pippa's rejection has cut deep. That pain is in the process of combining with Rory's craving for affection and adulation, the rock-and-roll lifestyle he's entering, a few other messy Pippa-related issues and certain aspects of his fey abilities to create ... an even bigger mess. Ish.

Cait: Okay, yes, I am currently writing a piece that fleshes out a couple of very important parts of Cait's romantic past and gives some idea how they affect her present-day self. Another WIP shows how Cait's fey nature impacts her sexuality. Feel free to administer virtual floggings until I actually finish the things.

Monty: Monty has a sex life really. He's not out to hurt anyone and doesn't lie about his intentions, but romance for canon!Monty is part of The Game, the personae he takes on to charm whomever has excited his interest. Trying to figure out how his sex life and personality affect each other devolves into a chicken-and-egg question: did he learn to be such a consummate roleplayer in order to entice prospective partners, or was the roleplaying already there and he just adapted it for sex? Hard to say. What can be said is that the man has issues to work through before he can have a real relationship, starting with actually admitting to himself that he kinda wants one. He's a case.

Sascha:

breaker_street's youngest member started life as an NPC, as did her band-mates. Her development as a character in her own right has happened concurrently with her striking up a snugglebuddies-with-benefits relationship with Peter Webster (

half_whole_pw). Peter is gay, and neither one of them has any thought that things between them will "go anywhere" in the classic sense, but it has been fascinating to watch aspects of her freewheeling, fun-loving personality come out in this context. I was eventually struck with the realization that she is in fact the daughter of my Earth version of Kia Holtz, and her family has been developing from there.

9. Do you set 'ships' or plan for your characters to be together with other characters, or do you allow their relationships to develop organically? Why?

I far, far prefer the organic route of seeing what, if anything, develops from the normal interactions of two characters. I varied from that habit when I paired up Rory with Pippa, but even that grew out of the comfortable RP relationship I have with Pippa's mun. When Anraí went up to Montana to help Laine with her tempermental gelding, neither mun had a clue that they would wind up married with a baby on the way. Sometimes the characters just insist.

With canon characters I usually lean toward canon 'ships, but every so often the muse will surprise you. In addition to canon!Monty Pippin, I play an AU version who wound up married with an infant son. I proposed the pairing to Lo Ortega's writer in a cracky "this will never actually happen" type of meme, but the more we both looked at the two of them, the more we thought OMFG THEY ACTUALLY WORK. O_o Shocked the heck out of both of us, not to mention Monty and Lo.

10. Do you change the gender identities / preferred sexualities of canon characters? Why / why not?

Technically I suppose I have changed Ruairí's canon sexuality. Certainly The Grey Horse doesn't bring up the possibility of him being bisexual, but given his age and otherspecies nature, I didn't feel it was too much of a stretch that he might have same-sex experiences in his background. I've kept my other canon characters pretty close to the source material as far as their sexuality is concerned, though I have had some meta-RP fun with Bill and another male character. I've never changed gender on any of them, just never had any interest in doing so. I'd rather create a character of a particular sex than flipflop an existing character.

I am definitely not among those who consider "changing" the sexuality of a canon character to be automatically OOC. Most canon characters simply do not come out and define their preferences in a way that's set in stone. Heck, there are plenty of characters out there whose canon doesn't directly address their sexuality, and insisting that such a character must be straight because the book/movie/TV show didn't say otherwise doesn't sit well with me. Also one homosexual encounter doesn't turn a straight character gay any more than one heterosexual experience makes a gay character straight (Right Peter? ;). We're dealing with a spectrum, not absolutes. As

zippyknowsbest's writer pointed out, the psychology of how the character is portrayed far outweighs the actual plumbing in the sex act.

If anyone wants specifics on any particular character, feel free to comment on either the