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(06-26-2015, 04:25 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote: I play an androgynous genderqueer bicurious woman. I don't state as much in-game, because obviously these concepts are not really extant in Eorzea, but it's pretty obvious when anyone interacts with her. She wears whatever she likes whether it's coded as feminine or masculine, wears her hair short, has an unusually androgynous figure (though I'm just lucky in this case that the in-game body models aren't too exaggerated), enjoys cute things as much as she enjoys guns and axes, speaks with an unusual cadence, and generally just confuses the hell out of people.
The thing is, it's not that it's a goal for her or anything like that. That's just who she is. And that's something that's super-important, I feel. In this world of binary gender it's too easy for people to get beat down because they showed interest in things that are 'improper' for their assigned sex, such that they can never really express themselves as much as they express what society has deemed to be an acceptable version of themselves. T'rahnu, on the other hand, has a background such that she just doesn't give a toss. In many ways, she's me liberating myself from my real-world constraints and putting all that could be into a single character (note: yes, I am well aware of the dangers of IC-OOC bleed here, and I assure you I won't take things personally if you're critical of her personality or what-have-you).
FF14 characters and appearances are pretty androgenyous overall, except for a few details. With a few exceptions, everyone looks pretty metrosexual, and everyone pretty much has access to the same revealing or unrevealing armor. There's also not as much of a focus on gender roles, with plenty of female guards, male casters and the like. I only really notice gender being a thing with Miqo'te, but I haven't played through all of the content.
It's interesting how often we apply our real world experiences to roleplay, even though we don't have to. Even if you don't personally care, you still have to consider how other players are going to interpret your character.
I think no matter what anyone says, there's always going to be a IC-OOC bleed, and it's all right to use your character to express and feel things that you may not get to IRL. For a long time in my life, RP interactions helped with a lot of my social needs until I became more active and comfortable in person. I might even say that RPing as a gay character was part of my coming out process, almost like practice.