Noah just gave me a ring through our telepathy link, horribly annoyed with all of the wizards picking on him. Were they picking on him because he's not a Legendary? Nope. How about because he used a treasure card in a fight? Nope. Too high-level to be in his zone (he's working on Grizzleheim at the moment)? Nope again.
It's because he wears blue fairy wings. I asked him how he handled the situation, making sure he didn't accidentally swear at one of them (he doesn't enjoy being told he is wrong. Must run in the family...). He told me that he kept a tight lip on anything unsavory, instead opting to explain that a) they were a gift, and b) that he is secure enough in who he is not to listen to the gender stereotyping so common in our fair Spiral. Guess what. I've been flitting around on wings, too. The orange ones fit my current style very well, actually, and they're really nice. Noah made some very valid points.
Most likely the culprit is either a) jealous of your fancy new wings, or b) insecure about themselves. Maybe I'm not seeing it so much because I'm wearing the orange wings, which happen to be the "least girly colors". But this seemed really low. If we want to get really gender stereotypical we would continue to say that only girls can ride a White Mare or the Astral Ponies on the grounds that they're "cutesy" (save for the Moonlight Pony), and that boys should all have Bone Dragons and Black Stallions because they look "intimidating". That's just silly!
What if Noah was actually a girl playing a male character? Would she deserve to be called something unsavory because she likes the wings and happens to be on a guy? What about a guy playing a girl character? Would using fairy wings be allowed then? It's not even questioned when we see that, but many male players make female characters and vice versa.
In less serious news, my header will soon be updated to include Noah. He'll be posting quite a bit (regardless of him threatening to mess up the shared bank and knocking the balance school). I just have to figure out how to illustrate it.
Let me know what you all think of this situation, or if he's just being overly dramatic.
Your Friend Always,
John Lifeglen
It's true. It's totally unfair that people get picked on because of what they wear. Gender stereotyping is very immature. But if you want my honest (if not a little ranty) opinion: gender stereotyping is already built into the game. Boys and girls have significantly different clothes, and I don't see why that should be. Shouldn't all options be available to everyone? (Or at least some things.) And don't even get me started on the colors!
ReplyDeleteI completely see your point. Pink isn't available at all in a guy's color palette. I really don't care if the shading is slightly different (such as "brown" being called "gold" and being slightly lighter for girls...whatever) but I'm with you. The variations are silly. Some of them are understandable (such as the female elegant stuff having a skirt in front rather than just being pants, or the Marleybonian suits being dresses on girls) but the dramatic differences are really annoying. Some girls might prefer to have a crusader's cape than wings on Commander gear!
ReplyDeleteThank you for raising another awesome point, Heather!
Yes. I really like the boys version of the Halloween gear for example.
ReplyDeleteActually on the colors, you have a nice color of dark orange too. And since Brown and Green are the official school colors of life, it's really kind of dumb that only half of the life school can wear them. -.-
I can see where KI might be coming from by, say not giving boys the option to dye their clothes pink, or giving girls knight's armor. They're most likely trying to prevent teasing, and problematic situations. When I stop going along with this decision is when they introduce items into the game like the ninja pig suits and the large princess dress (and similar dresses with bustles). I TONS of teasing about weight on those items. *shakes head sadly*
A fellow Balance wizard here to say...
ReplyDeleteExactly! I have a pair of orange fairy wings, and does that make me a girl? No it doesn't! I actually like them better than my old seraph wings.
I personaly don't have anything these people would call girly (because of price). But anyways the majority of fairy wings i see are owned by boys. So What? There cheap and at least the orange and blue ones is not girly.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, John, I would charge into the Arena in full pink and purple... as long as I'm the one without my head-wobbling. And, if your son is worried about the whole masculinity issue, a true man doesn't let the color of his shirt define the way he acts.
ReplyDeleteB. Stormthief
Hahaha Blaze. Kudos to you!
ReplyDelete