baked in sexism
Mar. 1st, 2020 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethToday I started reading the Gamemaster guide for the Pathfinder system
not in a systematic way, just flicking pages
and it has many interesting bits
but
it also says that in farming societies
men own the land and work the fields all day every day
and women help with the harvest, but otherwise make as many babies as possible.
... my feelings about this summary kind of start with Rolling My Sleeves Up.
... this is supposed to be a guide to inventing entire fantasy worlds from scratch, blank page, no limits
and it's teaching sexism.
In the section on geography it says to ask friends with an interest in geology and meteorology, or read as many things on that line as you can
because players will pull a Gotcha on you later if any of the physical facts are wrong.
Ask a friend to help you invent the trade winds! It's fun!
... I have not yet found a similar exhortation about, say, historical farming practices, and why sexism didn't work that way, historically speaking.
There's nothing in the rules to restrict women player characters, but here it is worldbuilding as if ...
*sigh*
I really want to do an alternate worldbuilders guide. You know, one that isn't so many degrees away from the history books, and throws in some women's history. Possibly acknowledges that things like ownership are historically contingent.
But as a genre rpgs are very big into feudalism, the divine right of kings, and inheritance by primogeniture being the one true way always and everywhere, so I don't really expect much of them.
I've started reading a fiction book right now where the title character is a woman and it's pretty obvious she's going to be the chosen one, but everyone is still calling her a whore and flailing around looking for the prophesied prince. Because somehow even when there are people who can literally see the future they are still sexist about it.
very frustrating.
not in a systematic way, just flicking pages
and it has many interesting bits
but
it also says that in farming societies
men own the land and work the fields all day every day
and women help with the harvest, but otherwise make as many babies as possible.
... my feelings about this summary kind of start with Rolling My Sleeves Up.
... this is supposed to be a guide to inventing entire fantasy worlds from scratch, blank page, no limits
and it's teaching sexism.
In the section on geography it says to ask friends with an interest in geology and meteorology, or read as many things on that line as you can
because players will pull a Gotcha on you later if any of the physical facts are wrong.
Ask a friend to help you invent the trade winds! It's fun!
... I have not yet found a similar exhortation about, say, historical farming practices, and why sexism didn't work that way, historically speaking.
There's nothing in the rules to restrict women player characters, but here it is worldbuilding as if ...
*sigh*
I really want to do an alternate worldbuilders guide. You know, one that isn't so many degrees away from the history books, and throws in some women's history. Possibly acknowledges that things like ownership are historically contingent.
But as a genre rpgs are very big into feudalism, the divine right of kings, and inheritance by primogeniture being the one true way always and everywhere, so I don't really expect much of them.
I've started reading a fiction book right now where the title character is a woman and it's pretty obvious she's going to be the chosen one, but everyone is still calling her a whore and flailing around looking for the prophesied prince. Because somehow even when there are people who can literally see the future they are still sexist about it.
very frustrating.