Samrux
Santa Claus
Hello and welcome
First of all, I would like to make a quick explanation:
I was born a male, and consider myself male. I always have, in fact.
This last week was part of an experiment. I'm not a girl. The subjects were you!
If you don't understand what I'm talking about, don't worry; what happened was not so widespread. It's normal if you didn't hear anything before. Hold on, I'll explain.
Now, I beg that you stay, and, as boring as it might sound, read everything below. I will explain what happened, why I did it, and what will be the aftermath. Thanks.
I will answer some questions I proposed myself; some sort of "FAQ", if you will, to make sure the situation is understandable and arranged in an orderly manner.
1. What happened?
A week ago, I changed my gender from "male" to "female" in my profile. This, of course, got the attention of many users of this forum; some were friends, others I barely knew. If you didn't hear of this, that's completely normal. I'm not that famous, and it was not a lot of time either.
The first and most common reaction was, as expected, always akin to "What? you are a girl?"
Now, if you weren't aware, other users of these forums have before been confused for the opposite gender, though usually because of other reasons. @Milt69466 and @Daimera are two examples; but as far as I'm aware, they were confused because of their avatars. I won't go into too much detail there.
The difference and/or most important trait of my case was, of course, that my gender was previously male and was changed. And that Samrux (the paladin): my OC (Or role character); was and continued to be male. It was kind of a special case, we could say, but not something you couldn't compare to anything previously present.
Some of the controversy relied on the fact that my gender had now changed. As someone in this thread said, the reaction did not stem from my "female" status, but from my "previously male, now female" condition. Kind of weird, but a possible excuse for this fake scenario was that my OC, Samrux, was male, and while staying on character, I wanted to be treated as him.
2. If you're not a girl, why did you do this? Was it some sort of identity crisis?
No. I was born male, and I've always seen myself as male. I'm also straight (if you were wondering), but that is beyond the point.
I changed my gender to female for two reasons:
a) To see what would happen. "Will people change their behavior towards me now that I was female?" "Would this change how people thought of me?" I was curious, and wanted to know.
b) To prove a point: that your gender does not matter in the internet. Or at least, in our community. But the experiment simply became a medium to provide a message.
I am sorry if you feel you have been "pranked", or anything similar. It was not my intention to fool or make fun of anyone. My apologies, just in case.
3. So what were the results of this "experiment"?
First of all, people's reactions occurred as expected; there is not much else to say.
I even expected a few more extreme reactions, which didn't happen.
Most people were to be surprised that I was now female, and also confused; since Samrux (the paladin) was male, and my forum status was previously so, too. That result was completely understandable. Some people might have overreacted, but nothing too far from normal. Some people would suspect that I was not really female: Some thought it was a joke, or were afraid to say something in fear of offending me (After all, a male changing to female might have meant some other stuff going on that, if you are polite and understanding, you wouldn't want to question). People hesitating from believing that I was female did occur to some degree, then, but they were not the majority. People knew me from before (but none in real life), so they would be right to be suspicious. Anyways, there was not enough time or enough people to get anything beyond that, but I suppose that the result would have been the same, just to a larger scale.
I also felt that people would be slightly different towards me now. But, as I had thought earlier, and as someone pointed out in this thread, that was probably because of the change itself, rather than my gender status. So nothing to conclude here either: I probably only expected to be treated differently and thus believed it. That's what's called a placebo effect.
Overall, people's reactions occurred as expected, and were understood and justifiable. The experiment was kind of null, then, you would think. I did learn that our community does not really mind gender very much, which is great. But through this tiny project, I wanted to deliver a message at the end, regardless of the results.
4. How was this experience for you? How did it feel to be a girl for a week?
Nothing changed for me. My behavior was kept exactly the same during the entire time. I didn't even try to act more girlish or feminine: I was acting as I do normally. Nor male, nor female: Just me.
As I said; if people changed their behavior, it was probably because of the change itself and not because I was female. I guess that you as our community handled it very well.
But I must guess that as human beings, at least some people will think differently of you depending on gender. So I will go ahead and deliver the message that raised this experiment, not minding what I saw.
5. What is the message? What do we have to learn?
First of all, I would like to say that after this experiment, nothing will change. I am still a person, regardless of my gender, and I am still Samrux: The paladin stuck in the Dungeon. My gender in these forums is now set to male again, that's all. If you even had the time to react to this change, then you probably didn't have a reaction too far off from what I considered expected and normal.
So congratulations if you knew me, saw my gender change, and didn't mind at all.
The message that I, regardless of the results, wanted to deliver through this experiment, was that:
Your gender in the internet does not matter.
Maybe if you are making friends in person, in real life; then yes, everyone's gender might be important. As human beings, we enjoy having friends both male and female, and might or might not want to change our behavior to one gender or the other: After all, as a species, we may seek for a partner or possible partners between our existing friendships, and ultimately; for a family or reproduction.
But all of that bears no significance in a virtual medium. These are a Terraria forums, right? We should all have fun; it's a videogame community, why should we care about gender (how you think of yourself), or sex (how you were born to be), or orientation? Making comparisons or assumptions based on gender here is simply not right.
The only purpose of gender in these forums should be to provide a tool: A public way to define if you want to be referred to as a "he" or as a "she"; and for your character, as a user, to feel more personal and more you. Some people will feel awkward or even offended if directed at as if they were the opposite gender, so the male and female setting helps with that. There have been some misunderstandings before with avatars not reflecting the gender of the person in question.
If you knew this, congratulations. You can leave knowing that you're right
You might or might not think or say that boys and girls act differently. That it might be weird to see a boy acting girly, or girl acting boyly, but the truth is that, ultimately, we are all different. For some people (And I wish for them to be very few), gender is something set in stone; and your behavior and tastes should be guided by it. Or viceversa. But your own mind goes beyond the understanding of "male" or "female".
My sex is male and my gender is male. But in real life, I am often told that my behavior is very different from other young men's. I am often told that I am more "girlish" than the rest. That does not, though, have any relation with the experiment in question. The point is that regardless of your sex or gender, every person will behave and act and think differently.
Yeah, most of you will find this pointless, but it was enjoyable for me to discover what everyone would react like.
The Conclusion:
Regardless of the results of the experiment, I would like to say again:
Your gender really does not matter in here; which is to mean that nobody should treat you differently, or you shouldn't treat anyone differently, in these forums, because they are male or female. Gender in TCF should remain a feature that defines how a person wants to be referred to, nothing more.
But if you further analyze the results, we could find out that I, in fact, proved that gender doesn't matter: These many people actually didn't mind. That at the same time proves that our community is awesome
So, to everyone, I really hope that I achieved something. Maybe I changed someone's mind out there. Or maybe I reminded some people of the right thing at the right time.
I now continue to be not a boy or a girl, but myself. And as myself, I say: Thanks for understanding, and thanks for reading.
You might now proceed to ask questions, or leave your opinions or concerns about what happened, in this thread. You can even further discuss the importance of gender. I would like to know what you think.
First of all, I would like to make a quick explanation:
I was born a male, and consider myself male. I always have, in fact.
This last week was part of an experiment. I'm not a girl. The subjects were you!
If you don't understand what I'm talking about, don't worry; what happened was not so widespread. It's normal if you didn't hear anything before. Hold on, I'll explain.
Now, I beg that you stay, and, as boring as it might sound, read everything below. I will explain what happened, why I did it, and what will be the aftermath. Thanks.
I will answer some questions I proposed myself; some sort of "FAQ", if you will, to make sure the situation is understandable and arranged in an orderly manner.
1. What happened?
A week ago, I changed my gender from "male" to "female" in my profile. This, of course, got the attention of many users of this forum; some were friends, others I barely knew. If you didn't hear of this, that's completely normal. I'm not that famous, and it was not a lot of time either.
The first and most common reaction was, as expected, always akin to "What? you are a girl?"
Now, if you weren't aware, other users of these forums have before been confused for the opposite gender, though usually because of other reasons. @Milt69466 and @Daimera are two examples; but as far as I'm aware, they were confused because of their avatars. I won't go into too much detail there.
The difference and/or most important trait of my case was, of course, that my gender was previously male and was changed. And that Samrux (the paladin): my OC (Or role character); was and continued to be male. It was kind of a special case, we could say, but not something you couldn't compare to anything previously present.
Some of the controversy relied on the fact that my gender had now changed. As someone in this thread said, the reaction did not stem from my "female" status, but from my "previously male, now female" condition. Kind of weird, but a possible excuse for this fake scenario was that my OC, Samrux, was male, and while staying on character, I wanted to be treated as him.
2. If you're not a girl, why did you do this? Was it some sort of identity crisis?
No. I was born male, and I've always seen myself as male. I'm also straight (if you were wondering), but that is beyond the point.
I changed my gender to female for two reasons:
a) To see what would happen. "Will people change their behavior towards me now that I was female?" "Would this change how people thought of me?" I was curious, and wanted to know.
b) To prove a point: that your gender does not matter in the internet. Or at least, in our community. But the experiment simply became a medium to provide a message.
I am sorry if you feel you have been "pranked", or anything similar. It was not my intention to fool or make fun of anyone. My apologies, just in case.
3. So what were the results of this "experiment"?
First of all, people's reactions occurred as expected; there is not much else to say.
I even expected a few more extreme reactions, which didn't happen.
Most people were to be surprised that I was now female, and also confused; since Samrux (the paladin) was male, and my forum status was previously so, too. That result was completely understandable. Some people might have overreacted, but nothing too far from normal. Some people would suspect that I was not really female: Some thought it was a joke, or were afraid to say something in fear of offending me (After all, a male changing to female might have meant some other stuff going on that, if you are polite and understanding, you wouldn't want to question). People hesitating from believing that I was female did occur to some degree, then, but they were not the majority. People knew me from before (but none in real life), so they would be right to be suspicious. Anyways, there was not enough time or enough people to get anything beyond that, but I suppose that the result would have been the same, just to a larger scale.
I also felt that people would be slightly different towards me now. But, as I had thought earlier, and as someone pointed out in this thread, that was probably because of the change itself, rather than my gender status. So nothing to conclude here either: I probably only expected to be treated differently and thus believed it. That's what's called a placebo effect.
Overall, people's reactions occurred as expected, and were understood and justifiable. The experiment was kind of null, then, you would think. I did learn that our community does not really mind gender very much, which is great. But through this tiny project, I wanted to deliver a message at the end, regardless of the results.
4. How was this experience for you? How did it feel to be a girl for a week?
Nothing changed for me. My behavior was kept exactly the same during the entire time. I didn't even try to act more girlish or feminine: I was acting as I do normally. Nor male, nor female: Just me.
As I said; if people changed their behavior, it was probably because of the change itself and not because I was female. I guess that you as our community handled it very well.
But I must guess that as human beings, at least some people will think differently of you depending on gender. So I will go ahead and deliver the message that raised this experiment, not minding what I saw.
5. What is the message? What do we have to learn?
First of all, I would like to say that after this experiment, nothing will change. I am still a person, regardless of my gender, and I am still Samrux: The paladin stuck in the Dungeon. My gender in these forums is now set to male again, that's all. If you even had the time to react to this change, then you probably didn't have a reaction too far off from what I considered expected and normal.
So congratulations if you knew me, saw my gender change, and didn't mind at all.
The message that I, regardless of the results, wanted to deliver through this experiment, was that:
Your gender in the internet does not matter.
Maybe if you are making friends in person, in real life; then yes, everyone's gender might be important. As human beings, we enjoy having friends both male and female, and might or might not want to change our behavior to one gender or the other: After all, as a species, we may seek for a partner or possible partners between our existing friendships, and ultimately; for a family or reproduction.
But all of that bears no significance in a virtual medium. These are a Terraria forums, right? We should all have fun; it's a videogame community, why should we care about gender (how you think of yourself), or sex (how you were born to be), or orientation? Making comparisons or assumptions based on gender here is simply not right.
The only purpose of gender in these forums should be to provide a tool: A public way to define if you want to be referred to as a "he" or as a "she"; and for your character, as a user, to feel more personal and more you. Some people will feel awkward or even offended if directed at as if they were the opposite gender, so the male and female setting helps with that. There have been some misunderstandings before with avatars not reflecting the gender of the person in question.
If you knew this, congratulations. You can leave knowing that you're right
You might or might not think or say that boys and girls act differently. That it might be weird to see a boy acting girly, or girl acting boyly, but the truth is that, ultimately, we are all different. For some people (And I wish for them to be very few), gender is something set in stone; and your behavior and tastes should be guided by it. Or viceversa. But your own mind goes beyond the understanding of "male" or "female".
My sex is male and my gender is male. But in real life, I am often told that my behavior is very different from other young men's. I am often told that I am more "girlish" than the rest. That does not, though, have any relation with the experiment in question. The point is that regardless of your sex or gender, every person will behave and act and think differently.
Yeah, most of you will find this pointless, but it was enjoyable for me to discover what everyone would react like.
The Conclusion:
Regardless of the results of the experiment, I would like to say again:
Your gender really does not matter in here; which is to mean that nobody should treat you differently, or you shouldn't treat anyone differently, in these forums, because they are male or female. Gender in TCF should remain a feature that defines how a person wants to be referred to, nothing more.
But if you further analyze the results, we could find out that I, in fact, proved that gender doesn't matter: These many people actually didn't mind. That at the same time proves that our community is awesome
So, to everyone, I really hope that I achieved something. Maybe I changed someone's mind out there. Or maybe I reminded some people of the right thing at the right time.
I now continue to be not a boy or a girl, but myself. And as myself, I say: Thanks for understanding, and thanks for reading.
You might now proceed to ask questions, or leave your opinions or concerns about what happened, in this thread. You can even further discuss the importance of gender. I would like to know what you think.
Last edited:
