From: jsb16@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Jennifer S Broekman)
Subject: Re: Oh dear, here I go again (was: Re: Can a WIZ threaten you in RL????)
Reply-To: jsb16@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Jennifer S Broekman)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 01:58:33 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.220941.5618@newshost.lanl.gov> 
jad@beta.lanl.gov (John De Vries) writes:
>Why has this action been judged, and almost universally accepted as
>being rude?  Sexist, yes, discriminatory, yes; but was it truly rude?

It was rude, IMO, because it was sexist.

>Just for the sake of argument, let us ignore the fact that the player
>chose a subset of other players.  If there was a "newspaper" where
>someone put such a request in the "classifieds",

This is a different situation. There's a difference between posters on
a wall and fliers in personal mailboxes.

>Again, for the sake of argument, what if there were other players
>willing to role-play exactly what this player wanted?  How was the
>player supposed to contact them in a non-rude, non-clueless fashion?
>Is there such a mechanism, should there be such a mechanism?

By posting to some sort of classified section, as I said in a previous 
post.

>Is perhaps the thing that really peeves some people the whole notion
>of the "bachelor party" -- is that by any chance the real crux of the
>situation?

No.

>Another question that is rather off-the-wall.  Is there, in fact, such
>a function as someone supposed, something called @sex which returns
>the "assumed gender" of a player?

It returns the assumed gender of the character and needn't be set to
male or female.

>  Why should such a thing as that
>exist if not for _some_ kind of discrimination?  Shouldn't that be
>removed as well? 

I've mainly seen it used to provide single-sex bathing rooms. The exit
to the room is locked to characters with the sex attribute set to 
whatever is appropriate. If a character who doesn't pass the lock tries
to go through the exit, most I've seen pose that the character looks
embarassed and decides not to intrude.

>The only thing that justifies the wizard's behavior in this matter, to
>my mind, is that other events occurred than just this one request.
>Other players condemning the player because of this one request,
>in my opinion, is an over-reaction.

Multiple complaints about a character's behavior warrant some sort of
action. Given that wizzes have a limited amount of time/energy, expecting
them to deliver patient explanations of all the ways in which one can be
rude over the net to everyone who doesn't think before asking random
characters to fulfill personal fantasies is a little much.

I have never defended this particular wiz's actions in this particular case.
I stated that, were I a wiz who received multiple complaints about a 
character's actions, I would do something drastic. To me, lecturing someone
on basic respect and politeness falls into that category. It's not up to
the wizzes to make sure that their players have enough manners not to 
proposition random other characters. That was up to the players' parents.

-Doriana

   Only Boys Accepting Feminism Get Kissed Meaningfully  -- Geoff Marcy
The only unnatural sexual act is that which you cannot perform. - Alfred Kinsey
		jenneke is: jsb16@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu
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