From: annako@microsoft.com (Anna Korra'ti)
Subject: Re: (MUSH) Those Wacky Cross-Gender Impressing Dragons
Date: 29 Dec 92 21:13:04 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation


Mind you, I have no idea how long this post will take to get out, but just
for giggles, let's go for it...

In article <30199@hoptoad.uucp> ambar@cygnus.com (Jean Marie Diaz) writes:
>(Digression: It's not so much that I think cross-gender characters ought
>to be discouraged--*I* think people should play whatever gender
>characters they damn well please--but I know quite a few (most?)
>players, me included, simply don't do cross-gender stuff well, and would
>have a very hard time running a cross-gender character who had even a
>nominal chance of being Impressed. 

     <quiet chuckle>
     No, please, let's not discourage the cross-gender players. :-)
     For reference, however, F'hlan has been one of the *easier* characters
I've played on a MUSH.

>This is why I don't take the
>position that I think is most supported by the books: namely, that Path
>was a unique dragon, like Ruth, and women should only Impress golds.)
     I think Path was unique at the time, certainly. One wonders whether a
mutation such as Path which proved favorable to dragons and humans would 
continue to show up - I think it would. The dragons are clueful enough to
realize that Path and Mirrim were right for each other; perhaps this could
have introduced into the dragons' psyches the necessary key to open up the
fighting dragons to looking into *both* genders for possible mates.
     I personally am of the mind that the golds were definitely gender-biased
by Kitti, from what I am able to remember from _Dragonsdawn_, and from what
has been quoted here. I am less certain about whether the bronzes were
similarly crafted; this latter would not surprise me, however, given what we
know of Kitti.

     I do believe that it would be more fair to have *all* the colors open
to both genders, yes, but we have two vital issues to consider here:
     1) Is it possible to overcome the programming Kitti did on the metallics?
(Documented for the golds and probable for the bronzes? Keeping in mind that
the golds' being manipulated to not be able to chew firestone and the bias
towards picking female riders are two different issues - gold firelizards
can flame, no?)
     2) Exactly what ramifications would this have in the Weyrs' leadership
structures? Would you have to re-define the title of "Weyrwoman" to mean
"woman who rides a gold *or* a bronze" and "Weyrleader" to mean "man who
rides a gold *or* a bronze?" Would you eliminate those titles entirely and
settle for the generic "Weyrleader"?
     And those are just the trivial details. What sort of far-reaching,
rattling effect would it have on Pern's people as a whole, to see a young man
riding a gold dragon, or a young woman on a bronze? *THINK*, folks... much
as the notion appeals to us, and our value set, Pern *IS* *NOT* Earth, and
their values don't necessarily have to reflect ours.

     (It occurs to me that a woman on a bronze would have it easier than a
man on a gold. Heck, F'hlan has enough problems being Pern's Shyest
Bronzerider. :-) Quite honestly, I wouldn't want to have to deal with the
inevitable flak of "He rides a gold, he must not be man enough for a bronze".
But Pernish society, at least as depicted on the MUSHes, already has the
idea of women riding fighting dragons, so it's a closer step for females to
be Impressing bronzes than it is for a male to Impress a dragon that bears
the young. Or so it feels to me.)

     Not to mention the distinct possibility that you'd get OOC flak from
people anyway, whether "That's not proper because Anne didn't write it that 
way".

     One more random thought: I think the females who ride the fighting
dragons ought to be given the option of contracting their names, and quite
simply for the same reason that the males do. It is supposed to make their
names easier to yell during flight. And with females on the fighting dragons,
a wingleader will have to yell at them, too.

My two or three marks' worth,
F'hlan, bronze Tzornth's rider

-- 
Angela Sh'k'anna Korra'ti | opinions.me != opinions.Microsoft
annako@microsoft.com      | -------------------------------------------------
Rillwhisper@TwoMoonsMUSH  | ** What say we feed this misbegotten human his
F'hlan@PernMUSH           | liver? ** - Strongbow of the Wolfriders, sort of.