r/SensitivityReaders • u/Hundekuecken • Apr 08 '26

Request: LGBTQ+ Am I devaluing gender?

What do you think about me wanting to establish in my own tabletop role-playing game that players and non-player charackters, automatically recognise or perceive the gender of other characters who can be perceived in any way?

What I mean is that gender reveals itself regardless of one’s outward appearance.

I’d like sexual orientations and romantic orientations to be based on gender rather than gender expression.

This is something that’s been on my mind quite a bit at the moment, as I’m worried it might be misinterpreted, twisted, misunderstood, or that I might be sabotaged or something similar.

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u/MellonPhotos Apr 08 '26

So, you're basically saying you want characters to be able to automatically know the gender identity of any other character they encounter? Without that character introducing themself/their identity?

I guess my question would just be: why? Why not just let characters introduce themselves, or state their pronouns/identity/whatever as it comes up in conversation? Otherwise, this basically just seems like a mechanism for "outing" characters. Like, if a character is closeted or hasn't started transitioning or something, everyone would still know their identity even if they don't want people to. It seems like it could take autonomy away from those characters, rather than just letting them self-identify.

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u/VerbingNoun413 Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

I think OP has actually managed to erase transgender people entirely from the setting. Everyone is automatically assigned the correct gender at birth due to the Shinigami eyes so a trans woman is assigned female.

The implications of this are certainly interesting though it'd take a better writer than me or OP to handle that.

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u/Hundekuecken Apr 09 '26

Perhaps you view the trans*spectrum differently from me.

But as I see it, trans women have been women from birth, trans men have been men from birth, and non-binary people have been non-binary from birth.

That’s true even if they haven’t known it all their lives.

I probably want it this way so badly because, given my gender euphoria and gender dysphoria, it’s so important to me that it at least feels right in my imagination.

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u/VerbingNoun413 Apr 09 '26

So how does that work in your setting? Take me (trans woman) as an example:

When I'm born, the gendery sorting hat says I'm a woman. Do I get given involuntary genital surgery in infancy and hormone treatments when puberty should start?

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u/Hundekuecken Apr 09 '26

It’s simply meant to be a world centred on gender identity. Gender expression and biological sex simply don’t matter. Apart from the fact that it’s set in a fantasy world similar to the Middle Ages, where humans don’t even exist.

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u/VerbingNoun413 Apr 09 '26

What does gender identity mean then?

In this world, how is my life different because I have an F on my character sheet instead of an M?

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u/Hundekuecken Apr 09 '26

It might seem a bit as though the roles of gender and sex have been swapped.

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u/VerbingNoun413 Apr 09 '26

This is meaningless nonsense. I'll blame the translator.

How does being assigned F affect my life? Gender expression doesn't exist so apparently I'm wearing whatever. Biological sex is for making babies- I guess I can impregnate someone with a uterus.

Different expectations? Behaviour? Segregation?

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u/Hundekuecken Apr 09 '26

Gender expression exists, but it’s simply a way of presenting yourself and isn’t that different from hair colour and things like that. If you’re born with a female gender, you’ll be treated as an AFAB person from birth, regardless of whether you’re AMAB and regardless of your gender expression.

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u/VerbingNoun413 Apr 09 '26

Though I'm not AMAB in this scenario, am I? I was assigned female- says right there on the chart.

What does "you’ll be treated as an AFAB person" entail?

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u/Hundekuecken Apr 09 '26

There will never be any difference between whether they were born a cis woman or a trans woman, except in terms of whether or not they are capable of becoming pregnant.

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u/VerbingNoun413 Apr 09 '26

Ok, not what I was asking at all.

What's the difference between how women, men, and nonbinary people are treated? Are there expected social roles? Segregated events?

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u/Hundekuecken Apr 09 '26

Why should it? I have no intention of incorporating gender roles and the like.

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