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Comics about RPGs and the One Girl
Lesson of RPG comics: There is One Girl in the gaming group, and there's One Girl in the party. At max.
Case studies:
Knights of the Dinner Table. Sarah is the One Girl. She's an ass-kicker who can out-do any of the guys at their own game but is also less crazy than them.
Order of the Stick. Halley is the One Girl. She is the thief, wears skimpy clothing (despite being a stick figure) and is saucy.
Dumnestor's Heroes. Sue is the One Girl. She is practical, capable, and kinda fulfills the same role as Sarah from KotDT. In the real life portions, her player does as well.
Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic has many different girls and women with different goals and personalities (briefly: Arachne, Charlotte, Maura, Jone, Clover, etc.) However, and this is worth noting, the comic is explicitly about the "bad guys." Among the "good guys" in the comic, there's really only two female characters of any agency, one of whom is a plucky thief and one of whom is a bad-ass fighter chick.
This is just the comics that I read, natch. You will be able to come up with examples and counter-examples on your own.
(The first two comics are written by men, the third by a woman, and the last by a husband and wife team.)
So what do you make of this? Is female agency aligned Evil in D&D fantasy? Is the single girl in the gaming group, and how she acts, a realistic portrayal of the reality of a male dominated hobby or is it the inability of authors to write decent female characters?
Case studies:
Knights of the Dinner Table. Sarah is the One Girl. She's an ass-kicker who can out-do any of the guys at their own game but is also less crazy than them.
Order of the Stick. Halley is the One Girl. She is the thief, wears skimpy clothing (despite being a stick figure) and is saucy.
Dumnestor's Heroes. Sue is the One Girl. She is practical, capable, and kinda fulfills the same role as Sarah from KotDT. In the real life portions, her player does as well.
Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic has many different girls and women with different goals and personalities (briefly: Arachne, Charlotte, Maura, Jone, Clover, etc.) However, and this is worth noting, the comic is explicitly about the "bad guys." Among the "good guys" in the comic, there's really only two female characters of any agency, one of whom is a plucky thief and one of whom is a bad-ass fighter chick.
This is just the comics that I read, natch. You will be able to come up with examples and counter-examples on your own.
(The first two comics are written by men, the third by a woman, and the last by a husband and wife team.)
So what do you make of this? Is female agency aligned Evil in D&D fantasy? Is the single girl in the gaming group, and how she acts, a realistic portrayal of the reality of a male dominated hobby or is it the inability of authors to write decent female characters?
no subject
Ahahaha.
Ahahhaha.
Aheeehehe.
Aheh.
Translated from snark: It hasn't been the reality for over fifteen years. I wouldn't chalk it up to an inability to write women, just as a disinclination to - which is as much of a problem, if not more.
Just to open up a can of worms, what's the last gamer comic you've read where there's a Black, Asian, Latino/a, or otherwise non-white player? Roy Greenhilt is a black PC and doesn't count...
I ask because, from my experience, not having one is similarly unrealistic.
no subject
YAFGC also doesn't have "players" but it does deal with race both metaphorically and directly. The recent Jone story arc (about an orc woman and her half-orc daughter living in a human settlement) was a great metaphorical take on race and, further back in the archives, the Louie the Lich storyline was pretty amazing in terms of dealing with race directly, and also questioning what exactly is "evil" in D&D fantasy.
no subject
The Jone storyline (http://yafgc.shipsinker.com/index.php?strip_id=1220)