Misgendering you or your characters

[joannekwan]

Since I usually go by my real name when dealing with my creative works, and 'Joanne' is a pretty femme name, people normally get it right. When I go under usernames I don't mind if people refer to me as 'they' I kind of like it. Makes me feel like I'm this mysterious being/figure.

Funnily when I was a little kid I got offended whenever people thought I was a boy (in retrospect I was rather tomboyish). BUT now I wouldn't care.

[dailyscifi]

Many of my characters gender is intentionally confusing, so it doesn't bother me at all haha.

[Reign]

I always got misgendered as a girl on Deviant Art. My username was JackleKnightCreations, and everyone always mistook it for JackieKnightCreations. It doesn’t bother me. I think it’s funny. For my stories, gender is important, since it deals with the main character’s Dad wanting a manly, sporty son. But he’s really just an uncoordinated clutz. So I make sure the genders come across.

[kimketli]

I was believed a "he" when I played mmorpg, because I preferred using male characters. It was fun for me. People seemed more honest.

[vothnthorvaldson]

People seemed more honest.

That's something I have enormous difficulties with. I would no say that people are necessarily more honest if they speak to me as a guy or a girl as a whole, but depending on the subject, there are clear differences between how honest and straight to the point people are.

It's not only confusing for me, who really don't rely on gender roles or even specific gender identity, it's sometimes downright frightening. Getting excessively different reactions depending on my perceived gender is making me even more pessimistic about humanity that I already am. It also made me realize that most people don't realize how much everyday sexism works both ways.

[Wumbl]

It depends on the character. Most of my human characters have specific pronouns that I expect readers to use, and it's rare for anyone to get it wrong. Nobody has mistakenly called Foreas by the wrong pronouns though which is good, despite him being intersex. I find that because the pronouns are written in the dialogue it's much harder to get wrong.
I do have genderless characters, though, like the cloud gods in my comedy series. They all don't have genders so people call them all sorts of pronouns. In the comics I use "they" but I don't get irritated by people using she or he in comments. I think it depends on the reader's understanding of gender roles.

As far as getting misgendered online goes, it almost never happens. Then again, people typically have their name/pronoun/gender in their bio online so people don't get it wrong.

[AmysGames]

I've had people call me "he" online multiple times, which is kind of funny since the feminine name "Amy" is right in my username most of the time, lol. It's never really bothered me; I just find it funny.

On the other hand, I've also had several of my long-haired male characters be mistakenly referred to as female, which does bug me a little. Just because they have long hair doesn't mean they're female!

[indagold]

People call me a man or trans online all the time so much so it's become an inside joke with my friends I'm just a man by default. People legitimately are confused I am a woman.

As for my characters I don't really care, they aren't real. It's not like they have feelings and I need to comfort them. It's like calling your boat a woman, a boat ain't gonna tell you what they identify as.

[dloze]

People misgender me often both online and irl. It could be upset to think they misgendered me because they just defined me instead of asking me. But that mistake is indurable, if they realize the fault and correct themselve. But do not understanding my identity and keep misgendering me or mocking about that is very uncomfortable and rude. Its very disrespectful and unpolite.

And about the character.... actually, gender could be important identity for a charcter and their character. It could decide how the character came far from and here. Misunderstanding and making a mistake once is okay. But being rude or denying by keep that things will be very disturbing for me.

[spadesart]

i get called he on occasion by randos on the internet but it doesnt bug me TOO much? and at work someones kid asked me "are you a girl?", which just made me laugh tbh. i guess it means im doing a good job at looking neutral? the other day though someone referred to me with "why does (job) always have the littlest girls out [in the parking lot] getting carts?" which. oof. on top of that im 20 so it added extra discomfort to All That.

the closest someone really got to misgendering my characters was irt my mc blaise being a trans man. they couldnt tell what 'trans man' meant and asked about his genitals????

[amortelito]

LOL I was called a "gentleman" in a store and some dude called me "amigo" (male friend). I have long wavy hair, wear lipstick, a usually wear dresses or shorts with tights. I know I have strong facial features but I'm sure I don't look like a man in a dress. Don't know what happened there.
I don't mind it at all. Being a man is not offensive to me, being a woman is not offensive to me.
People who are not into manga and comics think my male boys are girls, I blame my girly style. Is not offensive, just hilarious.

[yugen]

In Russian, when communicating, it is usually clear who you are (or who you prefer to be). I use my real photo on social networks. But even so, sometimes I was taken for a guy. They wrote me, that I am a gay who disguises as a girl. By the way, in the photo I was in a dress. Probably, they thought that the girl could not talk on the topics of transhumanism or artificial intelligence.
And in real life I was often mistaken for a boy or a guy. I just prefer pants and jeans. I like heavy boots. And I don't use make up. Because of this, my husband's mother does not consider me a normal woman.

My drawing style is close to anime. Therefore, male characters can sometimes look too feminine.

[Tanako]

I think most of the time it's usually unpurpose. I did have a reader once call one of my characters a girl. I was too confused given the fact that it was obvious a BL because that's what I'm currently working on. in that scenario, it was a guy cheating on his boyfriend and the reader says, "oh he is cheating on his girlfriend", and I'm like "HOW" does that look like a girl , either way, I don't take it seriously. I just correct them and move on. and I think most of my readers know I'm a woman. but they are confused about my sexual preference and personally, I don't feel the need to establish that. it's not important lol.

[BloodOgre]

I really don’t care too much about being misgendered myself. It just isn’t that big a deal to me. But I’m also a straight male, so take that as you will. My characters on the other hand I do care about. If people are confusing a girl for a guy and vice versa there’s something that is being mistranslated in my artistic intent (anatomy probably) and it needs to be addressed.

[Tanako]

I really don’t care too much about being misgendered myself. It just isn’t that big a deal to me. My characters on the other hand I do care about. If people are confusing a girl for a guy and vice versa there’s something that is being mistranslated in my artistic intent (anatomy probably) and it needs to be addressed.

True that. you are right.
but thats not the case with mine. my character was obviously a guy, there was no way in hell anyone could mistake that for a girl. yea I get it, guys don't usually have pink hair but seriously, his body was no where close. I draw women very well and I'm not too bad with guys either. I just thought it was funny that that happened. and even though this particular reader was corrected, they kept on addressing the character as a "she", lol 🤯🤯🤯

[charliesackett]

I'm genderqueer and so are a lot of my characters, so it gets complicated real fast. I just try to ignore any and all pronouns.

[Novalinlin]

I have my pronouns (they/them) in most of my bios online but I don't mind getting misgendered unless I know the person is doing it on purpose and with ill intent

Generally, unless people have their pronouns in their bios, I tend to think of them as their profile pic

[Im_moron]

I had someone misgender a character of mines xD
and I can't really... beat myself up for it, or really say anything against that assumption since the entire idea of this character is to be misgendered (me making a Samus Scenario).

aka, I kind of nailed it when they misgender my character, so I feel great!

[Rhonder]

For me: I don't mis-gendered often, as far as I can recall. IRL, while I'm not like super duper masculine looking, I'd have to go out of my way to try and pass as a girl I think xD And online most often people just use they or some version of my username unless they know my gender. I think I've been referred to as she here or there rarely over my like 10 years on the internet but it doesn't really bother me.

For my characters: I don't think they've really been mis-gendered that much. The big exception being some of my family members who especially when I was younger and not as good at defining features, would think some of my long haired anime-style boys were women. Similarly, i legit don't care when it (rarely) happens.

[ble]

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