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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: PC gender in IF
Message-ID: <GFJHzz.Iq2@world.std.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 13:40:46 GMT
References: <9h9t0t$703$1@news.lth.se>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Lines: 36
Xref: news.duke.edu rec.arts.int-fiction:89215


I apologize for answering for Adam, but if I followed
this conversation correctly, there's a misapprehension
going on:

In article <9h9t0t$703$1@news.lth.se>, Magnus Olsson <mol@df.lth.se> wrote:
>(Adam quoting me on the subject of why people keep mentioning that Tracy
>Valencia in "I-0" is female, but not that she's a Latina)
>
>Adam Cadre (grignr@cascadia.drizzle.com) wrote:
>>Magnus Olsson <mol@df.lth.se> wrote:
>>>Well, her sex is obviously very relevant to the game, but
>>>is her ethnicity really relevant?
>>
>>It's relevant in the same way that her height and her weight and the
>>names of her stuffed animals and her second-grade teacher are relevant.
>
>Note: what I'm saying is that I didn't notice anything in I-0
>that would have to change if Tracy weren't a Latina. I'm of course
>not saying that society is blind to ethnicity or anything like that.

As I understood it, Adam was originally replying to someone expressing
the concern "so wait, is it a bad thing for me to say that the protagonist
is female if it doesn't really matter to the game", and Adam was offering
an example of it not seeming to be a bad thing to make such choices:
"nobody commented on the fact that Tracy was a Latina".

I took Adam's point to be that, since nobody commented on it, that means
nobody commented on it *negatively*--nobody was bothered by it--so it's
not a problem to do things like that even though it's "not relevant". So
bashing about exactly the manner in which it "was relevant" is not
really the point.

Adam may now deliver unto me a smackdown for misrepresenting his position.

SeanB
