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(6 edits) (+2)(-1)

Edited:

You know what this was a lengthy response that, while I tried to be neutral, was very emotionally influenced. I'll rewrite it more concisely.

I think you have a rather uncharitable misreading of my intent and words. Understandable, as you say this is your fight and you are bound to have emotions wrapped up in that. So I do empathize and understand with getting emotional. I got emotional too, because I as a trans woman have traumas tied up in the use of the F slur and this conversation and the use of the slur in the rulebook kind of dug those traumas to the surface. I apologize for any unpleasant emotions I have dredged up.

My original intent was not to put you on a pedestal so I can knock you off, I do not know what gave you that impression and I am sorry that you got it. I also did not intent to speak as a "demiurge" as you put it. I also do not have a problem with using the F slur in this rulebook. I thought I had made all of this clear, but it is now clear that this got buried in my lengthy explanation. I regret the miscommunication.

So I will be explicit and concise. My intent is a suggestion, that if you expand this into a full rulebook you would reach a larger audience if you did not use the F slur in that way. Using the F slur as flavor text for the clothing a player character could wear implicitly includes the player in the category of "faggot" and that is uncomfortable and potentially triggering to people like me. Thus, people like me are explicitly excluded when you use the F slur in this way. So your game would have a broader reach if it did not use it in this way. I understand that this is a rather transgressive game touching on a lot of content that will make it niche no matter what, but I do not think the F slur is essential to any of that content so its use merely turns people like me away with no perceived benefit.

I am not trying to moralize, you don't have to take this suggestion to heart, my original lengthy explanation was intended to explain my reasoning and try to help see where I am coming from. I did not succeed, and I apologize for that. It is clear to me now that your intent is not to include people like me, rather it is to express yourself fully and without compromise. I can respect that, and I will move on.

(+5)

I was maybe a bit smarmy with my reply as well, and a lot of my language was intentionally exaggerated. Let me get a bit more real here.

I realize that 'faggot' is not a word that many queer people and trans women are comfortable with reclaiming, and I respect that personal choice. 

To contend with the issue at hand - there is only one use of 'faggot' in this game, and I strongly believe that it's essential to what the game is saying. I will likely put more uses of the word 'faggot' in the game, both in places where I feel it's necessary and in places that I think it's funny, or just fits the flow of words. I will explain why I used it, but I really don't have to.

The So-Called Man is a repressed trans woman, and 'egg' so-to-speak, and part of that suppression is implied, by the presence of 'faggot clothes', to be identifying feminine things as 'faggy'. At the same time, when that character comes into herself, 'faggot clothes' takes on a new meaning - it's liberatory, it's claiming dominion and care over what things she puts on her body.

Would this game be appealing to a few more queer folks if I didn't use 'faggot'? Sure. Ultimately, though, I would never really hear about it and never really know unless you left a comment about it. I've known LGBTQ+ people who dislike 'queer', and I don't intend to stop using that to expand my prospective audience. This is the way I write and the way I operate - I use the sort of language that appeals to me, and 'faggot' appeals to me in full face of its implications and consequences.

(2 edits) (+1)

Fair enough! And glad to have this sorted out. 

I think having heard the full thought process the only thing I can say is its somewhat limiting to presume that the character would use and relate to the f slur in this way, like it precludes any other relationship with the word or any other expression of transness. Which as a trans woman, to me is kinda sad. But like, it seems like you're specifically angling for this expression of transness so I can't ultimately fault it. My original assumption that the f slur was out of place here wasn't accurate, so my bad ^^