I've been GMing for nearly ten years, I've had to roleplay romantic relationships, face to face, with guys because I was playing the female NPC their character was in love with.
It's surprisingly easy to get right, if you pay attention to people's behaviour.
Heck, I've even played a character who I only realised -during- the campaign was bisexual.
That said, men playing women online are surprisingly easy to spot. I think the best I've seen so far is Ravenswing.
This always confuses me.
You can play a robot, a snake-being, a walking plant or a dormouse; but you can't play the opposing gender?
I've been taken for a woman before; hell, I've been taken for an African before 
; but it can be rather difficult to do in passionate circumstances because the hormones tend to overide the old grey matter.
One of the easiest things I've found is to drop everyone to their biological stereotypes :-
Men : Everything's a fight, tend not to remember, Be a leader.
Women : Don't force confrontation, express emotions, change the battleground to suit you.
(Yes, these are sterotypes; but the basic anatomy forces these from a beginning viewpoint)
From these, you can find the way the character breaks the mould (Not all women love horses, pink and chocolate : Not all men love sports, beer and explosions) and focus on what things they can do.
In one game I was playing, I was playing a ditzy female and a female friend was playing a love-lorn male. What we used to do was throw ideas at each other and find out how each other would react to the situation. I had to tone down my need to attack nay-sayers and she ramped hers up.
Partner-bias also comes into it, but that tends to only alter the focus of the character (Given that each bias has it's own societal set of rules), but again you shouldn't rely purely on stereotypes.
There's very few of us that could empathise with Scarlet Witch (Mutant) and Vision (Android) with their relationship as we've no experience, but we can sympathise with similar emotions within ourselves to make it come alive.
The most important thing I've found is to actually let them be girly/blokey at times; and then work from that into their actual character. First impressions count, but are rarely the person that exists inside that impression.
[Personal Opinion of course and may/may not be accurate)
As long as you can bring it realistically it's fine. =)
After all, that is what roleplaying is about. Playing the role of something besides yourself, and where better to start than your own gender?
Given, I don't really roleplay female characters, but still. I have nothing against males who do, or females with male characters.
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I think the best I've seen so far is Ravenswing.
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I shall come up with some suitable sage words once:
a. My head has shrunk back to its normal size.
b. I get back home from the shopping I have to do.
Gideon is pretty good at it as well, I should say. I was massively fence-sitting on the actual sex of Sara Aegis' player until I actually got to find out.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Yep, Gideon's -really- good at it, too. I honestly thought Sara's player was a woman for months.
Do it all the time, think it's fine and good to do so. I've played all sorts of genders. Females, males, non-gendered, transgendered, and for a brief alt one bigendered, in a range of sexualities too; Straight, [censored], lesbian, bisexual, asexual, celibate.
And yes, Gideon and Ravenswing are pretty good at crossroleplaying. Not sure how good I am at it myself.
What Ravenswing and Gideon are to men playing women, Z is to women playing men. She can do it all!
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for a brief alt one bigendered,
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Who was that??
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What Ravenswing and Gideon are to men playing women, Z is to women playing men. She can do it all!
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Saucy. 
But anyway....is there anyone out there who objects to crossing gender and sexuality barriers in Roleplay? Would be nice to see the "other side" of this (As long as you're not of the "[censored], you're a [censored]/[censored]" crowd I saw so often in other games).
I know plenty of people who are like that. Most roleplayers I know are female however, and those can usually play either gender. Though the males usually end up overly femine and homosexual. =)
Here, most roleplayers I know are guys, and would never play a [censored] or female character.
Then again, I've never played a female character as a PC, usually because I simply enjoy playing men more than women.
I believe it was (one of the incarnations, anyway) Crepusculum, though Subject 77 could also be considered bigendered.
And thanks. 
Till a couple of years ago I was very dead set on playing the same gender and orientation as myself. The reason was that I felt that I could not potray anything else very well.
Nowdays I play any gender or orientation but I'm still more prone to play bisexual or heterosexual males but that has to do with the fact that I enjoy such roles more.
I think the trick is to forget stereotypes and actually roleplay a character/personality and not their gender.
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This always confuses me.
You can play a robot, a snake-being, a walking plant or a dormouse; but you can't play the opposing gender?
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That makes perfect sense to me, fictional races and beings are just that, pure fiction, realism and believability do not enter play so easily.
It's easier for me to roleplay a Roharim warrior then a Chinese farmer.
Shadowplay - Scrapper DM/DA SL 50
Doctor Storm- Brute SS/Elec SL 50
"speed boosts someone in the face" - Cognito
Ok, but could you play a Rikti (as I believe all the Warriors are Female)?
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It's easier for me to roleplay a Roharim warrior then a Chinese farmer.
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It's easy, pretend your character just found a really good item, and then proceed to pretend you're selling it on ebay. =)
Hmmm. Playing a Rikti would be pretty tricky.
Actually I wouldn't play a Rikti because I really don't have enough info on them.
Shadowplay - Scrapper DM/DA SL 50
Doctor Storm- Brute SS/Elec SL 50
"speed boosts someone in the face" - Cognito
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It's easy, pretend your character just found a really good item, and then proceed to pretend you're selling it on ebay. =)
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Not that kind of farmer 
Shadowplay - Scrapper DM/DA SL 50
Doctor Storm- Brute SS/Elec SL 50
"speed boosts someone in the face" - Cognito
Hmm, should I blush or just implode in embarrassment?
It's easier to do online than it is in larp or tabletop, because there are no voice or visual cues, which means all I need really to fool is the social cues. Most of my best friends are women, so I've seen it first-hand.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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Here, most roleplayers I know are guys, and would never play a [censored] or female character.
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If the censored bit is a 3 letter word meaning "brightly coloured" then I can say that I have done both!
Although some might say that playing the "brightly coloured" isn't as much a matter for me as it is for other guys...
Course, I've never played a stereotype, couldn't do the pink'n'mincing thing because I generally want to bludgeon that type of person into a small stain on the pavement. Stereotypes are a personal irritation...
To be honest, the personality played is moderately close to my own (just without my overbearing shyness towards objects of affection...)
Eeep, by "here" I meant Ireland....
I still find it difficult to play young male characters, even though as Stasis I was mistaken for a male playing a female for a very long time. I've played older male characters, but to get out of being caught up in romantic relationships I played them over 60; usually with NPC wives, children etc. Yet, I can and have played lesbian characters and had a lot of fun doing so.
I think it must be the mindset of a young male that throws me; I don't understand men at all IRL, and so I'd most likely be playing up to stereotypes rather than reality. An online friend of mine once wrote a textbook themed essay on how to play men, but being male himself, it assumed you knew the ins and outs of how most men behaved already.
One day I'll conquer my 'fears' and roll a male character, and see how it goes; but for now, I'm sticking to females, snake-beasts and robots 
As far as I see, it, as long as you aren't out to purposely mislead people about your gender/gender bias then play what you want. But if the situation is getting personal, or possably personal then it is a good idea to let it known who and what you are behind the character so there is no false imagery.
Ms Behave is a 17 year old runaway/thief, but her player is a 25 year old man, I do not hide whom I am, but I feel that the best roleplay is to be something you are not and act it out the best you can... to 'play a role'
Okay, finished writing a story, some input to this thread.
I don't find it difficult to play women, though there's a possibility I only play a couple of types well. I think Shadowplay said it: you play a character, not a stereotype. You try to match certain feminine characteristics, but you play to the character you've created rather than 'playing a girl.'
I don't put anything in my character's bio to suggest the sex of the player, though I've known people who do. it avoids confusion, but is less necessary in an environment such as CoH where sex is not specifically on the agenda.
I have, however, shocked one player who was amazed to find a man driving a short girl in a shorter skirt. Which amazed me since I thought just about all the female toons had men behind them, and assumed everyone knew that. CoH has one of the highest proportion of female players I've seen in a game.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
all of my chars so far are female, though mostly for astetic resons i think.
i really try to play the person in Rp though, as i am unlikely to make a convincing woman.
i only really am bothered with it when people are OOC and still pretending to be the same gender as the char when they are not.
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i only really am bothered with it when people are OOC and still pretending to be the same gender as the char when they are not.
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It gets irritating when you are teamed with someone who insists on asking OOC questions about you. I try to make a point of never going OOC other than in /tells, and then only for very specific purposes and with people who know me in real life. I just wish more people in the game were able to do the same...!
For the record, my (many and varied, hero and villain) characters are roughly 2:1 female:male, and I do rather enjoy playing the opposite gender. But every active character of mine has their own distinct personality (including one who is clinically insane), so gender isn't always an issue.
Yup, that old chestnut. Can't recall seeing it discussed here before, though, so here goes...
Basically, what's your view on Roleplaying a character that has a different gender/orientation to you? Personally, I could never play a male, let alone a straight one, without conforming to the "big, butch and so very manly" stereotype....although, to be honest, I might just go roll up a character like that anyway.
Discuss!