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Gender identity and sexuality in Kitsune: of Foxes and Fools
10 years ago
One thing I got to do in creating my game was express a group of characters who have a variety of unusual personalities and identities. Also some more mainstream ones. I was talking with my brother (who drew the foxes and most everything else for the game) about this earlier, so I thought I would write down some thoughts about it.
Akira - Other than the color of his belt, he dresses roughly the same as his twin sister, though he isn't endowed with a chest like hers so the cut is different. He doesn't conform to gender stereotypes, and so often comes across as effete. He's attracted to females, and has a sexual drive roughly in the middle of the spectrum - neither overriding nor tepid.
Ako - She has a ceremonial role which is strictly feminine in old-Japanese Heian period religious ways. Part and parcel with this is her primary attraction to males, but she also enjoys some female company of the intimate sort (or at least she did before Sadako went away and took vows of chastity).
Ai & Midori - The shapeshifting twins are young and full of life. Sometimes they don't even identify as separate people from each other (though sometimes they violently do). They do not hold any notion of a native gender, and if you were rude enough to strip their clothes off without asking, it's a roll of the dice what you'd find each time. (If you have permission to take them off, you'd find whatever you wanted to find, because they'd read your mind and change accordingly.)
April - April identifies as a little girl. She could take on a more adult form, but she identifies with the asexual but female gendered younger form by preference.
Aoki - Aoki is following Ako's example of Heian-period femininity, but is younger and less sure of herself. She occasionally has a tomboy streak, and while she is attracted to boys, she is liable to forget her usual calm charisma and trip over herself at the worst times if she finds herself in an intimate situation she didn't carefully arrange.
Cori - See what I wrote about Akira, but she's the one with the chestiness, as far as gender identity goes - like her brother, she doesn't conform to stereotypes, so she often comes across as a tomboy. Unlike Akira, Cori applies the same enthusiasm she has for everything else to her sexuality. She mainly likes male partners, but is willing to try anything. (She takes no real penalty from being Bound, you know.)
Hayaku - The ultimate in genderfluidity, Hayaku's gender actually shifts physically at will. Unlike its kits, this androgyne fox prefers a truly sexless resting form as a being of spirit. When it was younger, Hayaku identified as male before learning about its powers and heritage. Despite not identifying as any gender in particular, Hayaku is far from asexual, having quite the active sex life, as evidenced by having both fathered and mothered children.
Kenji - Kenji strongly identifies as male and acts in modern male ways, largely in imitation of his father. Because of his raging hormones (or the spiritual equivalent thereof), he is pansexual in the extreme. The game allows foxes to treat him as either gender for sexual attraction purposes between the foxes, and has fools treat him as the less favorable option because a male bodied, male identifying person who is sexually aggressive can be very intimidating and off-putting.
Kip - Kip is not strongly sexual, due to his origins as a pet fox (he may have been neutered back then, though as a spirit fox he is fully functional). He identifies as and acts male in recognizable ways, sticking to the japanese traditions favored by elder fox spirits, because it helps him fit in despite his lowly origins. He really would hate to stand out too much.
Naoko - Very tomboyish, Naoko rebels against her oppressive human parents by acting out of gender, and keeps those tendencies after her transformation into a spirit fox. However, she is distinctly attracted to the opposite gender - a boy she liked was part of the catalyst for her act of rebellion in reading the prayer to Inari and leaving her family behind, after all. She has a lot of sexual desire, mostly pent up, and expressed fitfully as though she expects to be punished for it (she does expect that - and getting punished for reasons which seem random to her by the elder kitsune for things she never learned were wrong isn't helping).
Sadako - Sadako was once passionate and sensual, and Ako was her best friend and lover. She lost her sensuality in a bad marriage, and found herself in a religious devotion which led her to take a vow of chastity. Having returned to kitsune society, Sadako does not necessarily hold absolutely strictly to that vow, but her interests lie elsewhere for the most part. Ako is still her best friend, of course. Sadako conforms to the traditional agendered role of a benedictine devotee (though they are segregated by gender to avoid sexual sin, monks and nuns following the Rule of St. Benedict do not have different rules by gender).
Sareiko - Strongly feminine in ways recognized by modern culture, and avidly sexual and attracted to males. Sareiko's sexuality is such that her gender identity might be seen as slightly more male by those who consider sexual aggressiveness to be a male trait, but she formed her ideas about those things in another time when that was considered a feminine ideal.
Saski - I stole this character from Mercedes Lackey, and like her character Saski Berith, my Saski-Kun consciously stole his style from James Dean. His attraction to females is made pretty clear by his mechanics. Also, in Japanese characters his name would be "佐々木", "Sasaki," not "sasuke" like the naruto character. His preference when speaking european languages is to drop the second "a" sound.
Seiki - She doesn't identify strongly with gender or sexuality, but also doesn't strongly identify as not-gender or not-sexual. She is female bodied and so when people expect it of her she tends to act feminine. Mostly she is innocent of expectations and does whatever seems fun at the time.
Sharmarali - Inheriting her mother's femininity, Shar also rebels against a society that views her poorly for her mixed heritage by rocking a chinese style of dress. Some aspects of this character were stolen from he same Mercedes Lackey novel as Saski (such as having a mother named Ako, although I didn't mention this under Ako's description because both Mercedes Lackey and I took that character from older mythology). My version of Shar will do just about anything to get a rise out of her elders, and is strongly motivated by her complicated relationship with her parents.
Akira - Other than the color of his belt, he dresses roughly the same as his twin sister, though he isn't endowed with a chest like hers so the cut is different. He doesn't conform to gender stereotypes, and so often comes across as effete. He's attracted to females, and has a sexual drive roughly in the middle of the spectrum - neither overriding nor tepid.
Ako - She has a ceremonial role which is strictly feminine in old-Japanese Heian period religious ways. Part and parcel with this is her primary attraction to males, but she also enjoys some female company of the intimate sort (or at least she did before Sadako went away and took vows of chastity).
Ai & Midori - The shapeshifting twins are young and full of life. Sometimes they don't even identify as separate people from each other (though sometimes they violently do). They do not hold any notion of a native gender, and if you were rude enough to strip their clothes off without asking, it's a roll of the dice what you'd find each time. (If you have permission to take them off, you'd find whatever you wanted to find, because they'd read your mind and change accordingly.)
April - April identifies as a little girl. She could take on a more adult form, but she identifies with the asexual but female gendered younger form by preference.
Aoki - Aoki is following Ako's example of Heian-period femininity, but is younger and less sure of herself. She occasionally has a tomboy streak, and while she is attracted to boys, she is liable to forget her usual calm charisma and trip over herself at the worst times if she finds herself in an intimate situation she didn't carefully arrange.
Cori - See what I wrote about Akira, but she's the one with the chestiness, as far as gender identity goes - like her brother, she doesn't conform to stereotypes, so she often comes across as a tomboy. Unlike Akira, Cori applies the same enthusiasm she has for everything else to her sexuality. She mainly likes male partners, but is willing to try anything. (She takes no real penalty from being Bound, you know.)
Hayaku - The ultimate in genderfluidity, Hayaku's gender actually shifts physically at will. Unlike its kits, this androgyne fox prefers a truly sexless resting form as a being of spirit. When it was younger, Hayaku identified as male before learning about its powers and heritage. Despite not identifying as any gender in particular, Hayaku is far from asexual, having quite the active sex life, as evidenced by having both fathered and mothered children.
Kenji - Kenji strongly identifies as male and acts in modern male ways, largely in imitation of his father. Because of his raging hormones (or the spiritual equivalent thereof), he is pansexual in the extreme. The game allows foxes to treat him as either gender for sexual attraction purposes between the foxes, and has fools treat him as the less favorable option because a male bodied, male identifying person who is sexually aggressive can be very intimidating and off-putting.
Kip - Kip is not strongly sexual, due to his origins as a pet fox (he may have been neutered back then, though as a spirit fox he is fully functional). He identifies as and acts male in recognizable ways, sticking to the japanese traditions favored by elder fox spirits, because it helps him fit in despite his lowly origins. He really would hate to stand out too much.
Naoko - Very tomboyish, Naoko rebels against her oppressive human parents by acting out of gender, and keeps those tendencies after her transformation into a spirit fox. However, she is distinctly attracted to the opposite gender - a boy she liked was part of the catalyst for her act of rebellion in reading the prayer to Inari and leaving her family behind, after all. She has a lot of sexual desire, mostly pent up, and expressed fitfully as though she expects to be punished for it (she does expect that - and getting punished for reasons which seem random to her by the elder kitsune for things she never learned were wrong isn't helping).
Sadako - Sadako was once passionate and sensual, and Ako was her best friend and lover. She lost her sensuality in a bad marriage, and found herself in a religious devotion which led her to take a vow of chastity. Having returned to kitsune society, Sadako does not necessarily hold absolutely strictly to that vow, but her interests lie elsewhere for the most part. Ako is still her best friend, of course. Sadako conforms to the traditional agendered role of a benedictine devotee (though they are segregated by gender to avoid sexual sin, monks and nuns following the Rule of St. Benedict do not have different rules by gender).
Sareiko - Strongly feminine in ways recognized by modern culture, and avidly sexual and attracted to males. Sareiko's sexuality is such that her gender identity might be seen as slightly more male by those who consider sexual aggressiveness to be a male trait, but she formed her ideas about those things in another time when that was considered a feminine ideal.
Saski - I stole this character from Mercedes Lackey, and like her character Saski Berith, my Saski-Kun consciously stole his style from James Dean. His attraction to females is made pretty clear by his mechanics. Also, in Japanese characters his name would be "佐々木", "Sasaki," not "sasuke" like the naruto character. His preference when speaking european languages is to drop the second "a" sound.
Seiki - She doesn't identify strongly with gender or sexuality, but also doesn't strongly identify as not-gender or not-sexual. She is female bodied and so when people expect it of her she tends to act feminine. Mostly she is innocent of expectations and does whatever seems fun at the time.
Sharmarali - Inheriting her mother's femininity, Shar also rebels against a society that views her poorly for her mixed heritage by rocking a chinese style of dress. Some aspects of this character were stolen from he same Mercedes Lackey novel as Saski (such as having a mother named Ako, although I didn't mention this under Ako's description because both Mercedes Lackey and I took that character from older mythology). My version of Shar will do just about anything to get a rise out of her elders, and is strongly motivated by her complicated relationship with her parents.
Kip's flavor text in the rulebook suggests that Aoki wants to marry him, would he reciprocate that?
Hayako's kits don't share their "other parents'" sex drives it seems. Who raised them? For that matter does Hayako still have a relationship with Saski and Sareiko?
Kip and Aoki's story will develop more in the expansion... I don't want to spoil tooooo much of it, but I'll be writing some things about it in full on story form.
It was a joint effort, but Hayaku is a bit more responsible than either Saski or Sareiko, and so did more of the work. However, for whatever reason, the white twins and Seiki ended up more interested in mischief than making whoopie. For now, at least! In the course of scheming and growing older and more powerful, who knows what will happen as their characters evolve? (That is, of course, different in each play through, and can depend on the seductions and love triangles and other things which happen...)
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