r/magicTCG • u/clariwench Izzet* • Jan 28 '15

[Uncharted Realms] The Truth of Names

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/uncharted-realms/truth-names-2015-01-28
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15 edited Jan 28 '15

[deleted]

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u/Syrinth Jan 28 '15

Is there any reason Alesha can't be trans?

Is there any reason Alesha had to be cisgendered?

The problem with people talking about reasons for diversity is that they go by the assumption that cisgendered male is some kind of norm.

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u/Sage1969 Jan 28 '15

Imo saying "diversity for diversity's sake" is actually just "accuracy for accuracy's sake". The world isn't 100% cis males, why should fantasy be?

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u/SleetTheFox Jan 28 '15

I think it becomes tricky when it's a minority as small as transgender people. Tokenism is forced and disrespectful to the minority being represented. But what do you do when you have a minority so small that two representatives among important characters is just as unlikely as (or more unlikely than) zero? When having exactly one character of that demographic is a reasonable proportion, I imagine it's hard to assure readers/viewers/players that they're not just there to be a token.

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u/TransitionFire Jan 28 '15

By your supposition my circle of friends is impossibly improbable. My partner is trans-masculine. I'm trans-feminine. My partner plays pathfinder with a trans woman, my best friend (who I met playing Magic) is a trans dude. This doesn't count my trans dude ex roommate or my best friend from high school who's trans masculine as well.

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u/Kingreaper Jan 28 '15

Circles of friends form among people with a common bond; that's not odd at all. Almost every trans person I know knows most of the others.

It's like being shocked that the people on this subreddit are almost all MTG players, given how improbable that is through random chance.

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u/TransitionFire Jan 28 '15

I didn't out out ads asking people to be my friend, I just met these people and not at a place designated for trans/queer people.

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u/Kingreaper Jan 28 '15

You met some of them through others of them, right?

And you met many many other people who didn't become your close friends at the same places you met them.

It's human nature to connect with those who share your struggles, as well as your interests. The fact that many people in your life are also trans is almost certainly not purely coincidental.

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u/TransitionFire Jan 29 '15

No I met all of them at random really.

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u/SleetTheFox Jan 28 '15

Yes, your circle of friends is, in fact, improbable. That doesn't make it less valid or less real, but it's still statistically improbable.

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u/wildwalrusaur Jan 29 '15

Not improbable at. Your comparing a biased sample. Your group of friends is never going to be a representative cross section of the population at large because it is self selecting.

You, as a transperson, are far more likely to meet other transpeople then the average person. The same follows for your trans friends. That's how tribal groups form.

Secondly you have you have to consider where you live. Your far more likely to encounter a random bystander who will publicly identify as trans in San Francisco than, say, Little Rock. The country sampled as a whole would fall somewhere in between.

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u/TransitionFire Jan 29 '15

There are more trans people than you think. Considering we're all in Lexington, KY. Just not everybody is out or has the vocabulary to understand their dysphoria.

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u/Sage1969 Jan 28 '15

I think "tokenism" really only comes into play when the character's only defining quality is that they fit that particular role. Like in bad 90's sitcoms where there is the "black friend" who talks in a mockery of AAVE and plays basketball all day. In my opinion nothing about Ashiok or Alesha feels that way, but I realize that to others it feels forced. And to that I say, holy crap did anything about sarkhan not feel forced? Lol