Re: ATL:Enough Background, Thanks!

[kuijt@umiacs.UMD.EDU]

Someone wrote:

>I left the SCA in large part because I am a female who is playing a male
>persona, and some of the local members seem to take it as a point of
>honor to call me My Lady instead of My Lord, despite being informed that
>I am playing a male persona.


Greetings!

I will treat as a lady anyone who I recognize as female, and as a lord
anyone who I recognize as male.  And I will attempt to avoid using
pronouns to describe anyone whose gender I cannot determine by sight.

Many people in the middle ages and renaissance wore clothing of the opposite
gender for many reasons.  If someone who seems to me to be female comes
up and assures me that she is male, I will think that she is pretending
to be male for some reason.  Whether or not I assist her in her pretense
would depend upon whether I can discern (and agree with) her reason for
pretending a gender she does not own.  I will certainly never be rude
about it, but neither will I go out of my way to join in her pretense
(unless I find out that she is fleeing a planned marriage with some
pagan potentate, or another reason that _MY_ persona finds reasonable).

I have no problem whatsoever with a lady taking a male persona.  However,
how I treat such a lady does not depend upon her declaring to me that
she should now be treated as a male, but rather upon how convincing her
artifice is.  In the same way that I will treat someone who appears
rich as if he or she is rich, and someone who appears witty as if they
were, I will treat someone who appears male as male, and someone who
appears female as female.

So for me, it is very simple--to be treated as a male, you must only
make me believe it.

Respectfully,

Dafydd ap Gwystl
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