As a genderfluid individual who has struggled with issues of gender since I was like 10 and coming to realize that label was even a thing and how it fit me, who has never come out to anyone about this at all until now, how about you fuck off instead of thinking you speak for us and telling us what is and isn't a big deal for us, before you've so much as asked any one of us how we feel (and of course even if you had done that, those themselves would of course be anecdotes and others may feel differently of course, but you haven't even done that much)? Let us speak for ourselves. I mean, that's harsh and I apologize for that, but this is deeply personal for me and being in the minority of minorities like this, and seeing people presume to speak for me like this and brush me away like I'm nothing and it doesn't matter... You might not mean anything by it, but you can't possibly understand how it feels. In short... it hurts. It really, really hurts. I realize you don't intend to do that, far from it in all likeliness, but that doesn't make it any less painful or hurtful to read stuff like this, especially since even if you personally don't mean it in that way, it's just another reminder for people like me that there are too many in this thread (such as the many grey names in here, which I'm very thankful to the efforts of the wonderful moderation team on this site for doing their best to try and keep things civil and clean the best that they're able, and thus again I apologize for the opening of my post to them and realize the risks I myself am taking by posting that and that there's no excuse... but at the same time, I have to get it out of my system and I don't know what else to do so I understand the risk I'm taking and won't hold anything against you and wish you well) that do feel that way and do wish me harm for no other reason than not understanding and being reminded of that is no less painful.
Are you really arguing that that's the case here though? That the world of games such as Pokemon are worlds that are hostile to the existence of people such as myself? And if you're prepared to argue that, then in what way does it actually serve or manifest itself in the plot at all, and how does it benefit or enhance that plot or world of the game at all? If it doesn't, and as things stand it doesn't manifest itself in such a way, then why not posit the games choosing to be a more inclusive world, that aren't hostile to the existence of people such as myself? What would be lost, since it's not a significant part of the lore or world of the games to begin with? Indeed, instead there only seem to be gains since the games become more inclusive, this can be done by simply doing something like asking "What's your style" in order to retain simplicity and efficiency, and nothing's lost in any way. I don't see any negatives to this.
People aren't getting banned for disagreeing. Having disagreements is fine. People are getting banned for being dicks and not being respectful to human beings and posting flat-out transphobic stuff, etc. It's very possible to have disagreements without going into that territory though (which is wonderful and great!) and it's just unfortunate that some people are unable to do that without crossing the line... But that's why they get banned; not because they simply disagreed or anything like that.
If you're going to bring up the Pokemon themselves, you can't avoid the fact that as far as Pokemon are concerned it's quite clear that there isn't a gender binary, which just makes things more odd. Case in point: the numerous Legendary Pokemon, which have no sex at all. Granted, that's mostly for the gameplay reason of making the player unable to breed them (although, some Legendaries, such as the Pokemon Heatran do in fact have different sexes, which kind of throws a wrench in that and just makes things even weirder) but nonetheless from a "lore" perspective it seems quite clear in the games that they really don't seem to have a gender or sex at all.
You could consider it a toy. There's a lot of discussion around gendered toys if you want to look it up.
Being ignorant on the topic is okay, man. Just don't be an asshole to people and you'll be fine.
No not at all, that was meant more generally. I'm saying it's okay to not know everything and you won't get banned if you're not mean to people.
Sure! Google 'Gender neutral bathrooms' and you'll find a host of reading material on the subject, both informative and fear-mongering.
Most of the "genderless" Pokemon are usually legendaries which could actually have a sex, but it's unknown for breeding reasons (or rather the lack of) so not labed as either.
Yeah, good on you for becoming more open-minded as the thread went on!
