amatmods | Sexuality and Your Application

So, probably one of the biggest areas that holds up applications when they're in progress is an inaccurate Sexuality section - either because it's incomplete, because it's too based on headcanon and speculation or very frequently because the applicant lacks a really solid understanding of what a person's sexuality is, how it comes about and what is and isn't likely to affect it. We understand that human sexuality in general is a complicated subject and in a society that avoids talking about the nuts and bolts of such things it can be hard to get solid answers on what any of this means.

As a result we've gone ahead and written up a guide for clarification on what we look for at

amatomnes specifically.

Human sexuality tends to fall along a spectrum (for example the Kinsey Scale), which is to say that relatively few people identify as 100% heterosexual or 100% homosexual. There is some argument about whether sexuality is a matter of "nature" or "nurture", if it's something that you're born with that's hard-coded into your genes or the result of the experiences that you have after you're born, but the general consensus amongst psychologists and sociologists seems to be, "A little from Column A and a little from Column B," that both play an important role. So even when you're talking about basic sexual orientation there's almost always a little wiggle room and very few absolutes, especially in situations where actions will save a person's life that can further muddle what a person will be willing to do. To clarify, once a character is in the live game we allow for and even encourage their sexuality to change and grow as a result of their experiences just like most other aspects of their basic personality will change and grow with exposure to new circumstances, people and ideas.

But that having been said, on an application where we ask for a character's sexuality? We're talking about their basic inner inclinations at the starting point that they're being pulled from their canon at. Sure, if the choice was death or sex with a person of the same gender just about everyone would choose the latter even if they were very much a heterosexual. But that would likely not change the fact that inside, they are basically a heterosexual person. We are also specifically asking what the character is in their canon as a basic fact, firmly and demonstrably. As roleplayers, we all do at least a little speculation about what's going on in the heads of our characters and it can be fun to imagine subtext between characters because it would be neat or hot to imagine them hooking up. Characters, though, are not any different than people in that they have a sexuality that they were either born with or was influenced across the course of their life. We'll get into more details on each orientation in a minute, but here are a few generally bad reasons for stating a person's canon sexuality is what it is:

* The character is attracted to members of the same/the opposite sex because they're around that gender a lot.
* The character is attracted to members of the same/the opposite sex because they have a close friend or sibling of that gender.
* The character is attracted to members of the same/the opposite sex because they look up to or admire someone of that gender in a parent/child or mentor/student way.
* The character has close friends or family of the orientation in question and do not scorn or reject them for it
* If the character was in a life or death situation, they would engage in sexual acts with members of the same/the opposite sex

Think about it like this. Do you have close friends in your life of a gender that you're not normally attracted to? People that you admire and look up to? Now, do you want to have sex with them? Sexuality is a completely different issue than friendship, admiration or even platonic love. You can be attracted to people you don't even like. You can very much love someone and just not be able to think of them in "that way".

Here are a few very good reasons to list a character's canon sexuality as being what it is:

* They have a sexual or romantic relationship with a person of that gender in their canon
* They flirt with and/or make suggestive comments to people of that gender in their canon
* The person or people who created the series have outright said that the character has a specific orientation.
* They pursue, or state or think that they would like to pursue, a sexual or romantic relationship with a person of that gender in their canon.

It's the last point which is a bit of a problem for most people. If we're not specifically told what's going on in a character's mind significant looks can be easy to misread, very subtle cues can be misinterpreted. But if all that you have to support a personal theory is that maybe certain looks and actions can be taken a specific way? It's better just to leave it off, because it will count as fan speculation.

So. What are the orientation possibilities?

Heterosexual: The character is attracted to the opposite gender from their own. They've had encounters of this nature in their canon, or have tried to pursue them. It doesn't matter if they'd be willing to bend a bit if it was to save their own life or someone else's life. It doesn't matter if they don't seem much interested in actually being involved with or having sex with anyone in their canon, so long as if they were to have sex, it would be with a person of the opposite gender because that's the gender that they prefer. It doesn't matter if eventually in the active Amat game over time they will become more flexible about this, perhaps even discovering things about themselves that they never knew or understood. What we want to know is, in the canon that they come from, completely free of fan speculation or guessing, which gender are they attracted to?

Bisexual: The character is attracted to both genders. All of the above notes still apply. It was shown in their canon that they were interested in men and women sexually. Not that they were just close to both genders. Not that they might consider being with a person to save their own or another person's life. Not that they might develop feelings or re-evaluate their sexuality over time to be more open-minded and pansexual. In. Their. Canon. What do they do? Actually do, and not just maybe possibly think? It's worthy of note that in the whole of fiction, there are actually very few characters that meet the criteria of being truly bisexual from the start.

Homosexual: The character is attracted to the same gender as themselves. All the same notes from the above sections still apply. Homosexual characters tend to be more common than bisexual characters in fiction.

Pansexual: Gender has absolutely no bearing on the potential for platonic or romantic love to the character. In a roleplaying sense, neither does species. Probably the most rare orientation, this tends to apply to nonhuman characters that aren't used to or don't care about gender roles at all for whatever reason, though it applies to humans as well. Again, this must be shown in canon.

Asexual: The character is not interested in sex with either gender. Sometimes, due to the circumstances in a character's life, they can be not particularly interested in sex or in a relationship at a given canon point. If they have in the past or will in the future have that interest, though, that's a preference. If they're just avoiding sex for whatever reason but are still sexually attracted to people, likely they still have a preference. Asexual people tend to be disinterested in sex all together and really don’t think about it all that much, the entire issue passes them by. Truly asexual people, like truly bisexual people tend to be rare in fiction.

Unknown: Sometimes, the end of the world is just more important than confessing your love to someone. If your character doesn't show attraction to anything other than their own survival or just don't seem to have reached the point of their life where they're interested in such things, it is okay to put that it is unknown for whatever reason.

As mentioned before, people will naturally vary within these rather narrow labels. We want to know their basic, brass tacks, rubber meets the road preferences as far as sex, not love, not friendship go. Who are they attracted to on a basic, fundamental level? And we want hard proof. We want you to be able to point to canon events and say, "This, here, is where this girl declared her love for another girl" or "This man is married to a woman with two children". You can try and explain that they would be flexible in a life or death situation, and that's fine and understandable, but it doesn't change their basic sexual orientation. If you think you have a way to explain it as being something else other than what the canon supports best of luck to you, but generally 99% of the time it falls into one of the above-mentioned categories and gets sent back for a revision or rejected.

As always, if there are questions, comments or concerns about any of this the mods are here to help! Contact us at amat.omnes@gmail.com