The post that started out about date number three and turned into a gender analysis.

More about the art museum: 

It was fun picking (and getting suggestions for!) different works of art to include, and I wrote up brief descriptions of each to give the player some interpretive context. To cover my ass, there is a patron who says the descriptions on the plaques are nonsense. Anyway, the goal is to pick the art that you think resonates with your chosen teammate the most. Kind of a fun exercise, if I may say so.

My co-storywritter Tiffany also introduced me to Nneka Jones, who does incredible mixed media portraiture with embroidery. And when searching for art depicting strength, I discovered an artist named Hiba Schahbaz. I went with a piece from each of those artists also.

And so a lot of the art ended up centered on women and womanhood, which I guess is fitting for a roller derby game; roller derby is considered first and foremost a women's sport. Which is great, except that can be a little intimidating for those who don't fit the traditional, binary idea of what a woman is. Though I wasn't yet calling myself nonbinary during my roller derby career, there were moments that really stuck in my craw. Some of my teammates made fun of me for my body hair, and one skater scoffed at an opposing team's request that we use they/them pronouns to honor one of their own. I have also heard of some derby leagues, officials, and skaters who have been openly, vocally opposed to the presence of trans skaters. Derby is a generally progressive-leaning space, but sometimes not to the degree that it should be.

You know, I've pondered whether any of the skaters of the fictional Barnes City Brawlers are trans. And representation is really important, of course! But I decided recently that one of my priorities was to challenge the gross assertion, "You can always tell." I don't feel like going into any of the new, higher-resolution portraits and adding any hyper-masculine features that might emphasize a character's dysphoria. And that character's voice, when the subject came up, would be something that I have no right to write. (Though non-binary is sometimes placed under the trans umbrella, the challenges are different.)

The women of the Barnes City Brawlers identify as women, and then there is a self-described they/them as a self-insert. If someone on the team is trans, let the fan fiction flow, but it's not for me to say. The mere fact of trans people taking up space is an extremely frought topic in our society right now - very, very unfortunately - and as much as I would like to carve out a much-deserved a space for someone specifically, I don't think it's the right route for me. I've grappled enough with the skin color palette in Rora. I think this is the way to proceed for now!