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thornaelle In reply to TreeWyrm [2018-10-27 08:00:01 +0000 UTC]

There's a bunch of different pride related days throughout the year but I think you've missed most of them for this year! But you're totally welcome to share this whenever you like.

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TreeWyrm In reply to thornaelle [2018-12-13 08:57:22 +0000 UTC]

Just wanted to let you know (because I almost forgot) that I just put this up yesterday and it is now here: www.facebook.com/FemShep/photo… - thanks for permission to post!

Out of curiosity, I've been wondering... well 'worrying' more like, about the (specifically male) gay fans of Mass Effect. I never really kept up with other pages, so I don't know if any exist out there that provide for fans of male-shep, and I mean *all* fans of male-shep - not just the straight womanising ones (which is the impression I got from a lot of the pages when first I was starting out as admin for MEFS).

I was worrying that as time goes by, less and less pages are active and maybe mine could end up being the only one, which, because I care a great deal about representation and inclusion of inoffensive fans (I do NOT care for the mysogynistic ones, or the racist ones, or the islamaphobic ones, or the transphobic ones or the homophobic ones... or any other prejudices)... Well I was wondering if I should start to include more works like this one - or specifically male-shep features so that I can make effort to provide that balance of custom sheps and romance choices for those fans too.

I doubt I've got any on my list - especially gay male-shep fans because, well... unless they played female and loved Hale's voice enough to like the page, I guess I've little to offer them. But I HATE the idea that they could be left behind. It's bad enough that computer games get a lot of stick every time they include a gay romance, and always more for a male gay romance than a female one (somehow, straight men are just *fine* with seeing women kissing - isn't that odd..?)... Without fans adding to that by excluding each other in the same ways.

If you have any thoughts on this, I'd appreciate them. I'd like to know there's someone out there (besides you and other artists on here because you're great!) who makes effort to connect with fans of male-shep, and not at exclusion of the ones who loved the gay romances. I must admit I don't REALLY want to start a whole new page... But at the same time, it really upsets me that there's some lovely fans out there, who don't have anybody making an effort to interact with them. I know how I feel just being female and getting left out of things because of it. It sucks.

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thornaelle In reply to TreeWyrm [2018-12-21 22:14:29 +0000 UTC]

I think doing the occasional feature to showcase the more positive depictions of MShep and his romances sounds great. There are some women who like to play as him, plenty of respectful guys, and getting to play the sparse mlm romances has been really important to a lot of people in exploring and affirming their identities. There are also people who chose which Shepard to play because the romance they really wanted wasn't available to the other without modding the game (SO many people wanted Tali x FShep! Or for Garrus and MShep to be more than the bro-est bros!). No need to take anything away from appreciating FShep and keeping your main focus on her, but it's no bad thing to shine a little light on the fans who aren't being bigoted arseholes but tend to get lumped in with and drowned out by the gamer bros only interested in Miranda's butt. 

The best thing you can do as an ally is to make sure the groups you already run and moderate are safe and welcoming spaces for LGBT fans, even if you don't think your content is going to be 100% what they're interested in. Maybe scope out if there *are* any LGBT specific Mass Effect groups on Facebook and see if they'd mind you giving them a shout out when you do related features.

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TreeWyrm In reply to thornaelle [2018-12-24 11:57:49 +0000 UTC]

I'm 100% certain there's gay/bi women in my page's fanbase, and there's also plenty men who have played as FemShep for whatever reason (many different reasons). There doesn't seem to be from my recent scoping out post, anyone who particularly wants MShep stuff - in fact perhaps a little to the opposing view (want it to stay FShep) but I agree with you that a little exposure wouldn't do any harm. I have done that in the past, but it's been a while. So I'll try to look out from time to time perhaps going fowards, and slooooowly include just a little more MShep stuff or at least where I can find it, something that includes both of them and different romances (your artwork here was perfect!).

I'll have to see if I can go hunting for other pages/groups next time I find something (or when I'm looking for something, see if I can find one to share from).

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