I was recently wondering, why is it that, even in an R-rated roleplay, explicit sexual themes are usually frowned upon or downplayed while a bloodbath is fine and dandy? I know the IF TOS specify that explicit sex is not allowed while it doesn't make much mention of narrative violence, but why is it that we as humans consider violence acceptable while sex is practically taboo?

One of my teachers once professed that writing is the only craft in life wherein you have no need, nor even an obligation, to censor yourself. In fact, if you do, he claimed you weren't a very good writer because you weren't writing truthfully. Does this hold true on the internet, where our words are accessible to everyone?

Personally, I have no qualms with either. If the characters lead me into a bloody fray, I'll follow. Likewise, if they lead me into a darkened bedroom I won't slap them on the wrist and say 'naughty!' I let them go wherever they like. I do keep narrative distance – I don't confuse myself with my characters nor do I wish to be in their place. I like to explore their lives, their personalities and their relationships through any means plausible (that is, anything that my character will plausibly do).

Truthfully, I find it rather disturbing how sexually embarrassed the nation is while we barely flinch when discussing gore. A man was decapitated on a Greyhound bus near Winnipeg and people here are talking about it like it's a change of weather, but say the word 'vagina' out loud and people hyperventilate.

In my opinion, so long as threads are labeled in an RP, I don't care what's in them. I'd just like to know what I'm getting myself into when I open a thread. Likewise, if I write something mature and label it as such, I expect my members and readers to use their own discretion and not go on reading something if they don't like it or it makes them uncomfortable.

How do you handle this discrepancy in your RPs and do you believe that sex is more mature than violence? If so, how come? I'm just interested to see what others think.

Er... I fade-to-black on sexual things, but not on violent things. Unless they're long and painful and there's no plot reason to RP them out. Really, sex, you can say they did it, and it'd be the same as RPing it out. With violence, you have a lot more of exchanges and little comments that can be added, making it more important to play out.

but if you think playing out sex or violence will be beneficial, why not?

Haha, that's also very true of sex scenes, though. P:

Anyway, I'm in agreement with you, Silvae. It's always baffled me how sex is so taboo, while a bloodbath is A-OK, buuuut...I'm also shy about neither and will play both out as easily as I'll play out anything else. Narrative distance comes easily to me, so I can write anything unflinching, which is good! Because some of my characters do messed up things that would make me go "OMGWTF!!" if I didn't. P:

I don't believe one is more mature than the other, and in my games I ask that both graphic violence and graphic sex be marked with a warning. :B I also understand people's preference not to play either, and I believe the worst thing anyone else could do is force them to play out a scene they're uncomfortable with--for whatever reason. Fade to blacks in either scenario are dandy. :3

I don't quite understand the rationale of sex being so taboo. Sex creates life, or it can do it just because it's pleasurable.

Though, even so, a child who is on the RP shouldn't be exposed to either lemons or gore. So on a site that I co-admin, extreme gore and lemons are limited to a password-protected forum.

I don't think this is necessarily ALWAYS true. For some characters it might be quite meaningful to play it out.

Agreed 100%. If I was RPing with someone I'd never played with before, I'd always ask before describing any content they may not like. Otherwise, I like the option of letting my characters roam free.

I should really make the time to join one of your bloody RPs, Rhi-Rhi, 'cause I agree with almost every word you say on RPG-D O_o

Also worth mention is that by RPing these scenarios it does not necessarily mean you condone them yourself. People write about assassins and drug dealers but that doesn't necessarily mean they encourage a pursuit in those occupations O_o

I think it really comes down to how society views violence as opposed to sexual situations. We have come to expect that with action comes violence. If in a movie the hero didn't bleed when he gets hit, you'd say it was a bad movie, but if the hero had a love interest but they didn't show sex, would you think it was as bad as if the hero didn't get hurt?

I honestly think modern humanity is way too conservative when it comes to such things. We have a fear of the unknown and we use politics to lock that unknown away. But off my personal views, the point I'm making is that we make sure those things are locked away by things like ratings. A G-rated movie is not going to have violence. An R-rated movie can be expected to. Similarly, the next step up is NC-17, which adds the explicit sexual side to things. Similarly, most boards straddle the line between PG-13 and R, making violence and mild sexual interaction (romance) legal. It's up to the board's admins as to where the line is drawn.

You could say that about... pretty much everything in roleplay, can't you? "They did this, and it lead to this, and now we're here and doing this." :lol:

But I think, sometimes, a sex thread, and what happens in it, can be just as important as things such as fighting scenes. A lot of things can happen. People's opinons on other people can shift, relationships can be solidified or broken, someone's mentality may change significantly. Anything's possible. And, hell, maybe they're even fighting and having sex at the same time, I dunno. Stuff happens! XD

I don't get what's so taboo about sex either. ...People do it. That's life. If people didn't have sex, where would we be? It's as basic and primal an instinct as any other, and there's no inherent shame in it.

I understand that if you've got a board that's made for the youngins you should probably not allow it. But if your board is R-rated and you allow extreme violence? Why not allow sex too? I don't think it's any more "mature".

I do honestly wish people would stop treating sex like it's some evil thing that should be hidden. We make these things far more "embarrassing" for ourselves than it has to be. If I had grown up knowing there wasn't something "bad" about sex, I'd be a lot better off today, I think, and so would a lot of other people. >_>

I'm quoting WildeThing, too! Let's start a club, haha.

Anyway, that can be said for everything, as SpazzyMal just pointed out. I was the same mindset as you: "Sex happens, but it's not necessary because we can just say it happened and go from there." However, I've since RPed sex scenes with my characters (not on InvisionFree, but on servers like journal sites that don't restrict that content, or just in an AIM-based RP), and the fact is: Sex does change things. Do you go through every thread knowing the outcome? Probably not. If so, why write at all? Half the fun of RPing is interacting with a character whose actions may surprise you. I've had many threads with sexual content that differed greatly from what I expected, simply because sex was involved. For instance, my character's lover told him he loved him in the throes of passion, which first led to him denying it ( :sweat: ) then finally to a confession of his true feelings (that he may never have revealed until much later).

Contrary to popular belief, RPing sex scenes is more than just "He thrusts. She moans. Climax!" - just like real sex is (or can be) more than just satisfying lust. It's just like any other scene between characters, sex is just involved. You learn things about your characters in any type of situation. BUT, if you simply prefer to "fade to black" because RPing the sex makes you uncomfortable, that's a totally different matter. But to refuse to do it because it's 'unnecessary' is not accurate at all.

(FYI, the "you" was not directed towards WildeThing in particular. It was a general term.)

Back to the point of the thread. Kind of.

I view graphic sexual content to be on the same level as graphic violent content, which is why I specifically restrict both things in my rules. I am very paranoid that IF will shut down a board for full-on sex scenes, as well as full-on gore. They're both inappropriate, according to IF's Terms of Service, so I try to abide by that - though usually I let people play up to an "R" rating, which includes some heavily insinuated graphic content. For example, people could make-out and have some naughty thoughts, and refer to what happens... They just can't play it. Similarly, they can hack a guy to pieces and talk about it while snorting cocaine off someone's belly, but they can't write it out (the violence, that is; drug use is totally a-okay with an R-rating). :p

This is something I've gone off about as well. For example, the whole Janet Jackson/SuperBowl incident a few years ago. People were all very upset about a nipple on national TV. They said "This is a family show, no nudity!!" Weeeeell, I disagree, because football is, in my mind, organized violence and I would far prefer my children to see nudity than violence. However, our culture seems to differ on this issue.

I personally find violence easier to write, because less people know about it, if you get me, so it's less likely for people to point out mistakes. Like, the majority of people will have slept with someone, but it's only a minority of people who have gotten shot, or whatever.

I don't mind if other people write the threads though, that is, I wouldn't be all "OHYMGOD! HOW DARE THEY?!" if I came across a sex thread.. It's the choice of the individual.

What I meant is that once you do the foreplay and you know sex is imminent, then you can just as easily not do as you can RP it out. Obviously not always, there're exceptions and stuff, but in general, there's no need to RP the sex out blow for blow, IMO.

I've also seen that both violence and sex scenes, when RPed out, can drag out endlessly, and while with violence you can just take the final hit or flee, with sex, well, I guess there are exceptions too, but, I assume it'd be harder to end if you want to do it quickly. Athough you could always have your char be unsatisfying. That's cool.

Well.. I don't think there is anything wrong with rping sexual or violent rps. They are both emotions and genres of life which need to be brought out. As far as the rpg site does not be an orgy, its fine. Sex scenes can be rped beautifully, romantically maybe poetically. And when members can achieve that, I think that there will more excitement on that site then other sites.

If I ever start any rp sites, I always keep it not R-RATED because I think that shouts porno for me but PG-13 with an option to have mature threads.

Well I am currently working on making a vampire site and where is the fun without sex and violence... lol

Usually, I would allow just as much sex as there is violence on my board, but I'm also an avid Livejournal user and in the past year over there, there's been a lot of controversy and even the banning of popular users over what exactly constituted "explicit material" and if fan art of fictional characters' sex lives was against the TOS.

So because I don't want to get into the same trouble with the Invisionfree guys (and their big shiny lawyers), I've made below the belt line of every character on my board off limits. Am I being gun-shy? Yeah, probably, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Also, just as my own personal preference, I find writing out sex boring. There's only so many euphemisms one can come up with for 'penis', 'boobs', etc, and if one stays true to not godmoding here's only so much one can do in a post. That's just what I find though, maybe I'm doing it wrong :p

I don't RP sex very often, though it's actually allowed on my board, for aesthetic reasons. When it comes to... er... real life--don't look at me like that, I'm making a point--sex is highly nonverbal. In fact it's one of the only times when I'm not thinking at a million miles an hour. So it's less verbal, and it's... well--sex is sex. I used to RP it, but frankly, it's boring. There are many ways to skin a cat, but not as many ways to have sex with it. Er... well... I mean, there are ways... but not once you get down to 'insert rod A into slot B.' Foreplay, thus, is somewhat RPable--though again, erogenous zones? Not that exciting. In a weird relationship with power struggle-sadomasochistic overtones, it might be somewhat interesting, but you can just as easily RP the dialogue without the explicit playbyplay of physicality.

Or so I think.

RPing sex is boring, namely when you're playing the male character -.- I swear every female expects the man to do everything. Violence is more fun to RP, there can be scathing words involved, more action.

I can't stand the "lets have hate sex" crap. My character is NOT going to have sex with you if he hates you. It will not be angry sex. It will be NO SEX. Sorry, but that tends to NOT happen in real life. You tend to not bang the people you argue with all the time and hate with a passion. Rawr.

I got so bored with RPing sex that I started to make other things happen in the thread. My character would start a fight, or-since he's a drug addict- fall asleep right before the good stuff started happening. One time I had him come in his pants and run off embarrassed. Of course, all said things made my character look bad but oh well, it was far more entertaining.

Violence is more acceptable in RP because I think that, for most, you're not typing out things that could make you or your RP partner potentially uncomfortable. Getting punched in the nose and bleeding profusely isn't the same as typing out what happens during sex, obviously.

The ONE time I joined a RP board with sex allowed, I left the next day, when people were admitting OOC that they were so masturbating at that moment.

So, for me, a board that allows sex is no better than one of those cyber-porn RPs/forums where people masturbate together. And, I guess in that sense it isn't much better than a porn site.

kthxbai

Oh wow. If I had an experience like that, I can't say that I would blame you in all honesty.

However, I will note that there is a difference between writing sex and writing, like, erotica and even just down right smut. Sex is more implication verses a play-by-play, erotica is more graphic yet tactful, and smut is generally raunchy. At least that's how I break it down

Meh, being a guy, I just don't like the thought of making another guy masturbate.

Think about it.

Ewww, like ewwww reading that is like wow.

I've rped Bruce Wayne and hes a whore. But in a rpg i'm in hes dating Selina. And the way he did a sex scene was only because they were trapped in a mill and it was after bruce had a pipe jammed in his shoulder. So the sex was just them cuddling uder his cape and wasn't really mentioned. It was mostly them talking about it.

Other then that sex while I do it at times their has to be a point to it.

My general policy on sex with my board is "If I don't see it, I don't care." I don't allow it on public boards because let's face it: IF will skin me alive.

What I don't know won't hurt me. None of my business what they're doing in the bedroom anyways is it?

I agree with Silvae and those others who have supported the idea that sex and voilence are equally mature content and can be played out in RP. I also respect those who have posted that they prefer not to do it. Either way is fine. It's certainly true that there are sites where people are just looking for their jollies, and I'm sorry to hear that people have had such bad experiences on boards. But, not everyone writes sex scenes because they're looking to get off. Some of us want the challenge of writing an intimate and compelling scene between characters that accomplishes something beyond the act itself.

I don't understand the sex taboo either. People have sex, it's a natural part of life. Violence is not. I remember years ago there was a huge kerfuffle over the movie Bonnie and Clyde when it went to the UK, because there it received an X rating due to the extreme violence in the film. Yes, I'm that old, lol. Personally, I'd rather see violence more stricly rated than sex because I think it's more harmful.

Both can be very challenging to write. Writing interesting erotica is difficult. Sometimes I fade to black with sex, and sometimes I play it out. It all depends on what character goals are there for the scene. Same thing with violence. Sometimes, you only need the impending action to tell the story and you can fade out without being overly graphic, and sometimes, you want to go the whole nine yards.. But I always label it clearly and appropriately, so that people that don't want to read either can skip it if they want to. I also add a label if I use some particularly offensive language in a post, such as racially derogatory words beause I think it's fair to warn people. And if I wrote on a board with underage members, I'd definitely want to put both into password protected forums.

For me, there has to be a point in writing sex OR violence. I'm not into writing PWP or VWP. And while I write both, it's certainly not all I write. But I like having the freedom to do either.

I guess it just boils down to respecting the rules of the board you're on and making sure things are clearly labeled. If they don't allow it, then don't write it or maybe don't join of you feel constrained by the rule. And if they do allow it and you don't want to read it, then don't.

Yeah. On a site of mine, the character that I play was once a hooker. So, as a result, I had to write a lot of sex scenes out. I've actually become quite good at writing lemons.

I stick to the opinion that a badly written sex scene can make you feel violated.

Sometimes people share too much :sweat: People can get their jollies on whatever they want, but it'd be in their best interest not to broadcast it like that.

Though I disagree that all sites which allow sex are no better than porn. In a porno real people are forced to have intercourse with a camera up their vag, frequently no condom used to protect them, and with not even an allusion to a relationship between the two (or more) people involved. Narrative sex isn't harming anybody that way... You could argue that if some young'n comes across it and gets the wrong ideas that it's causing harm, but that's why we have labels/ratings.

Agreed. Generally, I see sex as a life/love thing and violence as a death/hatred thing so sex should be more generally accepted than violence... Hollywood and the video game world disagrees with me.

Well, I was kinda arguing a different perspective, but that perspective is fair enough.

I agree with the idea that sex and violence should be treated equally. If anything, I think that sex is far less dire - who does it harm? Yeah, the repurcussions of it can cause chaos, but as long as it's adult and consenting, screwing is innoccuous in and of itself. On the other hand, punching someone in the jaw is innately harmful. I'm a pacifist, so I try not to roleplay out violence if it's going to be entirely gratuitous and there'll not be any consequences. Sex doesn't always need to have a point in my view, though. It's such an important part of the human experience, and it's the underlying motive behind a good chunk of our actions, so as long as there's enough of a relationship to make it interesting and not a mere blow-by-blow, writing sex is fine by me.

But yeah, I agree with SmathNa that people don't tend to, erm, talk much (which is another thing - please tell me I'm not the only one who finds it insanely funny when people have their characters carry out a full conversation while getting it on?) and that can make it difficult to write a genuinely unique scene. I definitely think that emotions and all are more important than actually describing actions, since there's a lot more potential for variety in the former. Also, a main reason that it gets tedious is everyone feeling the need to have it just perfect. That especially irks me in roleplays with teenagers, because being one, I can attest that for every unselfish seventeen-year-old boy you have about ten useless ones. Fat chance of encountering them in threads, though. Finding a person who's willing to admit that their character's a bad lover is like... well, like finding a person who's willing to admit that they're a bad lover. xD

So to sum up, I think that violence is actually worse than sex, and that most of the problems with writing sex scenes come from how it's written, not the sex itself.

Hee. This made me giggle. And yeah, it gets old when everything works out perfectly for everyone. My full-on transsexual character went to get Sexual Reassignment Surgery and she was essentially torn apart and put back together again (it ain't just as simple as turning stuff inside out), so no sex for her for months. That became a bit of an issue between her and her boyfriend, and naturally when they were able to start up again, she was awkward, clumsy, and didn't know what to do anymore. There was tension all around, 'cause her boyfriend, of course, internalized her inability to climax or to enjoy what they were doing on too deep a level. She, of course, also felt guilty and they were kind of both blaming themselves and each was worried that the other was going to walk. It was a fun plot, and I'm kinda bummed that it's over, actually.

Violence is no more essential to any roleplay than sex. You can say someone had sex as easily as you can say someone got hurt. There is nothing vital about exploring the extent of the injuries in the graphic detail that makes violence a a sensitive subject.

So this can't be about what is essential, because frankly, we all indulge. We could all break down out threads into short and sweet posts of a few sentences, instead many of us will go for a few paragraphs instead.

From where I'm standing, to look at sex in roleplay and say, 'PORN!' is the attitude of the immature--whether or not they like that, or not. You'll find that erotic-fiction is not as heavily guarded as video or photo porn. You are not expected to pay to view it, you only have to provide proof of age.

Now. Not all forums are run off forums whose TOS explicitly state nothing over PG-13. The fact that legally, written erotica is not treated the same as visual proves that they are not the same thing. To lump them together is pretty clumsy. Written violence carries the same sort of warnings as written sexual scenes.

I put both violence and sex on the same wavelength. Both can be offensive and you take equal risk with writing them both. I believe in letting people pick and choose what they want to read, not censor an entire board for the sake of a couple of people. So I like warnings placed on threads and individual posts to better ensure people only read the things that won't offend them.

I suspect I went off topic a bit somewhere there :X

I agree that violence and sex should be treated with the same amount of respect and maturity.



But I don't agree with the rationale that people are more likely to talk while they are having a physical altercation than while having sex, and therefore it is more acceptable because character development is more likely to happen. People, every person is different and every time is different! I've had full blown conversations while having sex! It's not that weird. It's weirder to think that you're not allowed to talk while having sex. And really, if I was getting beat up by someone, I doubt we'd be speaking to one another civilly. If we were sparing, sure. If we were hell bent on destroying each other, probably not so much. Aren't you more likely to talk with someone you love than someone you hate?

Whoa...

People admitting they were masturbating at the moment during the thread, that's pretty sad. Personally, I wouldn't be freaked out. I would probably razz and make fun of them. It's even funnier if the female character is role-played by a guy.

I do have one example.

It took place on XIN 2. And yes, this involved the player known as "Karl." When I found out about this, I couldn't help but laugh. XIN 2's rules strictly say that no graphic displays of sex can be posted. Violations will warrant a banning. Karl is notorious for pushing the envelope on it. But, that's a different story.

But IC sex through PMs and IMs are completely different story. However, I would compare it to nothing more than cyber-sex.

XIN 2 uses a stat system for combat. You have your base stats and your item stats. The 2 main ways of getting items is through quests or using the board currency to purchase items from the shop.

There was this one player with a female character that needed cash to buy an item. Karl offered to give the cash for an "internet favor." Possibly IC sex or cyber-sex. Don't know, don't care...

However, once Karl found out the girl was role-played by a guy, he demanded his money back. Not sure if it's really true. But knowing Karl, I strongly do believe it's the case.

The funny thing I find in regards to sex on forums is that players are some assumptive.

But in regards to sex vs. violence, I have to say that violence is more graphic. Violence is when you're inflicting pain, misery, death, etc on other people. People get hurt and people get killed.

In regards to sex, it's a beautiful and pleasurable thing. Nobody got hurt and nobody got killed.

While rape is forced sex, there is still the violence involved. Most cases, rape is all about humiliation and dominance over the victim.

I can pretty much compare it to real life. We see two or more people doing it on TV, so what? But people freak out.

When we see violence on TV such as dead bodies, etc, we hardly freak out. We go "that's terrible" and be on our merry ways.

I'm perfectly fine with sex and violence in RPGs, though I'm not the best at writing either. But I will. It's been ages since I've done a lot of in character battling and in character sex though. But that's to be changing. Well, at least the battling anyway. BLOOD! Woo.

However, I can read either without a problem. The sex scene don't make me uncomfortable at all. And I don't find either more mature than the other. Though I guess I'm old in the fact that I think both should be for mature audiences, and I will not play out a serious "love" scene with an underage player. Even kissing scenes make me uncomfortable when played wither younger people. Even though I'm not kissing them. All I can think about is that -kid- on the other side of the connection.

But, I think it comes from that old Puritan way America had back in the day. At least, you know, for Americans view on sex as being taboo. It's getting better however.

Although, I must say, I don't like sex scenes in my movies all the freaking time. It gets really tiring when you're watching an action moving with the family, and all of a sudden, BAM! they through a sex scene right in the middle where we don't need. >< I'd rather get on with you know.. the action.

Edit: Oh, the masturbating thing. Wouldn't care. I mean, I'm not going to be double clicking my mouse over a post, but hey, if someone else wants to, I won't begrudge them their fun. I mean, some steamy threads can be very well written. ^^

At the risk of being TMI, I agree thar! xD Because the same is true for me. It's never been a silent thing for me. Heck, my partner and I, we were downright immature and goofy during it. And we also had full blown conversations. For some people it might be a non-verbal thing, but in my case it sure wasn't. There was a LOT of talking.

Sometimes about really important things. :3 Really, being in a sitiuation like that can really open you up and make you admit things you might never normally admit, and that happened with us on more than one occassion.

I also don't think it has to be perfect. My RPed sex scenes rarely are, because honestly, just as I see the humor in it IRL, I see the humor in the written version. IRL, funny shiznit happens. You say stupid things at weird moments, you get caught up in clothes, your arm falls asleep, you accidentally tickle the other person and get whacked, there's performance anxiety, among pleeenty of other things...really, it's not all graceful and choreographed like in movies. P:

I'm just glad my RP partners share in my sense of humor...because while I can write romance where romance is called for, I am incapable of writing perfection. xD A scene can be romantic AND people can still screw up. In fact, I think that makes it all the more charming, cute, and genuine. And funny. I like teh funnies. I take things far too...non-seriously--and I keep my character in character. If they're inexperienced, durnit, it's gonna show and they're probably gonna suck. It's not about my ego here, though my character's ego may be hurt. P:

But sex scenes also don't have to be romantic at all. People don't have to be in love to have sex--and they can still have just as much fun. P: And sex does not automatically lead to TWU WUV! Gaaaaaah. That drives me bonkers.

Also, just because a game allows sex doesn't necessarily mean it will have a lot of that in it. Speaking from personal experience, my own games allow it--and in the case of Remnants of the Earth, which has been open for almost a year, there has only been one sex scene so far (if you could call it that, it was totally fade to black) and on Spirits of the Earth, in 8 years I can count the number on my fingers and still have room left over. :3

But in a nutshell? I don't see RPed sex as porn or unimportant (TOS rules and personal comfort levels aside...)

I simply see it as one of those things where you're either comfortable writing it, or you're not. One shouldn't judge the people who are comfortable writing it--it seems a bit immature. All the same, I would also flee from a game in which the majority of threads have a mature label, because, uhhh...despite what all the above might sound like, I actually don't write smut that much, and darnit, but I play for PLOT. If I wanted to just write smut, I'd join a game devoted to it.

Well some people are more opposed to violence then to sex and vice-versa. Sometimes both need to be rped out, sometimes not. On my board whenever sex is rped, its kept to the PMs mainly because none of us care to see other people's sex RPs and those engaging in it dont want others to see it.

It can be crucial to rp sex as I found out first hand. I had a character rape another character(obviously the owner of the character was on board with the idea) and that needed to be rped out because it had a drastic effect on both characters. The rapist actually became guilty and depressed afterwards and the victim , being a masochist, ended up liking it and gave in. They ended up hooking up afterwards when it was evident that temporal insanity was the motive and even lead to another character going insane and trying to kill everyone(he was the father of the victim o.O). My point is that none of those things would happened if it wasnt rped out.

So in my opinion freaking out over one and not the other can be ridiculous. Both happen and sometimes both are linked. But in the end its your preference :3

I love sex talk! But anyway....

I don't understand how it is a bad thing to RP out natural acts as what sex is, but it's alright to be hella violent without a thought.

You were created via sex. It was your daddy doing your mommy that created you. You weren't created asexually despite how funny that'd be. lol It's a natural part of life.

I can understand not wanting younger members to read it, but honestly, what eleven year old doesn't know about sex?! At least at that age more then half are like..."EW! SEX!" Kids are starting to have sex at 13! But it's okay if they participate in the extreme violence on your RP? Taboo? Not really. Hypocritical? Yes, muchly.

I enjoy sex and I enjoy violence...role playing. >> *cough* There shouldn't be an excuse for not showing one or the other.

FALSE! It was the fairy dust I tell you! The fairy dust! My parents, never, ever, did such a thing. They don't have the right parts. :o

Now that that is done with, I feel much better. Back to the topic at hand.

I have to say, I don't see visual pornography the same as I do written. Both, however, can be stimulating. Yet, I do really see rped sex as written erotica. I'm sure it falls under that classification, but it just isn't that for me -- though admittedly, it can be just as good, or better. But it doesn't have the same... flavor? They read just... too differently.

I think people are just really twisted up about sex. It is so taboo for so many people due to influences like society and religion. Think of those crazy puritans back in the day in America. But then, backback in the day, people were marrying off their thirteen year old daughters, and it was perfectly ok and natural for a teenage girl to have kids. The world is just plain wonky.

Have I replied to this topic? *scratches head* There have been so many like it that I can't recall.

Ahem.

I prefer violence over sex. Why? Because RP is for fun, and fun is killing people! Yay!

In all seriousness, I find RPing sex over the internet as uncomfortable because there are some wackos out there. So as a policy, I just don't RP sex. But more importantly, I like doing stuff in RPs that I can't do IRL--escapism ftw. I can have sex IRL . . . I can't kill people. (Well, I can, but the consequence would be dire, in the least.)

As far as one being more mature than the other. Um, neither are mature when taken in the context of RPing.

Well, see you guys. I'm off to go slaughter an entire village full of undead zombie werewolf vampire ghost things with a longsword.

I think as long as you mark the thread as mature in the topic title, there isn't a problem. I've roleplayed both and I have friends who do the same. I personally think it's to do with the person, if they aren't comfortable, they aren't comfortable, and that's okay, they don't have to do that, I've roleplayed the lead-up and the straight after, with people, because they aren't comfortable, and to be honest, I actually prefer that, but that might be because I'm not even 16 yet. But I've been brought up, and have been told by my teachers that I'm more mature than my age.

So I guess it could be the maturity of the people and not the content?

I think one of the main reasons why responses differ between the two is because of the nature of language.

For example, you can make a really detailed and very graphic post about a sexual act and you get the entire feeling of it. Nothing has been left out, you don't need to see a visualisation of it to have a very clear depiction.

Horrific violence on the other hand, no matter how detailed, does not carry the same effect unless you can see the blood and hear the pain and that sort of thing. I think it is much harder to get such a vivid image in your mind from a description.

Might just be my way of thinking though. But that is what I see the problem as.

I don't agree. Everyone experiences things differently. For me, violence has always been more graphic when I read it than when I see it in a movie (I don't know how I'd react to it in real life, as I have not seen any actual intense violence and I hope to keep it that way). My own internal interpretation will always be more graphic and more intense for myself than seeing someone else's visual interpretation. My mind is not limited by special effects or a budget or the skills of any particular actor or director.

For instance, I read the episode "Squeeze" of the TV series The X-Files before I actually saw it. It was terrifying and for a few days I was wary of small spaces and freaked out a little any time I noticed anything was out of place on my desk or dresser. Then I actually saw the episode and it wasn't nearly as scary as my mind had made it out to be. Sill scary, but to a lesser degree. I'm a huge fan of The X-Files, but I probably wouldn't have been if it had been solely a book series. It would have been too intense for me.

Go check some Clive Barker out of the library. I have severe 'Joey' moments with those horror books, always tempted to put them in the freezer >>. Given that violence is a small part of a bigger picture, I like to think I can get away, just this once, with comparing a roleplay post to a book's method, even though I typically abhor it. I believe you can get a bigger impact, a greater degree of sensation with books and violence because you can't see it. Your imagination runs wild and that's part of what makes reading and roleplaying good, isn't it?

Sex and violence are pretty even in my mind. Sex is more innocent, though, because who does it hurt? (If its consensual, ect.) Both parties want it, no one gets hurt, its natural, ect. ect. Violence is *un*natural. (I love violence, too, lol). It's meant to hurt someone.

I don't understand how thats more widely accepted then sex. *shrugs*

And Stephen King's written violence and horror makes me scared to turn the lights off at night. xD More so then many, many horror scenes in movies.