Joerg made some good points about the practicalities of early cookery: OK, thanks. For "cook dinner" substitute "mend ripped tunic", and I hope the point I was trying to make still works.
Sergio and I seem to be at cross purposes? (Much snipping...)
Me:
> The examples Sergio gave....seem to me to depend .... on the common RW
> idea that men are always better than womne at everything,
Sergio:
> Where did you get that idea? AFAIK, this is a contemporary western
> ideological construct which is not in any sense universal. No culture
> I know (except western culture and only since the 19th century)....
Yes, exactly. That's the RW. The one I live in: the one most Digesters
live in, I suspect. Comparisons with cultures we *don't* have in
common wouldn't have helped, and I didn't try.
On my Cedric/Rowena exmaple, he says:
> This example corresponds, AFAIK, to the norm in European societies, a
> norm that goes back for centuries, even millenia.
Well, I hope so. Not living in ancient/medieval times, I wouldn't know.
But that was exactly the point I was making: under primitive
conditions, such role-sharing would be essential.
And unfortunately, my example of:
> The stereo-typical western male who can't cook, won't cook, and
> buys a burger if a meal isn't provided ....
- -.. can be found in many of the offices where I work. No longer the
norm, thank goodness, but it used to be. If Sergio finds this
unbelieveable, I'll have to consider moving to Portugal. They must be a
nice bunch out there.
As I see it, this occasional low-level role-swapping would make permanent role-swapping (like Geo as a prof. cook) easier. The roles are still defined as either male or female, but not as exclusively. Both genders have the basic skills and can expand on them rather than having to learn from scratch. Other than that, no, it doesn't matter enormously in game terms. Well, maybe: it means you can just assume that everyone has a certain set of basic skills, without worrying about gender. Unless of course they're too Noble to be Useful, or from a different culture that prizes different skills.
Of course, Yelmies have problems: but Yelmies *deserve* problems!
Bryan Maloney's comments: yes! Thanks Bryan, nice one!
Jane Williams jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/gloranth/
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