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Forums » RP Discussion » Speciesism in RPs

Sans (played anonymously)

This is my first post in "RP Discussion" so please let me know kindly if I'm doing anything wrong.

Doing this with the char who runs into it most (plus anon coz i don't wanna post on my real account). Also this post is not an IC, if you want in character content, hmu privately to RP (info here). but thats beside the point.

Today I wanna ask and talk about a world where "speciesism" might come into play.
(also sorry about spelling, I'm a little dyslecsic)

Often when RPing this char, especially in modern overground settings. It comes up a lot that "what if monsters being in to a human world showed a lot of problems and new laws and rules would have to come into play".

We often overlook the fact that everyones different in your everyday fantasies, in a world where all manner of creatures roam around. But we do see differences in media. If you look at beastars, zootopia or the bojack horseman world (to name a few), you can see that built into the world alone are differences, like every entry way has two doors, one for smaller creatures and one for taller creatures.
Or in a more high fantasy setting, if you came across, for example, a centaur village, as a human, you might have trouble finding a bed that is made for your stature. See: this image about centaur beds for an idea of what i'm talking about.

Another topic that intrested me was tattoos / body mods, and this is why I am posting as Sans, how would a skeleton get a tattoo, as tattoos are a kind of scar on skin? An intresting answer to this I saw on a tumblr, so I can 't take credit is bone carving (mild trigger warning: pictures of clean bones). But where would it be done? A woodworker? A specialist? Would regular tatoo parlours have to imploy someome who knew how? Would pearcing and tattoo places need to imploy at least one "monster specialist"?
What other body mods could fantasy creatures get that humans can't? Hoof manicures? Horn carving?
And how would tattoos work on fur, scales or inhuman skin colors like blue, dark black, red?

What kind of laws do you think would come into place in a world where fantasy creatures started to intergrate into a modern society?
Do you think people would see them as second class citezens? Would buildings have to be changed for very tall, very small, flying creatures?
One idea for a law was "no monster is to raise their magic against a human to threten or harm" which makes sense because it could be seen as the magic equivelent of pulling a knife or a gun. But what do you think about that?

Do you think they'd be allowed to work in shops or do you think you'd see stuff like "human aplicants only" on job aplications, or "Profesional couples only, No pets, No Monster" on housing listings?
What about humans with powers in a setting like this? Would they be seen as human or moster? What laws would apply to "supernaturals" or "magic users"?

Edit: Another thing I thought of- do you think monster products would be a thing? Sure products for just monsters like horn polish or big shampoo bottles for furry creatures but I mean more like, an anthro sheeps wool or a cow ladys milk or bird peoples eggs. Could deers donate their skulls after death to be mounted? That kinda thing. Stuff that creatres create naturally.

How do you think relationships would be taken? Would there be rules about who humans and monster could date? beastars spoilers: When the wolf and rabit are looking for a hotel, they have to find one that says "mixed species couples welcome". Implying some placed will turn away mixed species couples. Would there be hybrids or would the "bioligy" not line up? Would mixed couples who aren't compatable be able to adopt? Would they even be called "mixed couples"?

I know in a perfect fantasy world, the answers to all these things would be posetive and all creatures would live together in harmony, but i'm not really talking about a perfect world. I'm talking about a somewhat realistic world. As realistic as magical talking skeletons and half horse half people creatures get.
How dark do you think a RP world like this could get? Like where they make all mosters/supernaturals wear badges or identifiers. Or as bad as district 9 where they're made to live somewhere horrible?
Misc questions: How do you think "cultural apropriation" would come into play? How would centaurs view horse racing? How would merfolk see eating fish? How would 'furries' of edible speciese view meat - or their animal counterpart? (as in how would a sheep furry respond to mutton being a thing, or meeting an actual sheep)

Disclaimer: Please don't talk very deep into real R*cism in this chat. I am only intrested in a fantasy sense, hence using "speciesism" and not the R word.

But yeah, I'd like to hear what you think about this stuff, maybe build a little bit of a world to play in eventually. Its just something I've been thinking about for a while now.

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