"LiELF;c-18041780" wrote:
"Metior_Ice;c-18041622" wrote:
This reminds me of the difference between mermaid, merman, and merperson. The game uses the term mermaid for the occult, but that is 100% female and doesn't represent the opposite gender. The term mermaid literally means "Maiden of the Sea" because "Mer" is a prefix that modifies the root "Maiden."
I know that my non-trans and binary sims do not identify as women or maidens. I'm 100% for non-binary representation, but if they choose to use non-binary language, they should actually use non-binary/ gender neutral terms. In this case, "Mermaid" is not an accurate representation of "Merfolk", "Merpeople", or "Merperson".
My point is that, if you choose to represent a group, you should use more accurate language if you care about achieving equal representation for that group.
Right now, they call the "Mermadic" or "Mer" occult "Mermaid" in CAS, but not every Mer is a mermaid.
For my game, I see them as a matriarchal society where the umbrella term for the species is "Mermaids" though in my head there are also "Mermen" when referring to males specifically. Kind of the way "man" and "mankind" has been used as an umbrella term for bipedal humanoids but "women" exist among us. I personally tend to refer to them as "Merfolk" in general, but I've also accepted "Mermaid" as the default term.
There's a hobby called mermaiding and the hobby includes mostly women and girls, but there are still men and boys involved in the hobby too. The hobby itself is a global activity with groups near large bodies of water.
Personally, I haven't gotten to do any of that any time recently since Covid started and group activities became more difficult to feel comfortable doing.
However, the point I'm trying to make is that the people most involved in the mermaiding hobby use the term: Pod for groups and generally use the term Merfolk or Mer as an Umbrella term.
Mermaiding also includes people that are part of the LGBTQ community. So, this topic comes up a lot.
