Add Female Shopkeepers
Shopkeeper sexism as implemented doesn't make sense, but giving shopkeepers a gender would solve.
I know that I'm inviting plenty of "why does this matter" comments by raising yet another gender issue, but the fact remains that many people of both sexes actually play this game, so I think this should at least be addressed.
The current system has shopkeepers adjusting their prices for males based on Charisma, and for females based on Appearance. While some specific shopkeepers would certainly be prejudiced like this, the idea that a 7,500-year-old Mist Elf Shopkeeper and a 16-year-old Troll Shopkeeper would be sexist in the exact same way seems a bit absurd.
I'm certain it was not in any way the intent, but this universal response has the effect of making the game mechanics themselves appear sexist. It creates a direct statement that men succeed in commerce by virtue of their ability to be outgoing and friendly, and women only if they're lucky enough to be beautiful.
After consideration of multiple options and some input from the community, I believe the best solution would be to introduce *female* shopkeepers to the game — going out on a limb here, I know. :) Let them have the opposite prejudices that the current all-male ones have, maybe with a bit of variation to that prejudice based on culture (i.e., Gray Elves might be less sexist than Orcs) and/or random factors to reflect individuality — shopkeepers do tend to have a bit more personality than most other creatures in the game, after all.