Wow, I stay out of this thread for a little while, and... Well... Some crap has happened, eh? Forgive my coming late to the party, but I felt a need to throw in my two cents on a few points.
shockblast2 wrote:Ummm...they are not "male". They don't have a p*nis. Nor do they have testicles or the power to reproduce sexually.
So, according too you, in order to be male you have to possess functional male reproductive organs, yes? So, how do you define anyone who had some kind of accident which damaged their sexual organs? Or people who happen to be born infertile? Do these people suddenly loose their right to be male? Are they now genderless?
For that matter, what about transgender people? If someone happened to be born male, even if they identify differently, will you still insist that they are male? Like Loretta here:
Would you deny her the right to be a woman? (Even if she doesn't have a womb...) You're no better than the Judia People's Front! (Or was that the Popular People's Front?)
Or the opposite, if someone was born female, but identifies as male, since they don't have a penis (or, if post-op, are still incapable of producing sperm and are thus lacking "the power to reproduce sexually") do you still insist that they are female?
shockblast2 wrote:They are genderless inorganic robots with personalities.
I don't read the comics, so I cannot comment in regards to some of the responses of others, who have pointed out that in recent comics Transformers are actually organic beings based on silicon rather than carbon. (Like the Horta, I suppose.) But even coming at this strictly from the POV of the G1 cartoon, since when are Transformers genderless?
They have sentience and personalities... Are these personalities not allowed to identify with one gender or the other? You seem to have no problem with the majority of them having "male" personalities. Why is "male" the default? If gender was not an issue, should they not just speak with a non gender-specific synthesized voice? Should they not use gender neutral pronouns?
Why anyone should have a problem with female Transformers is beyond me. Female Transformers have existed in canon since the second season of the television show. It just took a long time before we got any toys of them. Yes,
most Transformers are male. There is a very simple reason for this: the cartoons and toys are marketed mainly towards male children, who tend to identify more with male characters. The same reason the majority of G.I. Joe characters are male, although there are a few females. And whenever a female toy is made, you never hear anyone going, "Oh my god, what? Female humans? That's ridiculous!" Conversely, most My Little Pony characters are female since that show is targeted towards girls, but there are some male ponies.
Female Transformers are a thing, and
not a bad thing. The only complaint I would have is (Arcee aside, as she has an established design) there is no reason female Transformers should need to have bodies that conform to a human female aesthetic, with a wide bust, thin waist, wide hips, slender legs, and high heals (to make it extra fun trying too get the toy to stand). Such designs tend to lead to kibble-tastic shell-formers. But that is a toy design argument, separate from the issue of if Transformers should have different genders.
Recently we got three female Transformers. Even if a greater percentage then the average over the entirety of the franchise, this is a small number compared to the total number of Transformers released with the same time period. Most fans have welcomed it. Hell, one of those three was created specifically due to fan demand. If you don't like it, ah well. Three less figures for you to buy. You still have plenty of options. And even if, by chance, these new fan-built bots are also all female, then cool! Sucks for you, maybe, but oh well. Guess what? They'll still be a minority, and there will still be
plenty of male characters for you to buy.
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