Va'al wrote:And again, male pronouns are used by default. Therefore introducing an element of gender in the representation of the characters, even if they do not identify with gender themselves (as characters).
In *no way* can anyone claim that introducing more female characters in a male-dominated franchise, universe, and brand is offensive to the male side of the fandom/creators. I'm sorry, but no, that is one thing that does not, and cannot hold. How is this not part of these other 'actual causes'? As Scott said herself, these comics do not exist in a vacuum. Nor does the brand, or the industry. It exists in a society that does distinguish, in a more or less informed manner, between different genders, or different points on the gender spectrum, including through language. And that is why, even though this incarnation of the chracters is 'genderless', the discussion must be had, is being had and needs a nudge in the right direction for full representation.
Please tell me where I stated I was offended by more female characters being introduced.
You have to view this in context, this is not about the whole brand or franchise, if this was then I would have zero problem, this is about the
idw G1 universe, the one this comic will be set in. That universe has zero male Transformers, because in the
idw G1 universe, the Transformers species is genderless.
And in the
idw G1 universe Arcee and Windblade are the only Transformers
with a gender till now, all the others have no gender.
Jihaxus wanted to introduce genders into the species, but so far we only got to meet Arcee, it was however implied that there where more that where part of that experiment.
What we also need to keep in mind was that Simon Furman was cut short and couldn't finish his intended story line, there was something bigger going on with Gorlam Prime turning mechanic, people and planet. Even going so far as renaming the planet Cybertron. Gorlam Prime was again an experiment by Jihaxus. Who knows what we would have learned had Furman been able to continue. We do know that he intended for there no not be Primus in this incarnation, so we might have learned that the TF used to be an organic species but evolved into a mechanical one. And after no-longer needing to reproduce sexually dropped the two genders, and keeping the male pronouns as a standard way to refer to each other for one way or another. Maybe because all the females died or something. They did automatically refer to Arcee as a she, without noticing. So who knows?
That's in universe, real world wise it's because this franchise has always been mostly boy focused with most of the characters being traditionally male and as such are referred to as such. Sadly the English language, like many languages differentiates between female and male, hence the He and She.
As to why this is not one of those actual causes is simple:
All those other causes take place in worlds where there exist genders, they take place in worlds that are about us humans. And the human species is made up of females and males in a roughly 50:50 ratio.
There genders are the norm, as thus excluding one gender in favor of the other is abnormal and deplorable.
Here however, we have a species that is naturally
genderless, as in no females and no males.
The
idw G1 universe is not representative of Transformers as a whole, right from the start it was designed to be separate and different from the others, no genders, no Primus, no Unicron, no religion, no creation myth.
Most of this has changed, especially since Roberts though.
So, yes, creating a new female character for this incarnation and claiming it to be a victory for equality and inclusion is a piss in the wind. It would be a win and wholly justified if this was a comic set in the Aligned continuity, as in Prime, WFC/FOC, and Rescue Bots.
Va'al wrote:In other news:
You know what would be awesome
An Elita-1 that can turn into a truck and bench-press Optimus Prime.
Can you imagine how happy I would be
[heavy breathing]
(from
http://mscottwrites.tumblr.com/ )
That is awesome.