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dunmurderinI'm a ramblin' fool...
This is inspired by a post byseiberwing over at fanficrants about
a fairly typical female Decepticon OC.
Standard Disclaimer: A lot of stuff in here is coming straight out of my ass by way of my shaky recollections of things from the cartoon so a lot of it is probably flat out wrong. Be gentle.
This fic is pretty typical of a bunch of stuff that annoys me about some Transformers fanfic writers and their approach to gender and Transformers.
Primarily what annoys me in that fic (and others, this author is far from the only person who does this) is the idea that the Decepticons are a bunch of sexist frat boys who only think of using their female counterparts as pleasure drones. Yes, they're evil and I like them as evil but evil does not have to mean sexist. Decepticons admire one thing: strength. If you’re strong, it doesn’t matter what personal pronoun you use.
This is especially annoying when it comes to characters and fics that are being created by female fans. I mean, it doesn't make it any less annoying if Lady RealDoll is created by a male author but I am more inclined to expect stupid, sexist, stereotypical female characters from males. I expect female fans to be less inclined to create female characters who exist solely to be Male Leader's Girlfriend/Victim and more inclined to create female characters who can hold their own with the original characters without all this "I will prove myself as good as any male Decepticon!" bullshit.
Because, let's face it, most male Decepticons are idiots. I like to think that the female Decepticons all skipped Cybertron long before the Ark left and are on the Planet of Open-Minded Romance Novel Cover Models and Their Bishonen Friends sipping enercoladas and getting pederubs in between taking over huge sections of the galaxy with the sort of ruthless efficiency Megatron only has in his wildest dreams (no, not the ones about Starscream in a vat of enerpudding, the other wilder dreams).
(Megatron? Optimus? You thought the Swarm was bad? Ain't nothing compared to what's coming after you once they're finished mopping up the rest of the galaxy.)
Secondly, I’m annoyed by the idea that female Decepticons are somehow inherently weaker than their male counterparts. The Decepticons, if you go by the cartoon continuity, were created as military hardware. This is the whole cartoon canon basis for them being more aggressive and war-like. Granted, among humans the stereotype is that males are aggressive and females are nurturing but a) that's bullshit and b) Transformers are not humans. Yes, some Decepticons are going to be weaker than other ones, but it's probably going to go more along design lines than gender lines.
And this, to me, is the trickiest thing about Transformer gender. In humans, the different genders have different physical characteristics. The average male and the average female are different from one another in ways beyond how they go pee. Being male or female gives certain physical and social advantages that can be relatively easily pointed to.
Transformers don't. Or at least, have no reason to have these differences. It's ridiculous to think that a female tank is going to be weaker than a male tank since there's no strategic advantage to it. Smaller and weaker designs can easily be both male or female (or asexual, or what have you), depending on the preferences of the designer.
To me, what we call gender differences among Transformers amount to operating system differences. Femmes have a slightly different operating system than mechs do. What, precisely, those differences are I couldn't tell you anymore than I could tell you the differences between Macs and PCs but they're clearly significant since they are there and have continued to be propagated by the species.
Now, just as we have people who will go completely off their nut about the relative merits of Mac vs. PC, I’m sure there are those on Cybertron who felt that the femme OS wasn’t quite as flexible as the mech OS and vice versa, but again this would be more of a design conflict and likely of interest only to those Cybertronians who specialized in creating new Cybertronians (though both sides can agree that they really wish the fans of the asexual OS would just quit being so damn smug about how well it works across design specs).
‘Course now this gets into Transformer reproduction which is just fraught with possibilities (and drama). Which is actually one of the things I like about Transformers -- “Heather has Two Mommies” is nothing on “Megatron Has Six Daddies (Or Maybe Seven)” or “The Combaticons Have An Undisclosed Person or Persons And Then Later On Another Daddy” or “The Stunticons and the Aerialbots have Several Daddies and One Glowing Disco Fun Ball.” Then again, I’ve always been one to see the “Transformers Reproduction List” as more of a menu of choices available to the average Cybertronian rather than a set of separate options. After all, humans these days have a variety of ways to become parents so why can’t fictional alien robots?
And…I’m off topic…well, maybe not, since reproduction is pretty closely tied to most of the problems humans have when it comes to gender. Women take care of babies, men go make more. Except that Transformers don’t have to do that. In canon, most of the people we see reproducing are males. Females, particularly in the cartoon, don’t do a whole lot of nurturing. They don’t do a whole lot of anything since there are only about eight female Autobots in the original US G1 cartoon series (Arcee, Beta, Elita-1/Ariel, Chromia, Firestar, Moonracer and 2 unnamed femmes) and no Cybertronian-based female Decepticons that we’re aware of. (Nightbird was built on Earth and doesn’t count for the purposes of this example for reasons outlined below).
The “Cybertronian-based” distinction is important for this reason: humans aren’t the ones who told us that Elita-1, Chromia, Moonracer and Firestar are females. Shockwave is. “Female Autobots” is how the Transformers themselves refer to these characters in “Search for Alpha Trion“. Shockwave specifically feels the need to describe them as “Female” for some reason (other than that the scriptwriter decided to introduce female Autobots to the show not realizing that he/she was setting off DECADES of fan debate on the nature of Transformers and gender).
This is also the episode where we find out that female Autobots have been thought extinct. Which seems to be read by the fandom as meaning that female Transformers in general are rare, rather than just “Shockwave thought he’d killed off all the female Autobots and is really surprised he missed this bunch.”
Though, really the idea that female Transformers in general are rare does make more sense since we only see 2 female Cybertronians in the two episodes that show us the past (Beta and Ariel) and there is only one female Autobot post-Movie (Arcee).
Getting back to stuff touched on earlier in this rambling rant, I think the rarity of female Autobots is part of the reason we see so many female Decepticons who feel the need to prove themselves. It seems to me the idea is that if female Autobots are rare, female ‘Cons must be rarer still and therefore have a harder time being taken seriously by all the mean ol‘ mechs. (Though, I must admit I much prefer the idea that there *are* female Decepticons, they’re just running around with names like Brawl and Blitzwing and Trypticon rather than Lady Sunstarhoneymuffincocobutter).
But again, Decepticons admire strength, so the idea that a female -- particularly a female Seeker -- is going to be looked down upon just because she’s female is silly. Looked down on because she can’t or won’t fight sure, because then you are basically useless as far as the Empire is concerned. And as might be recalled from the movie, if you’re useless, you get voted off the shuttle.
I actually had more of a point here but I started this a couple days ago and I’m feeling woozy at the moment so I’m going to be a very bad writer and end it here.
Dun.
This is inspired by a post by
a fairly typical female Decepticon OC.
Standard Disclaimer: A lot of stuff in here is coming straight out of my ass by way of my shaky recollections of things from the cartoon so a lot of it is probably flat out wrong. Be gentle.
This fic is pretty typical of a bunch of stuff that annoys me about some Transformers fanfic writers and their approach to gender and Transformers.
Primarily what annoys me in that fic (and others, this author is far from the only person who does this) is the idea that the Decepticons are a bunch of sexist frat boys who only think of using their female counterparts as pleasure drones. Yes, they're evil and I like them as evil but evil does not have to mean sexist. Decepticons admire one thing: strength. If you’re strong, it doesn’t matter what personal pronoun you use.
This is especially annoying when it comes to characters and fics that are being created by female fans. I mean, it doesn't make it any less annoying if Lady RealDoll is created by a male author but I am more inclined to expect stupid, sexist, stereotypical female characters from males. I expect female fans to be less inclined to create female characters who exist solely to be Male Leader's Girlfriend/Victim and more inclined to create female characters who can hold their own with the original characters without all this "I will prove myself as good as any male Decepticon!" bullshit.
Because, let's face it, most male Decepticons are idiots. I like to think that the female Decepticons all skipped Cybertron long before the Ark left and are on the Planet of Open-Minded Romance Novel Cover Models and Their Bishonen Friends sipping enercoladas and getting pederubs in between taking over huge sections of the galaxy with the sort of ruthless efficiency Megatron only has in his wildest dreams (no, not the ones about Starscream in a vat of enerpudding, the other wilder dreams).
(Megatron? Optimus? You thought the Swarm was bad? Ain't nothing compared to what's coming after you once they're finished mopping up the rest of the galaxy.)
Secondly, I’m annoyed by the idea that female Decepticons are somehow inherently weaker than their male counterparts. The Decepticons, if you go by the cartoon continuity, were created as military hardware. This is the whole cartoon canon basis for them being more aggressive and war-like. Granted, among humans the stereotype is that males are aggressive and females are nurturing but a) that's bullshit and b) Transformers are not humans. Yes, some Decepticons are going to be weaker than other ones, but it's probably going to go more along design lines than gender lines.
And this, to me, is the trickiest thing about Transformer gender. In humans, the different genders have different physical characteristics. The average male and the average female are different from one another in ways beyond how they go pee. Being male or female gives certain physical and social advantages that can be relatively easily pointed to.
Transformers don't. Or at least, have no reason to have these differences. It's ridiculous to think that a female tank is going to be weaker than a male tank since there's no strategic advantage to it. Smaller and weaker designs can easily be both male or female (or asexual, or what have you), depending on the preferences of the designer.
To me, what we call gender differences among Transformers amount to operating system differences. Femmes have a slightly different operating system than mechs do. What, precisely, those differences are I couldn't tell you anymore than I could tell you the differences between Macs and PCs but they're clearly significant since they are there and have continued to be propagated by the species.
Now, just as we have people who will go completely off their nut about the relative merits of Mac vs. PC, I’m sure there are those on Cybertron who felt that the femme OS wasn’t quite as flexible as the mech OS and vice versa, but again this would be more of a design conflict and likely of interest only to those Cybertronians who specialized in creating new Cybertronians (though both sides can agree that they really wish the fans of the asexual OS would just quit being so damn smug about how well it works across design specs).
‘Course now this gets into Transformer reproduction which is just fraught with possibilities (and drama). Which is actually one of the things I like about Transformers -- “Heather has Two Mommies” is nothing on “Megatron Has Six Daddies (Or Maybe Seven)” or “The Combaticons Have An Undisclosed Person or Persons And Then Later On Another Daddy” or “The Stunticons and the Aerialbots have Several Daddies and One Glowing Disco Fun Ball.” Then again, I’ve always been one to see the “Transformers Reproduction List” as more of a menu of choices available to the average Cybertronian rather than a set of separate options. After all, humans these days have a variety of ways to become parents so why can’t fictional alien robots?
And…I’m off topic…well, maybe not, since reproduction is pretty closely tied to most of the problems humans have when it comes to gender. Women take care of babies, men go make more. Except that Transformers don’t have to do that. In canon, most of the people we see reproducing are males. Females, particularly in the cartoon, don’t do a whole lot of nurturing. They don’t do a whole lot of anything since there are only about eight female Autobots in the original US G1 cartoon series (Arcee, Beta, Elita-1/Ariel, Chromia, Firestar, Moonracer and 2 unnamed femmes) and no Cybertronian-based female Decepticons that we’re aware of. (Nightbird was built on Earth and doesn’t count for the purposes of this example for reasons outlined below).
The “Cybertronian-based” distinction is important for this reason: humans aren’t the ones who told us that Elita-1, Chromia, Moonracer and Firestar are females. Shockwave is. “Female Autobots” is how the Transformers themselves refer to these characters in “Search for Alpha Trion“. Shockwave specifically feels the need to describe them as “Female” for some reason (other than that the scriptwriter decided to introduce female Autobots to the show not realizing that he/she was setting off DECADES of fan debate on the nature of Transformers and gender).
This is also the episode where we find out that female Autobots have been thought extinct. Which seems to be read by the fandom as meaning that female Transformers in general are rare, rather than just “Shockwave thought he’d killed off all the female Autobots and is really surprised he missed this bunch.”
Though, really the idea that female Transformers in general are rare does make more sense since we only see 2 female Cybertronians in the two episodes that show us the past (Beta and Ariel) and there is only one female Autobot post-Movie (Arcee).
Getting back to stuff touched on earlier in this rambling rant, I think the rarity of female Autobots is part of the reason we see so many female Decepticons who feel the need to prove themselves. It seems to me the idea is that if female Autobots are rare, female ‘Cons must be rarer still and therefore have a harder time being taken seriously by all the mean ol‘ mechs. (Though, I must admit I much prefer the idea that there *are* female Decepticons, they’re just running around with names like Brawl and Blitzwing and Trypticon rather than Lady Sunstarhoneymuffincocobutter).
But again, Decepticons admire strength, so the idea that a female -- particularly a female Seeker -- is going to be looked down upon just because she’s female is silly. Looked down on because she can’t or won’t fight sure, because then you are basically useless as far as the Empire is concerned. And as might be recalled from the movie, if you’re useless, you get voted off the shuttle.
I actually had more of a point here but I started this a couple days ago and I’m feeling woozy at the moment so I’m going to be a very bad writer and end it here.
Dun.
