ManicMan
Lord
I was thinking about this the other day, So I decided to do this little thing..
I have had discussions with people on the topic of female and male 'roles' in fantasy, Personally, I feel the 'almost naked muscle man' is as equally sexualised as the 'almost naked female' in fantasy, even though a debate can be said that the man is 'idolised' for the male reader, and the female is the sex object.. I would equality say the male is a sex object and how for some reason, most female barbarians (to take a good barely clothed, muscled example) normally wears WAY more then the Male anyway.. but I'll skip over that part and mostly look at groups as a whole.. Mostly Warhammer but other stuff..
Most Troop figures are Male. Pure and simple. Some of that is based on History, where the females weren't the fighting force, apart from in some 'myths' and groups where they were (Shield Maidens, Amazons, alot of old British clan tribes had strong female leaders, Vikings also had some strong female fighters etc).. so okay.. Most human race troops are male. and we do kinda get a lesser but fair shown amount of females in said Shield Maidens, Amazons, Vikings etc. We also seam to get a number of female Elves though.. techinally, all elves should looks kinda feminine in build so.. gets a bit tricky.
Firmir or whatever you want to call versions they are based on or based on them, don't have females for.. quite clear reasons (though they haven't stop some... not very intelligent people doing human females with one eye and calling it a female Firmir sculpt... sigh.. do your research people).. we kinda have to say that firmir are a bit.. chaotic in there biology to make perfect sense but it's possible.. They are lizard like so we can take a fantasy version of things like the Desert Whiptail lizard (of which, there are only females in the species) to make things possible.. though not to the extreme they have (yes.. they reproduce by them selves as a totally female only species)
Skaven have a ... interesting. They kinda bring me to mind one of the kinda HUGE mistakes in the book 'Watership Down'.. In that, they Rabbits are male, with the females mostly brought in for mating as they couldn't keep the new warren working without them to help reproduce.. though Rabbits are a female led species... really, all the genders needed to be swapped in the book. Skaven backstory says these rats are Male, with the Females as 'Brood mothers', only there to reproduce the species.. unlike Earth Rats, where the Females are smarter (although while Males can tell Strangers from friends as juveniles, females can't tell until they are adolescence). So really.. Females should make up alot of Clan Skyre.. But backstory says no, so the lack of female Skaven makes sense for what there backstory is, BUT doesn't logically make sense for Rats. So I would say, this is a gender bias decision, compared to the Firmir where it's purely based on the mythological species origin
Dwarves can be next.. In myth, you can't tell a female from a male for the most part. both are bearded, squat and kinda chubby (or atleast due to clothing/armour they wear) fine for the mines and stuff. Warhammer does seam to treat them generally as Male but figures could be male or female without really being able to tell (apart from ones like Troll Slayers which.. due to the human like build, you would notice a difference). In backstory, it's a gender bias decision again.
Goblinoid so Orcs and Goblins.. mm.. oh dear.. Goblins themselves are.. well.. 'Kobold, Goblin, and hobgoblin are kinda the same thing.. though later skipt up and stuff.. Kobolds are... phallic elf sprites in Greek and roman myth which puts them more on the male side. In fact, due to what was seen as the troublsome and 'posionous' nature, the element cobalt was named for them. Of course, over time various sprites have.. split into Boggarts, Hobgoblins, goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, Pixies, Brownies etc.. getting very complex.. SO going with Warhammer.. well.. it seams to depend on when you pick but.. they are generally genderless but ones have been seen with male sexual characteristics and some with female sexual characterises.. So I'm gonna have to leave it to others to help out a bit here.. I think it does come to gender Bias again though (which If I haven't explained is where they go with Male because the creators and most of the people playing are Male when it could or should be more split.)
Elves are traditionally very feminine in build, Warhammer has been fairly equal with Male and female sculpts so.. not much to say
Undead.. I don't believe sculpting at the size is 'good enough' to really have the difference between Male and Female Skeletons and they are rarely treated as Characters to have much difference anyway. Mummies are kinda the same though female is possible, they are mostly male but could be hard to say. Zombies however.. Mostly Male.. No real reason.. They are based on the 'Ghoul' style Zombie so could be male or female but mostly male.. Gender bias. Ghouls (in Warhammer style), Ghosts and a few other types again, can be either male or female but mostly implied for male. Vampires mostly male but do a number of females so that's about right.
Chaos.. .. Oh hard to say in some cases but have some which are clearly male, have some which are clearly female. So.. gonna go with about right
Giants only appear to be Male. Anyone seen a Citadel Female giant? or any lore with female giants?
What next? Suggestions on a post card please
I have had discussions with people on the topic of female and male 'roles' in fantasy, Personally, I feel the 'almost naked muscle man' is as equally sexualised as the 'almost naked female' in fantasy, even though a debate can be said that the man is 'idolised' for the male reader, and the female is the sex object.. I would equality say the male is a sex object and how for some reason, most female barbarians (to take a good barely clothed, muscled example) normally wears WAY more then the Male anyway.. but I'll skip over that part and mostly look at groups as a whole.. Mostly Warhammer but other stuff..
Most Troop figures are Male. Pure and simple. Some of that is based on History, where the females weren't the fighting force, apart from in some 'myths' and groups where they were (Shield Maidens, Amazons, alot of old British clan tribes had strong female leaders, Vikings also had some strong female fighters etc).. so okay.. Most human race troops are male. and we do kinda get a lesser but fair shown amount of females in said Shield Maidens, Amazons, Vikings etc. We also seam to get a number of female Elves though.. techinally, all elves should looks kinda feminine in build so.. gets a bit tricky.
Firmir or whatever you want to call versions they are based on or based on them, don't have females for.. quite clear reasons (though they haven't stop some... not very intelligent people doing human females with one eye and calling it a female Firmir sculpt... sigh.. do your research people).. we kinda have to say that firmir are a bit.. chaotic in there biology to make perfect sense but it's possible.. They are lizard like so we can take a fantasy version of things like the Desert Whiptail lizard (of which, there are only females in the species) to make things possible.. though not to the extreme they have (yes.. they reproduce by them selves as a totally female only species)
Skaven have a ... interesting. They kinda bring me to mind one of the kinda HUGE mistakes in the book 'Watership Down'.. In that, they Rabbits are male, with the females mostly brought in for mating as they couldn't keep the new warren working without them to help reproduce.. though Rabbits are a female led species... really, all the genders needed to be swapped in the book. Skaven backstory says these rats are Male, with the Females as 'Brood mothers', only there to reproduce the species.. unlike Earth Rats, where the Females are smarter (although while Males can tell Strangers from friends as juveniles, females can't tell until they are adolescence). So really.. Females should make up alot of Clan Skyre.. But backstory says no, so the lack of female Skaven makes sense for what there backstory is, BUT doesn't logically make sense for Rats. So I would say, this is a gender bias decision, compared to the Firmir where it's purely based on the mythological species origin
Dwarves can be next.. In myth, you can't tell a female from a male for the most part. both are bearded, squat and kinda chubby (or atleast due to clothing/armour they wear) fine for the mines and stuff. Warhammer does seam to treat them generally as Male but figures could be male or female without really being able to tell (apart from ones like Troll Slayers which.. due to the human like build, you would notice a difference). In backstory, it's a gender bias decision again.
Goblinoid so Orcs and Goblins.. mm.. oh dear.. Goblins themselves are.. well.. 'Kobold, Goblin, and hobgoblin are kinda the same thing.. though later skipt up and stuff.. Kobolds are... phallic elf sprites in Greek and roman myth which puts them more on the male side. In fact, due to what was seen as the troublsome and 'posionous' nature, the element cobalt was named for them. Of course, over time various sprites have.. split into Boggarts, Hobgoblins, goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, Pixies, Brownies etc.. getting very complex.. SO going with Warhammer.. well.. it seams to depend on when you pick but.. they are generally genderless but ones have been seen with male sexual characteristics and some with female sexual characterises.. So I'm gonna have to leave it to others to help out a bit here.. I think it does come to gender Bias again though (which If I haven't explained is where they go with Male because the creators and most of the people playing are Male when it could or should be more split.)
Elves are traditionally very feminine in build, Warhammer has been fairly equal with Male and female sculpts so.. not much to say
Undead.. I don't believe sculpting at the size is 'good enough' to really have the difference between Male and Female Skeletons and they are rarely treated as Characters to have much difference anyway. Mummies are kinda the same though female is possible, they are mostly male but could be hard to say. Zombies however.. Mostly Male.. No real reason.. They are based on the 'Ghoul' style Zombie so could be male or female but mostly male.. Gender bias. Ghouls (in Warhammer style), Ghosts and a few other types again, can be either male or female but mostly implied for male. Vampires mostly male but do a number of females so that's about right.
Chaos.. .. Oh hard to say in some cases but have some which are clearly male, have some which are clearly female. So.. gonna go with about right
Giants only appear to be Male. Anyone seen a Citadel Female giant? or any lore with female giants?
What next? Suggestions on a post card please
As to the less human and non-human figures the problem might be that sex doesn't work the same way in other species as it does in us. (As has been noted in some spider and frog references.)