So I've Been Reading Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40,000 Novels...
And they're pretty darned good. Like Sharpe's Rifles in space.
And Mr. Abnett, while most of his soldiers are male, eventually adds a few kickass female soldiers and characters to the mix.
Which brings me to the point of this blog post. Long ago, apparently in an issue of the old gaming mag White Dwarf someone involved with Games Workshop (the guys who creared Warhammer 40,000, from now on referred to as 40k) decided that the setting's big badass default protagonists were all dudes.
They made some noise about the special genetic process only working on guys and suggested maybe the space marine power armor only hooked up to the user's dick.* And so like the Little Rascals, the Space Marines pinned up signs outside their Chapter Houses that said "No Girls Allowed." They may have also said "Let not a Vagina taint the purity of our Chapter" because the Space Marines can be dicks like that.
So you'd think that over the 25 or so years that 40K has been around someone would say "Man this is stupid. Let's have chick Space Marines. It will be badass! They could be like Michelle Rodriguez without the DIUs! It will be awesome!"
Well, you'd think that. But no. Apparently in the super enlightened 2010 in the "Tell me again how much more liberal you are than me, Mr. non-US UK-living person" they haven't bothered to say "Boobs and bolters** do in fact mix!"
Now to be fair, the designers have added the Sisters of Battle as a playable army and these girls even got their own expansion in the 40K inspired Dawn of War video game series. These Sisters are like the worse (or best, depending on your views) nuns you've even seen. Nuns in power armor. Nuns that will fucking cut you.
But they're still not Space Marines. In fact, the Space Marines are a whole other branch of the Imperium, who are the human faction i the 40k setting (think Roman Nazis who worship a Psychic Undead Pharoh and are totally heavy metal and you've basically got the idea).
So what's up? I dunno. But apparently I was informed by some folks online that when this subject is brought up in various forums people go apeshit. Some folks freak out about girl marines. Others love the idea. And like the great Space Marine Chapters the Steel Sharks and Bloody Jets they fight. And sadly, I can totally see this happening. Wargamers, the bulk of 40k fans, are not known for their massive number of females and in my experience a small but vocal subset of 40K fans get this bullshit idea that because they play poetry spouting psychotic space templars on the gaming table they are some sort of superhuman modern warrior poets in real life. And that sort of attitude seems to lead to dickery. And they aren't going to be happy if some gamer girl (or guy) somewhere wants to start the Star Furies Space Marine Chapter...even if they will never meet this person or play with them.
And all this over letting fictional girls into a made up sci-fi military order. Really?
Now I do like the 40K setting. And I get that Games Workshop needs to court its audience as they find them, not as they'd like them to be. But c'mon folks, time to join the 20th century. Now that its 2010.
Anyway, just a random thought or twelve. Glory to the Emperor and all that.
* I'm kidding about one of these. Guess which one.
** A common Space Marine weapon in the 40Kverse. Do keep up.
And Mr. Abnett, while most of his soldiers are male, eventually adds a few kickass female soldiers and characters to the mix.
Which brings me to the point of this blog post. Long ago, apparently in an issue of the old gaming mag White Dwarf someone involved with Games Workshop (the guys who creared Warhammer 40,000, from now on referred to as 40k) decided that the setting's big badass default protagonists were all dudes.
They made some noise about the special genetic process only working on guys and suggested maybe the space marine power armor only hooked up to the user's dick.* And so like the Little Rascals, the Space Marines pinned up signs outside their Chapter Houses that said "No Girls Allowed." They may have also said "Let not a Vagina taint the purity of our Chapter" because the Space Marines can be dicks like that.
So you'd think that over the 25 or so years that 40K has been around someone would say "Man this is stupid. Let's have chick Space Marines. It will be badass! They could be like Michelle Rodriguez without the DIUs! It will be awesome!"
Well, you'd think that. But no. Apparently in the super enlightened 2010 in the "Tell me again how much more liberal you are than me, Mr. non-US UK-living person" they haven't bothered to say "Boobs and bolters** do in fact mix!"
Now to be fair, the designers have added the Sisters of Battle as a playable army and these girls even got their own expansion in the 40K inspired Dawn of War video game series. These Sisters are like the worse (or best, depending on your views) nuns you've even seen. Nuns in power armor. Nuns that will fucking cut you.
But they're still not Space Marines. In fact, the Space Marines are a whole other branch of the Imperium, who are the human faction i the 40k setting (think Roman Nazis who worship a Psychic Undead Pharoh and are totally heavy metal and you've basically got the idea).
So what's up? I dunno. But apparently I was informed by some folks online that when this subject is brought up in various forums people go apeshit. Some folks freak out about girl marines. Others love the idea. And like the great Space Marine Chapters the Steel Sharks and Bloody Jets they fight. And sadly, I can totally see this happening. Wargamers, the bulk of 40k fans, are not known for their massive number of females and in my experience a small but vocal subset of 40K fans get this bullshit idea that because they play poetry spouting psychotic space templars on the gaming table they are some sort of superhuman modern warrior poets in real life. And that sort of attitude seems to lead to dickery. And they aren't going to be happy if some gamer girl (or guy) somewhere wants to start the Star Furies Space Marine Chapter...even if they will never meet this person or play with them.
And all this over letting fictional girls into a made up sci-fi military order. Really?
Now I do like the 40K setting. And I get that Games Workshop needs to court its audience as they find them, not as they'd like them to be. But c'mon folks, time to join the 20th century. Now that its 2010.
Anyway, just a random thought or twelve. Glory to the Emperor and all that.
* I'm kidding about one of these. Guess which one.
** A common Space Marine weapon in the 40Kverse. Do keep up.
posted by Jack at 4:05 AM
3 Comments:
Uh-oh, spammer alert...
And I do agree that Games Workshop (and especially their fiction section, Black Library) needs to get off their asses and pretty much just, well, man up. Female Space Marines, dude. I'm all for it.
Also, if you do want to see some ass-kicking females in the Warhammer 40K universe, make sure you read the Gaunt's Ghosts and Ciaphas Cain books. They show that women (and men) don't have to been 7ft-tall super-roid abusers to be awesome.
Gaunt's Ghost is what I'm currently reading and its pretty great.
So, you're complaining that while the 40K universe has any number of action-y women, it's still bad because not EVERY group has action-y women in it?
I mean, isn't it about time we got past the cliche of "there's always Lieutenant Woman, Sergeant Blackman, and Lance-Corporal Latino"?
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