I get the feeling that there is a number of factors used to increase blood efficiency in Astartes. I think you've misunderstood. Loricum Segmentata is Roman armour made from hoops of metal attached to each other at two or three points of the segments, and is incredibly flexible. Now imagine that the Astartes Ribcage is something similar, the bone extended until ribs overlap each other enough to provide extra protect to the internal organs. It would still be flexible. It takes more than genes to turn someone into a Chaos Spawn. No. None. In fact the other genetically engineered/modified troops the Emperor used were, the Thunder Warriors, the Custodes, and the Primarchs, with all appearing to be Male as well. Well the Thunder Warriors lifespan was short in comparison to the Astartes, and they were said to be stronger but more unstable, both genetically and mentally. You'd have to go back all the way to the Techno-Barbarian warriors to possibly find Female versions. And even then they would probably be the product of other Warlords. Which means they were beaten by Thunder Warriors.
I get the rib thing. If it rubs it needs cartilage. If it doesnt it tears itself apart which is not pleasant (although, I guess Spezz marines just ignore it) Lack of female Astartes could just be lack of selection for geneseed implantation due to never meeting requirements for selection, but I dunno. Doesn't really matter haha. I think thats enough of all this for me.
i am not american. A is just the highest level you can have something in gymnasium. The Danish version of highschool, witch also acounts for the first year of university if i wanted to study abroad. completely skipping the idea of college
i only have a teensy weensy argument to add to this ... they don't have to change the fluff or any already organised space marine chapter to include women space marines... http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Cursed_21st_Founding it is stated in the known existing fluff that chapters were founded on altered gene seeds that caused insane crazy mutations and stipulations, many of them struck from the records, recorded as lost or "heretical" in some cases that is completely accurate, who is to say that it didn't create a chapter of women space marines ? possibly with some weird side effect like the eternally burning ones, or the ones that grew claws and scales, there is president in the lore for there to have been space marines that are women. i agree with the sentiment that realistically they would look almost identical to male asartes ... i would love to see an illaoi like character from LOL in space marine armor cracking skulls for the emprah. I think any argument that there cannot be female space marines is weak at best ... there were amazonian cultures, they could even keep the theme. I do however disagree with changing established cannon chapters and their way of operating. I think it should be introduced, and introduced through the cursed founding lore it would make them deep and have a stigma to deal with. possibly genetic defects to manage ... or maybe their defect is actually an "advantage" in some cases. its wrong to say space marines are a "non gendered part of the species" there is canon that space marines have fathered children, in some cases .... terrible warp spawned children but children nonetheless.
The Emperor said the Gene seed is keyed to Males. If the Emperor himself cannot make it so, then I doubt anyone can. The argument for not having females is far from weak, when the most powerful being in the Galaxy says it cannot be so.
The mutations did not occur until they Gene-seed was implanted in the neophytes of the new Chapters. It does state they were trying to perfect the Gene-seed to create Primarch-like Astartes. So why would they implant such Gene-seed in girls? They wouldn't. Not if their aim is to perfect it. Now, you can argue that one or more strains of these Gene-seeds feminised the host so as to appear female. Are these Female Astartes? No. They would be Shemale Astartes. But there is nothing in this piece of Lore to support girls being turned into Female Astartes. Plus I have repeatedly pointed out that the female form has wider hips, narrower waist, a different shape of ribcage, and narrower shoulders than a similar sized male form. Increase the size of the skeleton, pile on slabs of muscle, and these characteristics will still persist. As the Lore supports. No one has presented evidence to the contrary. Especially for the majority of women. And that's without touching upon Mammary glands! (No pun intended.) As these glands development is affected by oestrogens and growth hormones. If there is lower levels of oestrogens and higher levels of androgens, namely Testosterone, then they don't develop as happens with men and Male Astartes. But such a masculine change in female biochemistry can generally be damaging to the the person in question, without properly adjusting the hormones. And for that you'd need Gene-seed designed to work with female biochemistry. Without this, you'd get female Astartes with breasts. And that is definitely both feminine and different from normal male Astartes.
From a lore standpoint: 1. Creating female astartes just makes production of armor much more complicated. As we see from the sisters of battle, who are the closest to astartes, their chest plate armor is designed much differently then normal power armor. It makes much more sence to have only males, and streamline armor production. 2. The emperor created 18 male primarchs. 3. The Strong personalities of astartes would not mesh well if females were involved. I cant see a male space marine taking orders from sergeant cathy.
Seriously, sisters of battle are KILLER. Read a book that they are in and watch them purge the heretic like it's nothing. Any woman who thinks females are not properly represented as complete badass's in the 40k universe clearly has not done their research.
I think for those people its not a problem of IF they're represented, but HOW MUCH they're represented, and I dont know about you, but the SoB do typically seem to be not as really well "fleshed out" as much of the other factions. Or maybe I just dont care enough about their lore as much as I do the other factions.
