This is going to go all over the place, so I'll start with the two things that I am trying to say -Not having femarines is actually discriminatory -Femarines still shouldn't be added to 40k Alright. First off, the SCIENCE. I love science, and I love science fiction, but beyond the word science, the two don't often have a lot to do with each other (but when they do I'm so very happy). Whatever argument you want to make about genetic/physical incompatibility between gene-seed and the ladies is moot. Gene-seed doesn't exist, and so the rules governing its interaction with chromosomes can be retconned/plot-expanded. In terms of physical capability, the sheer amount of change going from ~6ft human who's greatest asset is opposable thumbs to a 7-8ft tall transhuman specimen that can spit acid makes the differences between guys and girls insignificant. Do males retain body mass under combat scenarios better? Maybe. Do women go through labour and have higher pain tolerances? Definitively. Is one of these more relevant than the other? Not really. Continued because you can only upload two files to a post.
So why is this an issue? Why can't we just say, "Space marines are boys" and move along? It's because of two concepts that are the same, but one is more in depth-equality, and substantive equality. Equality says everyone should have equal opportunity. Yay, a lot of people are pretty down with this concept. Substantive equality says everyone should have equal opportunity, AND when equal opportunity is not present, society must find a way to PROVIDE equal opportunity. Moving away from racism/sexism, let's look at a blind guy, and name him Dave. Dave wants to run for president of Chaos. Groovy, no one's going to tell a blind guy he can't be president of the Chaos. But not only is Dave allowed to run for president of Chaos, Dave must be enabled to run for president of Chaos. Every document relevant to the presidential election of Chaos must now have either an audio read along or a braille counterpart. That takes money, and society is obligated to pay for that as substantive equality. Ok, so blind people not only have to be allowed to do things, but they also have to be enabled to do things. Whatever, blind people are cool. Now here's where it gets edgy. Say Dave, being a blind guy, has not made enough money to properly campaign. We've covered that his blindness is a disability that requires special consideration, but is his poverty also a disability that requires special consideration? Are broadcasters obligated by law to showcase his opinions, speeches, and campaign material to provide substantive equality against other wealthier candidates? This is an abstract example, but real world this has a lot of implications. Right now there's a wide ranging debate about whether access to the internet is a luxury or a utility. If it falls under utility, then governments are required to ensure access to people, regardless of their ability to pay for it.
How does this impact WH40k? Because 40k (being from 1987) doesn't cover its bases. It fails to provide representation for females in its media (a failure to provide substantive equality in that females can't play the game in a way they identify with). Now I know what you're saying, the Sisters of Battle cover that base, the Astra Militarum/Tau/Eldar/Dark Eldar are equal opportunity, space marines aren't actually male anymore, orks are really a fungus and not male, and so forth. And you're right. The problem here is the vast amount of spotlight that Space Marines get. They are the flagship faction, and they represent an inordinate amount of the literature, as well as usually being the first (and often only) playable faction in a game. The SoB, their female equivalent, have 3 novels (one as an audiobook), and appear in the first DoW game. It's clear that the representation between the two (and thus genders) is not equal. Add in that while orks are a fungus and space marines may no longer be male, their identity is clearly rooted in masculinity. This is a lot of gray area. Should companies be forced to be inclusive of genders? Do heroes have to be guy girl guy girl in their presentation? The answer is a straight up no, because that's an infringement on freedom of expression. But as a whole the games industry is lacking in female representation, and that's a norm that needs to be broken if equality is something that's being promoted. Alright, I've said my piece on why there should be femarines. But that point is followed by me saying I don't think we should add them. WH40K is from 1987, and it's indicative of the time it was created. I don't believe in changing older works to match our current political and cultural climate. If you take racism out of To Kill a Mockingbird the book stops having a story. In a lesser way, every work is influenced by its period, and changing the setting changes the theme of a work in ways that aren't always obvious. Not only does it ruin some truly great stories, but it's also a form of censorship, and it takes away the lessons of the past and society's ability to evaluate itself. 40K challenges us and this issue because it's almost 30 years old. I don't think it's necessary to retcon the universe to match our social expectations, but we should be aware of why it's anachronistic to us, and appreciate the change in values that have occurred over that time. END!
Except Orks don't have genders to begin with They're fungi, they reproduce asexually through spores They only identify themselves as male/BOYZ, they're not actually male in the sense that they have no genitalia at all. So even having Orks with any type of sex organ makes even less sense then just having female space marines. At least space marines were once humans, before being mutated into whatever monstrosity they are now. So a spacemarine at least could have been female (theoretically at least) before the Build-A-Astartes Workshop did their work.
Being female is not just about genitalia. There are other organs involved, including the brain. It is said that there are male-type brains, and there are female-type brains. Though this is actually a bit of a misnomer as men can have female brains, and women can have male brains. But how does this apply to Orks, who are for all intents and purposes fungi? Or possibly fungal symbionts to the actual Ork. Well being a higher organism they brains, organs, and biochemistry can effect how they turn out, and in turn these can be effected by external factors. If one or more of those was altered somehow, it could theoretically produce a very different Ork. Even if that difference is only skin-deep (which is funny as not all Orks were green originally). There are environmental factors that can change body shape, from dense arboreal terrain producing pygmies to variations in gravity creating taller beings. Such factors can also cause some structures in the brain to change shape, effect organ size and/or function, it can even cause recessive traits to come to the fore and/or suppress more prominent ones. So it is feasible that an Ork's brain could take on a more feminine structure (as in good at multiple tasks, emotive, but lacking in spatial awareness as amongst other things), a more feminine attitude (like bypassing the shoving stage males do in a fight, and going straight for the chin with a fist), and possibly develop a body structure non-Orks would describe as feminine. Just because a creature doesn't have reproductive organs, and gender-specific genes, means it is impossible to shape it into a gender (through a varied choice of possibilities). In fact it could make it easier, as you don't have any genitalia to change. So you could end up with something like this. But you must understand, it probably has less genitals than a Barbie doll (and they don't have any)!
But no matter what external or other biological factors shape an Ork's brain there is at least one thing every Ork posses. The thing Ork society thrives on. The love of fighting. Hard wired into every Ork's brain is need and willingness to fight anything and everything. Because all Orks want to have fun, and fighting is the one thing universally across all Orks that can be considered a source of fun and pleasure. It's not just mental, it's biological, Orks are coded with the desire to fight and grow so they could fight some more. So be it a masculine or feminine oriented Ork brain, fighting is going to be the one thing that sticks in all their minds. Ork culture lives off of fighting, society functions on fighting, economy is determined by knocking out other Orks teef. Brutality, and strength allows an Ork to survive in Ork society. So by the cultural and societal factors in place, a feminine brained Ork would have to live aggressively and as savagely as every other Ork or they get krumped. Might makes right by Orks, and the mightiest Orks lead by example of smashing the nearest Ork if they decide to get mouthy. So Ork society, be it the feral Orks or the space bound Orks, will eventually mold an Ork to survive, or die. So a feminine figured Ork, in the end, would have to be as muscle bound and strong as the masculine bodied Orks in order to even survive day by day. And by that point, the visual and biological differences would be impossible to tell. So in the end, an Ork that starts out whatever way by whatever factors will be forced into getting bulked and fit to survive Ork society, or they'll be weeded out by the very nature of Ork life.
Clearly you know little about spotted hyenas, whose females are larger and more dominant than their male counterparts. They also have other fun things that are inappropriate to talk about when moderators are around. So yeah, hulked out female ork leading a mob is cool by me.
