Gender Is No Object: Difference between revisions

A lot of media (especially science fiction and fantasy) features societies with no gender restrictions. Women fight alongside men, in the same combat roles, in command, and so on. Because it's a societal norm, no one considers this unusual. Hereditary monarchies can be ruled by women as well as men, despite a real-world historical restriction on women ruling the kingdom.

 

 

Be careful: not every story about women serving in the military is an example of this trope. Stories where the majority of military units are male and [[The Smurfette Principle|occasionally]] [[The Squadette|you find a girl]] (''[[Ender's Game]]'', for example) do not apply. Nor do militaries where women are common, but are restricted to certain roles (especially if those are noncombat roles). Nor do stories where there are women in combat roles, but they are consistently portrayed as falling into the [[Damsel in Distress]] or [[Faux Action Girl]] trope.

For a related, video game-specific trope, see [[Purely Aesthetic Gender]]. Not to be confused with [[Bi the Way|a person for whom]] [[Anything That Moves|gender is no object]].

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' Any and all of the women shown, ''especially'' the ones in the millitary, KICK ASS. We have Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong "The Wall of Briggs", Lt. Riza Hawkeye (who's pretty much the only one who can keep the Colonel under control), and Lt. Maria Ross (Not as [[Badass]], but important nonetheless). And let's not even start on [[Badass Teacher|Izumi]]...

* ''[[Zeta Gundam]]''. Captain Bright: "This is the military! Gender is irrelevant!" Although Kamille does note that women serving in the military in equal capacity is a relatively new development for the Universal Century.

 

* ''[[G.I. Jane]]'' The film's [[An Aesop|aesop]] is that militaries should be this way.

 

* The ''Branion'' series, by Fiona Patton, set in a fantasy Europe where gender roles are unrestricted. The oldest noble heir inherits regardless of sex, and religious posts (in thinly disguised versions of Christianity) are also open to all.

* The ''[[Circle of Magic]]'' series, by [[Tamora Pierce]], although told mostly from the point-of-view of female characters, features more-or-less gender parity within the temple, the army, and society at large. Some cultures have more restrictive views of the roles of women, but the viewpoint characters visiting said cultures always point this out.

* ''[[The Culture]]'' takes this trope [[Up to Eleven]]. Not only have they left gender roles far behind, part of their standard set of genetic enchantments is the ability to go through a [[Gender Bender|fully functional sex change]] (over the course of several months) at will. The protagonist of [[The Culture/The Player of Games|The Culture]] is considered a bit odd because he's never even tried being female.

* ''[[The Deed of Paksenarrion]]'' The mercenary troops.

* ''[[Dragaera]]'' The culture of the titular empire is like this.

* ''[[The Forever War]]'' is similar to ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]'' but features a fully gender-integrated military... which before the end of the war is also fully homosexual as Earth society has moved on about a thousand years, literally.

* The ''[[Gentleman Bastard Sequence]]'' sequence, there are female pirates, thieves, soldiers, sailors, and bouncers in about equal number to their male counterparts. This is never remarked on as being out of the ordinary. In fact, within their culture, rather than women being banned from sailing for fear of bringing bad luck, ships are ''required'' to have at least one woman on board, to avoid bringing the wrath of the sea god (though a female cat will do at a pinch).

* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'': the Clan society has almost perfect gender equality, with equal numbers of female leaders and warriors throughout. The only real difference in how they're treated is when a female warrior becomes pregnant: she spends a few months in the nursery to have her kittens.

 

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' Starfleet is supposed to be purely integrated; with gender no hindrance to attaining any position. The shows themselves often didn't [[The Smurfette Principle|quite meet]] this lofty principle.

** ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' suffered from [[Fair for Its Day]], featuring female crewmembers who had as much authority as the writers thought they could get away giving them.

** ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' It wasn't until here that one of the Trek series actually reached this lofty principle with a leading female character as Captain (although female captains and admirals did appear in ''minor'', one-shot background roles from ''[[The Next Generation]]'' onward. There was also the first female Chief Engineer, and a woman in the role of a prominent scientist (yes, Seven did other things than [[Ms. Fanservice|wear a catsuit]]).

** ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' has T'Pol, resident [[Ms. Fanservice]] and [[Number One]] at the same time. (Archer tends to ignore her, but that's more because [[Fantastic Racism|he has a chip on his shoulder re: Vulcans]], and [[The Kirk|ignoring your]] [[The Spock|Vulcan first officer]] is a time-honored [[Star Trek]] tradition.) There are also a number of women in the security division and MACOs, plus the captain of the ''[[Colonel Makepeace|Columbia]]'', Starfleet's second ''Enterprise''-class starship.

 

* [[Eclipse Phase]] most obviously follows this trope and goes beyond it. In the [[Transhuman]] future where bodies are just a shell that can be swapped easily (although expensively) all bodies come with built in immunity to sexually transmitted infection and can chose if they become pregnant or not, any and all conventional ideas of gender have pretty much fallen by the wayside. In the game you have a separate gender for your body and mind and its up to the players how they deal with that. Unless you do very extensive research there is no real way to KNOW what gender a person is if they want to act male or female. Since not all people are human, or indeed humanoid, the issues presented in the game much more strongly run along species/artificial life prejudice than gender.

** Slightly subverted in the case of the 'Fury' morph. This is a combat body that is built to be strong and tough and kick some serious butt, but the designers made them all women to give them a better inclination towards teamwork and less naked aggression.

* Paranoia makes a point that there is no practical difference between the genders. Between the fact that new clones are decanted, not born, and everyone is on pretty powerful hormone suppressants that keep emotion, sexual dimorphism, and most especially sexual impulses way down (the latter being removed entirely) this is extremely accurate. The only reason the game even has sexes at all (rather than assuming Alpha Complex produced straight up sexless clones) is to ensure that there's an added bit of humor when someone works out how to suppress the hormone suppressants.

 

* Computer role-playing games. This trope is true in many of them simply because female gamers play these games too. Usually, this trope is handwaved and never commented upon.

** In very old PC [[Role-Playing Game]]s, however, it was common for there to be gender-based stat adjustments, usually with male characters getting a bonus to strength and female characters getting a compensating bonus to charisma, dexterity or intelligence. This, of course, had its own [[Unfortunate Implications|problems]], which is why it's rarely seen anymore.

** It's mentioned that, due to the casualties suffered during the war against the Legion in ''Warcraft III'', the night elves have dropped their traditional gender requirements. (Also, they were only requirements for joining the Sentinels or formal druidic training, respectively - there's no rule that says a night elven man couldn't be a badass swordsman on his own.)

 

* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' is a good example; even in areas inspired by patriarchal societies (like Azure City) there are plenty of female warrior characters.

** For elves, gender is ''[[Ambiguous Gender|literally]]'' no object

* In the ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' universe, women can be found at all levels, from lowly grunts up to admirals commanding fleets and all over the civilian sphere, and aside from a few sexist comments here and there no particular note is taken of it.

 

* ''[[Ilivais X]]'' has the total characters of either gender exactly the same, in a setting where the only named characters are [[Super Prototype]] pilots or high-ranking military commanders. For the most part, the implication of prejudice for ANY group is highly frowned upon.

 

* ''[[Antz]]'' does this with, well, ants, both in worker and soldier roles. It's one step better than the [[Insect Gender Bender]], at least.

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' The Fire Nation's armies have men and women fight alongside each other, and even their [[Fridge Horror|prisons]] are [[Prison Rape|unisex]]. [[Equal Opportunity Evil|Despite being the primary antagonists,]] they are unique in this respect. The Earth Kingdom army has few if any women (nothing is specifically stated, but none of the shots of their armies seem to involve women fighting). And the Northern Water Tribe explicitly forbids women from fighting, much to Katara's annoyance.

** [[Fridge Brilliance|Though this could go rather far in explaining why the Fire Nation has been successful in their war.]] While healing is certainly a vital military role (which is what female waterbenders are relegated to in the NWT), not every female waterbender has healing powers. Those that don't are forbidden from being useful in a fight at all. Maybe the Fire Nation is winning because they are better able to use more of its population in a direct combat capacity due to simple pragmatism.

 

* Several European monarchies (IIRC, Sweden and Belgium) now allow the firstborn to inherit regardless of gender, and others are considering the change.

** Japan seriously considered the change when the Crown Prince's daughter appeared likely to be his only child. Then his brother had a son, and the discussion ended.

** Israel has one of the more gender balanced armies in the world. It's also one of the few where women are subject to conscription like the men, though they are more likely than men to get an exemption, and have to serve a minimum of two years instead of the men's three. They are placed in combat units only if they volunteer to do so, though it should be noted that most combat units are male exclusive due to potential problems with a unit's social dynamic (for example, tests have shown that male combatants tend to lose their better judgment when a female comrade is injured much more readily then if a male comrade is wounded). Though female pilots are still allowed and are relatively common.

** While not all branches are fully integrated, the United States Coast Guard allows women to serve in all roles, and has females at all ranks, including several rear admirals.

* There's a theory that ancient [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/science/05nean.html?_r=1 Neanderthal society might have been like this], with women and children joining men out in the hunt. This may have contributed to their decline at the hands of modern ''homo sapiens'', whose women gathered instead of hunted (thus ensuring other, non-risky sources of food and a safer environment for their women and children. More healthy women and children equals a higher population.)

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters and Casting]]

[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]