Gender Is No Object: Difference between revisions

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* The ''[[Earth's Children]]'' books by Jean M Auel . The Cro-Magnon.
* ''[[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).
* ''Hammer's Slammers'' by [[David Drake]]. The Mercs.
* In the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series, this is pretty much the default for the major interstellar polities. In the story, the reactions to integration by Grayson and Masada (both worlds being effectively religious patriarchies, with the latter treating women as nothing but property) often play a major role in the plot.
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* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' The rebooted series eats, sleeps, and breathes this trope. There are women in every major role of life, from "knuckledraggers" like Cally all the way up to President of the Colonies Laura Roslin. Men, likewise, often fill traditionally "female" roles like religious leader, diplomat, and secretary. All living quarters for the rank-and-file soldiers are unisex as well, including bathrooms.
* ''[[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|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.
*** "Number One", Majel Barrett's character in the original ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' pilot, was the ship's first Executive Officer before being replaced. Gene Roddenberry claimed this was because [[Executive Meddling|studio executives pressured Roddenberry to tone this trope down]] because they insisted that [[Viewers are Morons]] and couldn't handle women in any role other than secretaries and love interests. Other people involved at the time insist it's because the studio considered it unprofessional for him to cast his mistress in the role; they had no problem with the character, only with the choice of actress.
*** As did Majel Barrett. She said that when they tested the Pilot that women viewers did not like a woman as the Number One. One reaction was, "Who does she think she is?"
*** The villain in the episode "[[Star Trek/Recap/S3/E24 Turnabout Intruder|Turnabout Intruder]]" says at one point that women cannot be starship captains. She has since been [[retcon]]ned into an [[Unreliable Narrator]]. Reasonable, given that Dr. Janice Lester was barking mad (let's face it, switching bodies with Kirk with the intention of living the rest of your life as him is not the act of a sane woman).
*** Let's not forget that officers comprise a small portion of a ship's complement, usually a quarter at most. So, simply by being an officer, as many female characters were, a woman had authority over at least half the ship.
** ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' slightly improved this with female security chief Tasha Yar. Of course, this meant she was prone to [[The Worf Effect]] and thus generally [[Plot Induced Stupidity|came off as incompetent]]. They eventually [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|dropped a bridge on her]] at the request of Denise Crosby, the actress who played Yar, who had grown disillusioned with her role because of the "Uhura-like" status of her part. The only other lead female roles were in the caregiver roles of Doctor and Counselor.
*** Both Crusher and Troi eventually subverted this. Beverly was resident [[Combat Medic]] and the night-shift captain, and Deanna was also shown taking her officer's test and commanding the ship.
** ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' featured Major Kira as the station's second in command, but she wasn't actually a member of Starfleet. Lieutenant Dax, on the other hand, was the station's operations operator and second officer (meaning, she supposedly was in command when Sisko and Kira weren't around).
*** Of course, Lt. Dax is also [[Bizarre Alien Biology|a Trill]], whose relationship with this trope is... rather complicated.
** ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|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|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.
* [[Farscape|Peacekeepers]] practice a lot of [[Fantastic Racism]] and are usually played as kinda evil, but sexist they are not. Aeryn was a pilot, Grayza a Commandant, Xhalax a Senior Officer, etc. and whenever large groups are shown there are always plenty of females in the ranks. Aeryn does mention "female units" when explaining their [[Fantasy Contraception]], but there are far more examples of mixed units throughout the series.
 
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** An interesting in-universe case: although there are no technical restrictions for the player characters, Drow society is pretty much 50% [[Evil Matriarch]], 50% [[Exclusively Evil]] everyone else. Many players of male Drow (who aren't just trying to be [[Memetic Badass|Drizzt version 2]] play themselves as having come out of the Underdark so they can have better goals in life than being the "lucky" consort of a powerful enough woman that gets to be a walking sperm bank for longer than a few mating sessions before she tires of him.
*** 1st Edition rules blatantly enforced drow gender differences, giving their sexes different ability ranges and class advancement limits.
* Even [[Role -Playing Game]]s that are semi-historical tend to skirt round the issue. Games like Deadlands: Reloaded and Spirit of the Century have brief side notes concerning problems with playing in the time periods with regards to gender and race, but for the most part they brush it aside and assume it is largely irrelevant.
** Somewhat justified in that in these, and most other, RPGs the player characters are exceptional people, so they can overcome the usual drawbacks of gender (and/or race) of their times, as exceptional people throughout history have.
** ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'' in its first edition had a brief essay by [[John Wick]] explaining that there was no possible way to justify female player characters in the setting ... but, as that [[Rule of Fun|wasn't fun]] players and the GM should [[Bellisario's Maxim|ignore it]] and allow them anyway.
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** The [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Clans]] play this even straighter, especially in the warrior caste. You will see men and women at every level of their military hierarchy and no one bats an eye at a female Galaxy Commander or Khan. Considering that a family unit and marriage do not exist among warriors and all reproduction is [[Uterine Replicator|handled]] [[Designer Babies|artificially]] (often after the parents are long dead) its safe to safe that the Clans have no social distinction between genders.
* ''[[Traveller]]'' This varies from culture to culture. The ruling class of the Third Imperium is like this however.
* It varies from service to service in [[Warhammer 4000040,000|the Imperium of Man]], but most governmental, religious, and (in some cases) noble positions are gender-blind, as are the Inquisition, the [[Psychic Powers|Adepta Astra Telepathica]], [[Rogue Trader]]s, and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Some are segregated, though - the [[Space Marines]] are all men, evidently due to the [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|genetic engineering]] required to make them, while the [[Church Militant|Sisters of Battle]] are all women because the Ecclesiarchy is banned from maintaining "[[Exact Words|men under arms]]". In the Imperial Guard, most regiments are single-gender, and men outnumber women roughly 9-to-1, but female officers and regiments are just as honored, and mixed-gender regiments are not unheard of. They are distinctly outnumbered in the higher ranks, though; one [[Mauve Shirt]] from the [[Ciaphas Cain]] series eventually reaches the exalted rank of [[Four-Star Badass|Lady General]], but is among the only ones in recent history to have done so.
** The Imperium is also completely uncaring about who fights for them as long as they can hold a gun, its a commonly mentioned background element that when the Imperium is desperate enough or when they just need a few more warm bodies to pad out the ranks that they will mass-conscript [[Squick|children]] to fight for them so not only is gender no object age isn't either.
* 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.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* 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.
* ''[[Age of Empires III]]'' had female characters who fully acted as combatants, which was never mentioned by anyone in-game.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'': Organized militaries like city guards and the Imperial Legion seem to have decidedly more men than women. More specifically, nameless guards and legionnaires are all men, but named ones can be either. Other organizations, as well as wilderness [[mook]]s, seem to be split about 60/40 between men and women. It seems that in this universe, there's nothing ''stopping'' women from signing up, but they just don't join up as often.
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[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]
[[Category:Gender Is No Object{{PAGENAME}}]]