Gender Is No Object: Difference between revisions

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** Actually far closer to the [[The Squadette]] than this trope, while there are a few female soldiers and alchemists the vast majority are still male.
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' The [[Space Police|TSAB]] Armed Forces (and probably the [[The Church|Saint Church]] Knights) in the franchise make no gender distinctions whatsoever (although [[Improbably-Female Cast|most notable characters are female]], but that comes with [[Magical Girl|the genre]], not the setting), and there isn't even a single instance of [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]] in the series. In-universe, this is justified by the TSAB being extremely short on hands, since powerful mages are very rare.
* ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]] ''Despite carrying the label of "training for girls" by the [[Fanon]], in the anime, there are equal gender amounts of Coordinators as there are Trainers.
* Examples of this are present in the gritty, gang orientated setting of [[Michiko to Hatchin]] were:
** Hatchin is a proud, hard working (pretty much handyman) little girl who sticks to her morals
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== Film ==
* ''[[GIG.I. Jane]]'' The film's [[An Aesop|aesop]] is that militaries should be this way.
 
 
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* ''[[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.
* [[Discworld]] dwarfs, initially. It turns out to be more complicated than that later on; ''biological'' sex seems to be genuinely inconsequential except for procreative purposes, but traditional dwarf culture has no concept of femininity and both sexes look like men, so they're basically a [[One-Gender Race]] of men that just happens to have two different kinds of genitals. Traditionally, anyways. Midway through the series (beginning with ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Feet of Clay|Feet of Clay]]''), some more modern female dwarfs begin to admit to being female and adopt human-style feminine behaviour, which is controversial but increasingly popular.
* ''[[Dragaera]]'' The culture of the titular empire is like this.
* The ''[[EarthsEarth's Children]]'' books by Jean M Auel . The Cro-Magnon.
* ''[[The Forever War]]'' is similar to ''[[Starship Troopers (Literaturenovel)|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, 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 (Literature)|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.
* In ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'', female elves are just as good fighters as male elves.
* ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' by Ursula Le Guin takes the basic idea so far it almost becomes disqualified as an example, as the human-descended people on the planet Gethen are all of both sexes (or neither); they take turns becoming "male" or "female" for reproduction. The human-as-we-know-it protagonist is really confused by this even after years of living there as an ambassador of sorts.
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* According to [[Ciaphas Cain]] ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM'''), mixed-gender regiments are rare in the guard, and most are male or female only. It's even implied by the (female) narrator they get female commissars, because they certainly wouldn't take orders from a mere man.
* District Thirteen in [[The Hunger Games|Mockingjay]] seems to be this, particularly when it comes to their military. For that matter, the actual Hunger Games are deliberately set up with an equal number of boys and girls, and the audience makes bets on the contestants according to their skill and temperament, not their gender.
* ''[[Warrior Cats (Literature)|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.
 
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[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 (Franchise)|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: theThe Original Series (TV)|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: theThe Original Series (TV)|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 (Franchise)/Recap/S3 E24 Turnabout Intruder|Turnabout Intruder]]" says at one point that women cannot be starship captains. She has since been [[Retcon|retconned]] 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: theThe Next Generation (TV)|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 Onon 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 (TV)|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 (TV)|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 (TV)|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 (Franchise)|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 (TV)|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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** 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.
* ''[[Battle TechBattleTech]]'' As backward as the [[Feudal Future]] may seem at times, gender equality is pretty much the universe-wide default. Even in the (explicitly matriarchal) Magistracy of Canopus. Though the Draconis Combine does seem to have fewer military women in general compared to the others (and there are certainly issues with the Coordinator being a woman, which only happened once in Combine history), it still has quite a few. Then again, the DC is probably the least [[Combat Pragmatist|pragmatic]] of the 5 great houses when it comes to fighting.
** 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.
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* 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|Role Playing Games]], 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 (Video Game)|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|mooks]], 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.
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' universe has a fairly equal amount of female and male bandits, raiders, quest-givers and such. Justified in post-apocalyptic settings, really, since it would be stupid for society to waste any able pair of hands.
** Until ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' introduced [[No Woman's Land|Caesar's Legion.]]
** Your mileage may vary on the justification; one could argue that a decimated population would want to protect fertile women at all costs.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' Male and female students and SeeDs at the [[Military Academy|Gardens]] train and fight together.
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* ''[[Gears of War]]'': The first two games and the novelizations subvert this. Only men do the fighting. All fertile women are used for reproductive purposes, while non-fertile women serve in support roles. The third game, however, plays this straight. The women fight alongside the men. This is because humanity is down to its last throes and needs every available body to fight.
** Before Emergence Day active female Gears were not unheard of and were at least as common as female soldiers are today, some examples introduced in the ''Aspho Fields'' novel being [http://gearsofwar.wikia.com/wiki/Bernadette_Mataki Bernadette Mataki] and [http://gearsofwar.wikia.com/wiki/Helena_Stroud Helena Stroud], Stroud being the commander of her own company and the mother of Anya from the games. Gender equality and civil rights took a nosedive after most of humanity was killed after E-Day and [[Men Are the Expendable Gender|men became more expendable than women]].
* The ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' universe seems to be gender blind when it comes to humans, for the most part. Possibly quarians as well, considering the only quarian military groups we ever see are lead by Tali and the Admiralty board splits 60/40. Other alien races don't show their females at all (the asari, being a [[One-Gender Race]], don't count), but Garrus' war stories show that the turians are integrated too. Restrooms are still segregated, though, as EDI will remind you if you stumble into the wrong room. Maybe a [[Justified Trope]] with genetic enhancements being standard for soldiers of humanity.
** Salarians do not follow this rule though, since their species breeds too few females to throw them into combat.
** Tali and Ashley discuss this in the first game. Ashley mentions how long it took human women to prove they could handle shotguns, with Tali replying that the Flotilla can't afford the "luxury of sexism".
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|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 (Webcomic)|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.