Gender Is No Object: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[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.
* The ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' Most of the cultures are largely this, especially the dominant Malazan Empire.
* The ''Quarters'' series by [[Tanya Huff]] plays this trope totally straight. Interestingly, though, it also draws attention to the trope by referring to many minor or background characters by their occupation -- "two guards," "a secretary"
** It is worth noting that in this series, sexual orientation is no object either; even ''royal weddings'' can be same-sex.
** The main character of the ''[[Confederation of Valor]]'' series ([[Tanya Huff|same author]]) is a female [[Space Marine]] Gunnery Sergeant. More generally, the Confederate armed forces have more men than women, but this seems to be a simple case of men being more likely to sign up.
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== [[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]]'' 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.
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*** "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 [[
*** 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.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [[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.
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**** For female ''humans'', that was the extent of the issue. Female demihumans' Strength-ceilings often kicked in a full point before their male counterparts', placing them at a serious disadvantage in combat classes. This, for races in which biological gender differences were otherwise less overt than humans'.
**** Dragon Magazine's letter column had one particular GM explaining his "balanced" houserule for his games, where female characters received a -2 strength penalty in return for the advantage of being capable of bearing children. The replies were... agitated, to say the least.
** An interesting in-universe case: although there are no technical restrictions for the player characters, Drow society is pretty much 50% [[Evil Matriarch]], 50% [[
*** 1st Edition rules blatantly enforced drow gender differences, giving their sexes different ability ranges and class advancement limits.
* Even [[Role Playing Game
** 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 40000|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
** 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
* ''[[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 [[
* 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.]]
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[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
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** [[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.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* 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.
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