Gender Is No Object: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

This is NOT the same as splitting the sexes up into segregated units. When this trope is used, mixed units are the norm, and by extension often a completely integrated society as well in which the ''only'' difference between the sexes, in a social sense, is that one can get pregnant and the other can impregnate. In an Science Fiction story where test-tube-and-incubator babies are common, even this is removed and [[Samus Is a Girl|if the soldier is encased in armor, you can't tell what gender he/she is]], and it doesn't matter anyway.

This can be a [[Justified Trope]], especially in futuristic settings where advances in technology have made physical differences like gender more or less irrelevant for soldiers. In medieval fantasy settings, authors may introduce some form of safe, reliable [[Fantasy Contraception]], or the existence of inborn magic powers can be portrayed as making differences in size and strength less relevant, or there may be other social pressures encouraging gender equality (although all of these may or may not be convincing, depending on how well they're handled). If the setting is not Earth and/or the characters are not normal humans, they may just have less sexual dimorphism. On the other hand, there are also plenty of cases of lazy or thoughtless worldbuilding, as well as cases where the author simply felt they needed no justification beyond [[Rule of Cool]].

 

 

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}}

 

* ''[[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]]...

** 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.

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|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:

* 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.

** Pierce's Beka Cooper books, in the [[Tortall Universe]], features this, but a religious movement called the Cult of the Gentle Mother is sweeping through and starting to influence things, much to the wrath of the protagonist. From later-set books we know that it does take over and become the norm for later protagonists to struggle against.

* ''[[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/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.

* ''[[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, 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).

* 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.

* 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.

* The ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' Most of the cultures are largely this, especially the dominant Malazan Empire.

** 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.

** Which, in a culture as technologically advanced and reliant as Beta Colony, makes a lot of sense.

* In [[The Keys to The Kingdom]], the House seems to work this way.

* 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.

== [[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: 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?"

*** 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.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* RPGs in general. There's no restriction on character gender in most of them, with Dungeons & Dragons the most obvious.

** Though we must point out that 1st edition D&D had a "fighting man" class, and there is an apocryphal story about Gary Gygax killing a character without a save in the first round of combat because "girls can't fight".

** ''[[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.

* ''[[BattleTech]]'' 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.

* ''[[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]]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.

 

 

** 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]]'' 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.

** In Lair of the Shadow Broker one of the files states that infertile krogan females at least have garrison roles on their homeworld. All krogan are taught ''how'' to fight from childhood, it's a question of who they can afford to risk.

** Interestingly enough, the first game plays with this trope a bit in terms of your options of NPC allies: classes that specialize in one form of warfare (Soldier, Adept, Engineer) are given to female characters (Ashley, Liara, and Tali, respectively). On the other hand, hybrid classes (Vanguard, Sentinel and Infiltrator) are provided by males (Kaidan, Wrex and Garrus). However, the [[Player Character]], Shepard, can choose to follow this trend or avert it, based on their gender and class selection.

*** Likewise, Queen Elizabeth I only became queen because there was no closer male heir after her sister Mary died without having had any children. If Mary had kids, Elizabeth would have never reached the throne.

*** Actually the UK (and by extension the other Commonwealth nations that are still constitutional monarchies) still practise male primogeniture. What this means is that Prince Andrew and Prince Edward (and their children) are in front of Princess Anne and her children in the line of succession despite the fact she is the older than them. There is talk about changing this to straight primogeniture (order of birth without regard to gender) while it would leave the top spots in the succession order (Charles, William and Harry in that order) unchanged.

***** As long as the Commonwealth Realms decide to retain a united Monarchy, this is true. It's generally considered a good idea for the Realms to maintain the same monarch, but with all the main countries now fully independent, they ''could'' theoretically decide to change the succession rules according to their own values, meaning that the lines of succession would eventually split. But as stated above, that's currently very unlikely.

*** Too late, they already did.