Snowflake Challenge - Day 8

[wyntir_knight]

Day 8

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Lately the most intriguing part of the Transformers canon is the treatment of female characters. Or, should I say, the planned treatment of female characters. When Bob Budiansky first came up with the idea of the medic Ratchet, the currently male medic was female. All of Ratchet's personality traits - his rough manner, his party animal status, his complete lack of respect for the command structure - all of that was present in female Ratchet. And best of all, there was nothing feminine about her original design. Unfortunately Hasbro insisted that all Transformers be male. Later Simon Furman introduced a female character as a token (and it was obvious that this was under duress). Then in the IDW comics, the gender issue was tackled once again, and once again Simon Furman made it clear that he didn't want to play this game when he made the first female character forcibly transgender and completely insane. Thankfully James Roberts (the eventual writer) suggested in a tweet that form has nothing to do with gender among the Transformers and that some females were sharp and spiky while others were soft and curvy (sadly I can't find that tweet again).

So, technically none of this is actual canon (save for the aspects added by Furman), but since both Budiansky and Roberts were head writers I take their notes as canon. Or semi-canon and I've been finding that the idea of gender in a non-organic species really really fascinating and I've been playing with the idea of it in my own writing lately. After all, why should an in-organic species follow organic (and outdated) gender norms?

Comments

[mmouse15]

THANK YOU! Yes, the treatment of binary genders in Transformers is maddening. You are much clearer than I would be. I love that you did this!

[wyntir_knight]

I am so glad that came across well. I rewrote the whole thing three times for fear of it being rambling nonsense. I find the whole issue of the binary in Transformers both fascinating and infuriating all at the same time.

Also ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I forgot to mention my handling of gender in silicon-based lifeforms.

See JARVIS in "Love Is For Children," of which "Kernel Error" is written from his perspective. I write JARVIS as having a masculine personality, but he's not male because he doesn't reproduce asexually and isn't interested in an android body.

Kung Fu Robots has mostly neuter characters, but there's a reference to some who choose a masculine or feminine presentation.

In An Army of One, it's similar, most of the AYES are neuter but I've spotted one feminine individual.

Different setting, and I don't have any of this one online, but my silico androids are sexual. They only have one sex, but they can reproduce together -- any two or more of them.

I'm a gender scholar, I love this stuff. And that's before getting into any of the alien genders.

Re: Also ...

[wyntir_knight]

Thank you for providing these! I find gender so very fascinating and am starting to play with it in my writing, but it's an intimidating topic when you're not sure where to start.

Re: Also ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I am a gender scholar from way back. I encourage you to explore further!

First, read genderfic. There is a lot of it, some good and some bad. Since you like fanfic, check out all the lovely genderbending stories out there.
For original work, consider fiction and nonfiction about transgender or other gender-variant folks.

When you start writing, it's easier to start small. Drabbles or short stories are great. allbingo has monthly fests and a bingo card generator; you could make a card of gender motifs or short-writing prompts. This month our theme is Apocalypse but I'm running Valentines Day next month (with platonic and romantic options) which is a great match for genderfic.

It's also easier to start close to what you already know. Female writers portray men, and male writers portray women, and if you take a closer look at what womanhood or manhood means to you or your characters, it can be pretty awesome.

Check your circle of friends. People often know someone who is trans or genderqueer, etc. They can help you get a feel for those characters.

Watch out for stop-tropes. "Trans prostitute" is a good example, and most fans are already familiar with "dead/evil lesbian." These are traps a novice would do well to avoid, and should be handled with care even by experts -- you have to justify the risk the readers are taking by reading something so fraught. Search "trans bingo" and you find examples like this to avoid.

Make friends with other folks who study gender and/or write genderfic. I have lots in my audience because I write it all the time and it attracts people who read those things.

Re: Also ...

[wyntir_knight]

Thank you very much. I'll take a look at all of this :)

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It depends a lot on how they started. If they were created by or from a gendered biological species, they're more likely to have genders. If they evolved independently or by/from a single-gendered or hermaphroditic species, they're less likely to have separate genders, let alone the style that humans have. (Look around Earth alone -- there are a lot more options than most humans notice.) But then when they come into contact with humans, that opens more doors. There's always going to be someone who never felt quite right at home, but stumbles across a new option elsewhere.

"OH! So that's what I am. It's called a female. Great." *weld weld*

"What are you doing?"

"Transforming."

Re: Well ...

[wyntir_knight]

It depends on how they started.

And that's the biggest problem with this issue and Transformers canon. It becomes a giant game of "Which canon?" and "Which aspect of that canon?".

Transformers has eight to twelve different continuity families and each one has a different origin story, with some (like Generation 1 comics and cartoon) contradicting their own origins. And, unfortunately since the franchise was created to sell toys to little boys in the 80s, there's a lot of baggage. The Japanese continuity families seem less hung up on gender and sexuality and I think that those continuities have been slowly influencing the Western branches for the better, in general.

Personally I've always liked the idea of the Cybertronians having more than two genders but have always referred to themselves in the male and female around humans because of the limits of most human languages. That view seems to be picking up steam in the comics themselves with one IDW character coming from an all-female colony and she refers to everyone with female pronouns because those are her cultural defaults.

I suppose that we could view the differing canons as a blessing. We have everything from "they evolved from cogs" to "they were built by organic slavers" to "they have sex just like humans". It gives the fans a lot to work with in their own personal fanons.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>And that's the biggest problem with this issue and Transformers canon. It becomes a giant game of "Which canon?" and "Which aspect of that canon?".

Transformers has eight to twelve different continuity families and each one has a different origin story, with some (like Generation 1 comics and cartoon) contradicting their own origins. <<

Okay, here we have the problem that most people who make comics are not literature majors. That's not a canon. That's a mythos (like the Cthulhu Mythos) or a cycle (like the Arthurian Cycle). It has a bunch of separate branches that people can use, but they don't all agree, and that's okay. It's what you get when a canon (the first Transformers portrayal) grows into something more. The reason people fight about it is that they usually don't know there is a name for the bigger version and it's supposed to look like that.

>> Personally I've always liked the idea of the Cybertronians having more than two genders but have always referred to themselves in the male and female around humans because of the limits of most human languages. <<

It would be so awesome for you to write a story in which a Transformer encounters a human who actually has wider knowledge and vocabulary of genders, and they talk about the options together. :D Fandom Snowflake usually contains a challenge to write a new fanwork, so keep it in mind.

Re: Well ...

[wyntir_knight]

Okay, here we have the problem that most people who make comics are not literature majors.

Unfortunately the cartoon had two separate origins and the original comic had three thanks to a complete lack of any kind of oversight. And then Dreamwave showed up and tried to force all the different backstories into one completely broken package. I often shake my head at the whole thing because such a thing would never be stood for in literature. Thankfully the Transformers fans tend to be pretty chill about the breaks in "canon" (save for a few exceptions) and lately most of the friction comes in the form of Tumblr style gate-keeping. Which isn't good, but I can deal with it by avoiding certain areas of the fandom and keeping my head down.

It would be so awesome for you to write a story in which a Transformer encounters a human who actually has wider knowledge and vocabulary of genders...

I'm currently working on a Transformers/MCU story wherein the Transformers are forced into their holoavatars and turned organic. In part I want to deal with the shock of organicness but also with gender, sexualities, and western preconceptions. It's still int he planning phase, but I think I may write several short pieces set in that universe while i get a feel for the whole thing.