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 After all, why should an in-organic species follow organic (and outdated) gender norms?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!

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."