I’d consider myself a “casual fan” of 40k, and I think there’s two important things to consider:
As with most “outsider hobbies” being brought into the mainstream and examined with a broader lens, there’s always going to be pushback from various chud subgroups that feel like they’re the only ones who “earned it.” Fuck those people. Continuing to amplify their voices helps them push people away, which is bad for the hobby, bad for the community, and bad for the people they want to push down and away. Goofing around and coming up with your own silly little stories that trample over canon is half the fun. Fuck anyone who says otherwise, and double-fuck anybody who is willing to selectively apply canon only to reinforce their prejudices.
I think it’s fair to say that space marines being explicitly cis-males is a natural narrative conclusion based on the context. A continuing narrative element in 40K is that everybody is awful. Just the worst. Like, beyond terrible. Anybody who unironically thinks they’re identifying with “the good guys” is missing the criticism that’s pointed right at them. The Imperium of man is a very heavy-handed caricature of the failings of european history. The Crusades, Nazi Germany, Organized Christianity (Particularly Catholics), hell imperialism is literally right there in the name. The God-Emperor of Mankind is a hypermasculine narcissist born in the middle east and destined to rule over all mankind. He hand-crafted 20 big, burly dude-bros to be his children (because that other guy only had 12 eyeroll). These primarchs then are the progenitors for their million man-children to explore the galaxy, and committing themselves to their greco-roman warrior ethos of committing genocide and naked oil wrestling. Is it really that hard to believe that sky-daddy space-hitler wouldn’t have enough misogyny in him to code out a “no girls allowed” sign into his magic cummies to make sure that no ladies can interrupt the volleyball montages?
The usual gotcha question chuds like to ask in response to female space marines is “So you think the sororitas should have dudes?” I posit that the correct question is "you think there should be more women in the Village People?
I’d consider myself a “casual fan” of 40k, and I think there’s two important things to consider:
As with most “outsider hobbies” being brought into the mainstream and examined with a broader lens, there’s always going to be pushback from various chud subgroups that feel like they’re the only ones who “earned it.” Fuck those people. Continuing to amplify their voices helps them push people away, which is bad for the hobby, bad for the community, and bad for the people they want to push down and away. Goofing around and coming up with your own silly little stories that trample over canon is half the fun. Fuck anyone who says otherwise, and double-fuck anybody who is willing to selectively apply canon only to reinforce their prejudices.
I think it’s fair to say that space marines being explicitly cis-males is a natural narrative conclusion based on the context. A continuing narrative element in 40K is that everybody is awful. Just the worst. Like, beyond terrible. Anybody who unironically thinks they’re identifying with “the good guys” is missing the criticism that’s pointed right at them. The Imperium of man is a very heavy-handed caricature of the failings of european history. The Crusades, Nazi Germany, Organized Christianity (Particularly Catholics), hell imperialism is literally right there in the name. The God-Emperor of Mankind is a hypermasculine narcissist born in the middle east and destined to rule over all mankind. He hand-crafted 20 big, burly dude-bros to be his children (because that other guy only had 12 eyeroll). These primarchs then are the progenitors for their million man-children to explore the galaxy, and committing themselves to their greco-roman warrior ethos of committing genocide and naked oil wrestling. Is it really that hard to believe that sky-daddy space-hitler wouldn’t have enough misogyny in him to code out a “no girls allowed” sign into his magic cummies to make sure that no ladies can interrupt the volleyball montages?
The usual gotcha question chuds like to ask in response to female space marines is “So you think the sororitas should have dudes?” I posit that the correct question is "you think there should be more women in the Village People?
Hell yeah.
(Awaiting…)
i had such big feels that i stopped for dinner in the middle, lol.