Asari: Bluer than your matriarch's Orion slave girls!

I was originally going to title this post "Asari: the unGender" before I realized that my whole point is that they're not ungendered (read on!).  Whatever,  I've been waiting fifteen years to make a 7-Up unCola joke; it was too good an opportunity to miss!  See, one of my all-time favorite games is Cool Spot.  If you haven't played it, it's one of the last whimsical, fun side-scrollers.  In my opinion.  I would venture to say that it's the best licensed-property game I've ever played.  I would.

Anyway, I'm here to talk about some asari.

You want to talk about asari?

The reason I want to talk about the asari is because of their gender.  As someone who identifies off the gender binary, I'm forced almost every day to consider issues of gender as they pertain to my life.  I've found that a lot of people I interact with don't think about these things.  There's "womanly" and "manly" and there are the "deviants" who act "too feminine" or "too masculine" for whatever gender we assign to them based on their biological sex. 

As an aside, I'm writing with the assumption that the reader has a basic concept of critical gender theory.  If you don't, uh.  Google "critical gender theory" and go from there.  Everything I write, as always, is only my opinion as I observe things with a critically trained, but still fannish, eye.  I'm happy to answer specific questions about stuff, but I really am not a good teacher.  I swear.  I also write this only to start a discussion on the topic, not to complete one.  My thoughts are scattered and unprofessional, for I am scattered and not a professional.

So the asari, we are told, are monogendered. Liara, the adorable archaeologist asari (see what I did there?), says "male and female have no meaning for us."


I think it's helpful to ignore the gendered pronouns and descriptors that characters use in-game to describe asari.  I have only played the game in English, I'd be curious to know what other languages use for the asari.  Arguably, we don't have words that are equivalent to the words aliens use to describe themselves.  So we end up with our words used in the best way they can be, which may be lacking such as "mother" and "father" or "matriarch", "maiden" and "matron" (which are pretty much shout outs to the triptych feminine goddess/es of many cultures).  


Basically, "the only water in the forest is the river."  (Sorry, Doctor Who reference.)


But the codex exists to describe things in our terms.  Theoretically.  And this is what we get from the codex:

"[W]hile asari have only one gender, they are not asexual like single-celled life—all asari are sexually female."

The definition of sexually female that we've established seems to be pretty simple.  Females produce ova (eggs!).  Even plant-females. But that's not how the asari reproduce, so it's not really applicable.  So if the asari are female, they are female in a way that females from our planet are not.  But... what way?  


I call shenanigans!  And here's why.


First: they have mammaries.  Or two sacs of something hanging off their chest.  If they're not mammaries, they're a pretty good imitation of mammaries, and I find it really hard to believe that an entire non-mammaried species would get implants just to fit in.  But since they don't reproduce the same way mammals do, these are apparently vestigial mammaries.  Unless they produce milk, which just makes it even harder to buy that the asari are completely different from human females.  Either way, the mammaries stand out.  Er.  You know.


Second, and more importantly: the Mass Effect series is written by humans for human consumption.  We are applying our rules, values, and social mores to fictional species.  For the most part, the people writing mainstream media think there are only two genders and that those genders are fixed, with only a little bit of wiggle room (such as "tom boys").  They also create games written for the eyes of a particular consumer.  Despite what the game tells us about gender having no meaning to the asari, it has a lot of meaning to us.  And all of the signs BioWare gives me are pointing towards the asari being, generally, feminine women.  


When I see blue-skinned humanoids with what appear to be mammaries dancing up on tables or down in laps in Chora's Den, I immediately think of one thing.

Orion Slave Girl

When I find out that the main sex worker on the Citadel is a blue-skinned humanoid with what appear to be mammaries,  who visibly only employs women, connections happen in my brain.  For comparison here, the Blooming Rose in Dragon Age 2 has a variety of sex and gender options in your preferred sex worker.  That says to me that BioWare probably knew exactly what they were doing, at least by the time of Mass Effect 2.  They were stocking a brothel with one gender, made up of feminine women.  (I know that ME2 was released first, but they were in development at the same time.  And I've been told DA:O had similar options to DA:2.)


There are more signs.  Liara's armor is the feminine version in Mass Effect, for example.  Azure.  Samara's outfit.  Morinth's succubus-like story.  The way the asari talk.  Some are big and some are small, but there are plenty of parts of the games that scream "the asari are feminine".  


There are two notable exceptions to all this femininity.  Aria T'Loak, who is ruthlessly in charge of an entire space station, and Matriarch Aethyta, who's given a deeper voice and more predatory behavior that generally invokes a sense of masculinity.  Considering she's probably Liara's father, I don't think that's a coincidence.  


My point is that even if the asari have only one sex and one gender inside their fictional universe, and even though they say that human gender concepts don't apply to them, BioWare wants us to think of them as feminine unless they are in masculine roles (the head of a criminal society or a known character's "father"), and BioWare very clearly makes them appear female.


It's a missed opportunity to show us twenty-first century humans living in a very rigid culture what it means to really not have gender be a concern, to really be an ungendered species or a fluid-gendered species or an openly multi-gendered specie, to really be a species that is completely alien to our sensibilities, and to therefore knock our sensibilities around a little and make us question what we think of as the norm.  


Is it a video game company's job to do that?  I don't know.  But they think it's their job to comment on racism (sorta) and deal with sexism (kinda).  In a game series about a galaxy full of aliens, why does everyone have to seem so human?

The Responsibility to Educate

One of the things that happens when you write about Stuff is that people ask you questions about Stuff.  

About a year ago, I wrote about the portrayal of Batwoman, Kate Kane, femininity, etc. and received a lot of comments on that post.  One of the comments (if you don't feel like reading the link) got angry at me for calling Kate Kane a femme (I think the commenter misunderstood, personally, because I was only calling Batwoman a femme) and we got into a "discussion" about gender theory.  I asked the commenter to inform us, since she (self-identified as a she) was very angry and not very clear.  The response I got was that it's not her responsibility to educate.  I agree.  In fact, I said:

I'm not here to delve into the trenches of critical gender theory, I'm here to use my background of critical gender theory, my love of pop culture and comic culture, and my personal experiences to rant, rave, and/or praise the comics (and comic-related things) that I read and see.

The same stays true (though obviously expanded from comics).  Obviously, writing the blog  - and ranting a lot on twitter - means I want to share my viewpoints with a larger audience.  And to that extent, I always welcome questions and conversations.  

But how much are we - whatever the we is that's being tokenized - expected by people to educate just because we exist?  If someone says a homophobic comment, do I have to tell them why they're being a homophobe, or can I just walk away?  Is it my responsibility, as self-identifying gay person, to step up?  Is a straight person expected to step up, too?  I honestly don't think they are.  A straight person may choose to say something, but I think that if they were to walk away there would be a lot less judgment on them.  

I hate to say that it feels like it's very much "us vs. them", but it too-often does.  And sometimes the us are part of the them (I am white and I have white privilege, and that means I will often be part of Them, and that's something I deal with) and that's something a lot of people have the ability to ignore.  

When I talk about a comic book or video game's portrayal of gender and sexuality, it's because I choose to.  But a lot of times, particularly when talking about issues of non-binary gender identity, I feel like it's because I have to.  There aren't enough people saying these things. 

I thought about this question a lot over the last weekend, at PAX East.  I was frustrated - not by anyone in particular - by this idea that you have to speak up when something negative occurs, that you have to work to educate the community, because they won't educate themselves.  Why won't they educate themselves?

Because they don't have to.

I think about Audrey Lourde's The Master's Tools a lot. I think about the heavy gender assumptions that go along with a lot of the critical gender and sexuality pieces I read about things I'm interested in.  I think about all of the very feminine teenage girls on television who are coming our or defying labels, and I think about Franky Fitzgerald and how she's one of the most radical characters on scripted television since Lieutenant Uhura.  

Franky Fitzgerald, from series five of Skins.

It makes me think I have a lot to say.  But that's my choice.  Right?

I'm too serious about race and gender. But especially gender.

A couple of months ago, I posted about my new dog, Ollie, who is a female but who is named after Oliver Queen. I also posted about the Lady!Ollie picture I found on the internets, and some brief thoughts on gender-swapping characters.

Actually, I enjoy the idea of gender swapping characters (or degendering, which is pretty much never done, since heaven forfend we not be either Man or Woman). When done right, it's really really interesting. It's not done right very often. The trick is to maintain the essence of the character while adapting him or her to a different gender, which of course affects the way he or she will interact with society, the kinds of experience s/he has had in his/her life, et cetera et cetera. It's not just about swapping around some parts of anatomy.

There's been this chromatic casting meme floating around. The idea is that you take established comic characters and insert people of color into the roles. But it's not just insertion, of course, because being a person of color changes your experiences and interactions. Just like your gender does. Anyway, it started, I think, on Livejournal and has gone viral. Got picked up, distributed and, as is the way with anything ever, offended some people. Then one of the creators wrote an excellent response.

Last night during the State of the Union Address, President Obama promised to push through an Equal Pay bill so that women earn 100% of what men earn. Not more. Not the same for less. But equal pay for equal work.

This is the year 2010.

My mom, who was one of two women in her medical school class in the late 70s, used to tell me about burning bras in college and marching down 5th Avenue for Women's Rights and having men spit on her. My mom, who used to add epilogues to fairy tales and Disney stories telling myself and my sister that it was okay if after we went off to the castle and lived happily ever after, we wanted to get a job and not just be a stay-at-home parent, as long as we made our own choices, is the first person that comes to mind when I think of a feminist.

I remarked to her via IM that it's sad that it's 2010 and there's not equal pay for equal work.

"I know," she said.

After the State of the Union, Chris Matthew said he forgot that the President was black, sparking off an uproar (and rightly so) about the remark. After all, why can't an intelligent man be black? That's not what Chris Matthews was saying, I think, but he said it stupidly.

But what no one else seems to remember is that he ended his train wreck by saying that men talk about The Godfather. "It's what we do."

Huh?

During the Presidential primaries and election in 2008, a discussion of race and racism was at the forefront of nearly every mention of Barrack Obama. But a discussion of gender was limited to comments on Sarah Palin's clothing or Hilary Clinton crying. In the recent election here in Massachusetts, the female candidate was portrayed as cold by the good ol' boy driving around in his truck. She lost (though that's not the only reason). Men who are portrayed as cold are strong. Women are frigid.

Here's my point: sexism still exists, but we are so convinced in this post-third-wave-feminist era that things are okay that we refuse to admit it. It's even okay to be sexist. Ever watched a commercial for Axe body spray? How about a commercial for Progressive insurance where they mock a man carrying a bag, who insists his wife bought it? How about that, again, it's 2010 and this is arguably the worst TV pilot season for women. Teen girls fawn over strong Edward and Jacob while aspiring to be Bella, who's off wilting in the shadows of her immense love for her stalker vampire.

Everything I'm saying doesn't mean racism doesn't exist. Not at all. And overt racism is definitely worse than overt sexism. But the subversive sexism that permeates our culture is still there, and it seems like something only a handful of people are willing to talk about. And those people are often called oversensitive (at best). Really, read some of the comments in this discussion about Marvel's Deadpool cover trade-in promotion (the one where you rip up DC comics to get a reference to a show that was popular 7 years ago with half-naked women that has nothing to do with the title, Siege).

Have some highlights:

"What I'm trying to get at is that sexism in comics isn't going untreated, and there seems to be a better balance nowadays. So to get all up in arms about this seems alittle [sic] futile and tiring."

So because it's being worked on (the author gives three examples of the umpteen comic creators out there), we shouldn't discuss it. Check.

"That cover is funny. Clearly, some people just don't appreciate humor. I hate living in a PC world, where people can't take a joke. Anyone who would call that cover sexist or racist probably has some personal problems that they need to work through."

No words necessary.

"Sorry I just find it funny people think this is sexist. I mean if you feel like that then go for it, but to say this is sexist considering a lot of comics from the 1940's to now have have naked women on the cover....that means the entire industry has been sexist since day one. "

Uh. Yes. I love the argument that because things were more sexist in the past (or racist), to think they're sexist now is ridiculous. Hey, look, in 1860 black people were slaves. So in 1954 when they were working on the Civil Rights bill to allow black people access to voting, they should have just let it go. And since women used to be the property of their husbands a hundred years ago, we shouldn't worry about equal pay because, hey. We're not property.

Check.

And let's end with how we started:

Well the only thing I can say that, [sic] your [sic] taking this way to seriously.

Okay!

So to wrap this all up, I wonder if the people up in arms over "Chromatic Casting" would have similar issues with Genderswap Casting. Maybe they would. I don't know. I think it's a lot easier to be offended by racism, because racism is still considered a Big Problem, whereas sexism is something that got fixed in the 70s so we should get over it.

2010 - Equal pay for equal work. Keep an eye out.

"Real" Men Can Wear Indigo (AND Violet!)

I'm sitting in Logan Airport, which has no outlets in its international terminal, waiting to board my Virgin Atlantic flight, which has no outlets in its economy cabin, so I thought it'd be a good time for a long-needed blog update. When without the ability to recharge your laptop prior to a 7 1/2 hour flight, clearly you need to write about comics.

Clearly!

So you know what was cool this week? The Deputy Lanterns over in Blackest Night #6. This almost made up for the Black Lanternization of Bart, Ollie, and Kon. And, yeah, Superman. My friend pointed out that Ollie has to come back to suffer the post-Roy-becomes-Dark Knight-Ollie storyline from Cry for Justice, so he's going to be okay. And Superman is Superman. But I worry about my former Young Justice people.

Anyway, BN #6 was accompanied by Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2, which was yet another ridiculously awesome Greg Rucka book. This was a slam bang issue, man. I loved the overlap of Diana's thoughts with those of the Black Ring. And it was a totally emotional ride through her life. I had no idea it was fake until her mom showed up. Then I was a bit suspicious. Then Batman (can someone tell me why Bruce is Diana's symbol of love?), then Aphrodite.

Let me say, as an aside, that every time I think of Aphrodite I picture her like so:

Yeah, I'm a Xenite. I don't apologize. (Please enjoy Gabrielle's expression in that picture. For serious.)

Right, so the Deputy Lanterns. I'm not mega familiar with GL mythology. Has this happened before? I know the rings choose the right people, but I dig the emergency, planet-specific deputization. And I like the people they chose. One of the things I do like about the GL stuff is that there are good guys and bad guys in the good corps and bad corps. I mean, Mera's in red, right? Cool.

I guess there's been some kerfluffle about Diana's uniform. Yeah. It's a bit showy. So is her normal uniform. Now it's showier. Yeah. How about the blood running down Mera's face? Not an issue?

Okay.

I'll let other people go into that. Personally, I don't get why men can't be loving enough to be part of the Star Sapphires. If women can be angry enough to be part of the Red Lantern Corps, against the stereotype of meek and non-angry women, I don't get why a man couldn't have been chosen by the violet ring. I'm going to be honest, I'd probably have given the ring to Kal-El. But okay, give it to Diana. It's not like I'm a writer at DC or a Violet Ring. You know. And I did like how over in Action Comics he was a blend of all the colors. Or good colors, I guess. Green, blue, whatever.

Something I like about Doctor Who is that it makes Earth out to be this really special place. There's a reason the Doctor likes it so much. The people here are terrible and wonderful and they change the course of time itself. I sort of wish that attitude could be found in other genres. Maybe Earth could be the place of the first male Star Sapphire. What about planets with no genders or more-than-two genders? What do Star Sapphires do there? Just skip over that sector?

I liked this issue. Now let's fix Bart (I have a sad sad feeling that now that Irey is Impulse, Bart's not as necessary to the DCU) and finish up this Black Lantern stuff (I know, I know, April). It's been interesting, but there's only so much of the undead I can take.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to London. Cheers!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled comic post...

To gush about my new dog!

This is quasi-relevant. Her name is Ollie, and I named her after the Emerald Archer himself, Oliver Queen. (My sister has declared that her name is Olive, since Ollie is too much of a boy's name, but I don't really do that whole gender labeling thing anyway, and the dog likes it just fine).

This is Ollie:



She's guarding my apartment from unwanted attacks from the woods. Or something.

By the way, someone drew a version of a female Green Arrow, and this is how it came out:


Right. You know, maybe that's just one of those GA wannabes (like the ladies from Return of the Dark Knight). 'Cause even if gender-swapped (I am now getting fantastic ideas about a gender-swapped GA and her relationship with Dinah), I can't see "Olive" Queen going in for the midriff exposing, giganto-breast, green lipstick look. Maybe that's just me.

Actually, I enjoy the idea of gender swapping characters (or degendering, which is pretty much never done, since heaven forfend we not be either Man or Woman). When done right, it's really really interesting. It's not done right very often. The trick is to maintain the essence of the character while adapting him or her to a different gender, which of course affects the way he or she will interact with society, the kinds of experience s/he has had in his/her life, et cetera et cetera. It's not just about swapping around some parts of anatomy.

Wasn't I talking about my dog?

Anyway, she's awesome. I have the currently dorktastic plan of getting my photographer friend to take some shots of her in a Robin Hood dog costume. Because... why not?