How to defy gender roles (or not)

[moonfall86]

I've noticed a difference in how male and female players interpret lore relating to gender and sexism. I've started discussions on how different races treat females lore-wise on two different forums, one male-dominated (server forum) and one female-dominated (wow_ladies), and generally speaking, the male players were the ones who interpreted most

Comments

[rantinan]

Statement: Blizz seems to be aware that 51% of the people on the planet have a vagoo. Their game world reflects this to a large extent

[aleros]

"If you're a DK, you're to busy rebelling against Arthus to fvxx the patriarchy. "

Either that or you're secretly Arthas's lover.

"IF you are a girly night elf... heaven help you, you need a dose of lore 101"

I suddenly realize why the only two relationships my main (nelf druid) has ever been in have been with dominant, strong female figures; they fit with lore. I subconsciously decided for my character that all the girly girl nelves were just freaks.

[moonfall86]

I never saw anything about dwarves that suggests gender matters that much. I just thought female dwarves are more under-represented than anything (though I do remember some female dwarf archaeologists). I've heard that Magni is supposed to die in Cataclysm and that his daughter is going to take over for a short time until Stormwind has her assassinated. That's just hearsay though.

I've seen some players complain that Blizzard is trying to be "politically correct" by showing gender equality and that it conflicts with lore.

[deadborder]

He's not dead, just "indesposed". Ironforge is being run by a council of Muradin, Falstead Wildhammer and yes, Moira Thaurassian.

[moonfall86]

I had also heard that Varian has Moira bumped off because of her ties to the Dark Irons....is she EVER going to have that baby? Maybe dwarf pregnancies just last longer than human.

*is feeling really embarrassed lately for naming a dwarf character Moira...was a complete accident*

[deadborder]

I havent heard anyhting to that effect. I'd say "no until proven otherwise"

[thierrybelleaux]

I briefly rolled on MG when ThoBro was down, went to RP with a few of my friends, the only non-ERP-ish guy who approached us insisted my nelf was going down on a human dude because we were seated near eachother. When she denied (because seriously wtf) he insisted on calling her a whore over and over and generally kept harassing us insisting that she was a filthy prostitute and augghhh

It was an obvious Troll but some people really do enjoy logging in just to be sexist dicks :[

[deadborder]

This is what you get for rolling on MG

[deadborder]

I really think that it comes down to race-by race. Now this is my interpetation of how gender equality stands, based off lore, observations and guesswork. Bearing in mind, again, this is not official and, as such, YMMV.

Humans: Seem to be largely equitable; female soldiers all over the place and women in positions of authroity. They do seem to have purely patriachal heridtory monarchies though. There's not a single "queen" in human lore (beyond "wife of the king") and Arthas Menethil - the younger sibling of the two - was expected to inheret over Caria.

Dwarves: Seem to be rather patriachal, but at the same time, they seem to have nothign against female soldiers or women in positions of authrioty (Captain Balinda Stonehearth, for example)

Gnomes: Lack of evidence, but Gnomes seem to be very gender-equitable. Given that they were (pre Gnomeregon go asplodey) something akin to a democracy, I see no reason why a female Gnome couldn't be high Tinkerer. Gnomes seem to emphasise technical skill/invention over gender

Draenei: Hard call

[moonfall86]

Balinda Stonehearth is a human.

[deadborder]

Well I feel stupid now.

[laggyandmilly]

As a whole, I tend to interpret the gender equality issue by looking at the guard representation, which would make everyone who isn't a blood elf, night elf, and dwarf more or less equal. Of course, by this line of thinking, night elves would be matriarchal, which is very likely inaccurate.

Although forsaken are likely gender neutral in pretty much all cases not related to physical look and function, I do think a good many of them would see gender with a twisted view of what they held in life. Not that it'd matter much, considering Sylvannas's control over them, but it might be interesting to RP a sexist forsaken.

[threeparts]

I have mostly female characters, and only two of them have had issues with sexism. My female troll, naturally, and my female blood elf who is trying to climb the ranks of the Blood Elf military. We know that, for instance, there were a lot of female fighting Quel'dorei - hi Sylvanas! - but nowadays all the guards in the city are male spellbreakers. I've interpreted that as the general feeling being that women couldn't protect them in the third war, so "screw that - we're only hiring males now."
To be fair, she was a sergeant in the second war and honourably discharged from the military after the fall of Silvermoon. She's taken a few years off to recover, and now she's finding it frustrating to deal with the bureaucrats hiring pretty male guards.

[maureenlycaon]

I've interpreted that as the general feeling being that women couldn't protect them in the third war, so "screw that - we're only hiring males now."

Or, perhaps, with their numbers cut by 90 percent, they pressure blood elf females to bear as many children as possible, and don't like to see the "wombs" exposing themselves to danger in combat roles? That's what comes to my mind.