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Not joking. i think they actually are in fact all eunuchs, it's really the only explanation if not physically mentally as you don't want them to like first impregnate anyone but also removing that emotional drive would have some beneficial effects.

Also, has this not been mentioned in the text because i am pretty sure they all are.

Oh hell can we go one week without Dakka discussing the genitals of space marines?

No, apparently we cannot.

And, no, they're not eunuchs. They're just focused on other things for their outlet.

The topic of Space Marine genitalia or fertility seems to recur with depressing regularity on many different message boards. I suspect this may be due to the portrayal of Space Marines increasingly like macho movie action heroes, which are a stereotypical masculine wish fulfillment fantasy: the ultra strong, supremely competent, long lived, fast, square jawed action hero. The problem is they are portrayed as if they are your standard Hollywood action hero rather than a more dehumanized warrior. When this portrayal comes up against their supposed monk-like lifestyle and focus on combat and duty over all else, raises the question in people about their manliness (i.e. their genitals or fertility). After all, in action movies, the macho hero also gets the girl (or at least is capable of getting the girl). The very possibility that Space Marines might not be able to do so seems to sit uncomfortably with some people, which I suspect is the reason why this topic keeps occurring. They can't be a wish fulfillment fantasy if they are neutered or infertile.

So I was going to comment about it explaining their girth, but then realized that I don't know if that actually happens, or if it is just the standard portrayal (the only thing I know about Eunuchs comes from Song of Ice and Fire, and History of the World Part 1).

Iracundus wrote:
The topic of Space Marine genitalia or fertility seems to recur with depressing regularity on many different message boards. I suspect this may be due to the portrayal of Space Marines increasingly like macho movie action heroes, which are a stereotypical masculine wish fulfillment fantasy: the ultra strong, supremely competent, long lived, fast, square jawed action hero. The problem is they are portrayed as if they are your standard Hollywood action hero rather than a more dehumanized warrior. When this portrayal comes up against their supposed monk-like lifestyle and focus on combat and duty over all else, raises the question in people about their manliness (i.e. their genitals or fertility). After all, in action movies, the macho hero also gets the girl (or at least is capable of getting the girl). The very possibility that Space Marines might not be able to do so seems to sit uncomfortably with some people, which I suspect is the reason why this topic keeps occurring. They can't be a wish fulfillment fantasy if they are neutered or infertile.

Being infertile would likely be more wish fulfillment actually.

Not again!

The only answer is that GW has never stated anything about SM genitalia. So whether they can have sex and children is entirely up to your own imagination.

In Deathwatch you have to pay for that, so no, not as standard.

 Happyjew wrote:
So I was going to comment about it explaining their girth, but then realized that I don't know if that actually happens, or if it is just the standard portrayal (the only thing I know about Eunuchs comes from Song of Ice and Fire, and History of the World Part 1).

Removal of the gonads affects a persons hormonal balance and the total removal of one possible means of pleasure makes the unlucky one move on to differnt pleasures such as food. It is a cliche that eunuchs are fat, but all cliches have a basis in truth, or else they wouldn't be cliches. Also, if wikipedia is to be believed, castration was performed on people to make them effectively second class citizens and therefeore disposable, so I can see an institutional imperative to depct all such as fat and slovenly in keeping with their station.

@ Holismason - Totally the best way to make agressive robust supersoldiers is to remove the primary gland that produces the hormone linked most closely with aggression along with various other things that keeps the body in tip top shape...

You know what happens when You cut a 10-16 year old's penis off?
Thief hormones get gakked up, and they don't grow properly. If oh were designing super-soldiers, would you not want them to grow properly?

 the shrouded lord wrote:
You know what happens when You cut a 10-16 year old's penis off?
Thief hormones get gakked up, and they don't grow properly. If oh were designing super-soldiers, would you not want them to grow properly?

Er, why?

I don't think the penis itself [you didn't mention also removing testes] produces any hormones.

 sing your life wrote:

 the shrouded lord wrote:
You know what happens when You cut a 10-16 year old's penis off?
Thief hormones get gakked up, and they don't grow properly. If oh were designing super-soldiers, would you not want them to grow properly?

Er, why?

I don't think the penis itself [you didn't mention also removing testes] produces any hormones.

Sorry ment the,uhh, 'whole package'

GW has gracefully avoided this subject, but I belive they still hav their "package" but made asexual, meaning they can if they want, but it is completely uninteresting to them.

If I would made super-warriors, I would probably make them asexual since sexuality only causes problems, unwanted behaviour and frustration in war.

Why does this thread remind me of Brody talking to Stan Lee in Mallrats?

They're super warriors, they're men, they want the testosterone. Why on earth would they have their bits removed?

Ludicrous...

They're not castrated.

They are very likely rendered sterile by the massive biochemical changes they undergo.

They also have any sex drive thoroughly programmed out of their genetic structure, or redirected to other more useful avenues.

Any marine who did try to "get it up" would probably have a serious case of ED.


We can of course exempt the Space Wolves from this. They appear to still have their basic urges more intact(key word: more) than other Marines, although still muted compared to normal.

Well space wolves are not normal in a sense, the whole wolf inside/send them into feral state they have going

Hence why I said more.

Definitely not normal, but more normal than other marines in some areas.

A Space Wolf is the kind of guy a normal human could hang out with, a regular marine usually won't. Of course the Space Wolf has the problem is inadvertently killing you with a friendly pat on the back or offering you some way too strong alcohol.

Has anyone ever read about a Night Lord or a Carcharodon raping civilians as a terror tactic?

If the answer is, "No," there's a reason why.

Actually, the word rape was used to describe what the Emperor's Children were doing to Terra's population during the seige of Terra.

 Grey Templar wrote:
way too strong alcohol.

If only such a thing existed...sigh...

Space Marine are officially steril and asexual (mentionned in their older codex and general fluff). They are chemically castrated but probably have genitals (but potentialy very underdeveloped). Sexuality seems to be an very alien thing to them and don't feel any particular attraction to humans. Apothicaries regulate their hormonal level on a regular basis to make sure they remain sane of mind and body. They do possess testosterone (or some similar hormones) but there body doesn't produce it normally. Space Marine ingest large quantity of drugs, specialised food and other chemicals on a reagular basis. Slaaneshy Space Marine love to change the dosage for hilarious (if unpredictable) effect. Sex drive is probably denied to Space Marine to prevent sexual aggressions amongst their ranks (sadly common in real life armies). It is unprobable this has to do with reproduction, their genetic being to different then humans and aliens to produce viable children. The fluff still insist on the «no female Space Marine rule» so reproduction is out of the question.

 Happyjew wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
way too strong alcohol.

If only such a thing existed...sigh...

Alcohol so strong it can kill, well that's what you call ale!

Space wolf feasts may kill, but hey your gonna have a damn good time before you die!

They don't have a sexual desire and they can't reproduce...so why does it even matter?

 Sigvatr wrote:
They don't have a sexual desire and they can't reproduce...so why does it even matter?

It matters for my slimy fanfics of course.

jhe90 wrote:

 Happyjew wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
way too strong alcohol.

If only such a thing existed...sigh...

Alcohol so strong it can kill, well that's what you call ale!

Space wolf feasts may kill, but hey your gonna have a damn good time before you die!

I call it the start of a good night.

 Happyjew wrote:

jhe90 wrote:

 Happyjew wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
way too strong alcohol.

If only such a thing existed...sigh...

Alcohol so strong it can kill, well that's what you call ale!

Space wolf feasts may kill, but hey your gonna have a damn good time before you die!

I call it the start of a good night.

Grab a giant flaggon of ale, some roast kracken and see if you can beat Hagar at a drinking n feasting contest then :-)

Yeah I was pretty sure they were chemically castrated

Hollismason wrote:
Yeah I was pretty sure they were chemically castrated

Not deliberately anyway.

Who knows what the side effects of the various treatments they undergo are.

In Brothers of the Snake, the main character injects some of his blood into a human women to protect her from the radiation in the area they are entering, but it renders her sterile years later. Although she lives much longer than any other human on her planet.

epronovost wrote:
Space Marine are officially steril and asexual (mentionned in their older codex and general fluff).

This has always been my impression as well, but I seem to be unable to locate the specific sources, so I have started to doubt myself...
(I still think this is the case, if not explicitly, then implicitly.)