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Yes, that's my assumption too. Which is even more reason why I have no problems with them.

Even if GW were to introduce female marines (which they won't) the massive, bulky power armour would hide the majority of their femininity, and the helmet would block out their face, so you wouldn't be able to tell anyway!

That's if its done tastefully, though. I'm almost 100% positive that if GW did introduce female marines (which they won't) they'd be wearing power armour sports bras or something...

L. Wrex

You have bored me I must now dance!

if there isn't a difference in the end product, why ask for the change in the first place?

When you think about it... most Space marines are old dudes. Just the scouts are young. So no sexy there, just a bunch of old grandma' on the battlefield! They be kniting and baking their way towards victory

"come on Gertrude!" "for the Emperor Beatrix"

Special rules:

Grandma: Their conforting presence puts at ease any wory of any enemy within 12". Units affected will want to sit down and listen to their stories of grandeur and grand-motherly wisdom, thus going to ground and having their Initiative reduced to 1

Nagging: Space Grandmas tend to talk and talk and talk and talk. So much that units whom are in range of the nagging (6") will rethink their current course of action. Afected units must pass a leadership test with a -1 for every Space Grandma in range to a minimum of 6. If the unit fails, they will feel guilty and have their Strenght reduced to 1 for that turn.

Why not have female space marines? Every other race has females. Tau? Special female character. Grey knights? Callidus assassin. IG? Female Comissars (I think, so long as that isn't just a meme). Eldar/Dark Eldar-plenty: not even gonna list them all. Sisters of Battle? ....Duh. Daemons? Well, they have Daemonettes, and while I know they're supposed to be androgenous...they are portrayed as very feminine (and evil) in the codex. Truth is, Space Marines are the only real army to not have women. Why not? I think with a decent fluff writer, there could be a way to add in a chapter of marines that are females but have been hidden away from the other chapters due to some chauvenistic reason-such as only being trustworthy for 3 weeks out of every month. Sorry, that's horrible, but I couldn't resist

timetowaste85 wrote: IG? Female Comissars (I think, so long as that isn't just a meme).

I wasn't going to comment on this thread until I saw this...

Thats a meme bro, IG have no in production female models, however in the fluff as many women as men serve in the guard, and in the tau fire caste, and in the eldar guardians, and in the kabalite warriors

However, its been stated numerous times in nearly every marine codex that marines have to be male. That being said if fem marines were implemented well I wouldn't mind but the reversal of that much fluff would be a bit jarring. it would be like if all of a sudden Imperial Guard had terminator armour. It wouldn't be bad per se, but I would be like "How the hell did they get that, whats the justification for them having it? I thought fluff said that stuff was incredibly rare and there was only like 100 000 suits of it around."

I think that metaphor makes sense

Works for me. As most people on this site know (and hate) I pay very little attention to IG due to my hatred of 99% of their models. I thought I saw a female commissar once before...other than in real life at GamesDay, but I wasn't sure. Still, I'm sure they could fluff it and make a chapter: the Emperor's Hand...and successor chapters...like the Emperor's Tissues I'm getting hit with the ban-hammer for sure...

timetowaste85 wrote:\ I thought I saw a female commissar once before

There is a female commisar model I have seen it on ebay.

Yes, and she's also known as the boobissar for a couple reasons.

Any pictures for those of us who have no clue what she even looks like? Remember, not usually someone who cares about IG models, so I kind of want veritable proof that she exists for my previous "why not" comment above

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is tolerance, understanding, and equality between the genders...

I'm sure the Imperium has an excellent affirmative action program to make sure males and females are represented equally in the workplace/battlefield. Break that glass ceiling!

Actually I'm fairly certain that many planets do.

After all, they wouldn't call them human resources if they weren't meant to be strip mined.

I don't care if you have boobs, but god help you if you if have a third eye, I'll torch you!

Mr Nobody wrote:I don't care if you have boobs, but god help you if you if have a third eye, I'll torch you!

Thank god we all know you're talking about Tzeentch...otherwise this can be taken SO badly

timetowaste85 wrote:

Mr Nobody wrote:I don't care if you have boobs, but god help you if you if have a third eye, I'll torch you!

Thank god we all know you're talking about Tzeentch...otherwise this can be taken SO badly

I'm glad you got it.

BluntmanDC wrote:

Sckitzo wrote:And no matter how many things you push through a IV your not going to change bone structure.

Well then you don't know much about turning a human into a space marine. Changing the bone structure is an important part of the transformation. The process is so overwelming and the new hormone regulating organs mean they go through completely different changes to a normal human.

So it is easy to assume that a female, if able to go through the same process, would look the same as a male. Add this to the fact that space marines are warrior monks/knights they have no use for femininity. So a female space marine would look the same as a male space marine.

I would be totally down for that as long as SMs didn't look like men. But the point is they are stylised hunks designed to appeal to young teen boys' idea of the perfect rolemodel (insert homosexual subtext where you like...)

In reality the kind of changes undergone would make the finally matured SM look more like a Golem or something.

Melissia wrote:Meh, if I was to do femmarines I'd just make sure all of my models are wearing their helmets. you couldn't tell the difference between female marine and male marines inside their armor anyway.

Exactly.

Kilkrazy wrote:
I would be totally down for that as long as SMs didn't look like men. But the point is they are stylised hunks designed to appeal to young teen boys' idea of the perfect rolemodel (insert homosexual subtext where you like...)

Sort of like this scene from The Lost Boys?

@Melissia: Sorry, it was late in the night when I wrote that.

As other have noted, if done realistically it wouldn't really matter anyway, and if done poorly we'd get huge bewbs and bikini armor with halfassed justification. In my mind it's just not worth it.

If I understand you correctly, you think GW are gak at sculpting.

You misunderstand me, good sir. When I said "wouldn't really matter anyway", I meant because a female would not look like a female after the space marine training (especially not in power armor), not because GW can't model a woman.

Don't particularly care, but GW will see an excuse to get a new mould for female marines and then have another price hike across the board.

No,just No.

Taking the "why not this, why not that" I humbly request pictures and/or C&C for these ideas:
(All noted whether they already exist or not, it is just that I know not of their existence)

Neither-boob-plate-nor-bikini-armor-then-who-cares-about-female-gender marines

Female orks
Female tau
Female (looking) nids (doomthumbs' goatse excluded )

Chaos orks
Chaos nids
Chaos tau

SM orks
SM nids
SM pocoyo

...

ENKHANNA wrote:SM pocoyo

...

... CSM POCOYO!!!

Space Marines are supposed to be genetically enchanced supersoldiers.

Current (aided) Bench Press WR:
Men: 1075 lbs
Women: 531 lbs

Based on this, which sex you think would be better as a basis for genetic modification if the aim is to make as physically capable superhumans as possible?

Only in individual sports that do not require upper body muscles the differences between sexes aren’t too grave: men’s Marathon WR is about 2:03 and women’s WR is about 2:15, for example.

From military point of view there’s also a question of differences in average spatial awareness, teamwork etc. between men and women, which become apparent in team sports. These issues are, perhaps, partly physiological, partly cultural and there are individual differences etc., but they do exist on a general level. As a piece of anecdotal evidence I’d like to point out that Finnish Women’s World Ice Hockey Championships 2009 ice team (country’s best semi-professional adult women players) lost every practice game they played against national boys C-league team (semi-professional 16-year old, i.e. not physically fully mature, boys). The women’s team won silver (after Canada) in those games.

Members of male sex have also been more disposable than females throughout history. This can be verified by looking the military casualty records of any war. I don’t want to go deeper into sociobiological or cultural discussion about gender roles here, though. It might be argued that physical sex differences could be made non-existent in the future via cultural change and development of genetics etc., of course, but , based on things like those mentioned above, I don’t personally feel comfortable with the idea of female space marines.

SilverMK2 wrote:I prefer Doctor Thunder's style of female marines. EDIT: Not the looks particularly, though some of the more restrained ones are quite good, but their existence in the fluff.

More or less SoB sized females who are used to infiltrate human populations - I think his fluff is far more interesting than most who want female marines anyway.

Plus this way they will be unique to CSM armies - finally something we can lord over the SM players!

I didn't take time to read the fluff there, nor do I have my own personal fluff written down anywhere (Nor do I have time to do so) but I support Female Chaos Space Marines.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but I was told, by someone who has way more fluff experience than myself, that there is actually a story (in Storm of Iron apparently) where a woman is a servant of a Khorne-following Captain-type and she polishes his armor every day or something, and then one day Khorne whispers to her to put it on, and then he modifies her to fit the armor. Bam, female Chaos Space Marine.

To be honest, I wouldn't have started playing if it weren't for being told that it was okay to have female CHAOS Space Marines (because of that precedent in the fluff). I liked the look of Dark Eldar most, but you couldn't buy the models ANYWHERE at the time, much less the codex. And now I'm way too much in love with my girls to give them up. Also: I've only gotten compliments about them in person. It may just be because I'm female, and people don't want to deter the few females that DO play, but there could be something to be said for never being unduly criticized regarding them.

I like the idea that only CSM armies could have females, and that they might not be made in the traditional way even. Like being mutated by the Chaos Gods as a reward for being good servants.

I don't have many facts, but I felt like I needed to present my feelings, since I have female space marines, myself. [I admit mine are too top-heavy to be realistic, but that's the way I wanted them, so that's the way I made them. And it's not like it was difficult to do by hand with greenstuff, either.]

The UK has female jet fighter pilots.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/23/woman-pilot-libya-combat-mission