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Delephont wrote:There are no scientific reasons why women can't fight on the front line! This has been proven in conflicts like WWII and Vietnam....the only reason women don't fight on the front line is because of "social standards".....thats it!

Talk about fitness, pregnacy, period problems.....sure these are factors, but they're not "limiting" factors. Trust me, if there was an invasion from another planet, everyone with 8 fingers and two thumbs would be, encouraged, to pick up a rifle and fight...

Actually, the Imperial Guard has a good reason to have a greater male composition; it's easier to replenish half a generation of males than half a generation of females. If maintaining a high civilian population for the planet is a concern taking more males than females makes more sense. Don't forget, the Imperial Guard is usually being sent off-planet, and require a significant investment in training, equipment, boarding space, and supplies. We're usually not talking about forces conscripted from a location to defend that location (which is what the Planetary Defense Force would be a lot of the time). Women are also physically weaker than men on average, so a strength test would allow a larger percentage of the male population in. Both of these factors also mean that a civilization is more likely to culturally associate men with warfare.

Now of course, there would still be plenty of situations in which women would be pulled into the basic ranks of the Guard; on a fortress world like Cadia there isn't much of a truly civilian population, so everyone needs to be trained for Guard duty. On a hive world that had a huge population the Imperial Guard could ignore sex from a demographic standpoint (or even select for females if the Imperium wanted to try and keep the population from growing too fast). On the flipside, Imperial Guard regiments raised under very strenuous conditions could need any soldiers available, regardless of how damaging it is to the planet they're being pulled from. A planet that had a significant cultural bias towards women fighting would probably have a disproportionate number of women fighting as well. Penal legions would depend on who commits more crimes.

Officers not pulled from the regular Guard ranks would probably include more females, as they're fewer in number. Same would go for Storm Troopers and Commissars, although this might be nulled by the fact that they use the same recruiting pool as the Sisters of Battle. Obviously Inquisitors and their servants would be unaffected (except for Temple Callidus, I suppose, and maybe Temple Eversor).

I remember once I read a SciFi novel set in the far future. Women had evolved and surpassed men in terms of sheer strength, so a reversal of the sexes had taken place. It was very interesting and I really enjoyed reading it.

Anyways according to the 40k background material it is not possible for women to become Space Marines. That's the just the way it is. I see two ways to get around this:

- A Chaos Space Marine army that follows Slaanesh could have the leader or high ranking members converted to the female sex via the dark prince's warp powers. I have seem some minis that were converted to represent this and they looked pretty darn cool.

- You could use an alternate universe where women are the 'stronger' sex and became Space Marines. A company traveling in a battlebarge could be translated to our 40k during an anamolous warp jump. This would allow you to field an entire army of female Space Marines.

To me either of these vehicles are perfectly acceptable means of representing female Space Marines and I am sure there are other explanations that are just as pausible.

G

Green Blow Fly wrote:I remember once I read a SciFi novel set in the far future. Women had evolved and surpassed men in terms of sheer strength, so a reversal of the sexes had taken place. It was very interesting and I really enjoyed reading it.

Cleopatra 2525?

Blah bah blah science fiction two missing primarchs lolicron social construct retcon fluff nazis etc

There once was a Doctor named Thunder...

In the interest of accuracy, there are female necrons, they look just like the males, as their essences are now in genderless shells. Problem solved.

Exactly.
On the marine side, modeling wise, who would notice the difference? They both have shaved heads and like to yell while waving a gun in the air. The armor would cover any anatomical differences. Its not an issue.

An ISraeli army stdy showed that male soldiers can walk over the dead bodies of male comrades no problem. When they walk over a dead female soldier, it is a lot harder for them. They can't do it near as easily. That is the main reason for females often not fighting on the front lines.

40k gender roles.. hahaha

@ speed freak I think that must be true because I too have sexist empathy.

I think to understand this all you have to do is look at the target market 14year old boys. We all know vets are irrelevant, to gW. So would the target market like female IG in heroic scale no less? I doubt it.

lordbug wrote:There is always one thread that pops up and the person wants female space marines /female necrons/and so on.

whys is this?
If you want females pick sisters there you go problem solved.
does this bother anyone else?

Can anyone explain to me why it matters? Now if the guy says he's going to play a IG army with females in it and shows up with 100 models in princess Leia slave bikinis or less yeah I'd look at him funny. But if a guy has a partly or entirely female army, well painted, reasonable, and wants to play with it so what? Even female marines? Big freaking deal. Is your skin so thin that 50 female marines destroys everything you love about 40K? When someone says they get bothered by someone using female models I can't help but wonder what kind of issues they've got that they're bothered by tiny plastic women.

I just don't get it. Maybe its because I played CBT where you never knew if you'd find yourself up against a gorgeously painted and converted figure or the top hat from a Monopoly set.

Tyyr wrote:Is your skin so thin that 50 female marines destroys everything you love about 40K?

Yes.

The real reason women don't fight on the front lines is this:

A single male can get many females pregnant. A female, can only get pregnant once in 9 months though. You don't need as many men to repopulate. When nations fight wars, a lot of people die. So if you lose all your women it would be very tough to repopulate. If you lose a lot of men, though, its not that hard to get the numbers back.

That is all.

The reason why men want female models is the same reason men play MMOs with female characters...if you're going to spend a bunch of time staring at something, might as well make it something appealing to look at. That's why you don't see many ugly female models (for tabletop or MMOs) even though you can usually find pretty nasty male models (scars, fat, etc).

May be sexist, but it's not surprising.

jsullivanlaw wrote:The real reason women don't fight on the front lines is this:

A single male can get many females pregnant. A female, can only get pregnant once in 9 months though. You don't need as many men to repopulate. When nations fight wars, a lot of people die. So if you lose all your women it would be very tough to repopulate. If you lose a lot of men, though, its not that hard to get the numbers back.

That is all.

QFT

Check my sig.

It helps add a little more flavor to a army if someone wants a pure female IG regiment he/she should be able to. Not sure you will ever see female necrons then again I don't think you would want to see that unless you swing that way a course...

lordbug wrote:There is always one thread that pops up and the person wants female space marines /female necrons/and so on.

whys is this?
If you want females pick sisters there you go problem solved.
does this bother anyone else?

Cause some guys like a woman's touch (<---I'm counting the jokes that come from this )

Personally I'm wanting some female Models in my force too, and have added fluff to my Chapters backgroud to explain why they are there fighting along side Marines. On the battle field I will simply use Sisters of battle models and count them as a normal tactical marines using the normal rules for Marines.
I can't see there being an issue as long as my opponents don't mind.

Well I did consider doing a SOB army and very likely will one day, but why should I limit myself?

I think an all or mostly female IG army would be cool and it fits the fluff.

Same goes for having female Tau.

Female tau could be driving hammerheads and the like.

HellsGuardian316 wrote:[Personally I'm wanting some female Models in my force too, and have added fluff to my Chapters backgroud to explain why they are there fighting along side Marines. On the battle field I will simply use Sisters of battle models and count them as a normal tactical marines using the normal rules for Marines.
I can't see there being an issue as long as my opponents don't mind.

Sorry, I'm trying to figure this out: What's with (some people's) obsession with having females in their armies?

Not really.
I wanted to battle SoB with my DE army, but I never got the chance so far.
Taking female slaves is the way to go.

Persephone do you mind if I ask are you a dude or a chick? Is that a picture of you in yer avatar?

G

Green Blow Fly wrote:Persephone do you mind if I ask are you a dude or a chick?

Don't mind at all, I get that a lot.

Green Blow Fly wrote:Is that a picture of you in yer avatar?

G

yes

Because dudes like chicks and would like to model them.

Because chicks like to see people like themselves fighting as equals in their army.

Because people like to model stuff that is different from the norm.

Because chicks fighting is cool.

I dunno, I bet you could get some interesting psychology answers doing a study on something like this though.

I agree with Aduro, which is good, because I was going to post something smarmy like "because some of us realize girls aren't icky."

starbomber109 wrote:In most real life militaries though, females are not permitted on the front lines. (IE: there are no riflewomen) there are a bunch of reasons....that I can't remember right now.

As female and a former active duty and currently in the national guard I can only say that we end up on the front lines anyway they always attack the support units...

tigonesskay wrote:

starbomber109 wrote:In most real life militaries though, females are not permitted on the front lines. (IE: there are no riflewomen) there are a bunch of reasons....that I can't remember right now.

As female and a former active duty and currently in the national guard I can only say that we end up on the front lines anyway they always attack the support units...

Mhmm. Plenty of chance to hit an IED or an Ambush. Just because women aren't usually deployed into direct combat doesn't mean it won't find them.

Support unit or no, most women that get deployed still end up in their share of lead storms or get injured.


But OT, again, I would love to see some Female Guard and (more) Tau units. But please, for the love of god, enough Fem-Marines. Doctor Thunder's minis were an exception, because he had plausible fluff to go with his army, and they all looked suitably ragtag, as per their story. But sculpting boobs on Marines just because you want your minis to all have 36DD Cups is a poor excuse.

HellsGuardian316 wrote:Personally I'm wanting some female Models in my force too, and have added fluff to my Chapters backgroud to explain why they are there fighting along side Marines. On the battle field I will simply use Sisters of battle models and count them as a normal tactical marines using the normal rules for Marines.
I can't see there being an issue as long as my opponents don't mind.

You could use regular Sisters of Battle rules too; they can be taken as allies.

sculpting boobs on Marines just because you want your minis to all have 36DD Cups is a poor excuse.

OMG That's horrorible!
And pretty sad actually.

tigonesskay wrote:

sculpting boobs on Marines just because you want your minis to all have 36DD Cups is a poor excuse.

OMG That's horrorible!
And pretty sad actually.

To quote good old Metallica, "Sad but true!" (Maybe toss in one of those awesome Hetfield "OOH-YEAH!"'s. )

If only Pig Iron would do a Wonderbra sprue.

Just think of the potential!