Except that Shockwave himself refers to them as "female Autobots", and states twice how he thought female Autobots were extinct. This is not a case of humans applying their own ill-conceived perceptions onto an alien species. This is one alien robot referring to another as "female". The females even confirm their female-ness and defiantly claim that they'll always exist. It doesn't get much more black-and-white than that. Female Cybertronians do exist.

 

They're cool as long as they stay away from Earth's feminist sh*t.

 

You're all thinking harder about this than the actual fembot designers do.
They should add a tiny penis on a fembot, that would really get your guns smoking.

Artist response - "just did it for the lols"

Fans response - " 500 theory threads"

 

Another fembot thread? This is a very highly debated topic isn't it?

My basic opinion: i like a few fembots to balance out the masculine TFs. Gives more variety to the bots. And there are just some kinds of plots that are better played through or with a 'feminine' character.

 

I love fembots. I wish there were more who weren't motorcycles or Arcee.


My interpretation is that transformers do not HAVE gender, but they do have personalities, voices and body types that may seem masculine or feminine to a gendered species. So they're not FEMALE transformers, they're FEMININE transformers.

I know Megatron SAYS "female autobots" (rather salaciously) when Elita-1 shows up, but my answer to that is that goofy 80s cartoons say a lot of things.  

 

Well, see, when Primus created Adamus Prime, Adamus felt alone in the whole living world of metal, and so, Primus sent forth the Matrix to take some of the wires offa' Adamus Prime, and he created ...

wait... what were we talking about again?

oh, damn. arguing about fembots again. *walks away from thread, intending never to open another one like this again*  

 

I like the female TF's and personally think that they only really become an issue depending on the continuity they appear in. Even in ones in which they don't fully address it, what's to say they just take forms that appear feminine to those looking at them or did so in imitation of other species they come across. Look at pretenders for an in universe example of that.

Also to those who say they shouldn't exsist because they don't need to reproduce "that way", is that to mean that the only reason for two genders in a race (of robots) are solely for the sake of reproduction? That's almost like saying if humans acquired the ability to clone themselves or reproduce asexually they no longer need to have two genders in the species. Does the lack of ability to produce life somehow make a woman (fembot) uneeded or useless? Especially for mechanical beings that CAN produce any way they so choose in the first place, just because they don't doesn't lessen the importance they can have. In the context of the story they are soldiers anyway so it becomes a moot point even if it could happen. In real life that may not actually be a issue but for a alien species who we as fans know little about in that way, why let it sweat you? I feel if a science fiction writer can't come up with something even remotely believable after 25 years, then they just aren't trying.

Yes we are kinda over analyzing this but we all acknowledge it in the previous thread.

 

For worlds called Cybertron which have a Gorlam Prime-like past, it would be fair game to imagine that a male or female humanoid (or cybernetic life-form) would emerge into their bio-mechanical form with more male or female characteristics...

...which, if said 'Cybertronians' went on to become techno-organic, would more visibly re-surface if/when given the opportunity.

 

You mean they're not?  

This. Good god, Simon Furman's batting zero on this. It's shameful that, after a quarter century and two failed attempts by him, the Quintesson origin still makes the most sense.

You should check out Twirl and Falcia from Transformers: Armada. The only way to tell they're female is because they're partially painted pink.  

 

I'm more mystified by the question of why these threads are ALWAYS started by male fans. In 7 and a half years in the fandom, I cannot recall a single instance where I've seen a thread like this started by a female fan.

Why is it that male fans have such a NEED for explanation of the existence of femme TFs, or conversely, a reason that they 'don't really exist'?

--Moony

 

Well said.

 

You know what would be nice? If the 'Ultimate Fembots' thread was stickied so we don't have to go through this cycle every month.  

--Moony

 

Because for many males, male is thought of as "default" and female is thought of as "special" even though biologically, pretty much the exact opposite is true.

 

Oh great. Not this again. I don't even feel like saying anything on the matter. I leave SMOG and the rest of the cult to that job.

And, why do we have to have the same discussion every month? Seriously. The ultimate Fembot thread was ultimate for a reason. And it wasn't SMOG.  

 

I don't see how this thread would be any different if it was started by a female. Why woman always have to bring their feminist crap into discussion?

 

I'm pretty sure there's some bizarre Freudian explanation for it. Pygmalion or Galatea Complexes, anyone?  

I dunno...monthly cycles for female robot threads seem...oddly fitting somehow.  

 

Well, you could chalk it up to demographics within the fandom, and statistical probability based thereon. In 7 1/2 years, none of the roughly 6 female fans who regularly contribute to this site have started a thread about Fembots? Shocking!!  

Kidding, btw.  

It could also be because many girls grow up playing with Barbies, wanting to be princesses, being told they have to live up to a certain image of femininity... so Barbie-bots don't seem out of place, especially within a "fantasy" context. It could also be that, craving representation of ANY kind within a mostly male-oriented fandom, women don't feel the need to question it.

I have a female geek friend who actually is TOTALLY on the same "TF genders are stupid" trip that I am. But she's too busy buying broadswords, collecting high-end Macross chogokins, and fielding armies of space marines in Warhammer 40k, to worry about those girly little transformers. She's way more hardcore than I am.  

The problem with this question is that if I answer it with any theories of why women don't focus on the same things in the same ways that men do, I would run the risk of being called "sexist" or subscribing to stereotypes... even though your question itself does precisely the same thing by implying that men in particular have some sort of "issue" this way.

Just sayin'.  

Just for the record, I think Pretenders are stupid too. I'm all for pretending they don't exist. See, I don't just hate fembots.  

What??

First off, if we found another way to reproduce, we would still have 2 genders as an artifact of when we DID reproduce sexually, as well as all the residual hormones and cultural associations. So that analogy doesn't really work.

Also, there are 2 points in there that I think are GROSSLY problematic.

One, the "ability to produce life" is NOT A FEMALE TRAIT. It takes two, remember? Granted, women are the ones that gestate the new life, but I think attributing reproduction to women solely falls into that trap of seeing males as "default" and women as "special" that was mentioned earlier.

Secondly, if we gained the ability to reproduce asexually, and let go of our cultural baggage, YES women as a gender would "useless"... as would MEN! The point of two genders is reproduction. Remove that, and all those jiggly bits and plugs and sockets we have, and all the hormones that go along with them... are useless.

That is not to say that women would be useless as human beings. It is to say that their GENDER is no longer a factor in their perceived value... and it would be the same for men. Personally, I think that might be sort of liberating, eh? People defined as PEOPLE rather than against the measure of our constructs of MAN or WOMAN.

I just think it's hilarious that in an asexual society, you would see "men" as the default, and that without the ability to reproduce, all women are seen as devalued or unnecessary. That's kind of screwed up.

I think you've hit on it right there, if unintentionally. They aren't even trying. Or they're so limited by the canon, and the fandom, and what will fly with Hasbro that they can't really try very hard.

But going through that monthly cycle helps me feel more like a woman!  

 

But then this thread came along, and the ancient evil that is SMOG was once again unleashed upon the interwebs!!!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who caught that.  

zmog

 

Actually, it not just on this site, but on others I've been on, including one that had had a high percentage of female fans. Its always been guys bringing the topic up. And the girls getting SOOOO tired of the subject and the 'do female fans exist' threads that they just stop bothering with them...except to read, laugh, and shake their heads.      

--Moony

 

Well, one could ask why are TFW members who get banned for weird sexual fetishes usually female? Or why do most female members have some weird sexual issues with the image of Optimus Prime?

But like your statement, that would be incredibly immature and prejudiced against genders. The question of why would robots not created by humans (or seemingly any other gender-based species) have any gender at all is a valid question, regardless of it it has been asked 1000 times before. There is no reason for you to bring sexism into it.

 

Word... TF's are silly fun lets not bog it down it retcon when its a lot more fun just to leave it up in the air