There is an excellent post by the Mental Shaman on the various issues around sexism in wow, generally I can’t find anything to disagree with though there are a few points which I don’t disagree with I do have a differing viewpoint, this is probably not surprising.
However it did get me thinking a bit on how it is inconsistent within the universe we play in that there is such a split between the genders at the top levels of society. The position of men in the round world we live in largely originates in the fact that the male ape was physically bigger and stronger than the female and it’s a sad reflection on us as a species that we’re still stuck at that level of development to some extent. Ok we’re getting better but decisions on who does what need to made on ability not on who has which parts.
Anyway, back to Azeroth and Outlands, we have a number of races and those races have some racial specifics which mean that some races have a little more health, or a way of getting rid of poison / bleed effects and so on, but they are, in the scheme of things, minor differences.
Let’s look at physical attributes for a moment
- Gnomes, short but this doesn’t mean that they can’t tank King Dred
- Dwarves, also short, ditto
- Humans, less massive than Tauren but this doesn’t mean that in an equal fight (gear/experience) the human can’t leave the cow eating floor
- Orcs, tusks, but they don’t put their own eyes out.
- Belfs, there’s a race which should be completely non-viable but yet…
Face it, take a flat arena with one of each race, playing the same class (any class) in equal gear and driven by equally skilled players. I can’t predict which one is going to be standing at the end, can you?
Note that so far I’ve not mentioned gender, there’s a reason for this, it’s irrelevant. In the Aerothian universe the genders are equal, the only diamorphism is in physical shape (ie males are physically larger and females look like they’ve been taken out of a top shelf magazine and then put through some horrible plastic surgery).
I would argue that it’s not entirely clear within the universe who actually is the gestating gender, simply because there is no solid evidence. The only evidence I can think of at the moment is “boobs” (aka newborn food source) but given that in real world human female these organs have developed in size beyond the physical function I see no reason why the male of the species shouldn’t also be a viable option. So even the argument that “females can be taken out of the loop for 9 months” (or more, what is the gestation period for a gnome?) as a reason for lack of progression in the heirachy of their chosen class / royalty is pretty weak.
So taking the above there there is no reason within the universe as defined that females shouldn’t be at the same level as males. They can hit as hard, heal as hard, melt faces with equal vim and vigour, bash metal into armour with the best of them, craft potions and so on. It is a universe where there is true equality of potential, there is no reason within the universe that males and females should not be equally represented at the top table.
For example Tirion and Jaina, both go toe to toe with the big plate ugly in Wrath, it’s clear that Jaina is a mage of massive power and capability (I have issues with the way she’s protrayed as flighty muppet who’s mooning after Thrall and Varian [1]) but where is she when Tirion is in his ice cube while a battle is raging around him? Off mooning with Varian, come on guys you can do better plot than that.
I doubt things will change within Azeroth, but as I hope I’ve explained there is no reason within the mechanics of the universe given to us that the genders shouldn’t both be doing the same thing.
[1] Dear Blizz, can I have a different leader of the Alliance? Varian is a moron, hell I reckon Garrosh would be an improvement.
