Ever since Bionicle was released, this has been a point of contention amoung fans. Many people were upset when they realized that the only “blue guys” are girls, and now their fantasies of being female Le-Matoran are shattered. But, I would like to argue, not against it, but for it. In my opion, the genderlock added something unique to the Bionicle universe. Now, I will agree, it was very poorly carried out, and I would have loved to see more all female elements crop up instead of the three canon ones we were given, and overall, more frmale chracters would have been much appreciated. But here’s the thing, it makes sense in the context of the Matoran Universe. When Mata-Nui was built, none of the Matoran had sentience. They were simple robots required to carry out a task. Once they gained sentience, their “personalities” would have been given to them based on the roles they were to take, so a Ga-Matoran, who’s job required a level head and focus, would have gained classically female traits. They would then be labeled as female, and even Matoran that didnt bear these traits would have been labeled as such. Not to mention, when we got characters that didn’t fit into a stereotype, such as Helrix, they became extremely memorable. And now as to the subject of fan created characters. This is what most of the contention around this subject has affected, people making their own characters, and then thinking, hey, why can’t my red character be a girl? And what say is, why can’t they? Your characters aren’t canon, so why follow it? But then when you, say, join a role play that includes genderlocking, that is up the whoever created it to decide how canonical it would be. Really it shouldn’t matter as far as fan creations go, but when it comes to the lore, my vote is for it, as opposed to against it.
Well, Vo-Matoran and Ce-Matoran are also female.
Nobody:
Steampunk Tahu: And this is why genderlocking is good.
In all seriousness, I really don’t see the point of this topic. Let’s dissect it a little bit. You are defending genderlocking from the people who want to have uncannon characters in their fan-fictions. The question is, do we really need somebody to tell us that we can brake the rules in our stories?
It’s common logic that as soon as it is our story, we can do whatever we want to him. You are treating genderlocking like a serious issue, one that many people are against it, but I’ve never heard one person to be against it. Sure, the newcomers that just realised that all the blue guys are girls and all of the other guys are male might have some question marks, but that is as far as it goes. I remember being a new Bionicle fan and finding this side of the worldbuilding actually interesting and -dare I say- logical. I mean… If the big dude with powers that represents all of the blue guys is a girl, a child could easily imagine that all of the blue guys are girls. If the other big guys with powers are boys, a child could easily imagine that all of the other small guys are boys.
If I come as rude, then I am sorry. It really is not my intent to be like that. However, I just feel like I need to address the fact that the ones that “live with the hate for genderlocking” are not real. And if they are, they are just some small minority that is barely vocal.
This topic really popped out of the blue for me.
Haha.
But actually, I was reading some old posts of people complainig about the genderlock, and I realized that I had never shared my point of view, so I decised to articulate a short essay offering a defence for it. And the second part was mostly for the people that complain about people not using a genderlock in their story. And trust me, most people I’ve talked to about this are really against it, I mean really.
@Toa_Radrix I mention them, but they also happen to be predominatly blue in their color scheme.
Pun not intended. I mean now I realised why you were laughing.
For example?
Most of it was on other bionicle sites and a Bionicle fan discord, but as far as here to a quick stroll through this topic. The Cons of Bionicle - #50 by Brikkyy13
The link that you gave me actually leads to a Gali Mistika looks like a man discussion.
OK, I trust you, tho this doesn’t change my opinion that this is a small and not too vocal minority.
I was meaning the topic as a whole, and I wasn’t aware I could link to specific parts of a topic. This is the start of the topic as a whole. The Cons of Bionicle
lowkey sexism/s
In all seriousness, I agree with Vladin, this topic is random and a little unnecessary
Half the topics on the boards are unnecessary, like seriously, most are pointless. Not to mention, there is not a genderlocking dedicated topic anywhere on the boards as far as I’m aware. If the mods think that this topic could serve as such, I’d be happy to edit the original post. I was simply giving my opinion. Also I said classically, and while I could go in circles about how biology supports certain natural traits in men and women that are being attacked as “sexist”, I won’t because that would get us nowhere. /s
I used slash s dude, I was kidding
I know, maybe I should add a slash to mine.
done
Yes, maybe you should have
Even if you want to adhere to canon, its been stated that Matoran can be made with the opposite gender, and that it’s possible some have been. This was pretty much Greg’s way of saying “sure, you can have characters with the other gender in your own stories.”
~W12~
Actually how do genders in Bionicle even work? Cause they don’t have reproductive organs like we do, and matoran are made in a factory in metru Nui, is it like just a mental thing or something?
I do believe it is purely psychological
Well, if I rember how he worded it, it can happen, but the Turaga don’t know how. And on top of that the “Matoran Machine” wasn’t around in the MU due to thw fact that every MU inhabitant was created by the Great Beings.
@yolo360nosescope I believe its a traits thing, with the elements requiring more control benefiting from classical femenin traits (Orde is an example, with him becoming so violent with his power that they changed his element to female so that the Ce-Matoran would be calmer).
I don’t want to get to far into it but a robotic species needs no genders, therefore this will always be a messy argument.
I said, and have always cpntended it’s a mental thing. Certain elements who had classically femeinine traits were deamed such by the GBs.
This is where the mess is, because defining a trait as classically belonging to a gender is to make a heavy assumption.
Unless the GBs made the different matoran species in their images and the GBs had gender, I don’t see mentality as a valid explanation.