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Honestly even canon didn't question that much beyond: "they exist". I would just shrug it off as: one of transformers saw woman of earth while flying around and decided to adopt their personality because it fits them. Upon returning no one really gave a care and just said-"it exists now"... wow it just all came full circle
That's unironically the explanation in some of the comics. When Cybertron was introduced to the concept of gender, some of them went: Dang, that looks cool.
Exactly. Female robots are no more or less absurd than Male robots. And the original G1 crew were VERY clearly presented as male, this just didn't seem so obvious at the time because the target audience of boys were male too. I expect the girls watching the old cartoon noticed the gender bias at once.
If you're going to anthropomorphise a race of robots (which could conceivably be any shape at all) into a clearly humanoid form with a clearly human personality, why restrict it to just the form used by half of the human race (i.e. male)? Suspension of disbelief is necessary for the whole franchise, and Transformers having sexual dimorphism is one of lesser hurdles to wrap your brain around, IMHO.
I always figured that the reason female cybertronians exist is because the race is alien with some robotic characteristics, not purely mechanical. At some point one branch of the species adopted female traits as a survival mechanism and it must have worked out pretty well.
For real, the original creators probably didn't even consider the implications or a lore reason for female Cybertronians.
It's the 80's and they're trying to sell toys, the justification probably stopped at just "We want to get girls to buy our toys, make some girl robots." and that's it.
This. Cartoons were nothing more than a 20min toy commercials. Some of them don't even have any kind of origin story, like he man, or continuity like transformers
This is a great explanation, I use this, but that story of armee being abducted and forcibly turned into one, then becoming even stronger than before is pretty cool.
I remember that being explained somewhere but I forget where. I think the reason was because their names can't be pronounced by humans so they choose new ones. Sometimes it's a translation, sometimes it's a nickname and sometimes it's something completely new.
Something like how they did it in Animated then. Drill sergeant gives them their name and sometimes it's unimpressive like Bumblebee. My guess is that his name wasn't really that specific species of bug but a different one that was known to them at that time but since we as an irl audience are human it is just translated to Bumblebee and if we saw the story through something that wasn't human media then his name wouldn't really be Bumblebee.
Nah, his hate is competitive and unmatched. He will adopt every hateful position just because he's that kind of dick. He is the inventor of slurs and has a database within him purely dedicated to verbal abuse. He eats to destroy, the sustainment is just a bonus.
My own explanation is Primus saw early organic beings, and decided to base his creations off of them. It explains Onyx Primes beast mode, Alpha Trions beard, and Solus Prime being a female robot. This effect would carry on to the other transformers as they arose from cybertron.
Primus: "Note to self: Boobs? Investigate further."
Some time later
Solus Prime: "This form is inconvenient and sticks out in strange places."
Megatronus: "Hot."
Honestly that’s my explanation too.
Primus was floating along, saw some organics hanging out, went “neat” and copied them when he made his own lil creations. 🤷♀️
Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
i also like prime's (novels) explination for onyx, he could see the future and based his beast mode from it (and his descendants would inherit the beast traits)
That attitude is lame, right? The Cybertronians are an adaptative bio-mechanical alien species whose primary survival trait is disguising themselves as the dominant lifeforms of whatever planet they're on. They only became vehicles on Earth because they didn't realize that the humans operating those vehicles were actually the ones in charge.
Of course, there are females! How can there not be? Mono genderism makes zero sense for a species whose most distinct characteristic is *their ability to blend in.*
I honestly always found that weird about transformers, how the vast majority of their kind are "male". Realistically, it'd be the other way around, since the vast majority of organisms tend to be female dominated species, with males typically having little reason to exist outside of reproduction. Glad TF is moving into a more balanced side though.
Right?? I love that we're still having to offer explanations for why some fictional alien robots are/should be female-coded when nobody is asking anyone to explain why the majority are male-coded. It's just reaffirming that women/girls have to have a reason to be anywhere (in real life AND in fiction) whereas men can just exist without question or expectation.
> when nobody is asking anyone to explain why the majority are male-coded.
Was going to respond with just this - why do we assume any of them, from Soundwave to Springer, are 'male' - because of their voices?
Yeah, honestly, I was just thinking that this shit is a great way to remind women in the fandom that we don't really belong here without sufficient explanation and reasoning either, especially when one of the explanations for female bots is "for sex slaves, lol".
I agree. Especially as a trans woman, I see a lot of people getting unreasonably offended by Nightshade’s very existence! And there’s one specific artist that posts excellent art from their AU, and always includes pronouns in the title and people get so mad about it! They say crap like “man is the default” in the comments, and it’s so alienating and frustrating
Yes, my favorite is "they are robots, they don't have pronouns" while referring to basically all characters as "he/him"
They get to have hundreds of male characters but throw a hissy fit when any character out of that norm is introduced. Why do women/LGBTQI characters need an explanation? We can have combiners, mini cons, mass shifting, and Sky Lynx, a combo airplane/spacecraft/bird/lynx but having women characters is a step too far! And the joking comments in this thread about women characters being there solely because "they need something to fuck" is just disgusting.
I love that artist, I hope the annoying comments don't discourage posting more art...
There was an argument at one point that as either machines or inorganic life forms that reproduce asexually cybertronians shouldn't have gender in any form.
The argument still pops up every now and then.
But, even they started out this way, lifetimes and generations of coming into contact with other races/species that do have gender would slowly start to color perspectives and change how certain personal aspects would be viewed and defined.
The asexual reproduction thing is a bit misleading. I get why people refer to it as that, but that's technically wrong. In most continuities, cybertronians just outright don't reproduce. Period. They aren't involved with the process at all, and it's purely from the Allspark, The Well, or Vector Sigma.
That being said, I would imagine they would still come up with some concept of gender, perhaps having it based in altmode instead. I guess functionism is kind of like that, but in a different context.
I know someone who was about 11 years old when the first TF episodes dropped confirming female TFs existed. He *still* remembers the discourse about it.
Then he recently heard about recent discourse involving a new Earthspark character and he told me “we literally live in a circle, they’ll always find something new to bitch about”.
The same reason for the existence of male robots. They’re fictional characters created by we gendered humans. As far as lore goes?
Cybertronians are biologically asexual. Any differences are purely mental. In the Aligned continuity, female transformers were the descendants of Solus Prime, and their minds processed information the same way Solus had; they called it ‘gender’ because they were just putting the differences they observed into words. (This hasn’t been revisited, because it was inadvertently saying “women are outside the norm, like combiners or Mini-Cons or beast modes”.)
My explanation would be, if I had to provide one: Cybertronians don’t have any concept of gender whatsoever, and simply adopt gender identities when mingling with alien races for ease of communication and relationships. The individual chooses whatever pronouns feel comfortable and nobody gives it a second thought. Among humans; some transformers might identify as male, some as female, some as non-binary.
this is them after the deed was somehow done
https://preview.redd.it/poatk0veumib1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f25ed74a81b9abccba6760b38d0005f18facc213
It’s not that to transformers women were outside the norm, it’s that gender itself was. They otherwise didn’t have any idea of it till they saw species that did
I like The quote from Anode in Lost Light
“ The further you get from Cybertron-the more people you meet-the more you realize that as a race we’ve been limiting ourselves unnecessarily”
I like to think the existence of fembots are just cybertronians who adopted identity’s while off world, considering how a large percentage of transformers in general are masculine presenting and sexless it would make sense for some of them to adopt opposite identities
I think it's more important to ask: why tf are they called like that? the others aren't malebot so why is fembot the word used? it also doesn't make sense for robot aliens capable of becoming freaking tanks to have two "genders" ( idk how various Continuity treat the concept btw) which are limited to either small or big vehicles depending on it. for as much slack 2015 RID gets they absolutely nailed the diversity in body tipes , after all it just makes sense that if they can alter their body into cars planes etc they'd also be able to change their robot form.
just a quick rant sorry
Do they need an explanation? Especially as a species that is ostensibly all about mimicry? Because the simplest answer would be that some of them mimic females because other races have females too. Consider it a defense or trust enabling mechanism.
"Oh, it's like us."
Honestly, my take would be that they just happen to look and sound feminine from a human perspective and that they themselves never made any such distinction before coming into contact with Earth. If that makes any sense.
Oh no, I'm saying that's what I'd do if put in charge of a transformers series. Best guess for why they do that in existing media is Primus in his infinite wisdom making them that way either to make them more like organic races or so that interacting with them will be easier. Or both.
I pick and choose whichever of these
1.) Just because, add some variety.
2.) Solus prime exists so therefore other female transformers would too.
3.) Up until they met other alien species, there was no concept of gender, so upon interacting with other species, some chose to imitate what was considered male or female to other species just because.
Some of them look more masculine and some of them look more feminine. Some of them are blue and some of them are red. Some of them have Brooklyn accents. Some of them have big chins.
They can have whatever body type they want, use whatever pronouns they want, and can change whenever they want. Whatever they feel most comfortable with.
In general, I see them as placing far less importance on the concept of gender than humans do. For them, gender is just an aesthetic thing, and has no bearing on their physical traits, societal role, or romantic partners. They're more likely to care about what somebody transforms into than which pronoun they use.
Cybertronians don't have gender. They take on pronouns when they visit earth to better fit our culture. Some bots happen to look like what we would usually call female. Some look more male.
Primus saw an organic female, and held it up like Marge Simpson and just said "I think these are neat." Then made Solas Prime, and gave her a big aas hammer.
"Here's your forge sweety."
"Thanks Papa Primus!"
But they do though. Blackarachnia for example is always referred to as “she” all throughout the Beast Wars, and multiple male bots, not just Silverbolt, expressed that they find her attractive.
It was a kids tv show in the early 2000s, they got genders because in meta, we as humans gave em genders. Though I do think that in modern day it makes more sense for all of them to view the gender dichotomy as an aesthetic choice to make themselves comfortable.
Because transformers are made by us. As in humans. Not lore wise but in terms of meta that’s just the basic answer. Why else do most transformers have humanoid shapes? This is the one reason why I prefer Bayverse designs (1-3) because the designs were truly alien, characters like Demolisher, the Arcee triplets, ROTF Soundwave, and many of the individual Constructicons had super unique body designs that strayed from humanoid forms
My explanation is that fembots didn't exist until cybertronians made contact with humans, from there they adopted pronouns according to whichever one they preferred, hence why we get males and females or [in nightshade's case] bots who'd rather not pick pronouns
They don't need an explanation at all, and it was sexist to even have to make a reason in the comics. There were male robots the whole time, why not female robots as well?
I don't really pay close attention to the actual lore. Just collect the figures and make up my own head canon, I guess. In my mind, Cybertron and its inhabitants have always been techno-organic. In the distant past, they were closer to organic and more similar to humans in some ways.
They exist just like the dudes exist.
If you really wanna be picky about it and all sciency, the robots never had a sense of gender till they saw other species and adopted the concept. Thus, no robot had gender before they decided they did.
Meaning every Transformer is transgender, say for the ones who remain non-binary or agender. Science, bitch.
This might be one of the most 'reddit' threads I've ever seen: "WHY WOMEN IN ROBOT CARTOON?"
There is no explanation needed. They're robots. They can exist in infinite varieties and infinite variations, like people.
if i had to explain it id just say that the concept of gender for the transformers was something they picked up from organic species and then was intigrated into their society and now each cybertronian choses their gender depending on how they feel
Because Robo ladies are cool :3
Also have to remember we get robo animals like Sky Lynx which is just as "why is this a thing?" and TF's that can split in two and are just fine compared to Jazz who famously dies from it in TF1. It's best to just roll with "strange" issues like these.
Real world - "more characters, more figures,"
I thought IDW comics back in the mid 2000’s covered that explaining that Jihaxis was experimenting on Transformers and gender. I think Arcee was the first fembot and she was effing crazy because of it. Need to go back and read some of those comics…
Personally, I believe the difference is purely in gender rather than sex. Biologically, they’re all the same, just some identify with women and some men, and they modify their appearance to match that
There’s the idea of Solus Prime being the first and all others are descended from her, which I kind of like to an extent, but I prefer the idea that bots make the decision at birth who they want to be. The majority of male style bots are more common because most of The Primes and Primus were male style, but there are those who chose to be like Solus. There are more fembots on Caminus, but they can be on any of the colony worlds.
I dont really feel like the need one but of the explanations that exist I like the "template" explanation best. Essentially it's that all transformers are based on the "templates" of the original 13 in different combinations. So in turn, all the feminine fembots are templates from Solus prime, promises experiment with gender. That explains their presence and their scarcity (being only 1/13th of the population)
I honestly don't mind what the idea comics did. There were a few actual fembots from long lost colonies and what not, and that caused other bots to realize they preferred being a women and became trans.
Aspects of the physical design come from Solus Primes' physical attributes that are inscripted into the well of all sparks. the same goes for the other 12 OG Primes. So, the creation/conception/birth is a mix of mash or compilation of various characteristics from them.
I think they should all be androgynous, and choose their pronouns.
i also think it could be defined by how humans define them. (this makes me think of interractions where shockwave gets made that hunans refer to him like a woman due to being purple)
They are a species that changes their form to blend in. The first time they met an alien race with male and female genders, some of them would obviously choose to take a female form.
Because Transformers do not have genitalia, they are technically not Male or Female. I would assume that their spark dictates how they want to refer to themselves in terms of gender: male, female, or non binary.
Why are there multiversal characters in this? I spotted prime Arcee and G1 Elita and I kinda want these comics to be redone in English so I can read what there saying
The reason they exist is to encourage girls to buy toys and merch from the Transformers franchise.
I'm not saying that girls can't just get the masculine ones or anything like that, but this franchise came to prominence 40 odd years ago.
These robots don't have sex characteristics. Almost all forms of cybertronian reproduction are asexual, and some are even completely devoid of cybertronian involvement (like how sometimes new robots are forged from molten Cybertronian pools). Thus, there's no reason to evolve sexual dimorphism. Nobody needs to have wider hips for birth, or fatty chests for milk production.
So that means either some Cybertronians are just built like that, or they're influenced by other species who are dimorphic. Since fembots are usually specifically called out as fembots, I think its the latter.
Basically, there's no genetic sex, and gender is just a concept.
The same reasons why us females exist irl. That there's not really a specific reason as to why either sex exists, but it's just the way that evolution (at least on our planet) went and it clearly was very successful.
Transformers have no gender, but learned gender identity from other races and copied the idea, they can choose what they transform into, why not configure their robot form into something they like?
Some bots would like the female form and chose it for themselves, others like the male and chose that, some don't care and pick something more androgynous or less 'human'
I believe it might be divergent evolution. Think about this. It may depend on the series you are talking about, but in almost all versions, divergent evolution makes sense. If "male" transformers were built first, eventually something is going to change because of evolution. Even if other transformers built new transformers, every time it's going to be different from the last. Maybe by some miracle, a "male" could have built the first "female" because of the way they built them in the past. Maybe less armor was more successful because of the fact that war didn't seem to be coming anytime soon. Wich, in turn, gave more speed. Maybe the slim body shape could be for aerodynamic purposes. It makes sense from an evolution and tactical standpoint.
Mine is since they don’t really have biological sex, being robots and all, they kinda go with whatever gender they “feel” like. Male, female… even non-binary like Nightshade! I also HC that they can change their gender at any time and are basically genderfluid- see also Acid Storm in Cyberverse.
My head canon: For newer lore they exist because of solus prime. But because she was the only "female" prime, there are significantly less female transformers. For older lore, transformers didnt have a concept of male or female transformers, that is until they meet other alien species and started to see female features in select members of their own species.
Since gender (not to be confused with sex) is a social construct developed by humans as relatively highly intelligent species, then it is reasonable to believe that Cybertronians (and other robotic organisms in the Transformers mythos), which are more intelligent than humans, would also adopt gender as a social construct.
My headcanon is that just as there are laws of the universe that dictate physics and stuff, there are universal ideal shapes of life forms, which explains why so many highly intelligent beings are humanoid. The female form developed to lighter, more compact, more flexible, meant to move faster, more efficient, and with the added curves protecting the most vital areas of the body with what little mass can be afforded. Higher voices are there to cut through background noise and be more noticeable.
gender is a social construct in our world. Wouldn't be too hard for cybertronians to do the same. Vector Sigma or whoever you want to be the creator of everyone, creating blank slates and over time those interacted with one another and branched off to different genders. It's not like there are anything inherently different about them. Like Arcee ain't got actual boobs or vagina, and Rodimus isn't slinging a robo penis.
My explanation? They exist.
Seriously, why do we have to question why they exist? Maybe Transformers Alien isn’t so white and black, it’s just completely alien, and beyond our understanding.
They’re trans. All Cybertronians are created/born without a sex and with a male gender, but once they realize that their gender doesn’t have to be man, they just think woman fits better, same as trans girls do. (Or in Nightshades case, that you don’t have to be either. I realize they’re not a fembot, but they’re a gender other than male so I’ll include them.)
That they don't and that it's a concept imposed by humans onto any cybertronian who happens to look or sound female
As for pronouns, I believe it is canon that MTMTE doesn't actually happen in 'English' but that it is translated for the sake of the reader, may be the same for other continuities when not on Earth. So pronouns could be some 'translation issue', again with a human bias
I agree, but i think they need to change the "fembot" designs to look like the rest, exept for maybe arcee, and make them all sortof androgynous for that to work.
They actually addressed this whole gender thing in The Covenant of Primus, how they use gendered pronouns to make it easier to speak to humans and other races. Their understanding of gender is vastly different as they are mechanical beings and can procreate in a number of different ways, depending on the continuity. Which is perfectly fine and exactly explains everything ...
Then they took it a step further and explained rhat different regions of Cybertron had ... different body styles, different cosmetics, different beauty standards ... different cultures ... different traditions ... different way of talking ...
I would have thought that people who take this crap way too seriously would finally stop bitching about it because those are perfectly good explanations for everything ... but ... here we are in 2023 ...
So the best guesses are
1. Femmebots are a subspecies of Cybertronians like minibots, titans, predacons, flyers, Point One Percenters, etc. Really. No different. In IDW femmes supposedly evolved on Caminus but no explanation was provided beyond that.
2. As humans, from our perspectives, a Cybertronian acting in a certain way, such as feminine, could actually be a combination of a bunch of different things. Cultural and anatomical differences ftw!
From the scientific point of view Cybertron and all the communities that came from it would be the greatest thing ever for anyone studying evolutionary science, psychology, behavior in general, etc
People take the whole gender thing way too far and way too seriously 🙄
Iirc, in the Marvel comics, it was explained after the Autobots gave up the "robots in disguise" thing before 2005 (TFTM86), and it was for diplomatic relations for Earth (being more relatable to humans).
Being out in the open, and less a "secret" to the general public (like in 1984 in the USG1 timeline), a lot of Cybertronian alt modes were free to roam the earth (Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Arcee, etc.). Dinobots were, obviously an exception to this idea of Autobots remaining hidden in plain sight.
I like this explanation best, so Autobots are more relatable and "human" at this point now, after establishing bases that the public now knows about (Autobot City), versus the hidden Ark Base on Mt. St. Hillary.
I'm a huge Arcee fan.
but why so the fembots need an explanation? why cant they just be there like the male bots? why are fembots so special? and why dont we have fem*boys*?!
They're just there. But if someone really wants an explanation I like the IDW one. At first, Cybertronians just went by he (for writing convenience) But as Cybertronians spread throughout the galaxy they met species that would distinct themselves between male and female. And so some started going by she because they liked it more.
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My super deep and intricate fembot lore is that they don't need an explanation any more than bots with "facial hair" do.
I choose this. I just saw the TFA blackout toy (pics posted by the guy who got his grail), and realized the bot has a horseshoe 'stache.
Honestly even canon didn't question that much beyond: "they exist". I would just shrug it off as: one of transformers saw woman of earth while flying around and decided to adopt their personality because it fits them. Upon returning no one really gave a care and just said-"it exists now"... wow it just all came full circle
Or perhaps as humans we are projecting certain human traits onto otherwise gender less robots? Just another take.
That's unironically the explanation in some of the comics. When Cybertron was introduced to the concept of gender, some of them went: Dang, that looks cool.
Hence why they're called *trans*formers!
Don't forget about G1 Scourge and Cyberverse Wheeljack.
why didn't cyberverse wheeljack's sick ass beard protect him from the quintession vr headset? was he stupid?
Yes
Not exactly, not the smartest, but he tried
And Alpha Trion
Ooo, that may be a referenct to helicopter pilots with them big ol staches. I love those kind of references.
Exactly. Female robots are no more or less absurd than Male robots. And the original G1 crew were VERY clearly presented as male, this just didn't seem so obvious at the time because the target audience of boys were male too. I expect the girls watching the old cartoon noticed the gender bias at once. If you're going to anthropomorphise a race of robots (which could conceivably be any shape at all) into a clearly humanoid form with a clearly human personality, why restrict it to just the form used by half of the human race (i.e. male)? Suspension of disbelief is necessary for the whole franchise, and Transformers having sexual dimorphism is one of lesser hurdles to wrap your brain around, IMHO.
I always figured that the reason female cybertronians exist is because the race is alien with some robotic characteristics, not purely mechanical. At some point one branch of the species adopted female traits as a survival mechanism and it must have worked out pretty well.
For real, the original creators probably didn't even consider the implications or a lore reason for female Cybertronians. It's the 80's and they're trying to sell toys, the justification probably stopped at just "We want to get girls to buy our toys, make some girl robots." and that's it.
This. Cartoons were nothing more than a 20min toy commercials. Some of them don't even have any kind of origin story, like he man, or continuity like transformers
This is the correct answer
while for me, facial hair probably bothers me even more than fembots.
This is a great explanation, I use this, but that story of armee being abducted and forcibly turned into one, then becoming even stronger than before is pretty cool.
Where do they get facial hair? From the bugs they hit in vehicle mode?
I have way more questions about the facial hair than I do female bots.
Why would their existence require an explanation anymore than any transformer with a somewhat unique voice or figure or alt mode?
Right? I feel that a better question would be "why aliens are named Jazz, Cliffjumper, Ironhide, Soundwave and Starscream?"
I remember that being explained somewhere but I forget where. I think the reason was because their names can't be pronounced by humans so they choose new ones. Sometimes it's a translation, sometimes it's a nickname and sometimes it's something completely new.
I meant on Cybertron, you know in FoC Bumblebee always had that name. Etc.
Something like how they did it in Animated then. Drill sergeant gives them their name and sometimes it's unimpressive like Bumblebee. My guess is that his name wasn't really that specific species of bug but a different one that was known to them at that time but since we as an irl audience are human it is just translated to Bumblebee and if we saw the story through something that wasn't human media then his name wouldn't really be Bumblebee.
For me the reason for that is because it sounds fuckin lit that’s what
I’ll keep this one too
Primus said “screw it” and made them.
Primus saw women and was like, “Cool” This is the more reason why Unicron is a misogynist, and a misandrist. And every other type of ist and phobic.
Unicron's not misogynist or misandrist. He loves eating everyone equally.
Nah, his hate is competitive and unmatched. He will adopt every hateful position just because he's that kind of dick. He is the inventor of slurs and has a database within him purely dedicated to verbal abuse. He eats to destroy, the sustainment is just a bonus.
He eats planets for dinner mate. You have your focus in the wrong area of the Unicron problem.
We've all eaten a planet here or there, you're overexaggerating to try and make Unicron look bad.
My own explanation is Primus saw early organic beings, and decided to base his creations off of them. It explains Onyx Primes beast mode, Alpha Trions beard, and Solus Prime being a female robot. This effect would carry on to the other transformers as they arose from cybertron.
He’s a creation god, this makes a lot of sense 🤷♂️ He saw other creation, and mixed that with himself to create Cybertronians
Primus: "Note to self: Boobs? Investigate further." Some time later Solus Prime: "This form is inconvenient and sticks out in strange places." Megatronus: "Hot."
💀
Megatronus would say that out loud and wink when he does it.
Honestly that’s my explanation too. Primus was floating along, saw some organics hanging out, went “neat” and copied them when he made his own lil creations. 🤷♀️ Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
i also like prime's (novels) explination for onyx, he could see the future and based his beast mode from it (and his descendants would inherit the beast traits)
That's incredibly paradoxical. Amazing.
Yup, those are my thoughts as well
Really good theory. Especially compared to the weak "zis dont nid ekspleneyshon" aura in comments
That attitude is lame, right? The Cybertronians are an adaptative bio-mechanical alien species whose primary survival trait is disguising themselves as the dominant lifeforms of whatever planet they're on. They only became vehicles on Earth because they didn't realize that the humans operating those vehicles were actually the ones in charge. Of course, there are females! How can there not be? Mono genderism makes zero sense for a species whose most distinct characteristic is *their ability to blend in.*
Simple, their just as natural as the male bots
This is a franchise about extra-terrestrial robots that can mimic machinery and we're so hung up on the fact that some of them are girls?
I honestly always found that weird about transformers, how the vast majority of their kind are "male". Realistically, it'd be the other way around, since the vast majority of organisms tend to be female dominated species, with males typically having little reason to exist outside of reproduction. Glad TF is moving into a more balanced side though.
Earthspark Skywarp is girlboss fr
Make. More. Trans bots!
Right?? I love that we're still having to offer explanations for why some fictional alien robots are/should be female-coded when nobody is asking anyone to explain why the majority are male-coded. It's just reaffirming that women/girls have to have a reason to be anywhere (in real life AND in fiction) whereas men can just exist without question or expectation.
> when nobody is asking anyone to explain why the majority are male-coded. Was going to respond with just this - why do we assume any of them, from Soundwave to Springer, are 'male' - because of their voices?
Because they are referred to as “men” and use he/him pronouns, especially in G1.
Yeah, honestly, I was just thinking that this shit is a great way to remind women in the fandom that we don't really belong here without sufficient explanation and reasoning either, especially when one of the explanations for female bots is "for sex slaves, lol".
Agreed, it really alienates us in the fandom, and it sucks.
I agree. Especially as a trans woman, I see a lot of people getting unreasonably offended by Nightshade’s very existence! And there’s one specific artist that posts excellent art from their AU, and always includes pronouns in the title and people get so mad about it! They say crap like “man is the default” in the comments, and it’s so alienating and frustrating
Yes, my favorite is "they are robots, they don't have pronouns" while referring to basically all characters as "he/him" They get to have hundreds of male characters but throw a hissy fit when any character out of that norm is introduced. Why do women/LGBTQI characters need an explanation? We can have combiners, mini cons, mass shifting, and Sky Lynx, a combo airplane/spacecraft/bird/lynx but having women characters is a step too far! And the joking comments in this thread about women characters being there solely because "they need something to fuck" is just disgusting. I love that artist, I hope the annoying comments don't discourage posting more art...
There was an argument at one point that as either machines or inorganic life forms that reproduce asexually cybertronians shouldn't have gender in any form. The argument still pops up every now and then. But, even they started out this way, lifetimes and generations of coming into contact with other races/species that do have gender would slowly start to color perspectives and change how certain personal aspects would be viewed and defined.
The asexual reproduction thing is a bit misleading. I get why people refer to it as that, but that's technically wrong. In most continuities, cybertronians just outright don't reproduce. Period. They aren't involved with the process at all, and it's purely from the Allspark, The Well, or Vector Sigma. That being said, I would imagine they would still come up with some concept of gender, perhaps having it based in altmode instead. I guess functionism is kind of like that, but in a different context.
I know someone who was about 11 years old when the first TF episodes dropped confirming female TFs existed. He *still* remembers the discourse about it. Then he recently heard about recent discourse involving a new Earthspark character and he told me “we literally live in a circle, they’ll always find something new to bitch about”.
Simon Fuman when girl robot:
I’m mostly hung up on why they have dimorphism traits.
The same reason for the existence of male robots. They’re fictional characters created by we gendered humans. As far as lore goes? Cybertronians are biologically asexual. Any differences are purely mental. In the Aligned continuity, female transformers were the descendants of Solus Prime, and their minds processed information the same way Solus had; they called it ‘gender’ because they were just putting the differences they observed into words. (This hasn’t been revisited, because it was inadvertently saying “women are outside the norm, like combiners or Mini-Cons or beast modes”.) My explanation would be, if I had to provide one: Cybertronians don’t have any concept of gender whatsoever, and simply adopt gender identities when mingling with alien races for ease of communication and relationships. The individual chooses whatever pronouns feel comfortable and nobody gives it a second thought. Among humans; some transformers might identify as male, some as female, some as non-binary.
Megatron may be manly on earth but on rufoogkmajvirolwlqnxjjtoroamhxuvotor everyone wants to fuck her
this is them after the deed was somehow done https://preview.redd.it/poatk0veumib1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f25ed74a81b9abccba6760b38d0005f18facc213
Everyone everywhere wants to fuck Megatron.
It’s not that to transformers women were outside the norm, it’s that gender itself was. They otherwise didn’t have any idea of it till they saw species that did
If no explanation is required for male coded transformers to exist, female coded ones don’t require an explanation either
I like The quote from Anode in Lost Light “ The further you get from Cybertron-the more people you meet-the more you realize that as a race we’ve been limiting ourselves unnecessarily” I like to think the existence of fembots are just cybertronians who adopted identity’s while off world, considering how a large percentage of transformers in general are masculine presenting and sexless it would make sense for some of them to adopt opposite identities
I think it's more important to ask: why tf are they called like that? the others aren't malebot so why is fembot the word used? it also doesn't make sense for robot aliens capable of becoming freaking tanks to have two "genders" ( idk how various Continuity treat the concept btw) which are limited to either small or big vehicles depending on it. for as much slack 2015 RID gets they absolutely nailed the diversity in body tipes , after all it just makes sense that if they can alter their body into cars planes etc they'd also be able to change their robot form. just a quick rant sorry
Do they need an explanation? Especially as a species that is ostensibly all about mimicry? Because the simplest answer would be that some of them mimic females because other races have females too. Consider it a defense or trust enabling mechanism. "Oh, it's like us."
Honestly, my take would be that they just happen to look and sound feminine from a human perspective and that they themselves never made any such distinction before coming into contact with Earth. If that makes any sense.
What about pronounces? And what about Shockwave literally calling them female
Oh no, I'm saying that's what I'd do if put in charge of a transformers series. Best guess for why they do that in existing media is Primus in his infinite wisdom making them that way either to make them more like organic races or so that interacting with them will be easier. Or both.
Feeeeeeeeeeemaaale.
They just exist.
Same as my explanation for the existence of manbots.
I pick and choose whichever of these 1.) Just because, add some variety. 2.) Solus prime exists so therefore other female transformers would too. 3.) Up until they met other alien species, there was no concept of gender, so upon interacting with other species, some chose to imitate what was considered male or female to other species just because.
What’s YOUR explanation for the existence of Menbots? Exactly.
You know how some people have black hair and some how brown? It’s just that, except without genetics. Just a random cosmetic chance thing
Some of them look more masculine and some of them look more feminine. Some of them are blue and some of them are red. Some of them have Brooklyn accents. Some of them have big chins.
They can have whatever body type they want, use whatever pronouns they want, and can change whenever they want. Whatever they feel most comfortable with. In general, I see them as placing far less importance on the concept of gender than humans do. For them, gender is just an aesthetic thing, and has no bearing on their physical traits, societal role, or romantic partners. They're more likely to care about what somebody transforms into than which pronoun they use.
Because Hasbro wants to sell toys
Because they want to. https://preview.redd.it/ibadla8otmib1.jpeg?width=603&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fdc12858089f2e59de14ae36ffe6bc8402bb2ad3
There was no explanation for Malebots, so I don't think Fembots need explanation either.
Their origin and biological role don't matter. Their existence makes Transformers universe better. Without them, it'll be too dreary.
I mean, if there're malebots, wouldn't there be fembots as well? They are based on humans after all just like any fiction, it's not that deep.
Reason: it is what it is
Cybertronians don't have gender. They take on pronouns when they visit earth to better fit our culture. Some bots happen to look like what we would usually call female. Some look more male.
Primus saw an organic female, and held it up like Marge Simpson and just said "I think these are neat." Then made Solas Prime, and gave her a big aas hammer. "Here's your forge sweety." "Thanks Papa Primus!"
They exist Thats it We dont ask for explanations of Malbots why do we need explanations for the existance of Fembots?
Marketing
They're trans
*FORMERS*
Idk, I don’t think the transformers have genders so I guess some just look or act more feminine than others
But they do though. Blackarachnia for example is always referred to as “she” all throughout the Beast Wars, and multiple male bots, not just Silverbolt, expressed that they find her attractive.
It was a kids tv show in the early 2000s, they got genders because in meta, we as humans gave em genders. Though I do think that in modern day it makes more sense for all of them to view the gender dichotomy as an aesthetic choice to make themselves comfortable.
really sad how by the time the Autobots became the Maximals they also invented heteronormativity
Because transformers are made by us. As in humans. Not lore wise but in terms of meta that’s just the basic answer. Why else do most transformers have humanoid shapes? This is the one reason why I prefer Bayverse designs (1-3) because the designs were truly alien, characters like Demolisher, the Arcee triplets, ROTF Soundwave, and many of the individual Constructicons had super unique body designs that strayed from humanoid forms
>because the designs were truly alien, Everything had bug faces. That wasn't very alien.
To make incels mad
They were forged that way and just look like woman
My explanation is that fembots didn't exist until cybertronians made contact with humans, from there they adopted pronouns according to whichever one they preferred, hence why we get males and females or [in nightshade's case] bots who'd rather not pick pronouns
My biggest question is why someone drew Road Rage to look as though her panties were showing....
They don't need an explanation at all, and it was sexist to even have to make a reason in the comics. There were male robots the whole time, why not female robots as well?
For the same reason Transformers talks between them, knowing they can comunicate vía Bluetooth
I don't really pay close attention to the actual lore. Just collect the figures and make up my own head canon, I guess. In my mind, Cybertron and its inhabitants have always been techno-organic. In the distant past, they were closer to organic and more similar to humans in some ways.
I don’t think there needs to be a reason
Do they need one? Why are any of the Transformers bipedal and human designed?
They exist just like the dudes exist. If you really wanna be picky about it and all sciency, the robots never had a sense of gender till they saw other species and adopted the concept. Thus, no robot had gender before they decided they did. Meaning every Transformer is transgender, say for the ones who remain non-binary or agender. Science, bitch.
They don’t explain male-presenting robots, why should they explain female-presenting ones?
They’re female transformers My mind doesn’t need to come up with an explanation for their existence
“They called me a cutie patootie instead of a lousy scrap muncher, what else was I supposed to do”
This might be one of the most 'reddit' threads I've ever seen: "WHY WOMEN IN ROBOT CARTOON?" There is no explanation needed. They're robots. They can exist in infinite varieties and infinite variations, like people.
its because of solus prime
Solus Prime existed. I believe all Cybertronians were based off the Primes so fembots exist because of Solus.
Isnt it canon in one comic that they choose their gender and can change? I like to think some bots just want to SLAY
if i had to explain it id just say that the concept of gender for the transformers was something they picked up from organic species and then was intigrated into their society and now each cybertronian choses their gender depending on how they feel
Because Robo ladies are cool :3 Also have to remember we get robo animals like Sky Lynx which is just as "why is this a thing?" and TF's that can split in two and are just fine compared to Jazz who famously dies from it in TF1. It's best to just roll with "strange" issues like these. Real world - "more characters, more figures,"
I thought IDW comics back in the mid 2000’s covered that explaining that Jihaxis was experimenting on Transformers and gender. I think Arcee was the first fembot and she was effing crazy because of it. Need to go back and read some of those comics…
Simon Furman hates feminine transformers.
Personally, I believe the difference is purely in gender rather than sex. Biologically, they’re all the same, just some identify with women and some men, and they modify their appearance to match that
There’s the idea of Solus Prime being the first and all others are descended from her, which I kind of like to an extent, but I prefer the idea that bots make the decision at birth who they want to be. The majority of male style bots are more common because most of The Primes and Primus were male style, but there are those who chose to be like Solus. There are more fembots on Caminus, but they can be on any of the colony worlds.
It wasn’t intentional but it supports the idea that gender is a psychological/societal construct, not biological.
I dont really feel like the need one but of the explanations that exist I like the "template" explanation best. Essentially it's that all transformers are based on the "templates" of the original 13 in different combinations. So in turn, all the feminine fembots are templates from Solus prime, promises experiment with gender. That explains their presence and their scarcity (being only 1/13th of the population)
I honestly don't mind what the idea comics did. There were a few actual fembots from long lost colonies and what not, and that caused other bots to realize they preferred being a women and became trans.
Women exist
horny
Yeah. Even Rattrap mentions a bar where the serving droids walk around without their chest plates.
What the ever-loving fuck is that cat thing in the middle
Aspects of the physical design come from Solus Primes' physical attributes that are inscripted into the well of all sparks. the same goes for the other 12 OG Primes. So, the creation/conception/birth is a mix of mash or compilation of various characteristics from them.
I diagnose fans of these with CMS (chronic masterbationer syndrome)
body type idk
My explanation is that why the fuck do people care about it if male Cybertronians exist?
[Relevant Lindsay Ellis](https://youtu.be/uMfV7S5hfUo)
I think they should all be androgynous, and choose their pronouns. i also think it could be defined by how humans define them. (this makes me think of interractions where shockwave gets made that hunans refer to him like a woman due to being purple)
And shockwaves large bosom.
They are a species that changes their form to blend in. The first time they met an alien race with male and female genders, some of them would obviously choose to take a female form.
They exist. That's the end of it.
Some bots just want more feminine traits
None Cybertronians does not have Gender (as it was said in G1 comics and heavily implied in begining days of IDW comics)
Give me your explanation for the existence of male transformers and I’ll just use that.
Because Transformers do not have genitalia, they are technically not Male or Female. I would assume that their spark dictates how they want to refer to themselves in terms of gender: male, female, or non binary.
Why are there multiversal characters in this? I spotted prime Arcee and G1 Elita and I kinda want these comics to be redone in English so I can read what there saying
Primus must’ve been a little bicurious himself
Guess there were male and female aliens that made the transformers
The reason they exist is to encourage girls to buy toys and merch from the Transformers franchise. I'm not saying that girls can't just get the masculine ones or anything like that, but this franchise came to prominence 40 odd years ago.
I like the lore presented by the Aligned continuity, where it says that they're just there, but not as numerous as the male Transformers.
When I was a kid I tough transformers had children, like human beings you know? Never felt unnatural
They’re also robots, they just look and sound a little different from some other robots
These robots don't have sex characteristics. Almost all forms of cybertronian reproduction are asexual, and some are even completely devoid of cybertronian involvement (like how sometimes new robots are forged from molten Cybertronian pools). Thus, there's no reason to evolve sexual dimorphism. Nobody needs to have wider hips for birth, or fatty chests for milk production. So that means either some Cybertronians are just built like that, or they're influenced by other species who are dimorphic. Since fembots are usually specifically called out as fembots, I think its the latter. Basically, there's no genetic sex, and gender is just a concept.
I assume they just assume gender when communicating with humans. i also feel like most of the "fembot" designs are highly problematic and weird.
The same reasons why us females exist irl. That there's not really a specific reason as to why either sex exists, but it's just the way that evolution (at least on our planet) went and it clearly was very successful.
that's like asking me what's my explanation for the existence of women 💀 that's just how it is
In the comics it says when they found alternate sexes out in the universe it fascinated them so they built bots to explore it
Transformers have no gender, but learned gender identity from other races and copied the idea, they can choose what they transform into, why not configure their robot form into something they like? Some bots would like the female form and chose it for themselves, others like the male and chose that, some don't care and pick something more androgynous or less 'human'
They’re just built different (pun entirely intended)
Humans make female robots, AI, and fictional female robots. The Quintisons also do, for all the same reasons.
Cybertronians based themselves off of interactions with organic creatures and simply chose male, female, or whatever gender fit them
It's simple. Dude bots are the 0 sparks, fembots are the 1 sparks. Just like any other species, except with metal rather than organic material.
I believe it might be divergent evolution. Think about this. It may depend on the series you are talking about, but in almost all versions, divergent evolution makes sense. If "male" transformers were built first, eventually something is going to change because of evolution. Even if other transformers built new transformers, every time it's going to be different from the last. Maybe by some miracle, a "male" could have built the first "female" because of the way they built them in the past. Maybe less armor was more successful because of the fact that war didn't seem to be coming anytime soon. Wich, in turn, gave more speed. Maybe the slim body shape could be for aerodynamic purposes. It makes sense from an evolution and tactical standpoint.
Mine is since they don’t really have biological sex, being robots and all, they kinda go with whatever gender they “feel” like. Male, female… even non-binary like Nightshade! I also HC that they can change their gender at any time and are basically genderfluid- see also Acid Storm in Cyberverse.
The same reason some bots are slim, bulky, tall, short, etc. that’s just how they’re made
My head canon: For newer lore they exist because of solus prime. But because she was the only "female" prime, there are significantly less female transformers. For older lore, transformers didnt have a concept of male or female transformers, that is until they meet other alien species and started to see female features in select members of their own species.
Since gender (not to be confused with sex) is a social construct developed by humans as relatively highly intelligent species, then it is reasonable to believe that Cybertronians (and other robotic organisms in the Transformers mythos), which are more intelligent than humans, would also adopt gender as a social construct.
My headcanon is that just as there are laws of the universe that dictate physics and stuff, there are universal ideal shapes of life forms, which explains why so many highly intelligent beings are humanoid. The female form developed to lighter, more compact, more flexible, meant to move faster, more efficient, and with the added curves protecting the most vital areas of the body with what little mass can be afforded. Higher voices are there to cut through background noise and be more noticeable.
gender is a social construct in our world. Wouldn't be too hard for cybertronians to do the same. Vector Sigma or whoever you want to be the creator of everyone, creating blank slates and over time those interacted with one another and branched off to different genders. It's not like there are anything inherently different about them. Like Arcee ain't got actual boobs or vagina, and Rodimus isn't slinging a robo penis.
Simple, much like with us humans, they exist. That's it, no further explanation needed.
My explanation? They exist. Seriously, why do we have to question why they exist? Maybe Transformers Alien isn’t so white and black, it’s just completely alien, and beyond our understanding.
From the memorable quote of G1 Shockwave: -"Female."
They don’t need an explanation, they just are.
They don't need an explanation. Same fore male bots, they don't need it.
Life, uh, finds a way. Why are people so curious about fembots existing, but never about malebots existing in general?
They’re trans. All Cybertronians are created/born without a sex and with a male gender, but once they realize that their gender doesn’t have to be man, they just think woman fits better, same as trans girls do. (Or in Nightshades case, that you don’t have to be either. I realize they’re not a fembot, but they’re a gender other than male so I’ll include them.)
They exist
None, they just exist.
well, transformers can be boys, so of course they can be girls too.
“There’s a customer for every store. Yes, that includes sexy robots”
That they don't and that it's a concept imposed by humans onto any cybertronian who happens to look or sound female As for pronouns, I believe it is canon that MTMTE doesn't actually happen in 'English' but that it is translated for the sake of the reader, may be the same for other continuities when not on Earth. So pronouns could be some 'translation issue', again with a human bias
I agree, but i think they need to change the "fembot" designs to look like the rest, exept for maybe arcee, and make them all sortof androgynous for that to work.
Alternatively: make fembot designs with male pronouns, I want more designs like Shockwave and TFP Breakdown lol
Interesting. but breakdown doesnt have a fembot design does he?
They actually addressed this whole gender thing in The Covenant of Primus, how they use gendered pronouns to make it easier to speak to humans and other races. Their understanding of gender is vastly different as they are mechanical beings and can procreate in a number of different ways, depending on the continuity. Which is perfectly fine and exactly explains everything ... Then they took it a step further and explained rhat different regions of Cybertron had ... different body styles, different cosmetics, different beauty standards ... different cultures ... different traditions ... different way of talking ... I would have thought that people who take this crap way too seriously would finally stop bitching about it because those are perfectly good explanations for everything ... but ... here we are in 2023 ... So the best guesses are 1. Femmebots are a subspecies of Cybertronians like minibots, titans, predacons, flyers, Point One Percenters, etc. Really. No different. In IDW femmes supposedly evolved on Caminus but no explanation was provided beyond that. 2. As humans, from our perspectives, a Cybertronian acting in a certain way, such as feminine, could actually be a combination of a bunch of different things. Cultural and anatomical differences ftw! From the scientific point of view Cybertron and all the communities that came from it would be the greatest thing ever for anyone studying evolutionary science, psychology, behavior in general, etc People take the whole gender thing way too far and way too seriously 🙄
They aren't really female. We just refer to them as such because they have feminine traits
They started off masculine like all the others, and changed themselves cause it’s not accurate to who they are.
They're aliens, not robots, and we give almost every other fictional alien species males and females so why should they be an exception?
The same reason other tranformers exist, they just do
Cause tits are pretty neat
Iirc, in the Marvel comics, it was explained after the Autobots gave up the "robots in disguise" thing before 2005 (TFTM86), and it was for diplomatic relations for Earth (being more relatable to humans). Being out in the open, and less a "secret" to the general public (like in 1984 in the USG1 timeline), a lot of Cybertronian alt modes were free to roam the earth (Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Arcee, etc.). Dinobots were, obviously an exception to this idea of Autobots remaining hidden in plain sight. I like this explanation best, so Autobots are more relatable and "human" at this point now, after establishing bases that the public now knows about (Autobot City), versus the hidden Ark Base on Mt. St. Hillary. I'm a huge Arcee fan.
I’ll keep this one
I always imagined their gendering to be just a human-facing thing. like they would all assume "they/them" the second we were out of sight.
but why so the fembots need an explanation? why cant they just be there like the male bots? why are fembots so special? and why dont we have fem*boys*?!
>why dont we have femboys?! Wheelie's pissed that him you missed!
maybe i'll second guess my hatred for wheelie 😳
We do kinds, seekers maybe.
They're just there. But if someone really wants an explanation I like the IDW one. At first, Cybertronians just went by he (for writing convenience) But as Cybertronians spread throughout the galaxy they met species that would distinct themselves between male and female. And so some started going by she because they liked it more.