Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
What is Bubbles' sexual orientation?
Morituri:
--- Quote from: sniktchtherat on 19 May 2018, 07:46 ---This thread glancingly touches on a fairly dark line of thought - if her chassis has a functional gender, the military thought there was a combat or readiness purpose to her having it. If that sentence does not horrify you, then reread it with empathic and moral filters off.
--- End quote ---
That is an interesting idea. But one thing the military (any military) has to deal with is that the people who are soldiers today, if they survive, will eventually be civilians. The 'combat or readiness purpose' may be as simple as making it more likely that an ex-soldier can eventually integrate into society, instead of breaking down with horrifying results to the civilian population, or spending their entire life as an isolated loner working for a criminal enterprise and unable to relate to anyone as a person.... oh wait.
It may also be as simple as creating a soldier who can seamlessly integrate into and relate with the unit s/he'll be serving with. Once you get past 'non-sentient' humans are pretty insistent that the things they interact with WILL BE TREATED as if they have a gender.
--- Quote from: sniktchtherat on 19 May 2018, 07:46 ---Given her sister is lesbian, and there IS a genetic component to 'nonstandard' sexuality, it might be worth wondering if Mr. Whitaker was dealing with something that was treated fairly abysmally in the mid-late 80s Southeastern US.
--- End quote ---
Last I heard they were saying genetics accounted for something like 30% of the bias, and epigenetics/development for the rest. So, there are a lot of pairs of identical twins where one is straight and one is gay or lesbian - but 30% fewer such pairs than you'd expect there to be if it were entirely down to chance.
Is it cold in here?:
--- Quote ---I feel like perhaps the reason Faye was able to connect with Bubbles is perhaps more because she did not forsee any romantic entanglement. She formed the emotional bond before there was even a hint of a physical one to her, making the relationship less "threatening" in context of her own issues.
--- End quote ---
Hmm!
Faye does have a tendency to get in her own way and I can imagine Bubbles bypassing that.
fayelovesbubbles:
Bubbles is obviously and indisputably a woman. That’s why Faye felt so conflicted, having always been straight, Bubbles is the only woman she’s ever felt attracted to.
Bubbles doesn’t strike me as a girly girl like Momo, but I agree with others here who have concluded that to call her “butch” might be a stretch. Can a robot lady be butch? Hmm.
zisraelsen:
Yea, calling Bubbles inherently male because she's large and strong feels a little uncool. Physically strong women continue being women.
sniktchtherat:
--- Quote from: Morituri on 19 May 2018, 10:09 ---
--- Quote from: sniktchtherat on 19 May 2018, 07:46 ---This thread glancingly touches on a fairly dark line of thought - if her chassis has a functional gender, the military thought there was a combat or readiness purpose to her having it. If that sentence does not horrify you, then reread it with empathic and moral filters off.
--- End quote ---
That is an interesting idea. But one thing the military (any military) has to deal with is that the people who are soldiers today, if they survive, will eventually be civilians. The 'combat or readiness purpose' may be as simple as making it more likely that an ex-soldier can eventually integrate into society, instead of breaking down with horrifying results to the civilian population, or spending their entire life as an isolated loner working for a criminal enterprise and unable to relate to anyone as a person.... oh wait.
It may also be as simple as creating a soldier who can seamlessly integrate into and relate with the unit s/he'll be serving with. Once you get past 'non-sentient' humans are pretty insistent that the things they interact with WILL BE TREATED as if they have a gender.
--- End quote ---
As has been seen, it's entirely possible to treat an individual without a physical gender as gendered - because they present their gender identity instead. Pintsize is a perfect example - his chassis is neuter gender. His gender identity is male, and he presents as such. Melon presents as female generally, but her chassis is neuter as well. In fact, as far as I can tell, all the AI chassis so far have either been explicitly neuter - Melon, Pintsize, Punchbot - or undefined. I take comfort in that, to a degree - it's a small sample, but it suggests we're letting the 'kids' find their own path.
And regarding the appalling lack of support for Bubbles after her discharge...as much as the darker parts of my brain'd like to read into that, I can't. Because we already do the exact same thing to human soldiers.
Also, I knew I shoulda established definitions first.
Please note, these are not 'absolute', these are what I personally use for both simplicity and precision.
Gender: Purely physical. A combination of primary and secondary human sexual characteristics, per modern medical knowledge - male lacks expressed mammary glands, develops testes, etc. A conflict of primary and secondary is 'intergender', and a lack of primary characteristics is neuter.
Gender identity: How a person views themselves; idealized self-image and presentment. Regardless of her purely physical gender, Dora's gender identity is female, for example. In general, more important than the purely physical aspect.
Sexuality: What a person finds attractive/arousing. The broadest category of all, given over 7 billion ape-minds and counting all with their own unique chemistry, insanity, and traumas.
--- Quote from: Morituri on 19 May 2018, 10:09 ---
--- Quote from: sniktchtherat on 19 May 2018, 07:46 ---Given her sister is lesbian, and there IS a genetic component to 'nonstandard' sexuality, it might be worth wondering if Mr. Whitaker was dealing with something that was treated fairly abysmally in the mid-late 80s Southeastern US.
--- End quote ---
Last I heard they were saying genetics accounted for something like 30% of the bias, and epigenetics/development for the rest. So, there are a lot of pairs of identical twins where one is straight and one is gay or lesbian - but 30% fewer such pairs than you'd expect there to be if it were entirely down to chance.
--- End quote ---
An interesting thought to ponder - would bisexual be an outcome where the genetic bias is counterweighted by the environs and culture without prejudice as to which is towards the 'nonstandard' sexuality? Or its own separate bias, and if so, if both were present, what might the result be? There is so much we don't know about how our own minds work.
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