The Erasure of Female Representation in Geek Spaces As an Element for the Construction of Geek Identity: the Case of Warhammer 40.0001

CJCS 10 (2) pp. 193–211 Intellect Limited 2018

Alejandro Muñoz-Guerado Complutense University of Madrid Laura Triviño-Cabrera Malaga University

The erasure of female representation in geek spaces as an element for the construction of Geek identity: The case of Warhammer 40.0001

Abstract Keywords In the following article we aim to depict the complex threefold relationship between game studies the phenomenon of the second digital divide that plagues women inside entertain- gender representation ment spaces, the theoretical framework of post-sexism and the construction of Geek Warhammer identity as a besieged, discriminated space. Our purpose is to highlight how the Geek identity construction of Geek identity was based on both the exclusion of women from geek feminisms spaces and the creation of a melodramatical narrative surrounding such spaces. We Gamergate do so through the analysis of gender representation within the popular Warhammer 40.000 game. Results show a perfect example of a women-excluding setting, packed

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1. This article integrates with gender representation problems that is trying, as of late, to distance itself from the different research topics developed such baggage, taking steps to redefine what it means to be a Warhammer 40.000 fan. from three different research projects:The R&D project reference FEM2017-83302-C3- 3-P (2017), funded by the Spanish Ministry 1. Introduction: The post-sexist politicization of game of Economy and spaces Competitiveness, the Research Since 2014, with the arrival of the organized online hate movement of Project reference Gamergate (Dewey 2014), the need to apply feminist critique to entertainment LITMEC (Multimodal Literacy and Cultural spaces has proven its worth. When we speak of feminist critique we point to Studies), funded what Showalter (1997, cited in Macedo and Amaral 2005: 26) designated as a by the Vicerector’s Investigation Office critical feminist revolution, which advocated for visibility and women’s emanci- from Malaga University, pation in the social and working environments, with the need for establishing and the educational gender as a category. It is from this perspective that our need to look at games innovation research project titled from a feminist point of view stems. Audiovisual Literacy The harassment movement was initiated by Eron Gjoni, a 24-year-old, for performative who, knowing the latent streak of misogyny that permeated gaming commu- practice reference PIE 17-172, funded by nities, published an online manifesto accusing her ex-girlfriend, Zoe Quinn, the Vicerector’s for video game developer, of having sexual relationships with reporters to get Teaching and Academic Organization Office favourable reviews for her games. Gamergate, while presenting itself as ‘a from Malaga University. crusade for ethics in video game journalism’ (Braithwaite 2016: 1), has been the main protagonist of several waves of harassment pointed towards those who dared to deconstruct video games, a media that was trying to prove its artistic maturity, able to go beyond the source of entertainment that it has traditionally been understood as. In fact, the second person most affected by Gamergate is Anita Sarkeesian, who delved into the stereotypes associated with female video game characters with her video-series Tropes vs Women. Four years later, the repercussions of this movement are still alive. The accusations against feminism arise every time a new title is perceived as a threat, normally due to the presence of female protagonists, non-sexualized female characters and non-heterosexual or transgender characters. The reasons for all the harassment unleashed by Gamergate followers and organized inside the main Gamergate hubs are varied and have been investigated in several different spaces. For our purpose here we will point towards how, in a neo-liberal society, totally immersed in what Zygmunt Bauman (2000) called liquid modernity, consumerism can turn into an identity-shaper. Quoting Shaw (2012), who, in a turn of phrase, quotes the famous Simone de Beauvoir’s adage: ‘one is not born a gamer, one becomes one’. Frederik De Grove et al. (2015) developed this fact further when trying to understand Gamer identity, that which has been constructed upon video games. Thus, continuing with Shaw’s work (2012), these authors affirm:

An important aspect of being a gamer seems to be built around specific types of consumption such as playing certain types of games, spending a certain amount of time playing games, ownership of certain devices and so on. […] knowledge regarding paratextual material can serve as an aspect of cultural capital to (be used to) perform a gamer identity. (Grove et al. 2015: 347)

However, a violent reaction against growing diversity, amongst both players and the video game industry itself, has joined consumerism as the defining

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aspects of Gamer identity. The reason is twofold; on the one hand we can point to a resistance from what was traditionally understood as a Gamer, that is a white, young, heterosexual, cissexual male. On the other, we believe that there is more to it than mere group dynamics. This behaviour could be explained by what Lorente (2017: 10) defines as Post-sexism, a reaction against postmodernity and the triumph of feminisms that are here to stay, not as a trend, but as a powerful earthquake that shook patriarchal structures. Post-sexism is characterized by the search for new spaces in which to grow, searching a modernization that avoids spaces usually associated with more traditional, entrenched, sexist resistance. To survive in a postmodern context, this resistance had to change, adapt and overcome, hence the infiltra- tion of its discourse in several entertainment spaces, such as video games. In Lorente’s words:

Post-sexism condition feeds on postmodernity and uses its elements on its own particular reflections upon women’s advance, to further its objectives. One of the most used has been the image. […] post-sexism needs to create its own aesthetics and break away from the stale, virile image of sexism, aiming to lend its proposals and ideas some credibility and preventing them from being associate with a stance aimed at main- taining male power. (2017: 11)

Only from this perspective can we explain the virulence of the attacks carried on by Gamergate, as a performative exercise of identity-building, associated in turn with a bigger, post-sexist, identity building. The importance of this violence as an identity-shaper was pointed out by Salter and Blodgett (2012: 401): ‘The centering of gaming culture around technology means that the shared identity of gamers is defined in the publicly mediated intersection of social network’. It is our belief that the violence against a growing diversity and a better female representation in video games is associated with the construction of the post-sexist ideology, a conception reinforced by several similar events on other big entertainment spaces, such as Magic the Gathering (Wizards of the Coast, whose community has been recently hit with massive attacks target- ing one of its most well-known female figures, leading her to abandon the community altogether) (Alexander 2017). These attacks made the games’ publisher, Wizards of the Coast, change its own event policy, cutting its links with those that enabled and promoted such harassment. Meanwhile, the emergence of Feminist 40k on Facebook and different articles noting the gender disparity present in the Warhammer 40.000 universe (McConaughy 2016a) has caused new waves of harassment, particularly through YouTube. These attacks have shown the existing problems inside one of the most popular tabletop games, with a large transmedia presence resulting in large quantities of books and video games. It is our closeness to this environment that allowed us to sense a pattern. The key to interpret this pattern was given to us by the concept of ‘Second Digital Gap’ (Castaño 2008) In her work, Castaño describes the evolution of access to online spaces as follows:

The digital divide or digital cap was initially defined in connection with the existence of populations included and excluded from the information society depending on having or no access to computers and the Internet.

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At a later stage, when the number of users keep increasing, the digital divide manifests itself as a more complex phenomenon than mere Internet access, and different digital divides appear. The first one is access to a computer and an internet connection […] The second digital divide it’s the one affecting uses (both in its intensity and in its variety) […] the most difficult barrier to overcome it’s not that of access […] but that of use and skill. Beyond the quantity (the number of hours spent with the computer or the Internet) it is necessary to explore quality of use in detail. (Castaño 2008: 23, original emphasis)

We believe that the phenomenon that Castaño describes for the digital world can be used for other areas if we frame it inside the post-sexism dynamic that Lorente describes. Thus, a new strategy against equality would be not forbid- ding access to entertainment spaces, something unacceptable in a society that sees itself as democratic, but to negate the quality of such access, negating women’s right to normality by a different array of harassment techniques, effec- tively accomplishing the same goal, excluding women, while at the same time retaining the three key elements of the post-sexist camouflage that Lorente (2017) describes: a pretension of neutrality, scientism and a pretension of interest in the common good. Why do we emphasize the entertainment field when this phenomenon could be adscribed to other areas more traditionally studied, like the working environment? The answer lies in the politization of such spaces. Gamergate showed us how a great number of young people can, through these spaces, be weaponized against equality, mobilized thanks to the post-sexist discourse not only against women, but in service or more mainstream political causes, as shown by Green (2017). This work has Steve Bannon as a protagonist, former chief strategist of Trump’s administration. He possessed a great deal of experi- ence with the Gamer community thanks to his previous jobs at Breitbart, which stoked Gamergate fires enthusiastically, and in gold farming companies for World of Warcraft players. Green reveals a telling quote about the power of these communities developed around entertainment spaces: ‘You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump’ (Green 2017: 27). Thus, taking feminist critique to game and entertainment spaces turns into an important aspect of the fight against post-sexism to reclaim the normality denied to women inside those same spaces and to avoid the sexist radicaliza- tion of young men.

2. Why Warhammer? To talk about Wargames is to talk about Warhammer. Its dominion of the market is such that it has turned itself into the standard used to measure all other tabletop strategy games. Games Workshop is the company behind the Warhammer universe. Born in 1975 as a game board manufacturer, it soon jumped into designing its own games, promoted through its own game club and a specialized magazine, the White Dwarf, born in 1977. From those humble beginnings in which it only distributed Dungeon & Dragons products, Games Workshop has grown into a titan of Wargames industry, creating the most well-known miniatures brand in the world, and one of the most recog- nizable and popular fantasy universes. Today, Games Workshop miniatures are sold in a network that reaches nineteen different countries; its universe is in

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constant expansion through the publications of Black Library, and its associated editorial has managed to get its titles into the New York Best Seller List several times. Finally, Warhammer has served as a setting for more than 50 different video games. This long story has seen the development of three main branches inside the games produced by Games Workshop: Warhammer Fantasy Battle (Games Workshop, 1983), Warhammer 40.000 (Games Workshop, 1987) and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game (Games Workshop, 2001). Given the limitations imposed by this format, we have to limit the scope of our analysis. We understand that Warhammer Fantasy Battle has suffered a drastic reboot, and the range that has come to take its place, Age of Sigmar, is too recent for our analysis to make sense since most factions are still in a state of transition, waiting for new rules and miniatures that take them into the new universe. On the other hand, the games inspired by The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit reproduce with great fidelity the movies’ aesthetic; thus, its study from a gender perspective would result in a study of the movies themselves, something that goes beyond our proposed topic, hence the deci- sion to focus on Warhammer 40.000; however, the range of products inspired by this universe is large. Given our practical approach, aimed at investigat- ing the difficulties that female players face when approaching the game and the theme of this publication, we will focus solely on the miniatures and the Codex (rulebooks where the abilities, lore and appearance of each faction are detailed), both basic elements for every Warhammer 40.000 player, leaving video games, roleplaying games and others behind.

3. In the grim darkness of the far future: An introduction to Warhammer 40.000 The world that Warhammer 40.000 presents us can only be defined as dystopic. Set in the 41st millennium, it presents humanity as having expanded until the farthest reaches of the Milky Way, united under a political entity denomi- nated The Imperium of Man. Society in this era works almost in a feudal way. Technology is treated as a religion, monopolized by a cult that sees innovation as heresy, and punish it accordingly. The only way for progress lies in the rediscovery of ancient knowledge, buried amongst the remains of a better, brighter past. Many of the key technologies to this universe are described as forgotten, lost under layers of ritualism and tradition. Xenophobia, isolation- ism, intolerance and zealotry are the values that humanity upholds, a fact that is always presented as a tragedy, rather than an exaltation. It is something that humanity has been forced to adopt to survive a plethora of hostile alien species, from the mysterious Aeldari, which remind us of elves due to their immortality, gracile complexion and cold, distant approach to the world, to the Tyranids, a primal tide of biologically engineered beast with one single purpose: to feed upon the galaxy, and the Necrons, an ancient and arrogant species whose souls were entombed inside metallic bodies, replicating many of the tropes usually associated with the Undead of other fantasy universes. The array of factions available to the player is large, and it will be further detailed, suffice to say that they are all trapped in a state of eternal war. Their ambitions, mindset or simply their nature make alliance, dialogue and peace impossible in this game. After all, the motto of the game is ‘There is Only War’. Special attention should be paid to a key element of this universe: The Warp, an alternative dimension, parallel to our own, where human emotion

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is given live, birthing unnatural entities known as demons. The game presents us with demons born of human tragedy, such as the murder of Abel by Caín (Dembski-Bowden 2016) or the Cathar’s massacre during the middle ages (Dembski-Bowden 2014). The most powerful human emotions end up causing the appearance of powerful entities known as the Chaos Gods. The nature of the warp is used to present most of the ideological frame for the game; the events that cause demons to appear are always tragic in nature, providing a pessimistic view about our history. The aforementioned gods are supposed to represent the most powerful emotions and human fears. They are four: Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeench and Slaanesh, who in turn represent Violence, Decay, Manipulation and Desire. The image that they paint about human nature is clear. The main conflict in the game is between those who serve the Warp and those who serve the Imperium, a rivalry that serves to present us with the great reflection that makes the backbone of the game, a reflection about human nature, about what defines us, about the conflict between our worse instincts and the best ones, personified in the battle between the Chaos Gods and the Emperor, a messianic figure, immortal, of unknown origins but who has lived throughout human history, taking on different roles (to the point of his representation sharing many elements with that of Christ, an insinuation that the game never dared to turn textual). To understand the tone of the universe, we should point to the fact that this moral conflict has a clear answer in the game, a pessimistic view about human nature and the inevitability of our own end. Thus, the Chaos Gods stand triumphant while the emperor decays in a state close to death, kept alive only through arcane technology and the daily sacrifice of thousands of souls. Even the theoretically positive figure of the Emperor has a cynic vision of mankind and a great disdain for human life, to the point of adopting fascist points of view, such as:

This was the night I realised that mankind must be ruled. It could not be trusted to thrive without a master. It needed to be guided and shaped, bound by laws and set to follow the course laid by its wisest minds. (Dembski-Bowden 2016)

4. Invisible women on the gameboard: A review of the different factions The disparity between male-only and female-only factions is obvious, and it is worsened by the fact that since many of the first are fully developed factions with an ample range of miniatures, the Sisters of Silence have only five miniatures available to them, while the Sisters of Battle, although well stablished in the game’s lore, have only old lead miniatures available. These miniatures have remained unchanged since 1997 and no other faction in the game has suffered such neglect; additionally, lead means a higher price tag, which makes collect- ing an army of Sisters of Battle prohibitive. A single box of ten sisters of battle reaches a 60€ price tag, against the 35 of the same number of Space Marines, the most popular faction. In addition to this, many of the mixed factions are far from an equitable distribution. Many of the female miniatures are either old and/or discontinued, which makes them difficult to access. Furthermore, many of the factions with any female presence are minor factions, intendent to complement or add a different touch to one of several of the bigger, most established factions. For

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Male-only factions Mixed factions Female-only factions Space Marines Imperial Guard Ultramarines Blood Angels Chaos Demons Dark Angels Deathwatch Sisters of Battle Inquisition Grey Knights Space Wolves Officio Assasinorum Adeptus Custodes Adeptus Mechanicus Harlequins Imperial Knights Renegade Knights Ynnari Chaos Space Marines Death Guard T’au Empire Thousand Sons Sisters of Silence Orks Craftworlds Necrons Tiranids Drukhari Genstealer Cult

Table 1: Table illustrating the different Warhammer 40.000 factions (Games Workshop 2017).

example, the Imperial Guard has only three female miniatures in its catalogue out of an astounding range of pieces; two of these have been discontinued and are impossible to obtain outside the second-hand market. The T’au Empire has only one female miniature, although it is at least a modern one, available at stores. The Oficcio Assasinorum has only one woman from a total of four miniatures in its factions, something that happens in the Ynnari, Harlequins and Inquisition factions, which sport only a handful of miniatures each. Warhammer 40.000 has 29 different factions that, from a gender perspective, could be classified as follows:

4.1. Saints and sinners: The Sisters of Battle The Sisters of Battle are a staple of Warhammer 40.000. A faction belonging to the Imperium of Man, whose behaviour and themes remind us of the middle- age crusaders, or at least the frequent, ahistorical vision that we have of them. Religious, adherents of a strict monastic way of life that includes vows, they are healers and a helpful presence to the Imperium’s population, but also warriors who dedicate their lives to improving their martial abilities. Sporting a religious zealotry that constitutes their main asset in battle, they are often represented carrying out purges, pogroms and genocide against mutants, deviants or against those the Imperium brands as heretics. Purity and Incorruptibility are

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Figure 1: Games Workshop, Battle Sisters Squad. Retrieved from https://www. games-workshop.com/es-ES/Battle-Sisters-Squad. Courtesy of Games Workshop.

the attributes associated with the sisters, and martyrdom is the main aspira- tion of the sisters (Hoare and McNeill 2003: 6). The faction’s main character, Saint Celestine, is described as a living saint (Hoare and McNeill 2003: 47), capable of coming back from the dead after being slain. The armour of the Sisters of Battle seems adequate compared with other fantasy armour designs. It covers the whole body, without refusing to protect its bearer in order to expose her body to the male gaze , but this gaze is still present in three elements of its design:

• First, the boobplate (Totilo 2016), a piece of armour that leaves two dispro- portionate spaces to accommodate the breasts. Such a design will lead to the strikes/projectiles being deviated to the sternum, instead of away from the more delicate areas of the body. • Second, the high heels that the Sisters of Battle have are an integral part of the design of their armoured boots. • Finally, the comparison with the main faction of the game, the Space Marines. Both factions carry the same kind of plate, power armour, another staple of the universe characterized for the protection that it grants to their bearers, and for the ability to amplify the bearer’s strength thanks to the servo mechanisms that it sports. In game a Sister of Battle and a Space Marine are equally protected, but what in the Space Marines is represented

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as dense layers of plate (whose thickness often gets to the point of ridicule), with the Sisters, is represented as a flexible corset, which follows closely the curves of a female figure in which there is no space for body diversity since all the Sisters of Battle have the same slim, utterly feminine figures.

In addition to this, the Sisters of Battle are depicted as going to battle with a dark red lipstick applied. It is worth mentioning that the problems with Sister of Battle armour extend to the miniatures of other factions, such as the Inquisition, who shares gear with them. However, these problems pale when faced with another unit of the army, the Repentia. Sisters of Battle, who broke their vows and, as penance, renounce to one of their senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste,…), stripping it away through physical mutilation, and renounce every protection in the battlefield, where they pursue a noble death. The miniatures are dressed only in rags and leather strips, barely covering oversized breasts. They carry chains around their ankles and neck and scars where there is skin to show. The leader of the unit, a Sister that remains pure, carries two whips that she uses against the Repentia when she gives an order. The fetishized nature of this violence against women is especially obvious in the art, where the corporal mutilations are vividly depicted, with needles going through the skin, sewn eyes or even stripped away.

4.2. Silent women: The Sisters of Silence This is a small faction, with only five miniatures available. Although their aesthetic is different, the exact same failures attributed to the Sisters of Battle armour are repeated here in miniatures much more modern than the Sisters’. This is aggravated by a problem of concept: Every Sister of Silence is a Pariah, a condition that in this universe is assigned to people without a soul, who are not truly alive and whose emotions leave no mark in the tides of the warp. The absence of a soul has the effect of causing an instinctive disgust and distrust among normal people. Warhammer 40.000 Wiki, created and updated by fans, describes the effect of a Pariah as follows: ‘one might feel disturbed by a mannequin or automata which apes humanity but remains unalive’. (Anon. n.d.) However, this condition also makes those who suffer it incredibly powerful against the forces of chaos and against Demons, whose power comes from the Warp, which is why the Imperium makes use of those branded by the Pariah gene. In addition to this, the Sisters of Silence keep an oath of silence when they join the order. It makes for an uncomfortable question: Why did the order of discriminated, soulless and thus not really alive, utterly silent warriors have to be female-only?

4.3. Invisible women: The Imperial Guard The Imperial Guard is the most mundane army of Warhammer 40.000, composed of normal soldiers, with equipment and tactics close to actual, historical armies. They represent the common humanity of the Imperium. It is also one of the most diverse factions, having a great variety of miniatures to represent the same units, making a point of having Arab, Russian or German influence to show the diversity of the enormous Imperium. The presence of women among its ranks has always been mentioned; the current Codex refers to the ‘Men and women of the Astra Militarum’ (Games

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Workshop 2017) and the novels that have the Guard as protagonists, especially the Ciaphas Cain (Mitchell 2003) and Gaunt’s Ghost (Abnett 2003) series of novels, have given us some of the better constructed, most well-represented female characters of the setting. However, there have only been four female miniatures in its range, and only two of them remain easily accessible: those belonging to the Last Chancers, a unit of criminal soldiers that atone for their crimes by carrying out suicide missions. The clothing on these two miniatures contrasts; while one of them carries a believable, practical uniform with boots, combat fatigues and ammo pouches, the other is barely covered by a leather-strip skirt and a top. The third female miniature has been discontinued. It represents a soldier from Catachan, a lethal jungle-world whose soldiers usually fight bare chested. Its clothing seemed to pay a small homage to the character of Private Vasquez, played by Jenette Goldstein in Aliens (1986), with whom it shares many aesthetical elements. In any case, its top is too short than that of its male counterparts, showing both cleavage and belly button. The last female miniature is even harder to access since it is a special miniature given only to those who bought a ticket for the Games Day event of 1998. It is an evidently sexualized miniature, without armour, wearing a corset that shows most of an oversized cleavage, and voluptuous, exaggerated lips. All this poor gender representation contrasts with the illustrations of the last Codex, the first to show female Imperial Guards in detail, a rare example of good female representation since they appear non-sexualized and even show some body diversity.

4.4. Deceitful women: The Oficcio Assasinorum This faction is also a small one, intended as a complement to any of the Imperium’s forces. It represents the elite assassins of the Emperor, genetically engineered warriors with different traditions to slay their targets. The faction has only four miniatures, and only one of them is female: The Callidus assas- sin. The members of the Callidus Temple consume shape-shifting drugs that allow them to change their appearance on a whim; all of them are women with the excuse of these drugs being only able to function on a woman’s body. Stealth, manipulation and deceit are the staples of the Callidus, and, of course, all of them are associated with women. Its clothing consists of a skin-tight rubber suit, tight enough to mark the abdominals, ribs and, of course, breasts. At the same time the miniature sports a long mane of hair that reaches her knees, a senseless combination that would make for a detriment in a fight and that can only be understood as an attribute of femininity.

4.5. Cruel women: Aeldari, Ynnari, Drukhari and Harlequins These four factions belong to the same species, the Eldar, but adhere to different philosophies or belief systems that justify their distinction. The Eldar are members of a dying race: Immortals, left-overs from a powerful empire of old, mysterious, wise and mystics, but also cruel and utterly uncaring for the lives of what they see as lesser species. It is the race with the most female representation, and the only one that comes close to parity with the Drukhari, but again the lore of the game undermines the fact. These factions faced their decline thanks to the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, briefly mentioned before. Slaanesh was born as a consequence of the impact that the Eldar’s decadence

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Figure 2: Games Workshop, Lelith Hesperax. Retrieved from https://www.games- workshop.com/es-ES/Lelith-Hesperax. Courtesy of Games Workshop.

and excesses had in the warp. The femininity of these factions is thus associated with their doom, and this cataclysmic event is, in turn, associated with an uncontrolled sexuality. This negative characterization is built upon by the Aeldari/Drukhari divide that is based upon how the Eldar reacted to the end of their civilization. The Aeldari faction, usually presented as somewhat positive, has collabo- rated with the Imperium of Man on several occasions. They chose to leave lives of monastic isolation, seeking absolute control over their impulses, while the Drukhari persisted on their deviant, sensual ways, choosing to elude Slaanesh by sacrificing prisoners and slaves to quell the hunger of the god. Where the Aeldari are noble, the Drukhari are depraved, cruel and sadist, delighting themselves with the pain of others and rejuvenating themselves immortality thanks to the torture and suffering that they inflict. Several elements are commonplace in terms of female elder representation: All of them wear tight-fitting clothes that highlight tall, thin, slen- der bodies. There is an emphasis in the agility, almost acrobatic, of the figures. Elements associated with femininity, such as long hair and high- heels, are also commonplace. When they show their face, high cheek- bones and sharp features are the norm, and of course no miniatures elude thinness. All these elements are present on the Aeldari faction, but the antiquity of their miniatures and designs makes for less female representation, although it is worth noting that not a single woman shows her face in the miniatures of this faction. The Drukhari, on the contrary, sport a more recent range of

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miniatures. In these, latex stockings, corsets and cut-outs in the fabric to expose skin are commonplace. The most egregious example is Lelith Hesperax, the best fighter of the faction and indeed one of the best of the games, that reached such a position while fighting barefooted, clad in what can only be described as a bikini, and with an oversized mane of hair covered in blades, but it is far from the only bad example. The only female figure of the Ynnari faction (which has only three miniatures), Yvraine, manages to somehow combine a tight-fitting rubber suit with a corset, exaggerated high heels, really long hair culminating in an impossible headdress, a fan and a small feline companion. The Harlequins, the last small faction of the Eldars, with barely over ten miniatures, break some of these trends. Dressing as buffoons that would not be out of place in a Venetian carnival, their clothes, if tight-fitting, are pretty unisex, and although the breast are still oversized, it is easier to believe fabric behaving like that, instead of rigid armour like in the previous cases.

4.6. A lone good example: The T’au Empire The T’au are one of the most recent factions added to the Warhammer 40.000 universe. With its advanced, sleek and clean-looking technology, its multi- cultural way of life and their predisposition to diplomacy and dialogue, they are a positive counterpoint to the Imperium; although loyal to the pessimistic outlook of the universe, the T’au own their harmonic society to the mind control capabilities of its upper chaste, the Ethereals. Although they have an ample range with a wide variety of units, there is only one example of a female T’au: Commander Shadowsun. Breaking with the previous trend, there is nothing in Shadowsun’s armour that sexual- izes her; every part of it makes sense and has a purpose, not presenting any difference with the armoured suits of other T’au. Even without its helmet, it is difficult to perceive Shadowsun as a woman since her facial traits do not differentiate that much from male T’au; even the long ponytail that she sports is echoed by male T’au, a custom of a culture, instead of a way to emphasize the femininity of the miniature. Thus, Commander Shadowsun appears to be designed for what she is, a professional, efficient and practical soldier. This is overshadowed, however, by her loneliness in the T’au range. Shadowsun should be the norm, not the exception.

4.7. A queer space, wasted: Slaanesh Slaanesh is perhaps the most interesting faction from a gender perspective. One of the four Chaos Gods, its miniatures can appear in the Chaos Space Marine or in the Chaos Demons factions indistinctly. But, who is Slaanesh? The Chaos Space Marine Codex from the third edition of the game grants him the title of ‘Prince of Excesses’ (Andy Chambers et al. 2002). His symbol is a clear mix of the masculine and feminine symbols, and in the same Codex the god and his followers are described as follows:

The followers of Slaanesh often exhibit the utmost physical perfection to the naked eye, and on the exterior it may be true that no mortal is capable of such beauty. But the soul of each follower screams in eternal torment. […] Slaanesh may appear as male, female, hermaphrodite or androgynous. Whichever form he takes, his physical beauty is such that no mortal may look upon him and resist the urge to submit. (Chambers et al. 2002)

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Figure 3: Games Workshop, Daemonettes of Slaanesh. Retrieved from https:// www.games-workshop.com/es-ES/Daemonettes-of-Slaanesh-2017. Courtesy of Games Workshop.

Before it was toned down to reach a growing audience, Slaanesh was the faction where sexuality was more clearly displayed. The main soldiers of the faction, the Daemonettes, have always been highly sexualized, especially in the older models sculpted by Juan Díaz, in which the nudity of these demons was total save for a loincloth. Their faces were sleek and feminine, and many of them sported up to six breasts across the torso. The new miniatures are, as we said, toned down, opting for a more monstrous aesthetic, with brutal visages, exaggerated fangs and a subtle hint of femininity under it all, contrasting with claws and paws. The mix of sexual traits continues, however, since many of the new Daemonettes sport only one breast. Their clothes now cover the torso, but they are still corsets that leave a lot of skin naked. Beyond the miniatures, the role of the Daemonettes as temptress is prob- lematic. The Chaos Daemon Codex from the sixth edition of the game describes them as follows:

In appearance, the Daemonettes are both beautiful and revolting. They have an androgynous charm that is heightened by a permeating sense of beguilement. Though their true forms are repulsive and terrifying, this supernatural power makes them appear as the ultimate beauty and object of desire in the eyes of mortals, regardless of their race, gender or morality. None exposed to the Lesser Daemons of Slaanesh forget the

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tide of living sensuality; it evokes both loathing and a perverse longing that forever gnaws at the minds of those who see them. (Kelly 2013)

The problem in presenting the Daemonettes as dangerous deceitful temptress, able to lead literally anyone to damnation, laying traps upon the unsuspect- ing thanks to their suspicious sexuality reproduces a stereotype with very real harmful consequences for transgender individuals, particularly those who find themselves exposed through sex work. The belief that their identity is somehow a trap and that they lie to the heterosexual males is a source of violence, and here Warhammer not only keeps the myth but adds upon it, associating a preda- tory, cruel and brutal nature to the lone example of female sexuality in the game.

5. The future ahead Female representation in Warhammer 40.000 has come a long way since its original inception. However, the company seems to be sending mixed messages. For example, on 6 October 2017, Games Workshop released a state-

Figure 4: Games Workshop, Roll Models No. 001 – Familiar Battlefield. Retrieved from https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/06/01/roll-models-no-001- familiar-battlefield/. Courtesy of Games Workshop

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ment on its official Warhammer 40.000 FB community, referring to increased female representation as a ‘focus right now’ and promising ‘More models, art and rules for female characters in the future’. The reason behind the lack- ing representation was attributed to the three-years-in-advance work cycle of their studios. However, in March of this year a small controversy arose in the reddit community of the game, when a user reported a comment made by the head of Forgeworld, the branch of GW in charge of the more complex, exclusive and detailed resin kits, in which he referred to the Esher Gangs (one of the new all-female factions for the Necromunda game subset) as ‘Exotic and vindictive because they’re women’ (u/TonyNeedsToGo 2018 and u/never- deadned22 2018). However, the facts seem to be mostly positive. Women now feature promi- nently in the art for the upcoming second edition of Age of Sigmar, and the new lore of the recent game has turned into an opportunity to introduce more female miniatures, many of which avoid the sexualization that we have described in this text. A push for seeking a new kind of fan, opening to new demographics, or at least the desire for being seen as an open, inclu- sive space, can be seen in initiatives such as the comic strip ‘Roll Models’, which features both female heroes and players with normality. Similarly, the recently announced Warhammer Adventures (Games Workshop 2018), a new range of books, whose target is boys and girls aged between 8 and 12 years old, features a diverse main cast, both from a gender and a race perspective. The fact that this push for diversity is aimed towards the youngest fans of the game could be seen as proof that the current interest in better female representation is here to stay.

6. Conclusions In their article titled ‘Postmodern geekdom as simulated ethnicity’, Kom Kunyosing and Carter Soles delve deep into the media representation of geek culture and its associated stereotypes. They survey the key moments of geek representation from the early twentieth century until their recent rise as a popular media behemoth through successful movies such as the one associated with Marvel comics, the pre-eminence of geeky figures such as Marck Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs in our tech-filled lives or the popularization of events previously associated with geek culture, such as the San Diego comic con. During this survey they describe the construction of an identity, the Geek identity, and the main problem that it faces. In their words:

As geekdom moves from the cultural fringes into the mainstream, it becomes increasingly difficult for the figure of the geek to maintain the outsider victim status that made him such a sympathetic figure in the first place. Confronted with his cultural centrality and white, masculine privilege – geeks are most frequently represented as white males – the geek seeks a simulated victimhood and even simulated ethnicity in order to justify his existence as a protagonist in a world where an unmarked straight white male protagonist is increasingly passé. (Kunyosying 2012: 1)

This statement of Geek identity as akin to an ethnicity derives from the theo- ries of Film Scholar Linda Williams, from whom they borrow her definition of

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melodrama, which becomes a key factor in the construction of Geek identity. The reason is clearly explained by the authors in the following terms:

Williams’ model helps us see how racial marking becomes desirable to white geeks: if suffering equals virtue and moral superiority, then the virtue of a marked identity type (black, female, gay, disabled) can be reduced to how much one suffers for it. Here is also the key to why our analysis reads geeks primarily as straight white men. The anxieties of the straight white male geek’s identity are transformed into the authenticat- ing devices that paradoxically make him a moral hero in a postmodern world in which an unmarked and untroubled straight white male hero would normally be out of place. (Kunyosying 2012: 1)

It is our belief that this identity-construction process has occurred through the development of a melodramatical narrative whose main consequence can be seen in the effects of Gamergate, ComicGate, the attempts to boycott any kind of media with a positive representation of women, such as the ones attempted against the movies Mad Max: Fury Road (Miller, 2015), or all the new Star Wars movies (Abrams 2015 and Johnson 2017), which ended in the creation of a cut of Star Wars: The Last Jedi that systematically erased every appearance of a woman (McLeay 2018). Although the subject changes, the discourse remains the same, pushed by an assorted array of figures and media such as breitbart.com, or the YouTube channels of Sargon of Akkad (Akkad 2017), Alex Jones (The Alex Jones Channel was deleted from YouTube 6 August 2018, and is since then inacces- sible) or Stephan Molyneux (Molyneux 2015). Geek identity is under siege, attacked and threatened by increasing diversity and female representation. In this context, with the dire consequences of this rhetoric outlined by authors such as Zoe Quinn, the analysis of gender representation in geek spaces has become an important necessity for the normalization of these spaces. It has been our attempt with this first delving into the Warhammer 40.000 world to extend the research of geek space outside the more popular online spaces, and outside the more traditional types of media such as cinema and video games. Our long-term goal would be to add to the discussion started by Kunyosing and Soles, adding to their definition of the construction of Geek identity from new perspectives and mediums such as table-top games or pen and paper RPG games. For this purpose, describing the state of representation in these spaces, as we have done with Warhammer 40.000 in this article, becomes a necessary bedrock for future work, a starting point from which to keep track of the evolution of representation in these spaces.

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Suggested citation Muñoz-Guerado, A. and Triviño-Cabrera, L. (2018), ‘The erasure of female representation in geek spaces as an element for the construction of Geek identity: The case of Warhammer 40.000’, Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 10:2, pp. 193–211, doi: 10.1386/cjcs.10.2.193_1

Contributor details Alejandro Muñoz-Guerado has a Ph.D. from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is currently working on his thesis on the influence of post- sexism in game spaces and its effects on widening the second digital divide for women. He graduated in History at the Universidad de Málaga and has an MA in Teaching from the Universidad de Málaga. E-mail: [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1105-1423

Laura Triviño Cabrera is an assistant professor. She is the coordinator of the Didactic for Social Sciences area and has a Ph.D. in art history after gradu- ating in Humanities, Philosophy, Social and Cultural Anthropology and Art History. She won the first national prize of graduates in Humanities from the Ministry of Education and Science and is the winner of the Elisa Pérez Vera research prize from the UNED. Director of Research Project reference LITMEC (Multimodal Literacy and Cultural Studies) and the Educational Innovation Research Project titled Audiovisual Literacy for performative practice reference PIE 17-172, University of Malaga Contact: Laura Triviño Cabrera, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Teatinos. CP. 29079-Málaga, Spain. E-mail: laura.triviñ[email protected] http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8597-4952

Alejandro Muñoz-Guerado and Laura Triviño-Cabrera have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

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