SEX!
Musings on TF Sexuality and Gender
Much seems to have been said and written on this
issue, but dammit,
I can't resist giving my own two cent's worth. So, here it is:
I think they do.
Of course, the self-contradictory and confusing canon (or, more
precisely, canons)
of the TF universe leaves the issue in some doubt, but let's consider
the evidence.
For the convenience of you, the reader, I've broken the question
down
into a number of bite-sized sub-questions:
Do TF's have sexual orientation?
If they do have sex, then HOW do they do it?
Well, in order to answer that question, let's start with another: what defines sexuality? That, of course, is a highly personal - and subjective - question. No two people experience sexuality in quite the same way, making it hard to agree on a definition. Webster isn't much help here either, defining the word "sexual" as follows: "of or involving sex, the sexes, the sex organs, etc." Pffft! Worse than useless, at least for these purposes.
It seems that the best I can do is to give a rough definition of what it means to me, and proceed on that basis. Your definition may be different: your conclusions may be different too. Here goes:
I think that sexuality is...
Well, pleasurable, for one thing. Satisfying, rewarding, even thrilling. I think it's physical: it is experienced through the body, the senses... But it's spiritual, too. It touches the core of our identity, the nature of our relationship with ourselves and with others. It can be an exchange with a partner, though it doesn't have to be: we can also have sex all by ourselves (but perhaps that's still an exchange - with oneself!) And of course, it's an emotional experience: a way of experiencing and expressing an emotional bond.
So, if we proceed from the basis of this defintion, the question becomes whether or not TFs appear to share the qualities that would make them capable of experiencing what we call sexuality. To answer this question, I will turn to TF canon as presented in the TV series for evidence.
a). TFs have been portrayed as having long-term romantic attachments, as seen in the one episode in which a group of male Autobots were reunited with their long-lost "girlfriends." Optimus Prime's long term involvement with Elita One is discussed, and their mutual devotion and love for one another is unmistakable.
b). TF's are spiritual beings. Yes, I said spiritual, meaning that they have what we would call souls: an aspect of the being which can exist independently of the body, and which survives physical death. Ironically it was Starscream, that most delightfully iconoclastic of Decepticons, who proved this by returning from the dead and proceeding to possess the bodies of his former comrades.
c). TFs are emotional beings. They have been shown to experience love, hate, fear, anger, joy, and all the other "standard" emotions. They form emotional bonds with each other. (See point "a.")
d). TFs experience pain. What does pain have to do with sex? Well, that depends on who you ask...! But I would suggest that physical pain is the inverse of physical pleasure. And, if TFs experience the one, it seems logical to me that they experience the other as well.
Where am I going with all this?
Well, if sexuality is a pleasurable spiritual, emotional and/or physical exchange between individuals who share an emotional bond, then it would seem to me that TFs are indeed sexual beings. They have all the requisite capacities, including the ability to form romantic attachments. Notice that I haven't said anything here about gender, genitalia, or reproduction. Nor have I mentioned specific procedures by which TFs might express sexuality. I believe that all of these are actually separate issues, though I will address each of them.
Gender is the point raised most frequently by those who object to the idea of TFs as sexual beings. It has been argued, in the American TF comic letters page and elsewhere, that Transformers "can't" be sexual beings because they don't have "gender."
The editorial staff of the comic actually went so far as to suggest that certain TF's are referred to as "he" or "she" out of social convention rather than because of actual gender differences. The implicit assumption that one must have this "gender" thing in order to be a sexual being went totally unquestioned, as did the potentially rather interesting question of where such "social conventions" might have come from in the first place. And, of course, the editors made no attempt to answer the question of what gender actually *is.* (OK, maybe I'm expecting a lot from a bunch of comic book writers, but I also think that all writers owe it to themselves to at least *think* about these things...)
So, what IS gender, anyway?
I will argue that it is basically a collection of social conventions that define or reinforce the categories of "male" and "female."
A large component of what we call "gender" is purely cultural, having absolutely nothing to do with genitalia or reproduction. We interpret the gender of others by their name, speech, dress, mannerisms, and the titles and pronouns that are applied to them by others. Usually when meeting others, we are unaware of what sort of genitalia they have, of their reproductive potential, or their sexual preferences. We interpret others as "male" or "female" based on gender-coded culltural cues. Although we sometimes behave as if the cues themselves are inherently masculine or feminine, there is nothing essentially "female" about the colour pink, or anything inherently "male" about the suppression of emotions.
What is more, gender-coded cues change with time and vary from one culture to another. In some societies, it is quite acceptable for men to hug each other and cry, whereas in the dominant North American culture, this type of behaviour is still generally viewed as gender-inappropriate. Think about it: is there any innate biological reason why women wear lipstick and men don't? Of course not. It's just the custom in present-day, Western cultures: there have been historical periods in which Western men used cosmetics far more liberally than women of this culture do today. (Think Louis XIV.)
Furthermore, gender in humans exists independently of reproduction or reproductive potential. A man who has undergone a vasectomy is nevertheless referred to as "he," and is considered no less "male." Likewise, a woman who cannot have children for whatever reason is nevertheless still very much "female" in the eyes of society. Human gender is also independent of sexual activity or function. A human being who chooses to be celibate does not lose his or her "gender."
In summary, then, the thing that humans call gender is, by its very nature, based on social convention: it has very little to do with our biology. (I would argue that it has a lot more to do with our politics, economy, and other aspects of our culture.)
By the very argument raised by the comic editors to prove that TF's are not gendered, I would say that they actually are.They certainly have a gendered culture: they appear to see themselves as male and female, they address each other as such, and they also have gender-based social customs such as colour coded paint jobs (pretty pastels for the "girls").
If TFs are sexual, gendered
beings,
does that imply that they reproduce sexually?
On to the issue of reproduction. Do TF's reproduce sexually? Probably not, though anything's possible. Several methods of TF reproduction have been seen in the context of canon, though none of them involved pregnant fembots - thank god. That doesn't really rule anything out, of course, but for the sake of argument, let us assume that TF reproduction is *asexual.*
Now, I can almost hear people saying, "A-ha! Here's where her whole argument folds up like a cheap piece of armour plating." Not so, my friends: because that would be confusing sexuality with reproduction. Confusing the two, you say? Yes - absolutely: a common mistake in our heterosexist society. Our culture seems to be governed by the puritanical notion that sex is a necessary evil, excusable only because it happens to ensure the continuation of our species.
Because of this attitude, non-procreative sexuality is problematized. Infertility becomes "tragic," homosexuality is seen as "wrong" or "sinful," childless marriages are regarded as being somehow incomplete, and so on. Nevertheless, we humans persist in engaging in all kinds of non-procreative sexual behaviour, and we do it all the time. This is by no means limited to the so-called "fringes" of our society: card-carrying heteros involved in long term, monogamous, church-sanctioned marriages do exactly the same thing. (It's called "having a sex life.")
To me, this suggests two things. First, non-reproductive sex is natural and normal for human beings. And secondly, it suggests that our sexuality means a lot more to us than just being a convenient way of making more humans. It implies that sex has emotional, spiritual and physical dimensions that go far beyond reproduction. So, yes: I think that TFs have a sexuality, but I don't think that it's related to their reproductive processes: I believe that for TFs, the two things are wholly unrelated. I do think that TFs have "gender," but I doubt that this has anything to do with reproduction either.
Do TFs have sexual orientation?
Is sexuality linked to gender for TFs? This is more difficult to determine. The relationships portrayed on the show were hetereosexual pairings: Optimus with Elita, Ironhide with Chromia, Springer's possible involvement with Arcee, and so on. There has never been an explicitly romantic relationship shown between two males or two females (though endless fun can be had by reading between the lines - like fer instance, why *was* Starscream so darn concerned about Skyfire...?) ::Ahem!::
Anyway, the absence of same-sex relationships on the show *could* be taken to mean that they don't exist. This is possible, of course, but it doesn't seem very likely considering that we humans, who reproduce sexually, are not an exclusively heterosexual species. A race that does not use sexuality for reproduction would seemingly have even less reason to limit itself in this way. Alternatively, the preponderance of heterosexual relationships on the show could be seen as an indication that Transformers, like us, experience the phenomenon of sexual "orientation" (erotic preference based on gender), and that opposite-sex attraction is simply the more common preference.
Of course, there is always the obvious explanation: that same-gender sexuality is not shown because this is an American animated television series aimed at children (with "children" being loosely defined, of course, since some of us are in our thirties!). Our own social conventions dictate that children's entertainment must uphold and reinforce heterosexist values, so if same-sex relationships do exist between TFs (and I think that they do), they are simply never shown. Being a hardened cynic, I find that this latter explanation is the one that rings most true for me.
So - if TF's *do* have sex, how do they do it?
Having argued that TFs are sexual beings, and having addressed gender and reproduction as they relate (or perhaps do not relate) to TF sexuality, it may be appropriate to quickly, er, touch on... the subject of *how* TFs express their sexuality. Predictably - and perhaps understandably - the canon leaves this matter entirely to the reader or viewer's imagination. Fanfic writers have come up with all kinds of interesting ways for TFs to "get it on," including mental/spiritual interface, touch-sensitive "erogenous" body panels (one of my ideas), and even the use of physical components directly analagous to human genitalia.
I would suggest that any or all of these methods could be in use. None are really too far-fetched, considering that Transformers have come into contact with various species (including humans), and that they have the unique potential to self-customize. This is quite apart from the seeming likelihood, in my mind, that Transformers and humans have crossed paths before, and perhaps even have a common point of origin or a common creator. (How else to explain why we look so much like them?) If sexuality is seen as having emotional, physical and spiritual dimensions, the possibilities for sexual expression are literally endless.