So, BW apologized for throwaway transgender stuff. Can we make them reconsider "gender pronouns" par

For some,Bioware having an agenda is a big deal because it's poisoning the integrity of the original concept,it wouldn't be so bad if agenda driven subject matter was actually written or presented in a mature way,instead it's just crowbarred into established lore and implemented in a child like manner.

What I dislike about this is not so much the political dimension but again, this ridiculous attempt to paint the universe in terms, this time not just of humanity, but of a specific human culture. And a persistent inability or unwillingness to think things through.

Does the asari language even have gendered pronouns? The asari certainly would have words for the different roles they can play in reproduction, but since they have no sexual dimorphism and any asari can take up any of the two roles in reproduction, there would not have been a reason for their language to have developed gendered pronouns. That would mean that all pronouns from another language would be translated into the same pronoun in the asari language. Poof, problem solved. What pronoun do I use in the angaran language so that the translator microbes get it right? It doesn't matter. And for anyone who spends about ten seconds of thought about this, rather than thinking about "how can I extend this problem from my very special human culture to aliens?", this would be patently obvious.

Likewise, if asari learn languages with gendered pronouns they would most likely not care about which one is used with regard to themselves, but etiquette among non-asari cultures with gendered pronouns would likely treat them as female, since non-asari can't play the female role in mixed-species reproduction, so to them asari would be exclusively female. 

Not sure if this was intended seriously, but just in case:

(1) The MEU lore does not present such a species. It would have to be one that goes about reproduction in a similar way to the asari, which is parasitical (the non-asari partners don't get the benefit of having their genes reproduced).

(2) The point I was making is that pre-spaceflight asari would have mated exclusively among themselves and that would've shaped their language. There wasn't a second intelligent species on Thessia, and I assume that the asari wouldn't have engaged in what would amount to bestiality by our standards. But hey, if Bioware tells us they actually did that in order to justify gendered pronouns, who am I to deny them. They are an alien species after all and don't have to respect human sensibilities. The asari, I mean, not Bioware. Uh...this raises questions.
  

Just had the "pronoun dialogue", pretty bad, yes. But it's only average in the context of the game.

What....you mean the asari *aren't* creepy space monsters that want to breed with you? We don't even know how they truly look, since they're deceiving us all with their mind control. Recall that they look like an attractive female of your species to any individual of whichever species...
(Not completely serious, but I did question how they manage that as early as 2008 and came up with the infamous "asari mind control" hypothesis, which ME2 then made fun of in that scene in the bar).

Otherwise, I agree with you.


With this as well.

J'accuse!

No fair, I was first!

What are SJW points? How do i earn them, and where can i use them? 

I have no idea how to get them because I am a heterosexual white male and therefore part of the problem, but I think you can use them for free stuff at places like Trader Joe's

I'm not sure where this ever came from. Some assumption that other species would not be interested in mating with asari unless they looked like members of their own species? That sounds pretty anthropomorphic to me. That they dance in clubs might lend some weight to that, but I guess I've never assumed that every other species find their performances sexually stimulating. Consider this: the tradition of asari dancers may have started before they ever left Thessia. Salarians are the first other species they ever encountered, and salarians aren't generally known for their libido.

What I find more plausible as the reason other species are attracted to them is the notion that asari can link with the nervous system of a partner. The whole embrace eternity thing is an experience no other species can offer. Consider, too, the variety of services offered by ME1's consort. Physical sex was part of it, but only part of it.  If you really watch and listen to ME2's bachelor party bar scene, it's pretty apparent that it's a beer goggles joke.  They even talk about the dancer's physical features, and they aren't seeing her as anything but the asari as we see them.



Wrt language developing for communication within a culture - don't you suppose they've always had terms specific to the "father" or non-birth parent of their children? Whether Thessia had other species that reproduce sexually is unknown - but the asari have known other species that do reproduce sexually, and have had ample time to evolve their language to include them.

But there have always been things about the asari that are... unfortunate (to say the least), and among them are the terminology around them, including descriptions of their life stages:
- Maiden implies virginity
- Matron implies marriage and serving as an overseer
- Matriarch implies motherhood

I've always found it somewhat unfortunate that they were initially described as mono-gendered rather than mono-sexed, because gender has implications that go beyond the sex binary.

Yeah, unfortunately in the time of ME1 release "gender is a social construct" wasn't a thing.