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Cayce

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Everything posted by Cayce

  1. Recently completed my Leviadon. I have some Ishlean Guard, an Akhelian King and a second Allopex left to do, but I’m taking a break to put paint some Eldar so I can play Crusade with my partner and son (all from the grey pile). Looking forward to June and the Deepkin Underworlds Warband, which coincide with my birthday! The Warbands include some great figures and I’m really excited to see what the Deepkin one is like.
  2. Leviadon is sort of finished. Not sure I’m going to get all the riders done in one week...
  3. Reavers finished! Now to start on the Leviadon.
  4. Hi there. I’m new to the painting contract. This month I pledge to finish my Namarti Reavers (which are already most of the way there) and paint the Leviadon.
  5. I wasn’t trying to divert. I was trying to engage positively with a post which misrepresented my argument, and avoid derailing the thread. To get back on track, I think the community can have a negative impact, but this only really becomes apparent in large gatherings (where being a woman surrounded by a sea of men can feel isolating), in online communities, where individuals hostile to increased representation are more likely to give voice to their opinions, or if you are unlucky enough to have a ‘toxic’ individual (or two) at your local store. GW are actively working to provide welcoming environments, and I have always felt at home at the local GW store. At the local independent I feel like an exotic creature. Not exactly unwelcome, just a novelty.
  6. OK. I didn’t suggest that males should never create female characters, and I think you know that. I’m also pretty sure you know that the portrayal (or lack of portrayal) of Black people, by White people, in arts and the media is often criticised on similar grounds? But, hey, I think you should write about whatever inspires you. I also think that GW is slowly increasing the ethnic diversity of their models, that this is good and should continue, and that more non-White staff would encourage this, and all for pretty much exactly the same reasons that apply to gender. Sorry, missed the Mod notice while typing. I will stop.
  7. More girls enjoying the hobby when young equals to more women aspiring to careers within the hobby. Women are more likely to question the level of female representation, so their inclusion in creative teams is likely to lead to more female models, regardless of whether it’s a male or female that eventually ends up sculpting them. Female creatives are also less likely to be limited by ideas regarding the ‘proper place’ of women.
  8. I’m well aware that the majority of existing customers are male, that’s why I referred to potential customers. Both son and daughter were interested in little figures after they saw mum and dad playing with them, but only my daughter was let down by army choice. We ended up switching from 40k to AoS because Slannesh was literally her only ‘mostly female’ option. (This was back before plastic Sisters). GW is almost certainly losing other young girls, potential customers who will be around long after the ‘old guard’ of male fans are gone. We all get old and die sometime. More female representation in figures means more female players, including ones who ask why aren’t there more females figures? And that will likely mean more female designers, painters, authors and sculptors, and then even more female representation in figures. In some way it’s a chicken and egg thing. The changes we have already seen are likely to lead to more changes, which will hopefully result in a greater diversity of models and creative new ideas. One of my personal favourites is the new inquisitor.
  9. Regarding representation I would say roughly 50/50 across the entire range, with individual armies having different mixes from all male to all female (including indeterminate). Why do I think that’s the proper level of representation? Because half the world (roughly) is female, which means half of GWs potential customers are female. I would also like to see all sort of different woman warriors. Scantily clad to heavily armoured. Human through to completely fantastic/alien.* It’s the choice that matters. Some women really like Daughters of Khaine, others feel that the scantily clad female warrior trope has been done to death, and some of them want an army of scantily clad male warriors to play with. In practical terms I know it is going to take a long time to get to that point, but I can see progress is being made and that makes me happy. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see more progress! Going back to the original topic, which was female leader/command models. Husband has now persuaded daughter to try 40k again on the sole basis of Commander Shadowsun. So yes, a single female leader can make all the difference. * I’ve always felt that Tyranids should be mostly female, as they are loosely, based on eusocial insects, or rather they are based on the Alien franchise, which was loosely based on eusocial insects. But every named Tyranid has male pronouns.
  10. I agree that orks (or orruks) are coded male, both in appearance and in the Battle Tome (or at least the 40k version) which consistently uses male pronouns and unit names... with many variants of Boyz. Also the the leaders are Nobz. Nob is British slang for the male genitals, hence the term nobhead. Gives a different perspective on the lore regarding the size of Nobz, with bigger being better (and makes me believe Beastmaster is absolutely correct when he says the original orks were based on British hooliganism). It also reflects the fact that GW historically made some immature decisions, some of which are likely to have alienated female customers, which they are slowly unravelling, but cannot simply ditch or fix without considerable cost (in terms of model lines) and the risk of alienating their existing customer base. It’s a delicate balancing act and I am glad to see them making progress.
  11. In my experience the lack of female representation does have an impact on people entering the hobby. My husband and I both had old 40k armies and a couple of years ago, in response to curiosity from our children, boy 7 and girl 12, we introduced them to the hobby. Boy was very happy with his dad’s old necrons, girl was not happy with my tyranids. She wanted an army of her own, and she wanted a female army... but the only option was Slaanesh, and in terms of Lore it’s not really the army I would have chosen for a 12 year old. Obviously Boy then wanted an army of his own, and obviously it had to be male... but that wasn’t an issue because he had a comparatively huge array of choices (he picked orks). Soon after plastic Sisters of Battle appeared, and although I don’t mind the Warrior Nun aesthetic the fact that the choice of female armies in 40k boils down into the old Madonna/Sex Worker trope is something I find problematic. As a family we ended up starting AoS because it’s much better in terms of gender representation than 40k. Girl has three predominately female armies to pick from, and is now happily playing Sylvaneth. Boy has Kharadon Overlords, Husband has Night Haunt and I have Idoneth. The Slaaneshi have been consigned to the bits box, for which I am heartily glad. AoS is definitely improving, but I do think they have room to improve further, and I would also love to see the improvements trickle through to 40k.
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