Second Sphere

Good morning, everybody.

As I was motivated by a renewal of this controversy in a recent IA by my friend Wargamer, I decided to write a post outlining the methodology and justification behind why I've concluded female Astartes are, in fact, justifiable by the fluff. The line of reasoning I'm going to lay out here is something that I haven't seen in this thread, the Librarium debate essays, or in any other discussion of female Astartes that I've seen on this site, so hopefully this means I have an opportunity to contribute something new and meaningful to the discussion. I will warn you in advance that I'm about to throw a text wall at you, but I've tried to break it up and keep it as readable as I can.

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Introduction:

Quote from: 'Gree' post='3059626' date='May 12 2012, 01:45 PM'

"These considerations mean that only a small proportion of people can become Space Marines. They must be male because zygotes are keyed to male hormones and tissue types, hence the need for tissue compatibility tests and psychological screening. If these tests prove successful, a candidate becomes a neophyte. With the completion of organ implantation and attendant chemical and hypnotic training, the subject becomes an initiate. An initiate receives training before joining the ranks as a full brother. A Marine usually joins the ranks between the ages of 16-18, but such are the hormonal changes induced by the process of creating a Space Marine that recruits are physically fully grown before then. Pressures during wartime may accelerate the process. " -Index Astartes I

This here should be eminently recognizable to those of us who follow the debate. It is the critical quote from Index Astartes I, the White Dwarf article outlining the process of creating a Space Marine. I thank Gree for providing it so that I didn't have to.

There are (in my opinion fairly convincing) arguments that can be made against this fluff being taken as ironclad or still relevant. However, I will actually be ignoring them today. I am going to address this piece of fluff and the ways beyond it, through it, alongside it and around it that my friend Wargamer and I reasoned out together, that justify the existence and possibility of Female Astartes. I am also going to try to do so in a candid, levelheaded, and non-inflammatory fashion, as this debate has far too often been tainted with ad hominem insults and charged emotions by both sides.

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The basic assumptions of the analysis are as follows:

-If true and accurate, the excerpt in question is enumerating the process as it was initially designed and intended. Most things can be put to uses different than those they were designed and intended for, albeit with varying degrees of success. It's up to us here to figure out how and to what degree this process could be used beyond its intent.

-Geneseed carries within it genes from the Primarch from whom it was derived; fully or in part, a Space Marine has these genetic elements added to their genome during the process of becoming a Space Marine. (This will become very important later on in the post.)


The Arch-Objection:

The root of much of the opposition's conviction and the and strongest single piece of evidence against Female Space Marines is this particular line of the IA quote Gree provides us:

"They must be male, because zygotes are keyed to male hormones and tissue types:"

If you have taken a human physiology class, you will understand why this statement is largely scientific nonsense. However, I am going to proceed anyways under the assumption that it is as true as is reasonably possible within the knowledge of scientific fact. This generates the following conditions:

*Space Marine implants are designed to respond to or function within very specific conditions, closely associated with those present in a pubescent/prepubescent male body. Namely, this would mean amongst other things certain concentrations of Androgens (Hormones promoting development of masculine characteristics, including the well-known testosterone.)

*Space Marine implants are designed to respond to or function in the presence of chemical markers and tissue types that have developed a composition consistent with masculine development.

*Additional possible interpretation: Space Marine implants require the presence of a Y-chromosome to function.

To address these:
* Male and female "tissue types" actually derive from exactly the same cellular origins and frequently even have similar to identical names, structures, and functions. The male and female genitalia both come from the exact same piece of tissue on an embryo, which simply forms itself into one of the two depending on what developmental signals it recieves. Where they differ is really not in the tissues (the building blocks, if you will) but the structures they develop into (The architecture.) To turn it into an analogy, you can have a Gothic cathedral and a Medieval castle, and sure they look distinctly different, but they're both made out of stone, and it would be possible to use the stones from a cathedral to build a castle, or vice versa.

*Furthermore, that piece of embryonic tissue is actually proto-female; it either continues developing into female sexual organs by default, or develops into male sexual organs only if suitable developmental signal chemicals from the Y-chromosome intervene. By this measure, the conversion of a female into the required male is something that already happens 50% of the time in nature.

* Men and women both produce androgens as well as estrogens (hormones promoting female characteristics.) These are the deciding factor in the way the body develops at puberty, with the normal state of things being that one set of hormones will be produced in massive quantities, the other in minimal. The normal state of affairs is, of course, a male body being flooded with androgens and a female body being flooded with estrogens, and production of the other set is there but minimal.

* This is why for athletes who abuse steroids (many of which are androgenic compounds), the secondary side effects are developing body characteristics normally associated only with the other gender. Women bulk out, then begin to suffer side effects like growing facial and body hair, deeper voices, rendering themselves sterile through overexposure to a conflicting set of hormones, etcetera. Men initially bulk out massively, then the flood of artificial androgens burns out their body's ability to produce adequate androgens naturally. This causes a proportional jump in estrogens, and so men who've abused steroids eventually lose most of their muscle mass, begin developing breasts, higher voices, render themselves sterile through overexposure to conflicting hormones, etcetera.

*Were the flood of artificial hormones to be introduced at around puberty, the effects would be even more dramatically pronounced, and if properly maintained, the end results would be even more indistinguishable from the other gender. This is actually the basis of a lot of gender-reassignment therapy for transgendered people, and if you don't believe me, believe your eyes: The following two people are genetically male, and genetically female, respectively. (No, I didn't get those links mixed up, trust me.)

*Human growth hormone, the other factor kicking in at puberty that causes massive growth and muscular development (and considering a Marine's stature, presumably a large part of why it's so important the process start when aspirants are around the age of puberty) is completely gender-neutral in operation. The statistical height and bulk differences between male and females come from the fact that the unmodified male body generally produces significantly more of it than the unmodified female body, another hormonal difference that is easily accommodated for.

*As a minor sidenote, since the notable differences between genders come largely due to the flood of androgens or estrogens at puberty, before puberty male and female humans are considerably more similar to each other than after. If the process is keyed to the body conditions of a young/preadolescent male, which is what the crucial recruitment age makes it seem to be, there is even less chemical and developmental difference between the genders to compensate for.

So what does this all mean?:
In terms of the chemical and biological analysis that are what would matter for Space Marine-style biological manipulation, "maleness" and "femaleness" of a body is primarily determined by the proportion and presence of various hormones, particularly during the key development stage of puberty (Which is when Marines are normally created). It is known scientific fact that these hormone ratios can be artificially manipulated to swing the development one way or another.

To we regular humans in the modern day, abusing steroid hormones is generally considered a Bad Thing because it tends to make you sterile and plays havoc with your body's signals on how much to express the characteristics associated with each gender. Space Marines are known to be sterile anyways, however, and in this case playing havoc with the signals that determine external gender characteristics is the entire point. It is also known that hormone therapy and manipulation is already used on male aspirants. Therefore, employing suitable hormone manipulation on a female aspirant would be a relatively straightforward adaptation of the process. The end result of this process would be a technically-female aspirant who has a majority appearance, development, and biochemical register of a male person, thus enabling compatibility with the geneseed.

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The possible sticking point of the Y-chromosome:
It is both possible and plausible to interpret the Index Astartes quote as meaning that, amongst other things, an aspirant must have a Y chromosome, and that the implants must somehow detect and interact with this Y chromosome in order to be activated. This adds more hurdles to the making of a female space marine, and reinforces Wargamer's assesment that his Adepta Astartes would have far lower implant success rates even than male marines.

Even this doesn't make it impossible, though.

To address this:
The way past this requires known elements from a number of sources:

*The geneseed/the process of making a Space Marine is seen, over and over again, to reshape a Space Marine to more strongly resemble his primarch. Russ' sons grow shaggy, fanged, and feral like he was; Corax and Vulkan's descendants share their unusual pigmentation; The Luna Wolves have multiple notable examples of marines who bore extraordinarily close resemblance to Horus; Alpharius' entire legion looked exactly like him; Blood Angels frequently bear an exceptionally strong resemblance to Sanguinius; and the list goes on and on. Considering that the process of becoming a space marine is frequently described as both "genetic and surgical" but the IA1 mostly only describes surgical elements of organ implantation, the only reasonable explanation for this is that a Space Marine retroactively has a portion of the Primarch's genome spliced into his own, causing him to develop and express these characteristic traits. This is consistent with modern-day understanding of gene therapy and its results.

*It is well known that organ acceptance or rejection is an important factor determining whether a space marine aspirant succeeds, or fails (and likely dies.) In real life, organ rejection is known to be a factor of whether or not the donor's genes are close enough to the recipients' in order for the recipient's body not to attack it as foreign. Thus, it is a reasonable guess that successful marines were a closer genetic match to begin with. It is also rather likely however, considering how incredibly genetically diverse a population most Chapters recruit from, that some of the gene therapy involves adding enough of the Primarch's genome that the implants are much more likely to be accepted, and that this tampering is simply more successful for some aspirants than others.

*Given this genetic manipulation technology, which we're already beginning to see proven in real life, it would require some additional effort and trial-and-error, but actually be relatively straightforward to make part of this gene-therapy include transferring the Y-chromosome of the Primarch in question, as stored in their geneseed, to the female aspirant. For the purposes of genetic manipulation techniques, a Y-chromosome is no different from any other subset of genetic code in this regard.

*The result of this would be an "XXY" "female" capable of receiving the implants. In humans, XXY individuals sometimes even occur naturally; it results in individuals who have what is termed "Klinefelter's Syndrome." These individuals are technically genetically male, due to possessing a y chromosome, but the multiple X chromosomes cause them to develop significant feminine attributes and appearances; many eventually become transwomen.

*So, the end result is that a female aspirant has in effect been masculinized and turned into a Kleinfelter's "male," enabling them to successfully receive space marine implants. Due to the additional complications, the process is accordingly and reasonably less often successful and fails more spectacularly than with male aspirants, but in the final analysis it is still possible with reasonable, but not prohibitive, additional effort and difficulty.

*There is even another possibility; It is also possible for an individual to have the normal, male set of XY chromosomes, but develop as female due to other factors impairing the expression of the Y chromosome. Though such individuals are not common, this still means that a completely unmodified, developmentally female aspirant with a female identity could already possess the required Y-chromosome.

The difficulties with Altering Geneseed: Another complication that is often brought up by opponents to the idea of female space marines is that several of the suggested methods to make them work would involve altering the geneseed directly so that it would work in women. The difficulties they point out are:

*Near-religious considerations of custom and tradition making the Imperium as a whole reluctant to mess with geneseed, if not considering it outright heresy.
*The utter lack of knowledge and skill even SM Apothecaries have on the matter, compared to the scientific genius of the Emperor who created geneseed. Evidence from fluff attempts to modify geneseed show that at best, the Imperium's greatest minds stumble half-blind in the dark here.

Thankfully for my case, the justification I've been outlining sidesteps both problems. It focuses on making the female aspirant compatible with the geneseed, not making the geneseed compatible with the aspirant, and so involves no tampering with the function or genetic code of the geneseed.

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Conclusion:
In summary, between known fluff extrapolated (inclusively) with real science, and even including the information stated from Index Astartes 1, female space marines are possible; not so much more difficult to make that they would never happen; but also less likely to work out, as they are being altered to better suit a process not designed for them; and significantly more difficult enough that they would still be suitably uncommon in the 40k universe.

It is debatable whether the appearance or physiology of these female marines would be much recognizable as female, if at all. However, it is equally debatable whether regular space marines are truly male, or even human, anymore. Despite this, conventional marines continue to mentally identify and be identified as male, and so it is reasonable to assume that the "female" marines in question would continue to think of themselves as female.

So: To those who want female Astartes in 40k, this method offers one possible justification. To those who don't want female astartes in 40k, this solution still has something to offer for them, as it suggests that making female space marines this way would be difficult enough to preclude them from becoming more than a rarity. That rarity would be enough to ensure that if you find them bothersome, female space marines never crop up in "your" corner of the Imperium.


-Fin.-