Gender

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Split From: The Geektionary

Gender

Here, it refers to biological sex, or, that failing, “gender alignment”. NGE involves various entities of a somewhat “alien” nature — Evas, Sources of Life, Angels — and, despite the fact that the show identifies them all as “human” (a vague term in NGE if ever there was one), we don't get “empirical proof” that any of them are male or female. Well, the available evidence is often enough to convince some of us, but there are those fans who either don't want to commit or simply deny that these entities possess gender in the first place. (You know, ‘sex isn't the sort of thing that transcendent entities are supposed to have’, and so on and so forth. For my part, I disagree heavily with this logic, but that's just me.) Since this is, well, my project, I need to enforce a policy for referring to Evas and Company (in the FGC scripts and such) that reduces the in-Commentary dissonance. Any commentators who resent me for this can voice their opinions in the appropriate appendices. However, said appendices pending, I'll provide a rundown of the reasons for my choices right here:

Evas

Personally, I think they're biologically female (for reasons that aren't altogether substanceless, IMO), but, even if they're not, the show AMPLY demonstrates that they are, at the very least, “feminine”. Aside from societal stereotypes about what female humanoids “should” look (etc.) like, there is absolutely nothing masculine about the Evas. For this reason, in the non-dialogue parts of the scripts, along with our comments, I enforce the employment of “she/her”. Character dialogue is another story, of course, considering the Evas are almost universally regarded by the cast as mere “things” — and the characters who know better would, in most situations, have to maintain this myth. Since Japanese treats pronouns in an entirely different manner than English, the original dialogue is a poor indication of how this treatment might go were they speaking English. Ergo, I will be using my judgment later when it seems appropriate that a character might break the convention and call an Eva “she” — for example, Ritsuko at the end of #19, Rei … whenever, and Kaworu in general.

Adam

A controversial item if ever there was one. The name, obviously, motivates most people to assume “he”. However, the show tells us otherwise. In episode #24, when Kaworu is approaching Lilith under the assumption (or pretense thereof) that she is Adam, he says, “Adam, the entity that is our mother”. NOT “father” (masculine). NOT “creator” or “progenitor” (neutral). “Mother” (feminine). This flat-out tells us that, in English, “she” is the way to go. The logic behind this seems so elementary that the resistence the concept meets is perplexing: Many just can't get past the name* (“Adam” was, of course, taken from the first human of Judæo-Christian tradition — a man) or the fact that Adam's soul ends up in a male body (Kaworu). For whatever reason, debates wherein the line in #24 is cited tend to lead to drawn-out arguments about why we SHOULDN'T refer to Adam (and the Evas, and Lilith) as feminine, as opposed to why we SHOULD. In spite of everything, I'm putting my foot down and making Adam “feminine by default”. (Vice Commander Dr. Nick backs me up on this.)

• For those who have a problem with this, it should be noted that this is not an isolated occurrence of gender-bending in NGE. The three super-computers that Naoko Akagi created each contain a certain aspect of her personality: As a scientist, a mother, and a woman. Guess what, folks? The MAGI — Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar — are named after three wise men.

Lilith

The name, of course, leads most people to automatically call Lilith “she”, which I have absolutely no problem with. Those looking for a better reason need look no further than the trail of blood oozing from Lilith: Once she has legs again, it becomes grotesquely obvious just where that blood is coming from. (Granted, the exact “source of the river” is not drawn, but those attempting to use this as evidence against Lilith's female-ness better account for the fact that Rei and Kaworu aren't depicted with genitalia, either. ::P) It is also possible that there is another bit of evidence that demonstrates the point (again, in the most disturbing manner possible) — but I'll eventually elaborate in a more appropriate place.

Angels

This really is a tough call. If Adam is taken to be a female, one would think that her offspring would, as a matter of basic biology, be the same sex. (Well, putting aside the possibility that Adam was prepackaged with a bunch of syringes containing “baby batter”… which — if one is on the “Angels created before 2I” bandwagon — explains their genesis rather nicely, come to think of it…) However, lacking any data whatsoever on how Adam produced the Angels, we'll never know what, if anything, the Angels are. Still, following the precedent Yoshitoh Asari set in Angel Kiss, and drawing from a silly forum thread I created a while back (“If you had to categorize the individual angels as being either male or female, which would each be and why?”), Angelic genders will be assigned for the sheer hell of it. (Oftentimes, these are based on “classical” male/female associations; you can get a general briefer here.) Unlike the SoLs and the Evas, I really am not terribly serious about any of these “designations”, and anyone citing the FGC “scripts” is welcome to substitute any Angel-related pronouns with “ve/vis/ver” (but not “it”!) so long as everything else is untouched, heh. So, without further ado, here are the “FGC (Un)Official Angel Gender Designations” and the “reasons” (or lack thereof) for them…

Angel	M/F?	Why?
Sachiel	♂	Because Yoshitoh Asari made it so. Also, Sachiel just seems kind of like, well, a guy. We get to know his personality better than most Angels, and that's precisely the impression he leaves.
Shamshel	♀	Again, because Yoshitoh Asari made it so. Also, Shammy's design includes two heart ♥ shapes, and, as we ALL know, ♥ is derived from the shape of the female buttocks (well, if anthropologist Desmond Morris is to be believed, anyway). And if you (like many, many others) can't get past the phallic body, consider the words of the great Mister Data: “There once was a lady from Venus, whose body was shaped like a…” Shamshel is actually the Angel of the Day, and Day is associated with the male principle, but Asari's deranged mind obviously overrides this. ^_^
Ramiel	♀	Okay, most people see Rami, and they think, “Drill = male”. But, aha!, if you think long things that go into other things are solely the territory of males, I recommend investigating the various arthropod females that plunge their (sometimes quite lengthy) ovipositors into the ground (or flowers, or your living flesh!!!) to lay their eggs. Hence, while we could give the “penetration” of another body the benefit of being phallic*, and thus masculine, the “penetration” of the Earth** — what Ramiel does — could be considered feminine. More to the point, Ramiel ends up ♀ primarily because of the weird “singing” she's doing when she shows up… Sure, some guys sing in that range, but they're in the minority. ;;> …putting aside the fact that ovipositors are often used for piercing/stinging purposes. …also putting aside the fact that the Earth is associated with the female principle, ergo “penetrating” it would be… yeah. Well, at least we have something to cancel out the observation in the first footnote. ^_^
Gaghiel	♂	Gaghiel is named for the Angel of Fish, and, while fish are often associated with women :coughs politely:, woman's intuition tells me that Gaghiel is male. No particularly sound reason for it, but I don't think anyone would object.
Israfel	♀ ♂	The Yin-Yang symbol present in vis singular form clearly implies “both”. When split, the gold one (Kou, or “Target A”) is male, the silver (Otsu, “Target B”) is female. According to certain traditions, such as those of Eastern-based religions, alchemy, and “new age” practices like witchcraft and astrology, Yin is associated with the female principle, the Moon, and silver, and Yang is associated with the male principle, the Sun, and gold.
Sandalphon	♂	I don't think anyone was particularly committal on this one. Sandy mostly ended up being male just to balance things out a little. I suppose if we really wanted to, we could associate volcanoes (Sandy was born in one, after all) with masculinity (you know… the eruption of a warm liquid…). There's also the Greek god Hephaestus, from whose Roman name, Vulcan, the word “volcano” was ultimately derived.
Matarael	♂	I honestly don't feel especially committal either way. Matarael does seem kind of ditzy/wussy… I mean, the only weapon we get to see are acid tears. And ve gets so preoccupied crying vis way through Tokyo-3 that ve is caught with vis A.T. Field down when the rain of bullets flies up from below. (Hah hah! Loser!) ANFer Kaworu_Asuka, who vouched for “female”, said, “(Matarael)'s the angel of rain and there's an old belief that rain is a sign of fertility”. However, the rain-fertility connection is pretty unisex, if the deities of cultures across the world are any indication. I say Matarael should be male, if for no other reason than to (as with Sandalphon) balance out the roster a little.
Sahaquiel	♀	My initial thoughts were, “I get a vague sense of ‘ditziness’ from Sahaquiel… It decided to fling itself down towards Earth when it could have accomplished the exact same thing in a far less ‘suicidal’ manner. (Sort of like how the harpies could have circled overhead until Kyoko's juice ran out, but, well…) Though does “ditzy” necessarily equate to ‘feminine’?” Dr. Nick added, “I'd say Sahaquiel is a female, like a really huge and weird-looking granny or something. ‘Tokyo-3, give me a biiiig hug!’ And its coloring would be kind of gay for a male angel, too.”
Ireul	♀	Dr. Nick: “If I had to form an opinion about Ireul, I'd say it was a female: A) It attacked in a very intelligent way, and B), it was very possessive. You can see it as a battle of wills, Angel vs. Geek-Queen Naoko's personality (and Ritsuko's typing skills). It's also worth pointing out that some of the greatest real-life computer geeks are women, but since I don't remember any actual names, just think of Angelina Jolie in the movie ‘Hackers’. I mean, how 1337 was that?” Hell, better than anything I could ever come up with!
Leliel	♀	Named after the Angel of Night — and Conception. Firstly, Night is associated with the female principle. As far as “Conception” goes, the symbolism is pretty loose, but it's there: Leliel takes EVA-01 into herself (and a lot of other things, for that matter…), and, later, Yui-sama bursts from the black womb in a bloody reenactment of birth (apparently doing her best impersonation of a Chestburster Alien). Also, if it's at all relevant, the English title of Leliel's episode is called “The Splitting of the Breast”. Need any more be said?
Bardiel	♂	Uh... male with transgender issues? EVA-03 is essentially “raped”; “rape” is even flashed on the screen multiple times during EVA-03's “introduction” in DEATH. Yeah, Kyoko-sama and Asuka are “mind-raped” by Arael, and EVA-00 is “raped” by Armisael, and those two still come out as “female” — but the white (well… actually purplish-grey, but who's checking?), invasive ooze associated with Bardi seals the deal for me… :shudder:
Zeruel	♂	The guy oozes machismo. Is any explanation really needed?
Arael	♀	I always just sorta thought Arael seemed female, although Starmorpher/Lord Kuroishi (@ANF) gave what I felt was an appropriate reason: “It seemed like she had an interest in people's thoughts and emotions” — and I suppose that sort of thing is more heavily associated with wimmin.
Armisael	♀	Well, who ever said chicks couldn't be tentacle rapists? Armisael was named after the Angel of the Womb, and, hopefully, the umbilical cord and pregnancy symbolism she provides EVA-00 don't completely go over people's heads… If that isn't enough for you, consider the fact that she associates herself with Rei and proceeds to deliver plenty of creepy Hayashibara giggling/shrieking.
Tabris	♂	Tabris is just Adam's soul in a human body, so he really doesn't qualify as an “Angel” by the definition we're employing here… But obviously a guy, even though, like many other men, he's a woman, deep down. (kekekekeke)