Is the PPD sexist?

[CursedSorcerer]

Why doesn't the Paragon Police seem to have any women in their ranks? For reference, here's the description of a standard PPD Cop.

 

"The Paragon Police Department is charged with the unending duty of keeping the streets of the city safe for its citizens. These brave men and women watch over Paragon City, dedicating their lives to make it a better place."

[PoitVok]

Yes.

 

One of many hypocrisies of heroes. #Arachnos

Edited May 13, 2020 by PoitVok

[Blastit]

The women all go for powersuit duty. Nobody knows why. It has baffled PPD statisticians for years now.

[Zepp]

They are designed to reflect real-world American police, so making them a sexist organization is par for the course...

[tidge]

Is there a Lore explanation of the heavy Kheldian presence in the PPD?

[MTeague]

Groups that hire exactly one sex:

• PPD
• Outcasts
• Tsoo
• Family
• Knives of Artemis 
• Council
• 5th Column
• probably lots more

[Snowdaze]

8 minutes ago, tidge said:

Is there a Lore explanation of the heavy Kheldian presence in the PPD?

They didn't want to repeat the sins of the past! #AlienNation

[Snowdaze]

7 minutes ago, MTeague said:

Groups that hire exactly one sex:

• PPD
• Outcasts
• Tsoo
• Family
• Knives of Artemis 
• Council
• 5th Column
• probably lots more

Tsoo have both genders

[MTeague]

Just now, Snowdaze said:

Tsoo have both genders

Hm. Well I've spent less time in Dark Astoria.  They only had males in the classic Steel Canyon, etc zones

[CursedSorcerer]

18 minutes ago, Zepp said:

They are designed to reflect real-world American police, so making them a sexist organization is par for the course...

Well, last time I checked there are actually female police officers in the real world.

[Blastit]

6 minutes ago, Snowdaze said:

Tsoo have both genders

Like snails.

[Coyotedancer]

You do run into regular, uniformed-type female PPD officers as hostages in missions occasionally (I remember seeing quite a few of them in the Hollows arcs-), so the models exist, but... yeah. The Psi division and the Awakened are all dudes.

 

Thinking about it, I don't remember seeing many gals in the RIP, either… 

 

There are a *lot* of factions that have that issue, though, when you think about it. Ever seen a female member of the Lost? A lady Goldbricker? Any would-be Amazons among the Warriors? There aren't even any female Outcasts. Legacy Chain sorceresses? Nope. None of those, either. Nemesis? Okay... Victorian biases being what they were, that clanky old crank and his army might get a pass. I can imagine him having a hard time "getting with the times" in that respect, but the Skyraiders? They don't get to use that excuse.

 

So... If we had a way to add mob models, I'd suggest at some point going through and giving all of those groups an update like the Skulls got late in the Live days. (Personally, I'd also like to see some Circle women who WEREN'T all low-ranked minions or succubi… Akarist specifically mentions that Oranbegans were ALL magicians, after all... There's no good reason why there shouldn't be lady mages and thorn casters. I'll admit that I'm pretty biased about that point, though. I have quite a few lady Circle mages as PCS. XD)

 

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Coyotedancer

[ShardWarrior]

21 minutes ago, Zepp said:

They are designed to reflect real-world American police, so making them a sexist organization is par for the course...

Not sure where you are from, but the fantastic police officers we have in my area have some excellent women officers, including our Chief of Police.  The State Trooper barracks not far from us have many women Troopers as well. 

[Snowdaze]

11 minutes ago, MTeague said:

Hm. Well I've spent less time in Dark Astoria.  They only had males in the classic Steel Canyon, etc zones

yes and no, Tsoo in Steel, IP, Talos are all male, and in DA there are both genders. However in Graham Easton's story arc in Steel there is some if not at least one female Tsoo.

[Greycat]

11 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

. (Personally, I'd also like to see some Circle women who WEREN'T all low-ranked minions or succubi… Akarist specifically mentions that Oranbegans were ALL magicians, after all... There's no good reason why there shouldn't be lady mages and thorn casters. I'll admit that I'm pretty biased about that point, though. I have quite a few lady Circle mages as PCS. XD)

Can  you tell with those robes? (Some of the models *are* a bit more petit - and several of the ... er... non voluntary volunteers you can save are women, so....)

[Coyotedancer]

25 minutes ago, Greycat said:

Can  you tell with those robes? (Some of the models *are* a bit more petit - and several of the ... er... non voluntary volunteers you can save are women, so....)

Yeah. You kind-of can, actually... The current re-designed, armored outfits don't really leave any room for ambiguity. And any of those hostage women we DON'T manage to rescue apparently go on to become... minions. 'Talking about "glass ceilings"... Sheesh. <_<

 

Having spent a fairly ridiculous amount of time looking at those models (My own Oranbegans all tend to have at least one costume that's based on the canon mage or caster type they're supposed to be, so I end up doing a lot of checking to get colors and costume pieces as close as I can-), the mages and casters are all pretty obviously male. Even gals with naturally not-curvey body types who absolutely live in the gym don't have that kind of shape and build. 

 

That said, I DO have a sort-of "head canon" way around the all-magi-are-dudes thing... Those bodies the Oranbegans are cruising around in aren't their own. They're all camping out in someone else's corpus. Given that? Maybe not all of those "mage dudes" are actually men. Sure… the BODY may be male... But the ghost driving it? Who knows. If magically-inclined male bodies are just easier to come by (Thank you, all-male Mu Mystics for being easy to spot targets-), who's to say it's not just a matter of making use of available resources, personal gender aside?  

 

I would still like to see lady mages and thorns in the game, though. It just irks me that they aren't there, even after the faction's re-design.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Coyotedancer

[AerialAssault]

On a more real note, the reason for that is .. time constraints? Even from making AE's, it is significantly faster just making one of each enemy than making two of each enemy, especially in large enemy groups (don't even get me started on adding racial variants of the same enemy).

 

I am not sure how feasible it would be to add female versions of SWAT for example, seeing as how their costume pieces are "baked on". I remember this being talked about as an issue with the Live Devs, which is why they just rebuilt the Skulls from the ground up. That being said, if it was possible to do this, I would give it a big thumbs.

[MunkiLord]

1 hour ago, CursedSorcerer said:

Why doesn't the Paragon Police seem to have any women in their ranks? For reference, here's the description of a standard PPD Cop.

 

"The Paragon Police Department is charged with the unending duty of keeping the streets of the city safe for its citizens. These brave men and women watch over Paragon City, dedicating their lives to make it a better place."

My guess is this is a relic from when the game was created. This sort of issue was simply given less attention.

[Zepp]

8 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

My guess is this is a relic from when the game was created. This sort of issue was simply given less attention.

Like the lack of a female huge bodytype?

[Snowdaze]

1 minute ago, Zepp said:

Like the lack of a female huge bodytype?

Did you just assume that huge person's gender?

[Blastit]

Street gangs not recruiting women isn't exactly unheard of, anyway. I think that if more models are added, not every enemy group should get them. The Circle of Thorns shouldn't care who they kidnap and possess but the Council, the Family and the Warriors might have views on who's suitable as a street soldier.

[Lazarillo]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

Is there a Lore explanation of the heavy Kheldian presence in the PPD?

Sunstorm is respected by both groups, so they're following his lead.

[Coyotedancer]

The Family, like Nemesis, might get a "traditional biases" pass there... I really think there ought to be some women Warriors and Outcasts, though. Street gangs or not, they seem like groups where a few really tough, really determined women (adding a female version of the LTs, for instance-) might fit well. Skyraiders, likewise. 

 

[MunkiLord]

20 minutes ago, Zepp said:

Like the lack of a female huge bodytype?

Just like that. Though I do recall that being something consistently requested for this game by players. I would imagine during development that either wasn't considered at all or almost immediately dismissed if brought up. And that's not me criticizing the developers of the game specifically, it was just the norm at the time.

 

I think EA catching a lot of crap from whiny incels about Battlefield V and specific characters like FemShep have helped this issue immensely. 

[MTeague]

12 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

The Family, like Nemesis, might get a "traditional biases" pass there... I really think there ought to be some women Warriors and Outcasts, though. Street gangs or not, they seem like groups where a few really tough, really determined women (adding a female version of the LTs, for instance-) might fit well. Skyraiders, likewise. 

 

Warriors I could see going either way.  I could definitely see X percent of them sticking with Sparta and historical facts of ancient Greece. OTOH, toss in a Diana like amazon, and they would absolutely respect their strength and prowess.  I do think warriors would probably make sense for it be a less-than-50/50 ratio for reasons like this.  Maybe 1 in 4 female or something.  The Outcasts though absolutely. Mutant powers are all genetics and would presumably manifest in approximately equal numbers.

 

35 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

My guess is this is a relic from when the game was created. This sort of issue was simply given less attention.

Not just that. There was likely also a factor of discomfort at portraying women as criminals.