Sisters of Slaanesh? Pass.
Sisters of Battle are coming! They’re almost here! I’m excited. I’m excited because its an army I’ve always wanted to collect and play, but by the time I had the wherewithal the first time round the old metal range had lost its lustre. And had become prohibitively expensive.
So a new plastic range is super exciting! The models look amazing! They have upped the detail and approached the range with a more respectful eye. The Repentia look less fetishy, the boob-plate power armour is less… booby. The faces on the new models reference a range of ethnicities and ages. In all, if this new range is going to be the main example of female representation in 40k, well, it’s certainly not awful. Could be better, obviously. But certainly not awful.
I know that I’m not the only person excited, too. There’s been a lot of people looking for a cheaper and easy to collect range of Sororitas, and people who’ve wanted the warrior aspect to be brought forward, and the sexy aspect toned down. These models do that, which is really nice. Now, there are also people who are lamenting the decreased sexiness, the toned-down boobiage, the overall reduced horniness of the range, to which I say, ‘latex fetish nun’ is a Google image search away.
I’m not really bothered by those people, inasmuch as they’ve always been there, and likely always will be. Some people will just be crass, and as long as we don’t go out of our way to cater for them, we’re probably moving in the right direction. No, the thing I’m worried about is a certain other take on the new Sisters of Battle. The response of some people who look at the new plastic kits, with all their easy conversion potential, and go
Yes.
For Slaanesh.
I mean, of course there are people wanting to convert the new models into Sisters of Slaanesh, either to run as Emperor’s Children or as a modelling project or whatever. People did it with the old models, they’re going to do it now. And there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it, it’s just, well, what are you actually doing, when you convert Sisters of Battle specifically to look slaaneshi? Consider what the Sisters in 40k represent. In the lore they are meant to be nigh-incorruptible, if memory serves only one has ever fallen to chaos. That’s practically Grey Knight level incorruptibility, and these women are only human. It is a strength of will that makes them unique in the setting, not just women in armour. There’s no real lore reason for Sisters to go chaos, so if someone’s doing it, then its because they like the aesthetic. Then, why not more Chaos Grey Knights? Or, if you think about it, why not more examples of Khorne, Nurgle or Tzeentch Sisters of Battle, which are represented in the hobby community but in nowhere near the numbers as their slsaaneshi counterparts.
It comes, fundamentally, from a desire to sexualise and fetishise these characters. It is not enough that they are women; they must be denigrated, despoiled, reduced. Its a truism that no one in Warhammer 40k is powerful without caveat, and everybody bows to somebody, but deference to Slaanesh is not just bending the knee to an in-fiction master, but in the eyes of a lot of modellers it also represents a way for their models to conform to their own personal fetishes.
So a new plastic range is super exciting! The models look amazing! They have upped the detail and approached the range with a more respectful eye. The Repentia look less fetishy, the boob-plate power armour is less… booby. The faces on the new models reference a range of ethnicities and ages. In all, if this new range is going to be the main example of female representation in 40k, well, it’s certainly not awful. Could be better, obviously. But certainly not awful.
I know that I’m not the only person excited, too. There’s been a lot of people looking for a cheaper and easy to collect range of Sororitas, and people who’ve wanted the warrior aspect to be brought forward, and the sexy aspect toned down. These models do that, which is really nice. Now, there are also people who are lamenting the decreased sexiness, the toned-down boobiage, the overall reduced horniness of the range, to which I say, ‘latex fetish nun’ is a Google image search away.
I’m not really bothered by those people, inasmuch as they’ve always been there, and likely always will be. Some people will just be crass, and as long as we don’t go out of our way to cater for them, we’re probably moving in the right direction. No, the thing I’m worried about is a certain other take on the new Sisters of Battle. The response of some people who look at the new plastic kits, with all their easy conversion potential, and go
Yes.
For Slaanesh.
I mean, of course there are people wanting to convert the new models into Sisters of Slaanesh, either to run as Emperor’s Children or as a modelling project or whatever. People did it with the old models, they’re going to do it now. And there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it, it’s just, well, what are you actually doing, when you convert Sisters of Battle specifically to look slaaneshi? Consider what the Sisters in 40k represent. In the lore they are meant to be nigh-incorruptible, if memory serves only one has ever fallen to chaos. That’s practically Grey Knight level incorruptibility, and these women are only human. It is a strength of will that makes them unique in the setting, not just women in armour. There’s no real lore reason for Sisters to go chaos, so if someone’s doing it, then its because they like the aesthetic. Then, why not more Chaos Grey Knights? Or, if you think about it, why not more examples of Khorne, Nurgle or Tzeentch Sisters of Battle, which are represented in the hobby community but in nowhere near the numbers as their slsaaneshi counterparts.
It comes, fundamentally, from a desire to sexualise and fetishise these characters. It is not enough that they are women; they must be denigrated, despoiled, reduced. Its a truism that no one in Warhammer 40k is powerful without caveat, and everybody bows to somebody, but deference to Slaanesh is not just bending the knee to an in-fiction master, but in the eyes of a lot of modellers it also represents a way for their models to conform to their own personal fetishes.
Now, please, I am not one to criticise fetishes, things being sexualised. People got kinks. What I am against is the mindset that looks at the de-facto women in a game like 40k and going ‘well I need to sexualise these, obviously’. Other female touchstones in 40k, the Eldar Howling Banshees, Calidus Assassins etc, similarly ‘feminine’ in form and expression, are also known to be fetishised by certain elements of the community. These models are being singled out and fetishised for their being female, out of an urge to corrupt and sexualise them, totally removed from the narrative of the setting. It is, quite frankly, misogeny.
I guess, ultimately, it comes down to this. I can’t stop you from making Sisters of Slaanesh. It’s your hobby. But don’t be disingenuous with yourself. You’re converting those models to titilate. You’re seeing women represented in something and making the conscious decision to reduce them to sex objects. You can try and justify it narratively all you want, but you’re making your little action figures into porn. Again, nothing wrong with porn. But there is something wrong if your immediate reaction to seeing a woman is to go ‘why isn’t that porn?’
I guess, ultimately, it comes down to this. I can’t stop you from making Sisters of Slaanesh. It’s your hobby. But don’t be disingenuous with yourself. You’re converting those models to titilate. You’re seeing women represented in something and making the conscious decision to reduce them to sex objects. You can try and justify it narratively all you want, but you’re making your little action figures into porn. Again, nothing wrong with porn. But there is something wrong if your immediate reaction to seeing a woman is to go ‘why isn’t that porn?’
I don’t think there is truly positive representation in 40k. Nor should there be, everything sucks and everyone’s an agent of some kind of evil so why should we try to find an exemplar in any of it? But on the other hand, the game has come such a long way in the last few years in terms of being inclusive in its range of models and in how it speaks to hobbyists who aren’t straight, cisgendered white men. Yes, it still has a long way to go, and I hope it continues to not alienate people and bring them in. I think the new Sisters are a part of that. So I would love to see your Sisters of Battle models. I want to see your paint schemes and your conversions. I want to see if you can convert them to look less Christian, and maybe more akin to other faiths. Hijabi Sisters of Battle, why not? That’d be cool. But what I don’t want to see, even though I probably won’t get a choice, is your Sisters of Slaanesh. It’s not as clever an idea as you think, and if i want to look at porno nuns, like I say, ‘latex fetish nun’ is just a Google image search away.
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