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Gender & Sexuality - Perception in Runeterra

SaltyToplaneGoat·2/23/2015, 9:16:52 PM·17 votes·2,107 views

Before you downvote, this is no weird extreme-feminism thread wanting to nerf Ahri's boobs. Ok, so now that we got that out of the way, let's get on the point:

How is gender and sexuality viewed across Valoran? And I'm not talking just about homosexuality and stuff, but about the general question. How are men and women viewed in the different regions? I think this says much about a culture, so I thought this might be an interesting thing to talk about. If Garen woudl suddenly wear a dress, would it be a scandal or would people just say "meh, it's weird but if he likes it...". I could list tons of potential examples here, but you get the point I think.

For example I can really demacians being super prude about that question "Pssh! You don't talk about this in public!", or being irked by non-conforme sexuality for whatever morale-reason. "Because HOW WE DO IT IS RIGHT!" (or so...)

On the other hand I can see Noxus being quite liberal about this. They don't care if you're male, female, a zombie, or how you dress and what you do as long you can split someone's head in two. Strenght over everything, remember? On the other hand they probably woundn't help anyone who's getting hate for the choice of their partners and attire, because of "be strong and do something against that or you're worthless anyway".

Piltover and Zaun probably are the most liberal - certain regions, such as Shurima or Freljord remote regions could be total conservative (comparison to our world here), or the opposite, just not caring in the way Noxus does.

So, what do you guys think? ^^

22 Comments

IcyPepper2/23/2015, 11:21:21 PM5 votes

I'm going to be honest here. When you have women who can turn into dragons Shyvana or cut you apart with music Sona , I don't think people care too much in the fields of justice.

For Runeterra? It'd just be a cultural thing. Compared to Canada that's pretty chill, the USA used to (or may be) stuck in the 1960's, for instance. Cultures vary, early and modern. Native Americans had two-spirit people that were considered both genders at the same time, only to be taken over by today's citizens with various opinions from marriage equality to all f*** are going to hell.

Culture is weird.

Runeterra is probably even weirder.

For example I can really demacians being super prude about that question

That probably explains Garen's attitude toward Katarina. Nobody wants to talk about the girl they spend half the time fighting to the death, and the other half banging. Probably a cultural thing.

LANWhale2/23/2015, 11:01:40 PM3 votes

Much like are real life cultures, Valoran has its own unique ones as well. All ranging from tribal wears to magnificent robes made of silk and imbued with gold.

Much like you said about Demacia,

demacians being super prude about that question "Pssh! You don't talk about this in public!"

Each one will have there own view on things. Noxus doesn't care how you look, as long as you get the job done. Demacia seems like they would care on how you look, if you don't look righteous and glorious, your doing it wrong.

As for Zaun and Piltover, Zaun is very loose with what they must say is proper. While on the other hand Piltover seems much more accurate on what people should be wearing.

In the end it comes down to us.

I would assume some cities hold a more obvious social acceptability when it comes to what one might wear. But in the end, it matters not what you wear, but who you are.

"Its not about how much lift, its about how good you look!!"Zac

Don't listen to him, hes a pile of goo.

Solidair32/25/2015, 2:12:53 AM3 votes

I've thought about this before, and while I won't speak on sexuality (I pretty much regard every champion as asexual), I will say that I would expect a more relaxed view on gender.

After all, both women and men are important figures in every part of the world. LeBlanc, Karma, Ashe, Sejuani, Leona, Swain, Jarvan, Garen; they're all regarded as extremely important figures, so I'm thinking that there aren't many people who say "women get in the kitchen" or super feminists going around claiming that strong womyn are all that matter.

But I would think things like cross-dressing and the like might be viewed differently in different areas. Specifically I would assume Piltover and Zaun to be the most progressive, closely followed by Noxus, then Demacia and maybe Shurima trailed behind the furthest (or most progressive, honestly I'd like more world-building done on modern day Shurima)

It's an interesting point of discussion, though. I'd certainly like to hear what the narrative team thinks.

Terra Booma2/24/2015, 6:44:17 PM2 votes

Going on how Noxus normally operates. I think we can conclude they give no shits as long as you can be strong

Dotintheparadox2/23/2015, 9:46:20 PM2 votes

Despite outcries of over-sexualization, Runeterra has never really struck a "Sexist" chord with me, if you're capable there, you're known for it. Like Sivir, despite my dislike for the new lore, she's known for being a great treasure hunter, not for wearing clothes so small Lucy Lawless would cringe. We as viewers are the ones who assign the sexual values to it.

The female characters are definitely sexy to us, but honestly they aren't actually boiled down to just those aspects in lore, except for Evelynn, Janna, and more often than not Ahri. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, people who disagree with the design decision, just ask Riot for more Man-whores, then it will all be balanced! And in the end, most of us will find it either hilarious, or erotic.

NorthernDruid2/25/2015, 12:12:25 PM1 votes

I imagine both Noxus and Demacia to be rather conservative about the entire thing, not necessarily hostile about non-standard sexualities, but in both of those city-states I imagine the subject to not be something you discuss openly.

In Demacia because of the classic prudishness and some sort of stupid "Their personal buisness is their thing, and if your personal business is non-standard we don't want to hear about it" dogma, so not actually opposed to it or anything, but not open for discussing the subject of even normal cases of sexuality and related issues.

As for Noxus... Well, everything that's taboo is a weakness for whomever has issues with that taboo. So therefore, more taboos mean more people have a weakness, and the more people who have a weakness you don't the stronger you are in comparison. So basically, anything that could be seen as a weakness is taboo because that way it'll remain a weakness, and the people who don't have any taboo issues, or manage to cover them up well enough, remain on top.

On the other hand, in both countries, if you manage to be open about your whatnots, and have the guts and stubborness to pull it off, I'll imagine you'd get a lot of respect about it and wouldn't face many of the barriers society puts up, simply because the systems don't already deal with them at all (unlike ours which have a history of being actively opposed to stuff outside the norm).

Piltover and Zaun... I dunno, I'm not that informed about Zaun, but it seems like these things would be the sort of eccentric traits that anyone with enough money or power could get away with, while anyone without the means to make people accept them would have a harder time with it. Piltover I imagine being more relaxed about everything, because someone would have written lots of papers on the subject and as such a lot of the public (or at least the upper class who make it their buisness to read all the stuffs that everyone writes) would be well informed, and then they'd start teaching it in school and badically, as the city-state grows more informed and people know more, the more open they'd be to 'anomalies' in this kind of stuff because it's not something weird they don't know anything about, it's just another thing that happens.

Freljord: No idea, I imagine them as not very conservative. But not very open about it either. Maybe not very aware of those kinds of issues at all.

The Rakkor: Not that i know more about them than Leona's League Judgement, but they strike me as being very much 'anything goes', if you've earned the right to live past your coming of age, you've earned the right to live as you are.

Bilgewater... who knows. I'd imagine it varies from tavern to tavern and crew to crew... Or even table to table in the same tavern.

Bilgewater doesn't strike me as a very organized faction.

As for Bandle City. I imagine Yordles making a bigger deal of romantic stuff (and non-romantic love) than sexual stuff. So it'd be more common, and any one person wouldn't necessarily have a ready opinion on the subject because it's not as much on their minds as it is on ours.

For the not-diectly-sec stuff, I'd imagine them to be like "that's weeeeird.... shrug well, whatever"

Side notes:

Runeterra in general seems like a very gender-equal setting. Which I like. Sure there aren't as many female champions as there are male champions. But there's enough that you have all sorts of very important and impressive people who aren't men. There's a real streak of diversity in the League, and it's certainly not hindered by the fact that most of the political leaders in the game are (as far as i'm aware) women.

One Champion concept we're really missing is "The Commoner of Demacia". Which should also totally be a woman because really, most of the Demacian champions seem to come from noble/aristocrat families. I wanna see the lowborn soldier, risen through the ranks and having earned their place through merit.

I know it sounds a bit more like a typical Noxus thing, but that's the point. It's how Noxus in general works, which is why it's a more interesting story for Demacia.

GreenLore2/23/2015, 11:44:48 PM1 votes

I think Demacia might see women as weaker,I mean the only demacian melee champ we've got is Fiora ,who was born in a family of duelists(Not counting shyvana,because shyvana never lived among the demacian humans and poppy grew up in bandle).

While Noxus is all about strenght and thus probably doesn't differentiate between man and woman,when it comes to battle,they are also rather xenophob and thus would most likely not tolerate homosexuals,unless the homosexual person has proven him/her-self.

I think Zaun and Piltover are the most open city states when it comes to gender and sexuality,especially zaun,who even made a robot an official citizen,something other city states wouldn't have done.

Wordofmask2/24/2015, 5:59:54 AM1 votes

This is very interesting for me.

What about Bandle City? What is Yordle's view of sexuality? They are peaceful and sociable being like Hobbit so I think they may have a liberal view of their sexuality.

ravenswolfy2/24/2015, 7:03:15 PM1 votes

If we look at the many champs of the league:

Demacia: Fiora Garen JarvanIV Quinn Sona Lux Vayne XinZhao (Not counting Shyvana Galio since they are more like secret weapons/specialized guards). Demacian's seem to be pretty militaristic, wearing heavy armor with a high sense of justice and morals. In terms of gender/sexuality, I think OP may be right, they seem prude. I think they're cultural mindset is something similar to like a pre WWII Germany (Lots of national pride).

Noxus: Cassiopeia Darius Draven Katarina Leblanc Swain Vladimir Talon . Whole group feels like a spartan society and with their theme that only the strong survive it seems to me they don't care what your gender or sexuality is as long as you are useful and can serve. iirc from ancient history class, spartans had gay/lesbian relationships and males sometimes took their wives by force. This iono kinda feels like what Noxus is like. We see the how their citizens continue to serve such as Urgot Sion but also we see how they don't seem to care about how sexualized they can be(ie: what cass use to do, leblanc's attire, draven's fandom).

Piltover Caitlyn Corki Ezreal Heimerdinger Jayce Vi Pretty sure Cait is bi and Vi is lesbian. And Ez may be bi too... Anywho though, this is more a place that cares more about engineering and is more progressive than other factions. But It almost feels like women are held back. All the smart/'genius' individuals are male. /shrug

Other Areas:

Freljord - Seems like a highly woman dominated or controlled society. Ashe Lissandra Sejuani. Sure they are strong males such as Braum Olaf Tryndamere but they aren't in charge.

Ionia - Mix society. Gender means nothing. Women can be in charge if they're worthy and men can too. Ex. Irelia . However, sex may sell for this area though. Ahri Akali Seem to be pretty sexualized by nature. Syndra (see her dance) Karma ("spiritual leader")

Random other champions: Elise - definitely abuses her looks to lure in her prey. Janna - part time phone sex operator Zyra - plant with boobs? Nami - fish with boobs but no gender definition on Fizz (says its male but could be asexual) Nidalee - totally a cougar. (And whenever she's in cat form...she's technically naked.)