amysrevenge
Well-Known Member
Yes this is exactly along the lines I was hoping the discussion would go.
I like the idea of dimorphism being present to a lesser extent than in IRL humans (and we could make the dimorphism as small as we like - other than Thingol being the tallest Elf ever, we don't have a lot of material in the canon about this). And even if Elves weren't universally* monogamous (*exception: Finwe) there's another difference, namely that the proportion of an Elven mother's lifetime spent gestating and rearing children is miniscule compared to IRL humans, diminishing to the point of being effectively zero. So most/all of the gender split in the military would be social and not biological in origin.
And that's where we can, if we want, start from a conclusion we like and work backward to set the conditions that would get there. Do we want 40% female soldiers? Make it so - less gender dimorphism, and the tendency toward healer over soldier is present but only slight. Do we want 20% female soldiers? Great, set it up - slightly more dimorphism, and a stronger tendency toward healer over soldier. Do we want 2% female soldiers (I don't but let's suppose)? Fine - even more dimorphism, and a very strong preference to healer over soldier. We don't have to settle on any gender split that we don't like, just because the source material (both Legendarium and IRL human history) demands it. We can interpret the source material how we like.
We will have to fudge the dimorphism a bit of course - we are casting human actors in these roles, and we will be limited to human body types, and it's probably not going to be worth our time to try to artificially bulk up all those human female actors so that they are as big as their male counterparts. So some of our 5'6" female actors will probably have to fight as if they were 6'2". Will take some interesting choreography and camera work to do it right.
I like the idea of dimorphism being present to a lesser extent than in IRL humans (and we could make the dimorphism as small as we like - other than Thingol being the tallest Elf ever, we don't have a lot of material in the canon about this). And even if Elves weren't universally* monogamous (*exception: Finwe) there's another difference, namely that the proportion of an Elven mother's lifetime spent gestating and rearing children is miniscule compared to IRL humans, diminishing to the point of being effectively zero. So most/all of the gender split in the military would be social and not biological in origin.
And that's where we can, if we want, start from a conclusion we like and work backward to set the conditions that would get there. Do we want 40% female soldiers? Make it so - less gender dimorphism, and the tendency toward healer over soldier is present but only slight. Do we want 20% female soldiers? Great, set it up - slightly more dimorphism, and a stronger tendency toward healer over soldier. Do we want 2% female soldiers (I don't but let's suppose)? Fine - even more dimorphism, and a very strong preference to healer over soldier. We don't have to settle on any gender split that we don't like, just because the source material (both Legendarium and IRL human history) demands it. We can interpret the source material how we like.
We will have to fudge the dimorphism a bit of course - we are casting human actors in these roles, and we will be limited to human body types, and it's probably not going to be worth our time to try to artificially bulk up all those human female actors so that they are as big as their male counterparts. So some of our 5'6" female actors will probably have to fight as if they were 6'2". Will take some interesting choreography and camera work to do it right.