Smashing gender roles and darkspawn skulls

Dragon Age Origins Blog shale1 Shale and Gender Stereotypes in Dragon Age 

Most of the main characters we travel Ferelden with fit into traditional gender roles. Even those who may not be someone we’d encounter in our everyday lives still do not do much to challenge stereotypes.  Let’s take a brief look at them.

Wynne – matronlike, nourishing healer.
Alistair – manly man, fights with big sword, short hair, strong facial lines.
Oghren – dwarf, drinks a lot, swears, swings a big axe.
Leliana – fights from range, does her hair up, likes pretty things.
Morrigan – fights from range, wears makeup, likes pretty things.

Enough for now. The one character who I think really makes us think about our own ideas and definitions of gender is Shale.

When first meeting this character in Honnleath, there are no signals as to the gender of the golem. Shale is simply made of stone. However, this golem has one feature that makes gender especially an object of attention – the player-character is only referred to as “It” when Shale speaks. Something like: “Does it wish me to follow?” “Does it like being the master?” Being called “It” is jarring and immediately makes the player react by thinking of what gender they’re actually playing. Ignoring gender, denying it just brings it into high relief.

Shale doesn’t have any particular gendered features. Stone is rather neutral. One of the first things you see Shale do is kill a bird, the race of creatures it despises beyond measure, and the golem seems to be rather angry, deservedly, at the old master. Shale is very logical, not only in dialogue, but also in party banter. The conversations between Sten and Shale are somewhat philosophical and detached. We have then violence, anger, hatred, and logic. Not particularly masculine characteristics, but certainly not feminine ones when we’re thinking of stereotypes. Morrigan is logical but this is precisely the trait that makes her different than the others and one can make excuses for her. She was raised in isolation. She has a demon for a mother. She’s half-animal, etc. Female and logic don’t go together when thinking of traditional roles. It doesn’t necessarily go with male either, particularly when violence and anger are involved. Aggression surely fits into a stereotypical view of masculinity, but Shale is hardly defined by just that.

Dragon Age Origins Blog shale2 Shale and Gender Stereotypes in Dragon Age

Dialogue with the warden continues the a-gendered characterization. At one point, Shale will ask if the crystals make them look wide. But at another time, Shale responds to the comment that there is a human inside the golem with, “If so, it is because I ate him”. At one point, a non-party character can say regarding Shale, “I think the odds might be slightly in his favor at a test of strength.” Shale is, of course, a tank as seems the suitable role for a golem. Big, burly, takes lots of damage – a masculine role stereotypically.

It is only later in the story that the player can discover Shale’s true gender, or what it was in the past. *spoiler alert* Clearly, Shale, before the episode in the Deep Roads, did not recall her own gender and is anatomically without a sex once a golem. Two questions arise from this observation.

First, does Shayle lose her gender when she loses her human identity and sexuality upon becoming a golem, and if so, why? I find it somewhat odd that an entire personality would change even under such conditions as golem formation. Shale retains memories of her past, so why would she not remember and still be somewhat herself.

Second, do golems not have gender because they are anatomically neuter or because they are made of stone or something else? I think most of us would be in mutual agreement that gender is not the same as biological sex. In a game that was lauded for its acceptance of non-traditional sexual relationships, I was at first surprised that Shale was not presented in a more feminine light even when a golem. Surely, she was still female regardless of anatomy, wasn’t she? However, I now think this says something deeper about Shayle’s personality.

When the dwarves began making the golem warriors, Shayle was the only woman to volunteer for the job and was among the first of all volunteers. Perhaps, Shayle is not represented in a feminine light because, although an anatomical woman, she doesn’t fill the stereotypical role that Wynne and Leliana do. Instead of either healing or fighting safe at range, Shale is in the midst of the action. And she’s not backstabbing. She’s stomping, and bellowing, and roaring as she gets pummeled nonstop. She’s tough and buxom. I wonder if perhaps her personality didn’t actually change very much when she became a golem. It would take a strong woman to make the choice that Shayle made.

Looking at her now, I have no complaints about how she is portrayed. I am glad she is a female who defies stereotypical roles, to such an extent, she is mistaken for being male. Yes, it took a golem made of stone without sexual anatomy to allow this, but it’s a step.

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