#like a loooot of the misogyny re: the dwarfs makes sense with the broodmother thing

[paarthursass]

If it was confirmed on the old BSN forums I would LOVE to see that. However as far as what I've been able to find in my own searches through various lore and other archived BSN posts:

a) Wardens aren't infertile, they just have lowered fertility (this discussion page on the wiki references an old BSN post discussing this specifically)

b) If we're bringing up old BSN posts then I feel like this old interview David Gaider did is relevant where he discussed the possibility of female wardens becoming broodmothers.

"I hadn't really considered whether they'd stop doing the Calling. I think if anything it makes it more problematic for female Wardens to do the Calling. That may be something we could incorporate into the future...I could definitely see a female Warden who would rather kill herself than allow for the possibility that she could be transformed into a Broodmother."

Also a lot of people seem to be missing the point of this post, which is not "can wardens become broodmothers" and is "the fact that the writers clearly didn't think about how this would affect women is kind of fucked up." We shouldn't have to dig up old BSN posts or look to old interviews David Gaider did on livejournal. We should have codex entries that say, concretely "female wardens cannot become broodmothers." We should have something in the game to assure female wardens, concretely, that they cannot become broodmothers. But we don't. As David Gaider admits, they didn't even think about it. That is the primary issue here. The point is "hey, the writers didn't think about women" which. They did not.

not to advocate for MORE sexism in bioware games or anything like that but like...the "gender equality" in DAO is so poorly thought out and by that I am SPECIFICALLY referring to women in the Grey Wardens.

Sure yeah Alistair makes that off-hand comment about how "there aren't many women in the wardens" that's more indicative of the writing team's sexism than anything else, but genuinely speaking I think there's actually a valid reason for women to not be allowed in the Grey Wardens.

You cannot tell me that Alistair and the HoF were the first to discover what Broodmothers were and how they were made. You cannot tell me that Grey Wardens have been fighting back Darkspawn for centuries and they do not know about Broodmothers. And if the Grey Wardens know about Broodmothers, then they must know that sending female Grey Wardens down into the Deep Roads is a bad fucking plan.

I can understand concessions being made during a Blight; hell, being a Grey Warden is such a Shit Job that I can understand the Grey Wardens being willing to take in anyone. But like...the women who join cannot go down into the Deep Roads for their Calling. And I would argue that them going down into the Deep Roads at all is a bad plan unless they've got some equivalent of a suicide pill with them in case of capture by Darkspawn.

It honestly is baffling to me that there's NO mention of protocols for female grey wardens during their Calling or expeditions to the Deep Roads being different AT ALL. All it would take is Alistair saying something along the lines of "So that's why there's so few women in the Wardens" after they discover the Broodmother.

Because a women joining the Wardens isn't just risking death.

She's risking a horrific, violating transformation that turns her into a creature that endangers everyone.