#media too. there are people who dehumanize people through over-sexualization in EVERY context unfortunately. HOWEVER. I AM

[musical-chick-13]

The THING is. When people (I am including myself in this) try to talk about how "Why is there overall less of an emphasis on women's stories and female characters and f/f shipping, especially when according to the stats we see being shared, fandom is significantly populated by queer women, hmm this seems a bit strange," there's ALMOST ALWAYS this assumption that it comes from a place of gender essentialism or purity culture or hating every single man for existing or something. ARE there some people who mean that? Yeah, there are going to be people like that in EVERY group of people who try to talk about anything. But when people complain about this, it's most generally because WE EXPERIENCE STRUCTURAL MISOGYNY IRL, AND NOW WE ARE EXPERIENCING THE SAME SOCIAL EFFECTS WITHIN SOMETHING THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE "FUN." THAT IS THE PROBLEM.

And this goes for when people try to talk about racism in fandom spaces as well. And ableism. And transphobia. And any other form of prejudice you can think of. Is talking about this in one (1) context that is not directly political going to forever eliminate bigotry? No. Obviously not. But the thing about systemic bias and prejudice is that IT IS PRESENT AT EVERY LEVEL, EVEN THE "FUN" ONES.

[talktalktalk]

Penny Polendina: Robot Rep

Robots as representation has seen a lot of use throughout media, to varying degrees of success. Sometimes it is fairly explicit in the narrative, others it is more subtle. Often it is borderline impossible to determine whether intentional or not, such is the popularity of this trope. 

RWBY has made attempts at representing marginalized groups over its run, similarly to varying degrees of success. One character, the focus of this post, is Penny Polendina, a robot girl who, while not explicitly confirmed by the writers of the show, is seen by some fandom members as a source of representation, most commonly as neurodivergent or transgender (usually nonbinary), but also as aro-spec or a-spec. 

This post will be a collection of my thoughts, as a member of multiple of the above mentioned demographics, against Penny as a source of representation, as well as a few reasons behind these thoughts. 

Contents

Who is Penny Polendina? (a summary of her story from Volumes 1-7)

Robots as Representation (in general)

Case-specific Additions (for Penny in particular)

Closing Thoughts

Who is Penny Polendina?

Penny is introduced fairly late in Volume 1 when Team RWBY quite literally runs into her. The group exchange greetings and names, though not before Yang asks her if she’s “sure she didn’t hit her head.” As they leave, Ruby offhandedly calls her “friend,” leading Penny to ask her curiously if she truly is a friend. Ruby agrees (to her teammates’ dismay) and Penny grows very excited at the confirmation.

Subsequent meetings with Penny, many of them by pure coincidence, reveal more about her character. She states that she doesn’t have a lot of friends, that she has never been to another kingdom before, and that her father, worried for her safety, did not want her to venture out too much during her time in Vale. Perhaps most notably, she tells Ruby in confidence that she is “not a real girl,” but rather a synthetic person built by her father (later revealed to be named Pietro Polendina). Ruby insists that she has both a heart and a soul, to which Penny becomes overjoyed and hugs her tightly.

In Volume 3, Penny is competing against Pyrrha in the Vytal Tournament when tragedy strikes. Emerald uses her semblance to trick Pyrrha into destroying Penny, slicing her into pieces with her own weapon, killing her and revealing her secret to the whole world. The villains use Penny’s death to incite panic and fear, and the Fall of Beacon ensues.

Penny is not seen for a long time following her death, but in Volume 7 she has been brought back, her robotic core recovered and a new body built. Her chassis and weapons are upgraded, and, remarkably, she shows little initial change in personality from her brutal death in Amity Arena. Penny remains largely the same earnest, slightly-naive girl who she was before the events of the Fall, still just as curious and excitable as ever.

Penny continues to play a part of multiple major events in Volume 7, namely the Council Election and Winter Maiden plotlines. 

The former sees her framed for murder by Tyrian and Watts, and subsequent scenes reveal new things about the nature of her construction. When Ruby asks why Pietro is concerned for Penny’s safety, stating that “[e]ven if the worst does happen, [he] can always reactivate her,” Pietro reveals that her aura is actually given from his own reserves, and as such, with every reconstruction she grows more difficult to rebuild. 

The latter plotline features her in relation to Winter, who is slated to take on the Maiden powers after the current holder, Fria. Winter states in previous scenes that she dislikes how she allows her emotions to get the better of her, at first stating that Penny wouldn’t understand but then attempting to apologize and clarify her poor wording. Later, during a battle with Cinder, the Winter Maiden surrounds herself in a whirlwind of freezing air, fast enough to rip Winter’s gloves from her hands and cold enough to leave ice burns on her fingers. Penny, seeing this, decides to dive in, relying on her leg-mounted rockets and synthetic skin to soldier through the dangerous conditions. This, combined with Winter’s efforts to hold back Cinder, allow Penny to secure the Maiden powers, taking them up herself.

Robots as Representation

Robots are a powerful tool for tropes because they are in most cases created as imitations of life, most commonly humanity. Combined with sentience or even simply heightened degrees of knowledge/adaptability compared to real world robots, this allows for many philosophical questions to build off for subplots (what is a person, what is emotion, etc.) However, the same factor that makes a robot such a good exploration into what defines humanity simultaneously makes them such a poor allegory for marginalized groups. 

Real world bigotry is between humans, from one group of humans to another based on superficial differences. All parties involved are the same species with the same key makeup. Bigots often insist that groups are different in some fundamental way that makes them the enemy or the outsider, a strategy to rationalize their bigotry when in reality, no such fundamental differences exist. All people are all human, all people deserve the respect and dignity of a human being.

With a robot, however, the definition of “human” can get blurry. Robots are, at their core, imitations. Depending on the media, this could mean, for instance, operating on different logical principles, or that possessing physical traits, internal or external, that mark them as definedly not human. This blurring of the lines is good thing for “what is humanity” plotline, but an incredibly bad one for representation. This is in especially poor taste when the groups that said robot is often supposed to be representing (a-spec, aro-spec, neurodivergent, and/or nonbinary) are frequently referred to as “robotic” as an insult. It is used to dehumanize us, to insinuate we are lacking in something that would otherwise make us more. 

There is also the issue of context. This trope being as widespread as it is, some traits in a robot are markedly “human” while others are markedly not. Generally, these traits include the ability to articulate emotion, the ability to take things figuratively, feelings of attraction (platonic, romantic, sexual), and others. These, coincidentally, all line up with the very same groups robots are most often coded to represent. Some neurodivergent people have difficulty articulating their emotions or understanding subtext. Some aro-spec or a-spec people do not feel romantic or sexual attraction, respectively. Robots like the Terminator, who shows little emotion and frequently takes things too literally, are generally seen as less “human” than a robot who clearly articulates their emotion (i.e. Transformers, the Iron Giant, Wall-E, etc.)

Allegories, for all their versatility, always go both ways. Comparing a real-world minority to a definedly inhuman character may grant said group some much-needed spotlight in media, but it can just as easily lead to the audience drawing conclusions that said minority can be likened to robots, or at the very least that the author/showrunners believe said minority can be likened to robots.

Case-Specific Additions

Penny Polendina’s plotlines lend themselves to some specific facets of the allegory for marginalized groups. Firstly, her arc is primarily about what makes a “real girl.” This is a point in her direction, as it puts the idea that she is a person front and center. 

Unfortunately, this is likely the only point in her favor. Starting from her very first outing, Yang refers to her as “weird,” Weiss voices skepticism about her ability, and Ruby is urged by all of her teammates to deny that Penny is a friend. The issue here is, first and foremost, that none of these reactions are framed as bad by the story. If anything, they are barely acknowledged at all. This lends itself to the notion that it is okay to treat people who are different than you in such a way, which is not a good message for representation.

In Volume 3, perhaps the most egregious instance, she is quite literally ripped apart on live television, her secret revealed to the world against her will. This not only results in her death, but in the deaths of many others due to the Fall of Beacon. Beyond the brutality of this scene and the message it sends through the lens of representation (being unwillingly “outed,” violently murdered, and used as a tool for further violence and death), it also created the Volume 7 conundrum of her being brought back to life.

Morbid as it sounds, mortality is one of the things that ties all humans together. Death is permanent and tragic, but one could argue it is integral to the human experience. Penny, however, defies this with her resurrection, not by magic nor miracle, but by virtue of her robotic core being retrieved and a body being rebuilt around it. The story tries to rectify this by saying that Pietro can’t restore her forever, but this does not actually put a hard limit on the number of times she can be brought back. It simply puts a limit on the number of times Pietro alone can bring her back; anyone with a reserve could theoretically donate the needed aura to rebuild Penny should she be destroyed again (provided her core is retrievable).

Finally, the end of Volume 7 sees her claim the Maiden powers. While it seems the narrative attempts to frame this as a confirmation that she is a real girl, the context surrounding that same scene shows otherwise. The howling vortex of freezing wind was shown to be too strong and too dangerous for a flesh-and-blood human to reach through, tearing apart Winter’s gloves and freezer-burning her fingers when she attempted. Penny’s ability to penetrate this whirlwind was not thanks to her supposed humanity, but thanks to the upgrades to her chassis that included both strengthened synthetic skin and rocket boosters on her legs. Both were only added during her reconstruction, which was only possible due to her robotic nature. Penny’s storyline in Volume 7 renders the foundations of her humanity-based plotline shaky at best, contradictory at worst. Unfortunately, this leaves her with more negatives than positives.

Closing Thoughts

In summary, robotic characters are generally a good way to explore what it means to be a person, but due to the dual-edged nature of allegory, they often make poor allegories for marginalized groups. Ways to rectify this would be making an explicitly human character also a member of the demographic(s) the robotic character is a part of, though that requires at the very least some form of confirmation from the writers, which as of now, has not been given.

Of course, these are just my opinions on the matter, but if you have not scrolled past or clicked away already I hope that you take my points into consideration when making your own opinions and/or headcanons. Please also note that my thoughts on Penny as poor representation do not reflect my thoughts on her as a character, nor are they intended as an attack on those who like her. Finally, please remember that Penny is not (as of yet) canonically confirmed to be a member of any of these groups.

As much as I would like to see myself and my demographics represented in the show, I simply believe that Penny Polendina is not the best way to go about it.