This is one of those posts that has little to do with painting, but everything at the same time. It impacts the motivation for painting, and is leading me away from Warhammer 40,000 and Games Workshop in general.
In part this is inspired by what I've seen regarding a recent Code of Conduct being applied to the open source wine project. I have no issue with the CoC as I've read it (not in the current iteration anyway), but I firmly believe that these are things that should be debated (in a civil way, of course). They're not always a force for good, particularly when applied as enforced behaviour rather than limits on behaviour - and there is huge difference between the two. Enforced behaviour does not accept opposing viewpoints, where as limits on behaviour are mostly "don't be a prick". In one particular corner of the Internet, opposing views are frowned upon (even being perceived as critical of Valve is cause to be attacked there, whether true or not) and someone who obviously doesn't like CoC's was immediately attacked, insulted, and told to get lost. Someone literally admitted to waiting for a comment so they could attack. That is a toxic environment, that is not fostering an open community, that is excluding people - ironically the very thing they claim that a CoC is supposed to prevent.
This is not a problem with a Code of Conduct. They're simply a guideline. This is a problem managing a community, and it follows on to ..... female Custodians.
I have no problem with female Custodians in principle. It was handled extraordinarily poorly on introducing them, but the idea standalone is fine. The idea isn't standlone though. It's being shoved down everyone's throats with a battleship's turret rammer. The recent animation The Tithes: Harvest is proof of this. It was a conscious choice to use a female Custodian there, and from a narrative perspective a rather poor choice at that. Yes it shows perfectly the arrogance and ultimate failures of the Custodes, but it lacks the balance of already establish characters such as Valarian and Aleya. Male and female viewpoints are a part of that balance. Combined with every single person of authority being female in that show, and the increase in this everywhere (all the of Imperial Guard commanders are now female, the Imperial Knights animation was this again, the Skaventide animation has female guard captains everywhere, the Iron Warriors animation again has the heroine as better than everyone else, the list goes on) and the show can only be seen as an agenda propaganda tool. The preview of the next episode of the Tithes I predicted a female girlboss in charge within the first two seconds. I was right. I'm sure she'll be super morally above everyone else, always right, and more fearless than any male. I'll try to remember to edit this when it comes out - but even now I'm already biased as a symptom of what's really going wrong.
The problem is that it's all so obviously ideological agenda driven. It's not world building, it's not expanding on characters, it's shoving ideology down people's throats. This used to be a safe space for geeks of all kinds, and now it's being taken over by some ideological investors who for reasons unknown are trying to putrefy everything they touch. I think this is being forced on Games Workshop personally through some investors; before then GW was actually doing diversity properly in simply giving people options.
The consequence of this enforced ideological diarrhoea is that it becomes the identity of the intellectual property. I don't see a great show with a Custodian in it. I see yet another agenda driven pile of crap. I don't see a great new model - I see yet another girlboss. I don't see a diverse range of options, I see exclusion. Even the recent Space Marine II game: a couple of years ago I wouldn't have blinked twice at the battle-brothers. Now I see token representation whenever I see their faces because it's being hydraulically rammed into everything. I see it if there's ever a weak male character, especially with a female superior. It immediately ruins gameplay, stories, lore, and communities. I never saw that with the original Space Marine where the Imperial Guard commander was female and awesome - but the others (male mostly) were also just as battle hardened and poised. Was this agenda? Yeah, probably - but it wasn't obviously so.
Swinging back around the unfortunate community reactions, the amount of harassment, insults, attacks, and bigotry is disgusting. What's worse is that all of it is being done by those claiming to be against such things. I would be attacked for daring to have the opinion that from a narrative perspective a female Custodian was a poor fit. Or if it's a female Custodian, why not a male blank? That too is apparently cause for being attacked (yes, really, I've watched that happen). Any form of opposing view is immediately under fire, and it's being done in targeted manner: people are gaslighting to then claim their moral superiority. Goobertown Hobbies was guilty of this in my opinion, smugly proclaiming himself righteous while putting down many hobbyists using an argument that simply wasn't true. I stopped watching his channel because of that. I much rather watch people with viewpoints I'm against, but who debate and put forth reasons without stooping to attack others to make themselves feel better.
None of this is unique to Games Workshop, tabletop gaming, etc. It's been happening throughout the movie industry for a while (where it's now crumbling in a spectacular fashion): Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Marvel, etc. I'm hoping that coupled with the massive success of Space Marine II will convince Games Workshop to push back against the agenda and just stick to pleasing their core audience while still giving diverse options as they once did. Otherwise, every time I paint a model I'm just going to be thinking "how will they turn this into gender politics, wonder if they'll try use this to enforce stupid pronouns everywhere, I wonder if I'll be attacked for using one colour over another on this model". I used to want to experiment with a wide range of skin tones. Now I don't - now I just want to paint Caucasian skin tones in defiance of the real bigotry.
So I'm not sure what I'm going to do here. I'll wait and see I suppose. I've already changed my mind about buying a couple of Custodian models. This is again not a gender issue - it's because I no longer see Custodes, I see agenda whenever I look at them. I won't sell those I already have, but I'm not motivated to paint them either. I've passed buying other models recently too. This toxicity coming from those claiming to be against toxic behaviour is making the hobby unpalatable, driving out the very people who built it in the first place. I'm not even recommending it to parents of the core audience anymore. Maybe Horus Heresy is still alright. For now. 40k though, is in some serious trouble.
Most unfortunate.
-- silly painter.
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