Why do Omnics have genders?

General Discussion
1

Could you say they really have genders?
I mean, why though? They don’t reproduce or anything, they are just one single generation. Yet.
Is it just for the sake of being a bit more ‘human’? If that’s the case, Ramattra should strip himself of his gender THIS INSTANT.
And what if there’s a non-binary omnic? What program is it working with that doesn’t consist of just 1s and 0s?
Ramattra and Bastion both were Null Secotor units, Bastion is neutral while the other is male. Why would you give one a gender but not the other?
Now I’m interested: Can omnics have genders? Y/N?
And what’s the use of them having any?

Am I thinking too hard about it?

5 Likes
3

Honestly lore wise I’m sorta interested in the question too. Why do they have genders? Were they programmed with that or did they chose it themselves?

5 Likes
4

It just makes structuring sentences easier.

5 Likes
5

Don’t confuse sex with gender.

‘Sex’ is what you have physically.

‘Gender’ is part of an incredibly complex personal and social construct that makes up part of an individual’s identity.

There is no way on god’s green earth we could even remotely begin to cover the complexities of gender in a single post. But know that it spans all extremes and subtleties of gender expression, as well as feelings of not having a gender at all.

If the omnics are sentient (which they are) and they have a complex social structure (they do) then it stands to reason that they may develop identities that include notions of gender.

That is not to say every omnic will have a gender, or that every gender would have paralels in human society, but enough of them would certainly do so.

30 Likes
6

I imagine because they are autonomous, they can identify with one or the other. So, yeah, they can have genders.

10 Likes
8

This is such a fascinating topic when it comes to lore of overwatch. Does this mean the omnics develop gender based on the society they are in or since they are sentient they have some innate gender they are born with?

1 Like
9

i would assume eventually engineers decided to integrate gender characteristics so omnics would b more relatable to humans

2 Likes
10

Well omnics are far more than just robots, they are enlightened sentient and self aware, so like humans they present their identity however they choose and they probably have ways of customising how they look and follow popular fashion trends and influencers like people do.

7 Likes
11

… good for you, I guess? :man_shrugging: Not sure what you wanted me to do with that information or why you felt like sharing your lack of engagement with the topic, but you do you. :+1:

I think that is totally up to interpretation. I mean, this is set in the future, so a great many things will have happened socially.

I guess you could write it so that omnics begin with no notion of gender but begin developing it as they interact more with society around them as well as develop their own social constructs. That would be interesting.

I’d hate to think omnics have chosen genders in an attempt to seem ‘more human’ though, that would be kind of sad. A valid angle to explore in fiction, but still sad.

9 Likes
12

Yes, gender is how you express yourself regardless of what’s in your pants.

If they feel like they want to represent themselves in certain mannerisms, then they can choose to express their gender as thus.

It’s not any deeper than that.

Just like some people are more set in their gender than others and choose to represent it differently.

4 Likes
13

I think that it could either be how they act, talk, identify, or what their programming dictates.

Or it could be a reflection of them attempting to engender themselves to humans, or imitate humans.

Honestly I think that this question is a great question. A great lore question.

2 Likes
16

they are sentient being with the capacity for human speech, so yes

because most people are used to referring to people by he or she, while some do use they them, as proven by venture, much of this community is immature little babies who need their game experience to not have non binary characters or else its woke agenda DEI whatever repubs complain about

yes

3 Likes
17

Anthropomorphisation

(Wow, one word and it hits the 20 character requirement.)

2 Likes
18

Because they can be in relationships with humans.
Because even real life sex robots have genders.
Because people prefer it that way, so they created them that way.

19

Because gender is a societal construct. They live in the same society as humans, thus they’re pretty likely to pick up on them; that said, it should be much more common for omnics to be NB/identify with neither gender for this reason.

20

To make them seem more human and trigger a better empathetic response from the audience. Same reason why the robots in Wall E were presented with genders.

4 Likes
21

Why does Siri or Amazon’s Alexa have a gender?

Because humans make things that have genders.

Bastion is gender-neutral because it is a sentient gun turret.

4 Likes
22

This is what I would assume. The robots only have humans as a reference.

1 Like
23

Well they are sentient so I would assume they chose it after gaining said sentience.

There’s also the case that some of them LOOK male or female in terms of design so they could also go based off that.

1 Like
24

They’re sentient and can make their own decisions about their body and how they present it.

Omnic gender is actually interesting as Omnics were effectively “born” as fully-developed Adults and their decision (or not) to adhere to a Human gender binary would be entirely for personal, self-reasoned reasons, whatever they may be.

But that’s just worldbuilding brain talking- the real answer is that Blizzard designed Bastion as a Box, Ramattra and Zenyatta with stereotypically masculine body types, and that one lady omnic from that awful short film with roboobs and their gender identities were decided entirely on that.

5 Likes