Female Space Marines

This article contains PROMOTIONS! Don't say we didn't warn you.

Guaranteed to garner at least 100 replies.

There is no tactic more effective for enraging a die-hard SPESS MEHREENS fanboy than discussing/drawing their Rule 63 companion, Female Space Marines. According to Games Workshop canon, the procedures that are used to create a Space Marine only work properly on male subjects, rendering female Marines impossible; however, many on the internet have not allowed this to deter them. Sometimes it is pointed out that back in the Rogue Trader days, Games Workshop did briefly produce two power-armoured female models, but they were changed to "Female Adventurers in Power Armour" and were never meant to represent female Marines.

Games Workshop, on the other hand, officially don't give a damn what anyone does, as long as they keep buying overpriced models.

The canon part

According to fluff, the Space Marine process only works on males because "the zygotes are keyed to male hormones and tissue types" (and presumably also Big Boss' superior dominant genes). This essentially just means the process was designed with males in mind, and won't work on females because actually figuring out how technology works and using it to make other kinds of technology isn't how the Imperium rolls anymore.

In canon terms, the Female version of the Spehss mahreens would be the Sisters of Battle, although they're not exactly as powerful as a marine and they're basically a -4str, Rule 63 version.

But if we're being pedantic...

There is a certain intersex condition that allows a genetically male individual to be born as a hormonal female. It is called "Complete Androgene Insensitivity Syndrome" (CAIS). A person that is born with CAIS has XY Chromosomes, therefore they are genetically males. But since their cells are insensitive to androgenes they are born with female features, and develop as females. Such girls have testes in place of ovaries, therefore they produce testosterone instead of estrogen.

So according to above statements it is theoretically possible to have -4 str Marines, if not in a way that would actually happen in-universe, and in a way that technically means they're male anyway.

What would a female Space Marine look like?

Obviously, in the land of Rule 63 they are amazingly hot (and would totally do you), but in dark and gritty fluff-land where they would be optimised for combat rather than jacking off, they would probably have almost no recognisably female features left following surgery and genetic fuckery; they'd have the same big, bulky figures as males, further made unrecognisable by thick plate armour. A female Space Marine with her helmet on would look like a regular Space Marine.

This means all Space Marines with their helmets on might be female right now and you wouldn't even know.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU-

RAEG

RAGE is generated by the tactic in two distinct ways; either the neckbeard(s) assume that the creator of the work in question is unaware of the Space Marine fluff, and rage about his or her ignorance; failing that, it becomes clear that they are well aware of the fluff regarding these matters and willingly chose to disregard it, sending the poor neckbeards into fits of spastic rage that anyone would dare deliberately defile the sacrosanct canon of Games Workshop's masterpiece with the foul taint of cooties.

Summary

For the most part, the neckbeards on /tg/ fear anything with two X chromosomes. For the most part, anyone who actually makes an army of female Space Marines does it to garner the most ire from the most diehard fans. Like playing a Tau army, it's all about drinking the rage-induced tears of sexually stunted men.

Gallery

And if you think this is bad, once a month they all gain Frenzy.
Lol. Why u mad though?
Brother-sister Igpay Atinlay boldly distracts the Tyranid foe.
Not in fact Horo.
She'd be even scarier if she took off that mask
DYKE OUTTA FUCKING NOWHERE!
Your eyes should start bleeding right about now.
PMS BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
Not as planned.
The Emperor made the Primarchs to be the greatest human warriors of all time, but even they were not immune to Rule 63.
She was not amused by this development.