Beyond Testicles: The Progenoid Gland and Astartes Sexuality

[The Last Lamenter]

Unless suggesting corruption from Slanaash, the 40k authors’ complete lack of discussion of sexuality in reference to the Astartes has become a topic of conjecture, controversy, and, of course, much humor within the community. We either tend to impose sexuality by projecting our own 21st century ideas of what sexuality is upon Astartes, or we join with the authors in simply not dealing with it by making highly obscure references to the infertile nature of marines and how it is erased through hypnotherapy, and careful hormone regulation, but these views are too narrow. They are too human, and it is, in fact, a new form of sexuality that heightens the idea that the Astartes, while not alien, are not human at all, and have their own forms of reproduction and sexual identity.
In Ender’s Game, 1985, Orson Scott Card creates a foundation that is the starting point for the discussion of Astartes sexuality when he writes of the Formics, “Ender could see in his mind the slug-like males clinging to the walls of a dark tunnel, and the large adults carrying the infant queen to the mating room; each male in turn penetrated the larval queen, shuddered in ecstasy, and died, dropping to the tunnel floor and shriveling. Then the new queen was laid before the old” (319). This behavior has precedence in insect biology. And it is common to somehow link death with the act of reproduction or rebirth, for example, the monomythic cycle places death right before rebirth, Salmon must spawn or die, in medieval literature “to die” metaphorically meant to ******, and in science fiction, Vulcans must mate every seven years or die, the only alternative being to participate in ritualistic combat. From this idea, the Astartes crafts his sexual identity being linked to combat and death, but takes it much deeper than the Vulcan counterpart, which only mentions it two or three times in the entire Star Trek series.
The Astartes sexual identity is well-rounded and fulfills life’s desire to breed while being indicative of his identity. The Astartes must have a form of sexuality to know themselves. As Michael Foucault stated in 1977, “The Western world… has always asked ‘To know who you are, know what your sexuality is.’ Sex has always been the forum where both the future of our species and our 'truth' as human subjects are decided” The writers of Astartes must answer this question to come to their own “truth,” but they have already dealt with this issue, the entire sum of the Astartes’ sexuality is contained within the progenoid gland, both biologically and symbolically.
The progenoid gland, seperates the Astartes even more from humanity by replacing his testicles, the all-inclusive source of his identity as a sexual being and a man. The testicles are relegated to mere hormone production, once the initiate rises to a battle brother and undergoes the required surgeries. They no longer carry his seed as an Astartes. This role is fulfilled by the gene seed. (Even if the testicles remain as human, semen-producing organs, as some still claim, they do not truly reproduce, as in another Astartes, they would only produce humans, or, in the case of Chaos, some awful spawn)
The Astartes tradition takes the medieval notion of death and ****** quite literally. Although the general consenus is that an Astartes can have his seed removed at five and ten years respectively, the latter mature gland is traditionally harvested by an Apothecary in battle. Therefore, in death, the Astartes’ sexuality is manifest. By dying in battle, he takes part in a sexual act and fulfills both a male and female role if we must have human analogies. He is cut open and the seed removed, he gives birth violently, but he fertilizes the seed internally beforehand. His seed is then implanted into another, penetrated, thus completing the male act in death.
Reproduction is one of the most powerful motivating forces in the world. According to Freudian interpretation it is the most powerful motivating force. The Astartes are bred for war and relish the act because it holds the potential for death, which is so intimately connected to their sexuality. Their death is their reproduction, by which they will pass on their genetic identity, borrowed from the Primarch. The Emperor crafted the Astartes to focus and connect every urge into the act of war, even their sexuality, there it’s a very real possibility that the Astartes anticipate and associate the act of war with a certain level of pleasure, for it holds the potential for their form of sex.
Astartes are not asexual, in fact their sexuality is more profound, violent, and artistic than any human form of the act. They are not insect drones, destined only to shudder and die, but are made for war and war only with all other aspects of life including comraderie and sex being not secondary too, but rather complementary of their sole purpose.

[phoenix01]

Dude, they are plastic toys. Really?

[The Last Lamenter]

Thanks for reading, Pheonix. Very value-added comment. As of right now, there are currently 7 NYT bestsellers in the Black Library's line-up, reaching a wide audience that goes beyond just the table-top game, not to mention three decades of lore construction. It's become rather more than that.

[deinol]

Dude, they are plastic toys. Really?

What else do you do with a Philosophy degree?

[Nabterayl]

Suggestion: empty lines between paragraphs.

Responses:

The Astartes tradition takes the medieval notion of death and ****** quite literally. Although the general consenus is that an Astartes can have his seed removed at five and ten years respectively, the latter mature gland is traditionally harvested by an Apothecary in battle. Therefore, in death, the Astartes’ sexuality is manifest. By dying in battle, he takes part in a sexual act and fulfills both a male and female role if we must have human analogies. He is cut open and the seed removed, he gives birth violently, but he fertilizes the seed internally beforehand. His seed is then implanted into another, penetrated, thus completing the male act in death.

This seems like a very Astartes view to me. I don't disagree that they themselves might see it this way. On the other hand, must we? An Astartes' gametes will not produce another Astartes, but neither will his geneseed. The Astartes reproduction process - as even the chapters themselves see it - is not a purely genetic act. There are critical dietic and surgical components even to the purely biological half of the Astartes reproduction ritual. Simply implanting a homo sapiens with a chapter's geneseed does not produce a space marine of that chapter, even in body. Then too, there are social and psychological components to the reproduction ritual - the selection and removal of a homo sapiens of the desired age and temperament, the hypnoconditioning and psychosurgery that is part of the extended implantation ritual.

I would suggest that it is better to view Astartes reproduction as communal - it doesn't just take a village to raise a space marine; it takes a village to make one in the first place. I think geneseed harvesting is better viewed as a brother's contribution to the chapter community - a sexual one, if one is willing to grant sexual its academic meaning, but not a birth, and not a complete act. For that matter, I'd suggest that space marines themselves see very few acts as completed except by the community - the reification of community, after all, is what makes space marine operational patterns possible to begin with.

for it holds the potential for their form of sex.

I think this is making sex too cerebral a motivation. If a space marine looks forward to battle, with its possibility of death and contribution of geneseed, I think it would be better to analogize that anticipation to the anticipation any soldier might experience of protecting one's family and legacy. That is a real pleasure, but we know from psychological studies that it is almost never in a soldier's mind during or on the eve of battle. It is also a very different pleasure from the pleasure one derives from the anticipation of sex. Unless the psychological part of the creation of a space marine changes this (which I suppose it could, though nobody has ever suggested it does).

[The Last Lamenter]

Thank you for reading and the comments, Nabterayl.

[LordGrise]

I don't have any deep philosophical thoughts on the subject, I'm afraid; the pre-dinner martini (Tanqueray Rangpur, Martini and Rossi white vermouth, six to one, stirred not shaken, with a pearl onion) has settled any possibilities of that. But I do have to admit that I am very unsatisfied with the absence of any sort of treatment of the subject, just as I am very unsatisfied with any of the Space Marine books other than the Space Wolf books - those, I could get into. The rest - feh.

[phoenix01]

I think it speaks volumes of what it means to you that you sat around for apparently quite some time, thinking about how (not if) Space Marines have sex. I have never considered the great value of such a discussion until now. I have always thought of my Space Marines as pieces of plastic that I have glued together and painted; I never considered their feelings, needs, and desires. Thank you so much for enlightening me.

This makes me wonder if my Han Solo action figure was getting it on with my Princess Leia Organa action figure while I was sleeping as a kid.

Say hi to Buzz and Woody and the gang for me.

[The Last Lamenter]

Ill give buzz and woody your regards, Phoenix, I'm sure the academy award committee and the American film institute were a bit over zealous in their praise of toy story. I don't know about Star Wars, I've read a few essays on Joseph Cambell and george lucas, and the rise and fall of the empire, but I've not seen much on Han Solo, maybe you could expand that idea, however I think a Star Wars forum would be a better place. Definitely send me the link, I'd love to read it. I'm more into the books than the game, and view the Astartes as characters

[Nabterayl]

I think it speaks volumes of what it means to you that you sat around for apparently quite some time, thinking about how (not if) Space Marines have sex. I have never considered the great value of such a discussion until now. I have always thought of my Space Marines as pieces of plastic that I have glued together and painted; I never considered their feelings, needs, and desires. Thank you so much for enlightening me.

This makes me wonder if my Han Solo action figure was getting it on with my Princess Leia Organa action figure while I was sleeping as a kid.

Say hi to Buzz and Woody and the gang for me.

Look man ... if 40K is just a game to you, that's fine. If you're incapable of imagining a space marine as anything but a miniature, or simply don't want to, that's fine. But take the snark somewhere else. Nobody barged into your living room and started talking about stuff you don't care about.