WX-78's Gender Topic

[GetRektKids]

People complained about it for multiple pages in a forum, so here you go. Now you can stay on topic! 

 

Also I'm not going to post on this, this is just for others!

[SonicDen220]

I always referred to WX as a he. Am I wrong? Perhaps.

Do I care about being wrong about it? No.

Do I care about unintentionally offending other people because of that? No.

[minespatch]

WX is dancer gender.

[1bubbainpa]

I’m pretty sure the conflict was resolved in that thread, so creating a whole new thread about this topic is just a flame war waiting to happen.

[minespatch]

Just now, 1bubbainpa said:

I’m pretty sure the conflict was resolved in that thread, so creating a whole new thread about this topic is just a flame war waiting to happen.

Not flame warring, I just wanted a excuse to show off my art again.

[Lammarr]

They Identify as a Meatbag Killing Machine.

[reverentsatyr]

Well... It's a robot... so I usually call robots "it". But if I imagine WX as any gender, I'll say that it's a dude. Plus, aren't there theories that WX used to be a man?

[minespatch]

2 minutes ago, reverentsatyr said:

Plus, aren't there theories that WX used to be a man?

WX could be a reprogrammed homunculus with a human skeleton without Jewish magic words. Wagstaff seems to know of WX, so we can only expect answers from Wagstaff.

[MondayNight]

The robot's "gender" is..... "robot". Shocking, I know

[L. Ringmaster]

Robit

[minespatch]

Just now, L. Ringmaster said:

Robit

Devs, make a frog skin for WX.

[GetRektKids]

No, it's just the topic went on for the pages about a robot and it's gender. I feel like a topic needed to be made

[1bubbainpa]

18 minutes ago, GetRektKids said:

No, it's just the topic went on for the pages about a robot and it's gender. I feel like a topic needed to be made

 

40 minutes ago, 1bubbainpa said:

I’m pretty sure the conflict was resolved in that thread, so creating a whole new thread about this topic is just a flame war waiting to happen.

 

[Rinkusan]

25 minutes ago, reverentsatyr said:

Well... It's a robot... so I usually call robots "it". But if I imagine WX as any gender, I'll say that it's a dude. Plus, aren't there theories that WX used to be a man?

Using 'it' to refer to WX doesn't quite work here. While 'it' is gender-neutral, the pronoun generally refers to any impersonal (no personality), non-human entity, particularly inanimate objects. Some people still refer to certain animals as 'it', but you grammatically would not refer to your pet that you've gotten to know and bond with an 'it'.

Going back to WX, calling him an 'it' is implying that he's either an inanimate object or something that's devoid of personality. He clearly isn't inanimate, and you can ascertain his personality from his snippets of monologue just like any other Don't Starve character. Also, he has a soul when he dies, so there's that. Here are some articles on what 'it' and singular they's are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_(pronoun)#Usage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they


Going a bit deeper (maybe much deeper than necessary) into this argument, you could easily argue that WE humans are robots made of protein and adipose instead of nuts and bolts. Does the material we're made out of alone necessarily put us at a higher level of consciousness than something made out of inorganic metals, especially with artificial intelligence gradually becoming a thing nowadays? Whatever the answer is though, it's pretty clear that WX in the context of this game is definitely a person.
 

[Desblat]

57 minutes ago, minespatch said:

Jewish 

TRIGGERED

[trinket_4]

it

[minespatch]

2 minutes ago, Desblat said:

TRIGGERED

You're not familiar with the Golem?

 

[Desblat]

15 minutes ago, Rinkusan said:

Going back to WX, calling him an 'it' is implying that he's either an inanimate object or something that's devoid of personality.

That's all much easier actually: In russian language "robot" is "he". Thus using "it" for WX is wrong. End of story.

[Rinkusan]

1 hour ago, SonicDen220 said:

I always referred to WX as a he. Am I wrong? Perhaps.

Do I care about being wrong about it? No.

Do I care about unintentionally offending other people because of that? No.

You might not be wrong, actually. Canis and NormalPinkerton gave some pretty compelling evidence that WX identifies as male, from referring to himself using masculine pronouns to a skin description indicating that WX was masculine. It's very possible that the other DST characters refer to him with singular they's because they all don't know what gender WX identifies as; singular they's can be used to refer to both non-binary people and people whose gender is unknown to the speaker. 

That being said, it's still possible given the evidence that WX has a particular non-binary gender that happens to be toward the masculine side of the spectrum. I don't know the answer to that, but I do think that given the evidence, there isn't anything wrong with referring to WX as either a 'he' or a non-binary person.

[Desblat]

15 minutes ago, minespatch said:

You're not familiar with the Golem?

never knew that golem comes from jewish lore.

Besides: Wagstaff is most likely creator of WX, also he claims that it was always difficult to make waterproof automaton.

quotes:

Floaty Boaty Knight - "Amazing! I ran into many difficulties waterproofing my automaton."

WX on throne - "Is that...? But it couldn't be!"

[reverentsatyr]

40 minutes ago, Rinkusan said:

Going back to WX, calling him an 'it' is implying that he's either an inanimate object or something that's devoid of personality. He clearly isn't inanimate, and you can ascertain his personality from his snippets of monologue just like any other Don't Starve character. Also, he has a soul when he dies, so there's that. Here are some articles on what 'it' and singular they's are.

His literal nickname in the game is "The soulless animation" and his motto is: "EMPATHY MODULE NOT RESPONDING".

[Rinkusan]

2 minutes ago, reverentsatyr said:

His literal nickname in the game is "The soulless animation" and his motto is: "EMPATHY MODULE NOT RESPONDING".

Keyword: nickname. He actually does have a soul.

Also, empathy is an aspect of personality; it doesn't define personality. Even sociopaths who by-definition lack empathy have personalities.

 

[Theukon-dos]

Alright, I suppose I've talked about this a lot, so I may aswell intervine. 

 

First of all, WX does not have a "Soul". He has a ghost, certainly, but if a WX dies near a wortox, then they won't drop a soul for him. Similarly, Webber only has 1 ghost, but when they die they drop 2 souls, as they're 2 seperate beings functioning as one.

 

Second, while WX is technically genderless, he does appear to identify as male. They have quotes where they refer to themselves with Male pronouns (IE "I AM THE KING OF THE OCEAN" when examining the shark-tooth crown), and there Guest of honor skin gives them a Mustache and a bowtie, both of which are traditionally masculin in nature. Though this is the only time this is really seen, due to the other skins focusing on his robotic nature.

[me real life]

46 minutes ago, Theukon-dos said:

Second, while WX is technically genderless, he does appear to identify as male. They have quotes where they refer to themselves with Male pronouns (IE "I AM THE KING OF THE OCEAN" when examining the shark-tooth crown), and there Guest of honor skin gives them a Mustache and a bowtie, both of which are traditionally masculin in nature. Though this is the only time this is really seen, due to the other skins focusing on his robotic nature.

While the few quotes where they use male pronouns are fair*, I don't agree with the idea that a mustache and bowtie somehow contribute to WX-78 being male. Both masculine and feminine non-binary people exist, and this doesn't make them any less NB, it just means they lean towards masculine or feminine. Gender is a spectrum, and "non-binary" includes literally everything outside of male and female, it doesn't just mean androgynous.

Plus, I'm female and I've always wanted to wear a fancy suit (a traditionally masculine piece of clothing), and that doesn't change my gender in any way.

* I'd personally chalk it up to outdated pre-DST writing, before the character was fully figured out, and then SW writing which imo is almost never in character for anyone. But the quotes are still there, they're completely fair to bring up on this topic.

[Rinkusan]

8 minutes ago, Theukon-dos said:

First of all, WX does not have a "Soul". He has a ghost, certainly, but if a WX dies near a wortox, then they won't drop a soul for him. Similarly, Webber only has 1 ghost, but when they die they drop 2 souls, as they're 2 seperate beings functioning as one.

I was actually referring to the ghost when I mentioned "souls". The fact that WX has a ghost is evidence that he is as much of a person as Wilson or Willow despite the material that makes up their bodies.

Regarding "Wortox souls", I believe they're separate from the common understanding of souls. Yes, Webber drops 2 souls when he dies, but if you're suggesting that it's ONLY because there are two states of mind living in a symbiotic relationship, that doesn't explain why bosses like deerclops and dragonfly - which we all know are single entities - drop 7 souls each. Bearger even drops 9 souls.

Rather than Wortox souls reflecting "actual souls", it seems like Wortox souls are actually just "organic life force". They don't reflect actual consciousness, but rather, they seemingly reflect the amount of "life energy" each organism possesses, which is proportionate to their size and how much they eat.