I used to have a really bad habit of reading the Transformer newsgroups. Well, not that that in and of itself is a bad habit, mind you…but sometimes it can be a problem for me because I tend to read questions and observations that are posted to the newsgroups and then proceed to think about them until it drives me to distraction. And it can be the silliest little observations, too. An idea will get into my head, and it won't leave until I've thought about it thoroughly. And then I usually end up expressing my conclusions in a long-winded essay. Such as this one, of course…

One day a long while ago, I was reading through a newsgroup and I stumbled upon a thread wherein someone was speculating upon why it is that we female TransFans seem to have a marked tendency to be Decepticon fans. I have long noticed this tendency myself…and I've often wondered about it…but I never really sat down and thought about it. Until that post on A.T.T made me think about the issue, at least (A scary thing, I'll admit!). And it even prompted a discussion between my then-husband and I about villains in general and their myriad attractions for women.

So I wrote something similar to all of this stuff that I'll get to in a moment and posted it on A.T.T. It was, in fact, one of my very first newsgroup posts. And it generated some controversy (though not nearly as much as I'd thought it would). Some female fans were offended by my lack of respect for the whole "Women's Lib" thing. (For which I will not apologize; I am female, but you don't have to hear me roar. I do not consider myself a feminist.) And some people felt the need to point out how scientifically inaccurate I was in some of my "sociobiological" points. (For which I will apologize; this thing isn't meant to be a scientific dissertation, so bear that in mind. However, I still feel there's a ring of truth to at least parts of it, though, no matter how scientifically inaccurate it may be.) In any event, I've sort of reformatted and rewritten here and there what I posted to the newsgroup, so that it became this "essay," so that I can archive it for posterity. So without further ado:

I think there are many reasons why the Decepticons appeal to women. The original person, whose newsgroup post sparked these thoughts of mine, postulated that it might be because the Decepticons have some more traditionally feminine physical and emotional characteristics. And it's true that some of them do. But then, so do many of the Autobots, so I'm not sure that I totally agree with that theory. Besides which, in many more ways, the Decepticons are overwhelmingly, in fact almost stereotypically, male. But I'll get to that in a minute. Essentially, I think that there are two main reasons why female TransFans tend to favor the Decepticons. Those reasons are both rooted in female psychology, in female "racial memory," if you will. Here we go:

It's long been noted that women have a marked tendency to be attracted to men in positions of power, any kind of power—political, economic, military, what have you. In the end, I think power is such a strong attraction for women because I think that deep down, women really want to be taken care of. We don't really want to have to go out and fend for ourselves. After all, in the natural world, the function of females of any species is primarily to ensure that a next generation is around when the current generation dies. So females tend to choose a partner who they believe will be able to provide for future offspring, one who can provide protection and security in an insecure world, while the women take care of everything else. So what evolved over the course of time within groups of social creatures (such as humans) was an equitable division of labor between males of the species and females of the species. Men did what they had to do to provide a stable living environment for all concerned—providing protection, defending territory from invaders, hunting for animal sources of food, etc—while women took care of the more domestic side of things.

And the system worked well for the human species. This division of labor worked so well, in fact, that it stayed in place (With modifications over the eons, of course) until...the mid-50s, let's say. That's a lot of "conditioning." And what that conditioning boils down to is that, deep down in some primitive part of our psyches, we women are instinctively attracted to men who we think can provide for us. And that would be a man in power. We can't help it. As much as we women whine and moan about sexual equality, I have a sneaking suspicion that a good percentage of us don't really want it or are at least indifferent to the idea. (I'm not saying every woman, mind you. Just women who, like me, are tired of extreme feminist rhetoric, tired of feeling like they have to do everything in order to achieve "fulfillment." Me, I prefer the division of labor. Maybe I'm just lazy, but I don't want to do everything.)

Anyway, apply this basic female need for powerful men to the TFs. I don't know about anyone else, but as far as I'm concerned, when asked which of the TF factions is more traditionally powerful, more traditionally "male" in the sense of primitive, stereotypical maleness, I'd immediately answer that it's the Decepticons. No question. Reasons? Here's but a few:

  • The Decepticons are the faction that starts things while the Autobots are the faction that reacts to what the Decepticons do. As such, the Decepticons are usually the driving force behind any TF story—television, comic, fanfic, what have you. They do their thing, and the Autobots go, "Uh-oh!" and then they go and stop them. Being the driving force behind anything is a powerful thing, as far as I'm concerned. People who start things, whether for good or for ill, are inherently powerful.

    The Decepticons also fill one of those stereotypical and traditional "male" roles: They're hunter-gatherers. Like what we'd imagine that cavemen would do--scientifically accurate or not--they see something that they need or want and they take it, by force if necessary, without a second thought. It's not necessarily nice, but it is what hunter-gatherer men do. Or at least we think it is. And it's a classic, stereotypical, and powerful male role.

    There's that Megatron guy, a tyrant ruler par excéllence who has no equivalent on the Autobot side of things. He's the ultimate power figure. And most of the rest of the Decepticons are either tyrants-in-training or tyrant-wannabees. The Autobots—while they have a definite leader, obviously—are far more democratic than the Decepticons. Democracy is more noble, perhaps, but it doesn't pack the power wallop of tyranny. (No, I'm not advocating tyranny, I'm just saying that a tyrant has a more powerful reputation than a democratic ruler. Ask yourself who you think has more power in the sense of doing what he wants to do with his country: Bill Clinton, who answers to a Senate and the entire population of the country, or Saddam Hussein, who answers to no one but himself.)

  • Of the two factions, the Decepticons strike me as being more structured as an organization, with a more definite command hierarchy than the Autobots. This gives them, as far as I'm concerned, another aura of power because I tend to equate them with a military organization, and any military organization is a symbol of might and power. The Autobots, on the other hand...Well, I still haven't quite figured out their hierarchy in fifteen years of fandom! I mean, you know who the leader is, but can you tell me who the second-in-command is, especially in the early cartoon episodes? Is it Prowl? Ironhide? Jazz? Who knows?!

Anyway, all of these things — and possibly more — give me the impression that the Decepticons are the more "manly" power figures of the two TF factions. You (or at least I) get the feeling that if they wanted to (and that's a big if!), they could take care of you, provide everything for you that you could possibly need or want. And if you somehow got into their good graces, then not much could hurt you. You'd be safe and secure. That's a very powerful attraction for that primitive cavewoman that lurks deep down in the soul of all women (or at least in this woman!).

Now, I hear you all saying, "Yeah, but you'd be safe with the Autobots, too!" Not necessarily! As I pointed out before, the Decepticons are the ones who attack. The Autobots fight valiantly to defend themselves and others, but usually not on their own terms. As far as I'm concerned, I'd be much safer happily ensconced in Decepticon Headquarters than I'd be if I were huddled in terror with the Autobots. How many times has the Ark/Autobot City/wherever been under direct threat from the Decepticons? More times than I can count! How often has a Decepticon base been under direct threat from anyone (other than Unicron)? Not very often! I'll take my chances with the Decepticons, thanks!

Now, bear in mind that I'm not saying that the Autobots aren't at all powerful. Indeed, some of them are very powerful in a virile, primitive male way. Like Optimus Prime—hence his legion of female admirers. And you can't top the sheer primitive, physical power of the Dinobots! And Ironhide's got the whole twangy cowboy thing going for him and Brawn, true to his name, is a tough cookie. I'm simply saying that, as a whole, as a unit, the Decepticons are more uniformly powerful, filling all of the (mostly unflattering) stereotypes of masculine power. I'm also not talking about good and bad here. In a discussion of power and its manifold attractions for women, it doesn't really matter who's "good" and who's "bad." It does for my next observation, however...

Because another female tendency is our compulsive "I can make anything or anyone better if I really try" instinct. Again, we can't help it. It's a woman sorta thing. This makes us tend to gravitate toward the villains (or at least the anti-heroes, like Han Solo) in any story. It's because women subconsciously think, while watching a bad guy in action, "Gee, if I could just get my hands on him, I'll bet I could make him a 'good' person." This is, I think, why many women tend to get tangled up in relationships with self-destructive men. We think that if we love them enough, we can make them "all better." (Of course, we usually can't, but that doesn't stop us from thinking that we can!) And it's done ad nauseum on soap operas—which are primarily aimed at women, of course. A male character is introduced as a bad guy with a past and he usually does some bad things (Rape seems to be a favorite), but then the character is slowly rehabilitated with the love of a "good girl" and then—bang!—suddenly he's a hero! It's almost a classic female fantasy. We love the "bad" guys because we think that, if we could get our hands on them, then we could "save" them and turn them into fine, upstanding citizens.

Now, apply that to the Decepticons. Every last one of them, of course, fills the bill as a bad, bad "man," with a dark, dark past. They are "men" that women could perhaps believe that they could "help." Even without the lure of the Decepticons' power, that would be a powerful attractive force. Throw in their traditional and stereotypical male power and that doubles their attraction. Add in the fact that many of the Decepticons are almost sympathetic characters, too, "trapped" under the influence of a very, very bad man (At least, that's how slobbering romantics like me will interpret them!), and that triples their attraction. Woman magnets, the Decepticons are, I tell ya. Almost irresistable, as far as I've seen. And that, I think, is why they have legions of female fans. (Well, maybe "legions" is too strong of a word, considering that we female TF fans are apparently few and far between, but you know what I mean...)