[EVA]Gender was [EVA]Evangelion Classified Information

[M]

The “Feminism in Eva” part has been split off into a separate post  
that I may or may not make because it would mean bringing up some not- 
so-friendly things that I have done pretty good to ignore for some  
time now.  We’ll see how the rest goes first.


 > incomplete understanding of a single kanji taken out of context >>
 >
 > Yes?

You know which kanji I am talking about, especially since I said it  
will likely appear in the next manga stage.  At any rate I discuss it  
below.


 > << and questionable interpretations of certain screen shots, >>
 >
 > ...Yes?

Again, you know which ones I am talking about because you have posted  
and discussed them repeatedly on the AN and Eva Monkey forums.  I am  
not going to waste time listing them here.  You can do so when you  
present your case.


 > If you are absolutely confident, then you're free to fork over your
 > case at any time and allow it to be scrutinized by others.

Hm, given that “Adam is not female” seems to be the common sense  
argument that best satisfies Ockham’s Razor, I think you are a bit  
confused about who has the burden of proof.

Still, we have to start somewhere, so for reference here is what I  
consider to be the “common sense” argument:

 > Aaron Clark wrote:
 > As I've said before, unless you can prove beyond a shadow of a
 > doubt that there's a male SoL counterpart that knocks up the
 > female SoL prior to spaceflight, Adam and Lilith are asexual.

Well said.
Given the absence of the above proof, Adam and Lilith are probably  
best categorized as asexual and referred to as “it”.


-----
 > Rachel K. Clark wrote:
 > FYI, the Spears do, in fact, provide masculine counterparts to the  
Seeds.

Please prove that the Spears are male/masculine without resorting to  
a phallic symbol and/or penetration argument.  XD

Especially since if the NGE2-CI is to be believed, the Spears are  
safety devices used to –stop- the SOL and no mention is made of  
impregnating them.
-----

At any rate, if Adam and Lilith are to be assigned genders at all, I  
would assume the context to be as follows:

Adam (Kaworu) ---- Lilith (Rei)
White (light) ---- Black (dark)
True (heaven) ---- False (earth)
Active/extroverted ---- Passive/introverted

In Eastern philosophy, these are all attributes of:

Yang (Japanese = “Yo”) ---- Ying (Japanese = “In”)

Which in turn correspond to:

Male/masculine ---- Female/feminine

This duality is further supported by the use of a male avatar  
(Kaworu) for Adam, and a female avatar (Rei) for Lilith, not to  
mention the traditional genders of the names assigned to each SOL.

And while I do not list it among the proof, it is worth mentioning  
that Seele (Symbology ‘R Us) chose a “male” vessel to hold the soul  
of their “god”.  If Adam were female, I hardly think they would  
commit what might be considered the blasphemy of placing “her” soul  
in a male body.


 > I understand that Kaworu refers to Lilith as motherly when he
 > confused it for Adam, but just because a character has described
 > Adam as female does not mean Adam is in actuality female.
 > Besides, that bit of dialogue has always seemed metaphoric to me.

This refers to Kaworu’s line “Adam... Warera no haha-taru sonzai”  
which I translated as “Adam, progenitor ours.”  The kanji “haha” here  
is generally used in the literal sense as “mother”, and is one of the  
main pieces of evidence given for the Adam = Female theory.

The problem is that “haha” has more and deeper meanings than just  
“mother”.  As a simple example, in case of an organism that  
reproduces asexually (division, spawning, etc.), the original  
organism is often referred to as the “haha (mother)” organism.   
However, this cannot be considered an assignment of gender in any  
way.  In addition, “haha” can also be used in scientific settings to  
refer to an originating “something”.  So in these cases (and IMO in  
the asexual SOL context above), “haha” simply refers to “that which  
gives birth/produces offspring,” or “progenitor/origin”.


So to recap, the SOL are most likely asexual, or if a gender must be  
assigned then the context argues for the traditional gender assignments.