1. Definiendo el Mechsploitation.
El "mechsploitation" es un microgénero reciente de ciencia ficción erótica que combina elementos de militaria, control mental y robots gigantes. Generalmente se centra en relaciones lésbicas y sáficas, con un fuerte enfoque en personajes transgénero y dinámicas de poder entre piloto y "handler".
- Mechsploitation, speaking broadly, is a genre of erotic science fiction heavily featuring a mix of militaria, erotic mind control, and giant robots. It is usually centered on lesbian and sapphic relationships, though not always, especially those that focus on transgender characters.
- Mechsploitation is a pretty new subgenre of mecha that emerged out of a soup of social media posting, short fiction, and eventually novels (like warhound by .) that is responsible for why you see tgirls posting about mecha pilots in dog muzzles on mind-breaking drugs.
- The central theme is generally a mech pilot's mind being tampered with to make them a better weapon.
2. Influencias Clave: Armored Core y Gundam.
Aunque sus raíces pueden rastrearse hasta obras como Evangelion, el género experimentó un auge significativo con el lanzamiento del videojuego Armored Core 6. Sin embargo, la franquicia Gundam sigue ejerciendo una influencia ineludible sobre toda la ficción mecha moderna, incluido este subgénero.
- Mechsploitation is an emergent genre that doesn't really have a set date of origin & can be said to be as old as eva, but really kicked off in '23 with the release of armored core 6.
- It's heavily influenced by armored core because that's really the ur-example from what i can tell.
- As a rule, it's not a question of whether military mecha fiction is inspired by gundam, but a question of which gundam it was inspired by.
- Gundam exerts this inescapable gravity on modern mech fiction by both being a major touchstone and a constantly updated one feeding into itself and others for decades.
3. Un Espacio para la Narrativa Trans y el Kink.
Escrito principalmente por mujeres trans, el mechsploitation utiliza la explotación dentro del complejo militar-industrial como un vehículo para explorar dinámicas de kink, sexualidad y traumas. Aborda temas como la dismorfia corporal y la falta de autonomía a través de la lente de la ficción mecha.
- If i had to define mechsploitation it's this: it is not exploitation fiction. It is mech fiction, written primarily by trans women, where exploitation by and within the military industrial complex is both a core theme and a vehicle for kink dynamics and sexuality.
- I find the specific overlap of trans women and mechsploitation interesting bc it's like an extension of how military fiction is often about a male-coded form of exploitation (disposable armored macho bodies), and applying that to heavily augmented female bodies helps grapple with that type of trauma.
- A lot of the good trans girl mecha writing emerge imo from writing about transfem body weirdness and lack of autonomy through a mecha fiction lens.
4. El Debate: ¿Nuevo Género o Evolución Natural?
Existe una discusión sobre si el mechsploitation es una distinción necesaria o si sus tropos ya estaban presentes en la ficción mecha tradicional. Algunos argumentan que su ADN ha estado integrado en el género desde los años 70, y que su principal diferencia es ser más abiertamente queer en sus temas.
- My main gripe is that mechsploitation is a needless distinction because all that stuff is in mech fiction already.
- The fundamental secret of mechsploitation is that it isn't really much more evil or much hornier than regular mecha fiction it's just more open and more confidently queer about both of those things.
- The dna of mechsploitation is so thoroughly ingrained in mainstream mecha since the 70s that i mostly just see it as mecha fiction.
- Though honestly i think mechsplo is just a su8genre of mech fiction and not something separ8.