I don't think "inherently" is the right word here. As you note, it would have been entirely plausible to have a good storyline that was still WoW-lore-consistent without being sexist. Thus, the sexism can be fixed without making it "not WoW any more." It is pretty pervasive, though.
Probably the instance that comes to mind for me is Jaina at the gates of Stratholme, who doesn't raise more than a token protest against Arthas. Here was an opportunity to make a meaningful stand for her beliefs, and instead she just walks away with Uther.
On the other hand, all the random mobs with a discernible gender are randomly male or female. Women are therefore fairly equally represented in the world at large. Likewise, so many of the questgivers are female that it's hardly a point of note, and rather a number of them are cast in positions of local authority. Jaina is in charge of Theramore. Therazane rules all of Deepholm. Ishanah is the leader of the Aldor faction in Shattrath.
On the gripping hand, most of the bosses are male, with few exceptions, and those not that notable for their agency or well-developed storylines. The only female end-bosses I can think of off hand are Princess Theradras and Vanessa. (Oh, and Lady Vashj at the end of SSC.)
ALL of the race leaders except Sylvanas are male, and she is portrayed in a pretty poor light in canon. (Moira doesn't count; she isn't the leader who matters for any of the achievements. That's Muradin. And she represents the "evil" Dark Iron dwarves anyway, tending to more support the point if you include her than to refute it.) Grom and Varian don't come off that well either, so it's not blatant "men good, women bad," but the Tauren were a missed opportunity to give at least one race a strong, noble woman leader. Instead, they made a divisive villainous murderer.
I started to write a wrap-up paragraph that said "it ain't all that bad," and realized what I was doing. Gah. Yeah, the sexism is really there. It's not fundamentally built into the premise of the game, but it's as hard to miss as the Christian-centric holiday calendar, the occasional racist bits, the strong Eurocentric orientation, and probably a few other random bits of fail that aren't coming to mind right now.
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Date: 2011-05-17 07:28 pm (UTC)Probably the instance that comes to mind for me is Jaina at the gates of Stratholme, who doesn't raise more than a token protest against Arthas. Here was an opportunity to make a meaningful stand for her beliefs, and instead she just walks away with Uther.
On the other hand, all the random mobs with a discernible gender are randomly male or female. Women are therefore fairly equally represented in the world at large. Likewise, so many of the questgivers are female that it's hardly a point of note, and rather a number of them are cast in positions of local authority. Jaina is in charge of Theramore. Therazane rules all of Deepholm. Ishanah is the leader of the Aldor faction in Shattrath.
On the gripping hand, most of the bosses are male, with few exceptions, and those not that notable for their agency or well-developed storylines. The only female end-bosses I can think of off hand are Princess Theradras and Vanessa. (Oh, and Lady Vashj at the end of SSC.)
ALL of the race leaders except Sylvanas are male, and she is portrayed in a pretty poor light in canon. (Moira doesn't count; she isn't the leader who matters for any of the achievements. That's Muradin. And she represents the "evil" Dark Iron dwarves anyway, tending to more support the point if you include her than to refute it.) Grom and Varian don't come off that well either, so it's not blatant "men good, women bad," but the Tauren were a missed opportunity to give at least one race a strong, noble woman leader. Instead, they made a divisive villainous murderer.
I started to write a wrap-up paragraph that said "it ain't all that bad," and realized what I was doing. Gah. Yeah, the sexism is really there. It's not fundamentally built into the premise of the game, but it's as hard to miss as the Christian-centric holiday calendar, the occasional racist bits, the strong Eurocentric orientation, and probably a few other random bits of fail that aren't coming to mind right now.