Musing: Transformers sexuality

So at Bot Con a few weeks ago, someone asked if Prime Knockout is gay. I'm not going to discuss the "glitch in his Spark" comment, because the only thing I have to say about it is that that was really homophobic. But the answer to that question, I would say, is no, since sexual orientation is defined by gender, which Knockout doesn't have.

Until otherwise stated, I am going to assume that Cybertronians in the Prime Universe were created the usual way for them in other continuities: by Primus, essentially a god. And you can assume that they reproduce the usual way as well, which is constructing a body in a workshop and giving it a Spark of life, either by way of Vector Sigma or the AllSpark. So they are beings that do not reproduce sexually, and were created by a non-sexual being. The concept of sex is completely alien to them, and they likely did not find out about it until they came to Earth. so Cybertronians definitively do not have sexes, but what about genders?

I would say that they do not have genders either, without sexes, the only way to define gender would be their role in society and how they are treated. And Prime Arcee, the only Autobot that would be considered to be female, doesn't seem to be treated any differently than any one else on the team. At best, gender can only be assigned based upon robot forms that vaguely resemble those of humans, and at worst the distinction is arbitrary.

So, no sexes, and no genders. without these reference points, orientation is completely meaningless. Transformers can still love (although, being a Decepticon, Knockout only really loves himself), but there are no sexual barriers for it.

What needs to be remembered is that Cybertronians existed long before humans did, and have a culture all their own. They do not sleep, do not have sex, and their eating is really refueling, with nothing resembling cuisine. Imagine a culture stripped of all of those things, the later two of which seem to make up 80% of our advertising and economy. They may be some of the most alien aliens in fiction that are still comprehensible.