User blog comment:CaptainAndrath/Slaanesh's gender/@comment-1657156-20130414071750

To understand Slaanesh's gender is to recognize her for what she is: the living embodiment of decadence. There are those persons who seek decadence in the extreme in that they strive to try out every narcotic they come across just 'to know what it's like.'  The same could be said for connosieurs of wine or those women who collect thousands of shoes.

In that regard, Slaanesh is not genderless, but is better understood to be of both genders. By being of both genders, Slaanesh is able to indulge in the sensations of masculinity and feminity, which further characterizes Slaanesh as decadent.

In addition, those who are regarded as decadent are those persons who indulge themselves in sensations (or pleasures) that are considered forbidden or taboo or immoral by general society. Cross-dressing and transvestism are considered deviant behaviors that are done only by those persons who are willing to cast aside taboos. So, in that way, by being a cross-dressing hermaphrodite, Slaanesh is casting aside taboos while also indulging in the forbidden: which again exemplifies Slaanesh's decadence.

Now having said that...

There has been a conscious effort over the years to move Slaanesh away from being a hermaphrodite and instead as purely female. The reasons for this are multifold. In the first place, hermaphroditism and transexualism are considered by many, including many Warhammer 40k fans, to be, very frankly, gross. In much the same way that the Internet Lemon Party draws out a gag reflex in many people, so too does hermaphroditism.

In the second place, portraying Slaanesh as purely female adds a level of diversity to the Chaos gods. She's the woman at the table, which lends a female perspective to explore in the larger Warhammer 40k mythos. Moreover, while the character of the female seductress is commonplace in storytelling, the character of the male seducer is much less common and those few stories that do use male seducers, tend to confound the reader.

And third, by holding Slaanesh out as female, that creates yet another 'marketing angle' for Games Workshop to use in catering to its largely male fan-base. If Slaanesh is female, then she and her daemon armies can be sexy. A twisted kind of sexiness that is repulsive even if arousing (like many of the extremely specific niche-porn websites on the Internet), but sexy nevertheless.

(For definitive examples, consult 1d4chan.org's article on Rule 34 and bring a puke bucket, just in case.)

For myself... I simply regard Slaanesh as female because doing so tends to fit the larger mythos of Warhammer rather well.