Citations:BroShep

Proper noun: "(fandom slang, video games) the male version of the Commander Shepard player character in the Mass Effect series"

 * 2012, Jillian Scharr, "From 'Epic' to 'Epic Win': Play and performance as open-database storytelling in pre- and postliterate media", paper submitted to Vassar College, page 83:
 * The fact that advertising for Mass Effect 3 included “FemShep” as well as “BroShep” was significant for many fans.
 * 2015, Christopher B. Patterson, "Role-Playing the Multiculturalist Umpire: Loyalty and War in BioWare's Mass Effect Series", Games and Culture, Volume 10, Issue 3 (2015), page 16:
 * Only in Mass Effect 3 was FemShep advertised on the game’s cover through the optional ‘‘reversible cover’’ that allowed FemShep players to see their avatars (although all in-game shots were still with BroShep).
 * 2016, Jacob S. Euteneuer, "Default Characters and the Embodied Nature of Play: Race, Gender, and Gamer Identity", Press Start, Volume 3, Issue 1 (2016), page 122:
 * While the change is strictly cosmetic and thus problematic in the same way the FemShep/BroShep example is, Rust plays out in a large, social space where players encounter other human players.
 * 2017, Lynda Clark, "Commander Shepard", in 100 Greatest Video Game Characters (eds. Jaime Banks, Robert Mejia, & Aubrie Adams), page 44:
 * While BroShep displays obliviousness to issues of "reproductive rights and control over the female body," FemShep expresses solidarity with the female Krogan, Eve, indicating there are some galactic power struggles only FemShep can truly understand.
 * 2019, David Callahan, "Don't Fear the Reapers, Fear Multiculturalism: Canadian Contexts and Ethnic Elisions in Mass Effect", Game Studies, Volume 19, Issue 2, October 2019:
 * While we may choose to play either Broshep or Femshep with black skin, it seems we cannot choose for him or her to articulate their backstories any differently to that of the default white Shepards.
 * 2020, Amanda Phillips, Gamer Trouble: Feminist Confrontations in Digital Culture, page 148:
 * There is little deviation between the FemShep and BroShep scripts for the romance with Liara, which positions Commander Shepard as an experienced soldier (and lover) pursuing the naïve, reticent academic.
 * 2020, Tanja Sihovenen, "Game Characters as Tools for Expression: Modding the Body in Mass Effect", in Women and Video Game Modding: Essays on Gender and the Digital Community (eds. Bridget Whelan & Matthew Wilhelm Kapell), unnumbered page:
 * Furthermore, MShep's other nickname, BroShep, brings the humorously and overtly masculine nature of the male Shepard even more to the forefront (see Clark, 2017, p. 44).