Citations:FemShep

Proper noun: "(fandom slang, video games) the female 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:
 * Playing as FemShep hints that the game world's claims to gender equality may be overstated.
 * 2018, Silvia Pettinni, "Gender in Game Localization: The Case of Mass Effect 3's FemShep", in Linguistic and Cultural Representation in Audiovisual Translation (eds. Irene Ranzato & Serenella Zanotti), unnumbered page:
 * Interestingly, this seems the reason why FemShep is considered to be one of the most popular heroines in gaming history (Cobbett 2012: online), or even one of gaming's first true feminist and feminine protagonists (Hillier 2011).
 * 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 157:
 * The video turns political by closing with a critique of BioWare's policy of never using FemShep as its Mass Effect spokesperson: