'Finally, a lot of minor Legion characters came across as far more overtly misogynistic than I had intended them to.' Isn't the Legion more or less a misogynistic faction though? Since they rape their female slaves and won't allow women to fight in their army? Speaking of which, why is Caesars karma Neutral???
By “overt”, I mean that they openly express hatred of/contempt for women. The Legion systemically categorizes women for forced breeding (rape) or slave labor because Caesar wants as many Legionaries as possible as quickly as possible. This has very little to do with the personal opinions/experiences of individual Legionaries and everything to do with Caesar’s vision. The average Legionary doesn’t have deep-seated open hatred of women, but believes that their society (which subjugates women into specific roles) is good.
Most medieval European societies were relatively bad for women. In addition to the natural hazards of childbirth prior to the late 19th century, most social power structures excluded them or victimized them in various ways. If you were to ask a medieval European man what they thought of women, you probably wouldn’t find many foaming at the mouth with hatred. When people (women or otherwise) transgress social roles, the response varies from amusement to confusion to anger, but people who stay within “the lines” usually don’t catch much flack.
Last year, I read a book called Attitudes toward Post-Menopausal Women in the High and Late Middle Ages, 1100-1400 (really) by Jessica E. Godfrey. Here’s the short summary of those attitudes: not good. Writers from that period tend to hold women in relatively high regard when they are young, beautiful, and childbearing. When they are not those things, they are held in low regard if not considered worthless.
So, while Legionaries would certainly be annoyed/confused by a female Courier, the average Legionary isn’t going around with balled fists hissing “WOMEN!” through clenched teeth.
RE: Caesar’s Karma being neutral: I believe at the time my rationale for that Karma setting is that Caesar is in a Mr. Kurtz-like state of unmoored morality. Whatever moral framework he had as Edward Sallow among the Followers has disintegrated after years of being Caesar. I.e., it’s not so much that his Karma is neutral as much as it is alien.
That said, I don’t feel strongly about that designation and largely feel that the Karma system was vestigial in New Vegas. If we’re trying to encourage players to form their own opinions about factions and individuals, having a design layer that assigns (essentially) alignment is weird.
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