Quick recap: In the first entry I discussed sexism in video games and how I would be judging the games in the Final Fantasy series. Last time, I began the overview by looking at the FF games from the NES and SNES era.
The last entry sparked a lot of defense of Final Fantasy VI, which I think was partly justified. In some cases there my criticism was more nitpicky, not out of a dislike for FFVI, but due to my overall goal of encouraging you to more closely examine how video games in general portray women. That being said, not only do I think FFVI was a significant improvement on earlier FF games, but was in fact the most non-sexist Final Fantasy out of the first ten games. That is largely because many of the games that came immediately after FFVI, from the PS1 and early PS2 era, were really, really bad.
In this entry I will be focusing on the first two games of the PS1 era. The original Playstation began a whole new era of video games focusing on graphics. The little pixels of early video games were transformed into, well, somewhat more detailed pixels. But the onset of the FMV sparked a focus on characters’ appearances, and Final Fantasy was no exception.
Final Fantasy VII is widely credited as the FF that brought the most new fans to the series, as well as being considered one of the best RPGs ever made. I’m not going to try to argue with any of that here. What I will say is that, while FFVII is undoubtedly an influential and highly enjoyable game, its treatment of the female playable characters is abysmal.
Take Tifa Lockhart, the badass hand-to-hand fighter. With her physical fighting style and relatively low magical capabilities, she certainly breaks the weak healer mold of some of the FF games. But in just about every other way, she is one of the most sexist female characters of the entire series.
The only point to the suspenders is to show how
Tifa’s boobs push them out of the way.
In Part I, I said there were three main type of types of sexism I would be talking about: appearance, gender roles, and dependence on male characters for relevance. Tifa takes that third one to extremes. Her entire relevance to FFVII’s plot revolves around her feelings for the main character, Cloud Strife. Despite Sephiroth having destroyed her hometown too, relatively little mention of that is made as our heroes chase after the ex-SOLDIER. Instead, she just constantly struggles to work up the courage to tell Cloud how she really feels about him.
Tifa’s entire point in the plot is to be part of the Cloud-Tifa-Aerith love triangle, and later to help Cloud recover his memories in a touching Lifestream sequence. She is a strong fighter who had her hometown destroyed by the villain and then moved to Midgar to run a bar and fight alongside AVALANCHE against Shinra. But once Cloud is in the picture, she is quickly relegated to a background love interest—who at one point even temporarily abandons the main mission in order to take care of Cloud when he becomes a gibbering, pathetic mess (or at least more of one).
And let’s not forget that when confronted by Scarlet on the Junon canon in disc 2, this badass martial arts fighter gets into a cliché cat fight with… a slapping contest. I’m only surprised there wasn’t hair pulling involved.
”Yeah, well, your shoes are totally last season’s!”
And that doesn’t even begin to go into Tifa’s appearance and personality, which is so blatant as to be low-hanging fruit (and why I’m only mentioning it last). Tifa dresses in a tight white t-shirt and short mini-skirt, a stark contrast to her romantically shy and low-confidence personality (another feminine stereotype). The mini-skirt design was apparently decided by a vote of the development team, who obviously was not thinking of Tifa’s personality or her fighting style (who wears a mini-skirt when you have to kick a lot?). And her victory pose in the battle screens is to jump up and down and let her boobs bounce for the viewer. The PS1 allowed players to see more detail of the characters they controlled, and Square-Enix responded by making Tifa’s conduct and appearance based solely on attracting male viewers. The message is that female clothing and conduct is supposed to look good for men, above any other consideration.
And then there’s Aerith (or “Aeris”) Gainsborough. A pure-hearted half-Cetra, Aerith’s death remains one of the most powerful and memorable scenes in Final Fantasy history (and this is coming from someone who is not a big fan of her). She is not dressed to arouse like Tifa, but otherwise falls squarely under a number of clearly gender-based stereotypes.
Aerith praying like the good little girl she is.
For one, she falls under the physically weak healer trope that has cropped up in many other games (and is especially notable because male characters are almost never are cast in that role). But her weakness is not just a gameplay element, but a significant plot piece; she needs men for protection against other men. Early in the game, she convinces Cloud to be her bodyguard to protect her from the Turks in exchange for a date, and also needs to be rescued from Hojo (who wants her for – what else? – breeding purposes).
And despite the significance of her own story (the last Cetra trying to save the world), FFVII tries to make her a compelling character by… relegating her to Cloud’s love interest, creating the Cloud-Tifa-Aerith triangle. Her death is made powerful because of her developing relationship with Cloud. And speaking of that relationship, Aerith also has a distinctly feminine personality. Emotional and flirty, she just wants her step mother to let her date whatever boys she wants, and in fact Aerith first becomes attracted to Cloud because he reminds her of her first boyfriend, Zack.
She's also not particularly strong on grammar.
And lastly for FFVII there’s Yuffie, who is only notable because she falls squarely in the young, bratty girl role featured earlier by Relm – a role that will continue to show up without fail for the next few games.
Speaking of the next games, I suppose it can be said that Final Fantasy VIII did not try to throw scantily-clad women in your face to the extent VII did with Tifa Lockhart, and it also was a temporary respite from the women = weak healers role, but that is the sole bit of praise that it deserves.
Rinoa Heartily is the daughter of a wealthy family who joins a group of freedom fighters, the Timber Owls, out of a sense of justice, and even is the one who recruits the SeeD characters to the story. But she is also a naïve and ineffective leader, and needs the men in the story to guide and protect her. The missions where she has any sort of authority end as failures. She successfully organizes a capture of the Galbadian President… or, at least, his fake body double. When she’s on her own, her plans also backfire; she escapes her father to try to stop Edea herself with the Odine Bangle, which only results in Rinoa falling under Edea’s power.
The beautiful Rinoa, enjoying a rare moment of freedom.
Despite the potential for an interesting backstory, Rinoa turns into the classic love interest and damsel in distress, whose purpose essentially revolves around giving the main male character, Squall, something to do (the Rinoa=Ultimecia “theories” notwithstanding). Rinoa was arguably one of the worst example of a damsel in distress of the Final Fantasy series; between the possessions by Ultimecia and the capture by Esthar officials, it is a rare moment when Rinoa is not in some sort of trouble.
Then there’s Quistis Trepe, who is a female military instructor at Balamb Garden, which actually seems very progressive on its face, at least until you notice that her weapon is a whip and she has a fan club. But she is riddled with stereotypical insecurity and desires to be liked, especially by Squall, and as a result is spends much of her character development depressed and moody.
Quistis confiding in Squall after having her confidence cut down again.
While not as bad as Rinoa, Quistis is not exactly portrayed as a great leader either. After Quistis was originally unable to capture Seifer, the assassination attempt against Edea goes awry after Quistis yells at Rinoa for coming up with her own plan (see above), and then later feels bad about it. While Quistis does deserve some credit for being at least a little different, her character is still based largely on gender personality stereotypes and is far from the strong, confident figure cut by many of the male military characters.
And then you have Selphie, the requisite young, bratty girl (see: Relm/Yuffie). I wasn’t kidding when I referred to the most common female character types as “cookie-cutter.”
I know I said at the beginning that I was sticking to main female playable characters, but I just have to say a few words about Edea, the woman who ran the orphanage and turned into the game’s villain. While it is notable that FFVIII had a female villain, her character is filled with gender-based stereotypes. Edea started out as in the most classic stereotype for women: kind, loving lady who took care of children. Women are still commonly expected to want and take care of kids, and the good Edea fully represents that most ancient of gender roles.
From Edea the kind mother to Edea the cougar.
When possessed by Ultimecia, her personality changes strikingly, but only to a different set of personality stereotypes. Edea turns into a sexy, cleavagey villainess who beguiles those around her to get her way. This plays into a stereotype that is almost as ancient as the caring mother: the manipulative temptress. Women have long been accused generally of using manipulation and “feminine wiles” to get their way. As far back as Eve’s temptations causing the fall of humanity, popular knowledge and literature are filled with slight variations on this theme. Edea thus fully represents the common perceptions about both the good and the bad sides of femininity: the gentle mothers and the manipulative beguilers. Or in other words, she is both sides of the same sexist coin.
That brings us to the end of Part III, which featured the rise of the PS1, but a noticeable and unfortunate decline in the quality of female playable characters, at least when it comes to creating new and exciting women that break away from the typical molds. As much as I enjoy the game, FFVII is also one of the worst offenders of relying on sexist tropes. FFVIII did somewhat tone down the aesthetics, but cemented many of the female characters back into traditional gender roles and personality stereotypes. For every step forward, there was a step back.
So what did you think of this entry? Was FFVII the worst game in the series when it comes to sexist portrayals of women? Why do you think the series regressed after some signs of improvement in FFVI? Post your comments below!
Final Fantasy Sexism will now be taking a one month hiatus to give me a little break. Part IV will be posted one month from now, and will feature FFIX and X. Part V should finish this off two weeks after that, with overviews of FFXII and XIII.
The full FF Sexism series:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
[Unless otherwise credited, all FF images are from The Final Fantasy Wiki]
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