Final Fantasy Sexism Part III: Here Come the Boobs

[Raistlin]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I would like to respond to a few interesting points:

But then if you reverse the situation, and Cloud saved Tifa's mind, then it'd be sexist because the woman 'needs saving'. Point is this character-by-character over-analysis is somewhat of a slippery slope.

I responded to similar points more thoroughly in Part I, which you may want to look at. The point of this series is not to point out one particular action or characteristic and say “that’s sexist.” I don’t think that’s even possible. One detail cannot be viewed in isolation to draw a very broad conclusion, because, as you correctly pointed out, you can force any one detail to fit a variety of arguments.

The point of this series is to view things in the aggregate. I don’t want you to look at that one example of Tifa by itself, but to view that in combination with Tifa as a whole, in combination with how female characters are portrayed by FFVII as a whole, in combination with how female characters are viewed in other FFs as a whole. You have to look at the details, but then you have to look at the big picture to be able to make reasonable judgments about whether any given characters is based on sexist biases or if it’s just happenstance. Having one woman character needing rescuing is not sexist; having women almost exclusively in the “damsel in distress” role over a number of games, on the other hand, is.

I consider Tifa a relatively sexist portrayal of women not because of her one decision to choose her love for Cloud over the mission, but because that, in combination with all the other factors about Tifa I mentioned in the article in combination with how FFVII treated women as a whole, to be probably based largely on traditional and limiting sexist tropes. In Tifa’s particular instance, I find it hard to believe that certain aspects of her character can be viewed any other way. And the cat fight with Scarlet?

It’s not a black-and-white issue, and reasonable minds can certainly disagree on some characters in general and some details in particular. I’m not here to give the definitive answers, but to promote acknowledgement of and discussion about this issue.

I think you have to take into account the age of some of these girls. I think Rinoa is only 17 in VIII, and Quistis may be 18 I'm not sure. I think their characters are true to their age. When I was 17, I was a smurfing idiot too.

First, the majority of my criticism of Rinoa's character was not even based on her personality, but to the "damsel in distress" role she was shoved into as the token love interest.

Secondly, I don’t think this is really an issue because it is, at best, a double standard. The female characters acting like real life stereotypical teenage girls is not really a defense considering the male characters generally don’t act like real life stereotypical teenage boys. And, as I pointed out in Part I, stereotypes that are based on real life cultural prejudices and views towards female behavior are not above criticism.

As a simple and trivial example, it is true that many women like pink and are commonly associated with that color, though that is far more of a cultural indoctrination issue than any necessary part of womanhood; that does not mean that games are justified in making all female characters favor pink.

Every character in that game is, in some way, emotionally broken. It may still be badly written, but it's not really fair to call sexism on Quistis for a desire to be liked, when the whole cast shows very similar emotional short comings.

Quistis is certainly not nearly as bad as Rinoa when it comes to blatant sexism; Rinoa is almost a caricature of the token love interest/damsel in distress trope. But I think it is reasonable to say that her insecurity in a typical man’s job is largely based on sexist stereotypes, especially in conjunction with her hidden feelings for Squall (see: Tifa’s feelings for during Cloud in FFVII).

Could you see a male character acting the same in her position if the writers had made Quistis male, given the male/female dynamics of the other characters? I just think it’s unlikely, but I understand the counterpoints.

Selphie's not bratty !

She's hyperactive, friendly, cheerful, and energetic.

And annoying, depending on the player. My main point in bringing up Selphie was simply to point out that she fits the standard young, energetic ”genki girl” mold that SE writers seem to love so much. This role has appeared virtually nonstop since FFV, with the only arguable exception being FFXII. A big part of my argument here is that a result of the use of these sexist portrayals in games limits the variety given to female characters.