Will Final Fantasy XV's Cid be a Lady?

[Shlup]

I agree with everyone against Cidney's attire. Women should cover their tits the hell up, it's repulsive.

That's kind of a smurfed up way to be dismissive of other's concerns, BoB. No one has said women should cover up.

All the same, this is Square Enix doing what Square Enix do. Sometimes their females cover up, sometimes they don't. Sometimes their males cover up, sometimes they don't.

It never ceases to amaze me when a guy (or girl, though I don't think I personally have seen this argument from a girl) comes back with the argument "Well, treating women as sex objects is just 'doing what they do.'" Like, yes, tell me that the problem is also a reason why the problem isn't a problem--sexualizing female characters is the status quo, therefore it's okay to do. And you say it with a straight face. OMG BoB.

I do wonder, though, really. I mean, I play FFXIV and you wouldn't believe the number of girls that voluntarily play with the skimpiest clothes when there are far more cover-up clothes than skimpy ones. I think it's fun for guys and girls to be able to go into these fantasy worlds where everyone is sexed up a little bit, and we can do so without (much) prejudice. I don't think it suddenly means it's okay to mistreat people in the real world or hold them to a standard seen in video games, though. In short, I don't blame Square Enix for sexing things up in a video game, but I do blame people who think that means that people should be treated as sex objects in the real world.

But yeah, I'm pretty confident that if that jacket was wearable crafting attire in FFXIV then a lot of girls would be wearing it (and guys, using girl characters, naturally).

No, you don't wonder. You are fully aware that 1) a human being expressing their own sexuality makes them a sexual subject, not object. Though using an object (your character) as a non-realistic representation of your sexuality is kind of questionable, if you think about it. 2) Men don't have the market cornered on sexual objectification. Women are trained from birth to "be pretty" and "if someone cat-calls you on the street, you should take it as a compliment." It's not a male problem, it's a society problem, so you can take your "well if women are doing it too then it couldn't possibly be a problem" card and stow it.

A person sexualizing themselves is a nuanced issue. It's why some people argue that stripping is a demeaning job, while others argue it's an empowering job. Cidney, however, isn't a real person--she was created by someone with an obvious purpose to be eye candy. She is literally a sexual object. She could be a cool character, but let's not do this "well, it's just how it is," and "well, women do it too" bulltrout like that makes her outfit less stupid.

Also, I'm sure you personally play with a lot of females in FFXIV, but keep in mind that a lot of the female characters are played by males. When you see me playing Guild Wars 2 with my guild, you'll see six females (and a male--I don't think my brother-in-law has a female character), all played by men except for me, and all dressed as skimpy as possible except for probably me.

The crux of the criticism here (ironically made all the more loud and vehement by the resistance to it) is the very clear difference in treatment with the same type of character just because she's now a woman.

Seriously. I wasn't even going to comment on it, but as soon as someone said "boob" we had to have people coming out of the woodwork defending it. Do you all seriously think the fact that 96% of sexualized imagery is of female bodies, and that the first female Cid is the only hyper-sexualized Cid are not relevant at all? Does context mean nothing to you people? For heavens sake.

Here, perky-ass Laci Green will break this trout down for you: