I didn't say Shlup said anyone was a whore, I was just going through the bullet list of what makes something sexualised and referencing it to Final Fantasy. Don't read too much into that bit.
Anyway, like I said, I'm genuinely going to need to see examples of what you think are sexualised men so I can get what you're referring to as what you think a sexualised male is, and what you think a sexualised female is. I mean, I know what I think they are, but you seem to be in disagreement. I dare say this is ironic that a guy like me could feel that a guy is being sexualised and girls are telling me "Nah he's not sexualised you're just wrong." Pretty sure I'm capable of saying when I feel a man is being used as a sex object. If I were a younger guy with more self confidence issues, I would be looking at the men women fawn over and he would be one of them and I would be going "I'm nothing like that, and never will be anything like that. I'm inferior." which is basically what Shlup is worrying about her daughter over. I get the feeling that people think guys are immune to such things, and I tell you, I was not when I was a kid. So if you're going to say that he is not being sexualised then I'm genuinely baffled.
What I'm getting out of Square Enix's characters is that they want physically attractive characters. For a lot of guys, like it or not, girls looking like Cindy are seen as highly physically attractive. For a lot of girls, whether I like it or not, guys looking like Gladiolus are seen as highly physically attractive. If you don't think he's being sexualised, I don't know what to say beyond "I think he's about as sexualised as Cindy is, it's just that sexualised girls are far bloody sexier than sexualised men are by default, in my personal opinion."
