BanonOriginally Posted by Formalhaut
Prince Edward is not the typical manly-man.
But, yeah, I’m at a loss after that.
Character Strength Battle Power Gogo: 25 13 Relm: 26 11 Strago: 28 10 Mog: 29 16 Terra: 31 12 Celes: 34 16 Setzer: 36 18 Locke: 37 14 Edgar: 39 20 Shadow: 39 23 Cyan: 40 25 Sabin: 47 26 Umaro: 57 47
Low strength, yes, but keep in mind that Terra can equip heavy armors, swords, and shields. Those are Knight equips. Not weak little magic user equips. So she’s statistically more magical than physical? Well yeah, she’s half Esper. It makes sense. If she were a man, it would be the same.
Here’s the thing. You chose strength as a primary basis for the sexism in the game and there’s two things wrong with that. One being that men, statistically, are stronger than women. It’s true, it has nothing to do with sexism, or gender roles, or any other bulltrout. The strongest woman in the world is not as strong as the strongest man in the world, despite each have equal access to gyms and steroids and blahblahblah. The problem, as you pointed out, is that this fact can be used to oppress women and force on them slavish devotion to men. Which leads me to the second problem: this aspect of the strength debate does not influence the game world, because Terra and Celes have access to kickass gear that makes them just as much a threat in physical combat as the boys. Players don’t go through the game thinking, gosh she’s so weak I’ve got to make her a magic user. That girl stands in the front row in her shiny heavy armor duel-wielding massive smurfing swords and slicing the trout out of monsters.
Faris is a great female character, is completely atypical, and a good example of a non-sexist girl character in the FF universe. The fact that she has to act like a man has nothing to do with her as a character and everything to do with the world she lives in. Do you fault homosexuals who feel they need to act heterosexual around their families because their families won’t accept them otherwise? The Faris story recognizes that the world forces people into gender roles. It’s really no different whatsoever than what you’re doing now in writing about sexism. You’re pointing out sexism in a video game, which reflects on the sexism in society. The Faris character points out sexism in the FFIV world, which reflects on sexism in society.
Sooo, strong women have to be ugly brutes? How is this a superior way of looking at things? Game of Thrones is an ugly series, an ugly show, and is clearly designated for adults. Final Fantasy is a series ostensibly for kids, or is at least supposed to be accessible for kids. So let’s picture Celes as a non-feminine muscle-bound ugly brute of a woman. What does that say to the child? If you’re a woman and you want to be strong and fight like the men, you can’t have long hair, or be pretty, or wear the clothes you want to wear. Hide your boobs, act like they don’t exist. Bulk up and make yourself dirty. Etc., etc.
Now that I think about it, that analogy is so obviously bad, I’m guessing you meant it somehow a little differently than I’m taking it.
Celes does have to be rescued, I’ll grant that (as does Terra and Relm both) although I don’t think it quite fully fits the “damsel in distress” mold. She’s not whiny about it. She remains tough throughout and doesn’t break. She’s not in that position because she’s weak. Quite the opposite actually, it’s because she’s defiant, her own person.
There are 3 females, 2 animals, 1 hermaphrodite or asexual character, and 7 males. Yeah, it’s not balanced, but it most certainly does nothing to take away from Terra as a strong female character. Terra and Celes both have very strong central roles in the game.
And Terra’s not the only character in FF with emotional issues. Cyan is at least as emotionally dependant and unstable as Terra, if not more so. Sabin’s a peppy overly-zealous character, and the game even hints at Relm and Sabin having very similar playful peppy personalities. Shadow is the silent, brooding type, but there’s no connection there to gender, it’s because of his past. He wasn’t always that way, but became so because of his history. Edgar’s a philanderer, but the game makes fun of him for it. It’s not shown to be positive, it’s not sensationalized.
For example, it would be blind and hypocritical to see Locke’s nurturing devotion to Rachel in a different way than Terra’s nurturing devotion to the children of Mobliz, or Celes’ nurturing devotion to Cid. And what does Terra figure out in the end? That she has to FIGHT for the kids. That she can kick Phunbaba’s ass.
The whole emotional thing is silly anyways because Terra spends a huge part of the game not having any emotions at all. She questions that fact, yes, but not because she’s a woman, but because she’s human.
Human beings are nurturing. Terra’s responsibility to Mobliz is her recognition of the part of her that is human, that holds itself responsible for people who need protected. Imagine Cyan in Terra’s role in Mobliz. Perfect fit. No difference whatsoever. Has nothing to do with being a girl.
It’s too easy sometimes to blame things on gender. Let’s play FFVI shuffle for a moment. Gau’s a boy, but if he were a girl exactly the same in every way to the male version, we’d complain about her being half-naked and sexualized, or that she’s crazy and annoying. If Shadow were a woman, we’d call her a bitch for acting the same way Shadow does now as a man. If Edgar were a female version of himself, his philandering would be whoring. AND CLAIM ALL THE WHILE THAT THESE ARE ALL EXAMPLES OF SEXISM. When they’re clearly not. No matter what a female character does, no matter how she acts or dresses, there will be ways to declaim aspects of her character as sexist.
So anyway, those are my opinions. Thanks for the article, Raist. I’m looking forward to the next one. In FFVII-onward, examples of sexist and anti-sexist characters become more blatant, sometimes making things even more complicated (Tifa is a tough, monk-class female who still manages to be sexist in many ways, etc.), so it should be really interesting.
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