Will Final Fantasy XV's Cid be a Lady?

[Loony BoB]

I appreciate that you can acknowledge the outfit is stupid, but to say that's okay with you because you "don't mind" shows me that you are choosing to ignore all the negative impacts this kind of gender inequality and over sexualization of females has on society.

This is not the case, I just don't think that Final Fantasy is the trigger for that kind of thing, nor do I think that having a sexualised character is a bad thing.

Okay, fine, literally all I require of you is to say "This outfit is stupid and that's a bad thing."

This outfit is stupid and that's a bad thing... in some people's perspective, but not mine. I don't care if an outfit is sexualised and/or stupid. I stopped caring about stupid outfits a long time ago. I think Lady Gaga wears stupid outfits every day and I don't care. As for sexualisation, I disagree that real people should be sexualised unless it's their personal desire to be sexualised. And even then, when I don't know the person in question personally, I always wonder if there was any manipulation of coercing. I am immediately suspicious of any young pop star being treated appropriately when they are dancing around in sexy outfits. But it's out of my control, and for all I know they ARE wanting to do that. So it's their decision. I dislike sexualising in advertisements in particular, though. Unless it's advertising something that is inherently sexual (and things like perfume do NOT count). Even in that case, it should be done in mags that are PG or something, not on billboards.

But in fiction in general, I don't mind it. For me, fiction is something that allows you to immerse yourself in a fantasy world. Sometimes that might be really ugly, sometimes it's full of gorgeous people. I don't think females get unfair treatment in Final Fantasy in this regard. I am pretty sure I disagree with your assessment of males - and females - in Final Fantasy, because I literally don't think Penelo is attractive. She strikes me as really nerdy. Everything about her struck me that way. She also struck me as dull. Sure, she has a spotless face, but I don't think she was attractive just because she had a certain body shape and no zits. Thankfully I'm not that shallow.

It's not that her rack is on display. I display my rack. My nipples have seen sunshine in the Happiest Place on Earth many times. To reiterate: The first female Cid is the first sexy Cid. And not just because her boobs. They're just just uncovered, they're pushed up and out and on display. And her belly is out. And her buttcheeks are peekin'. And she's wearing thigh-high smurf me boots. And she's supposed to be... a mechanic?? I mean, if she were doing her work and then took off her coveralls to reveal some sexy casual clothes, I would not be nearly as irritated.

Well, duh. But she was being sexualised. Of course they're going to make her dress sexy if that's the case (although again, I'm unsure how much of that was the intent, and how much of it was the intent to gain sales of certain girl's jackets, hot pants and thigh high boots for some random Japanese clothes line).

Obviously what each individual person finds "attractive" is subjective, but if they were adult, physically fit, and not too non-human-like I considered them "attractive." I wanted to err on your side so I included characters whose face you don't really see (Shadow) and middle aged men (Auron, Sazh and... I forget his name) as attractive.

Firstly, I consider someone attractive if I consider them attractive, not if they meet certain criteria. That's what "attractive" is, subjective. As for your criteria, I'm still a bit confused. You say you found 16 male characters that were not physically fit, not adults (surely more girls in this game are underage than guys?), and were basically human. So, I can think of... Vivi, Red XIII and Kimahri - all of which are fair play. But once you get to humans - the ones that ladies and men of the world can actually compare themselves to - the guys are pretty much all fit, aren't they? And obviously all human. That leaves adult, and I'd be surprised (but would hold my hands up) if there were more guys than girls. I still find it absurd to consider every fit adult human attractive, though. xD

Just browsing the list from VII onwards (I find myself incapable of looking at little pixely FFI-VI characters and seriously considering how sexy they are or are not... same for Chibis in IX), I found one fat guy. Ward. Every other character (excepting blatantly-not-human characters for the pre-mentioned reason of human people not comparing their own bodies to them) was a fit teen or adult, both female and male. One or two were underage. Unless all those unattractive males were flooding the old games of I-VI - and perhaps IX where it can get really debatable because... chibi - I'm just not seeing the big obvious unfairness when it comes to which gender is being sexualised. VII, VIII, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIII-2, LR, XIV. Even Crisis Core. They all do it fairly. I personally think IX is done fairly too, because I just can't bring myself to see chibis as sexualised. It doesn't compute in my head. Even if you do, you have... tails to consider, and people who are black blobs with eyes, and rat-people, and people in full armour, and Quina, and bratty kids, and... you get the idea. xD

Wait, you don't think I thing that a wider range of character types (looks, age, bodytype) is something I agree with or it's something you don't agree with? I also don't feel Final Fantasy has a responsibility to compensate for anyone. It's everyone's responsibility to treat sexuality with respect. Excluding maybe porn; I don't have a problem with actual porn as a rule.

I may have put that on the wrong list. xD I think we both agree more body shapes would be a nice thing.

I definitely disagree with you on the first two though. Especially the second one. For your second point you are being very daft.

See chionos' post. Same for the next paragraph you put in, about how there is only one guy who is sexualised because he has an open shirt. I would love to hear from a large group of people who consider themselves to be bisexual to describe what outfits they consider sexy on a guy and then on a girl. I suspect they will not markedly different - in my experience, this is the case, anyway. Girls are generally seen as having a sexy appearance if they are fit and dress skimpy. Guys, if they go around wearing nothing but underwear and showing off their full body, don't tend to get the same treatment. Again, I asked Danielle what she considered sexy on a guy - the "most sexualised" a guy could be for her - and she said showing chest and/or abs (but with a shirt or jacket of some kind) and with some jeans or something on. Bikini top? Hot pants? "No." xD The problem is that the clothes guys are considered to be at their sexiest in tend to be normal clothes. Suits. T-shirt and jeans. Stuff like that. Girls, on the other hand, are seen as sexy in these things, but also seen as sexy in a bikini, or seen as sexy in a low cut top, or seen as sexy in a skirt, thigh high boots, turtlenecks even. A nice dress. Effectively girls tend to be seen as sexy - appearance-wise, obviously - in a much wider variety of clothing, and in some cases it is considered extremely sexy, while guys don't get that kind of thing. That's possibly unfair, but it's just the way people are in a large number of cultures, certainly the ones we live in, in the current world.

For what it's worth, I agree with you on Rikku being blatantly sexualised when you replied to Psy. So freakin' obvious. Krile is wearing clothese appropriate for her age in today's culture. I wouldn't say she is borderline in anything other than "could be at the age when puberty is kicking in and therefore her body is developing in to what some people may mistake for 16 or 18 and therefore consider her sexually attractive" - but she's pixels so idgaf. xD Relm is clearly a kid in every way. But, again, pixels. All the game is pixels. And clearly not sexual.

Oh, you replied to chionos. Goody.

Also, you don't think women are into crotch bulges? You want to balance out how men and women are sexualized in the media, we can talk about increasing crotch bulges. Consider how many women in games have massive titties. Now imagine the same percentage of male characters you had the option to play had a bulge indicating he was carrying a can of Monster energy drink in his pants. And sometimes the developers put the time and effort into making it bounce and sway when he moved.

I... have been told by many girls that they do NOT find penises attractive, nor do they find tight clothing in the penis area attractive. Bulges get giggled at on occasion (Olly Murs being the prime example I can think of) but yeah, when I ask for a list fo things girls find sexiest about guys, crotch bulges are generally quite far down the list, below facial features, butt, abs, chest, arms, hands and even "nice calves" which always surprises me. Veeery rare I hear about girls wanting more crotch bulge.

Crotch bulges don't bounce and sway to my knowledge. xD But I do get the point you were making. I agree that boobs bouncing and swaying is a bit much in video games including Final Fantasy, although at the same time I know at least one big boobed girl (not saying who) that was delighted at a certain game including bouncing boobs because they hated how 'static' boobs were in games when a person ran, saying it was 'wrong'. But for me, it's something I find unneccesary even when sexualising a character. If they can magically handle toxic chemicals, they can get a magic bra.