Will Final Fantasy XV's Cid be a Lady?

[Shlup]

I'm responding to the volume of text people are devoting to this subject. You don't have to have caps lock on to seem like you're shouting.

Everybody's whining about this or that but no one's suggesting any action and that bothers me.

Here are a few actions you can take, with varying degrees of effort:
1) Reflect on these issues and how they may affect your feelings and behavior. Try to do better.
2) Talk about these issues in hopes of making someone aware of them who previously wasn't.
3) Talk about these issues so that others realize they're not alone. Silence doesn't change anything.
4) Write a letter to Square Enix expressing your disappointment that they would choose to turn an iconic character into fan service.
5) Write a letter to Square Enix, and let them know you won't be buying the game because of it.
6) Write an article, a blog post, or make a video about the issue for the above reasons.
7) Start a petition to let Square Enix know others are also disappointed by their choice.

Is that acceptable for you? That's all I could think of off the top of my head.

First you don't care about how the gender disparities between the treatment of fictional characters negatively impacts society

If you would be so kind as to stop repeatedly putting words in my mouth, I'd be really grateful. Do I think sexualising is okay? Yes. Do I think gender disparities are okay? Depends on the gender disparity in question. If I like the taste of Cheddar that doesn't mean I like the taste of all cheeses. Do I think the gender disparities between the treatment of fictional characters, in general throughout all media, negatively impacts society? Yes.

Fourth, you keep going back and forth between "men are sexualized too" and "the media obviously treats men and women differently." Which is it?

Both. These things are not mutually exclusive. Men are sexualised, and I think it's ignorant to think otherwise. But men and women ARE treated differently, and I think it's ignorant to think otherwise regarding that, too.

I wanted to highlight those two statements before reminding you that you've said each of the following:

I don't "appreciate" cheap pandering, but I "accept and quite frankly don't care about" cheap pandering provided it's a fictional character and it is done to each gender.

Is it okay to have sexy characters in a video game? Even if it's just for the sake of making them sexy? Sure, I don't see why not. Guy or girl. Just don't care, really.

I don't care if an outfit is sexualised and/or stupid.

In the end, I just think that it's not a problem to sexualise fictional people.

It could be a culture issue, it could be a social issue, but as for myself, I don't mind fictional characters being shown to be sexy because they are in a fantasy world where bullets, swords and toxic chemicals used by car mechanics are all things that do not harm one so easily.

I just don't see a problem with sexualising in general so long as it's being done in a fictional world, and it's being done to both genders.

You acknowledge that "men and women ARE treated differently," you acknowledge that "gender disparities between the treatment of fictional characters negatively impacts society" but tell me I'm putting words in your mouth after you've said repeatedly that you don't care, as long as they're fictional and it's happening to both genders. The genders are not treated equally, it negatively impacts society, but you "don't see a problem."

Maybe you could just clarify what it is that you don't care about then.

I would also appreciate you giving me a handful examples of sexualized male characters. We can limit it to Final Fantasy since you've declared the series "fair and equal."

Keep in mind these objective facts: The oldest [human] female character is Lulu at 22 and oldest male is Strago at 70. At least 23FFIV Cid (54), Yang (35), Tellah (60), Edward (24), Fusoya (?), Edge (26), Galuf (60), Locke (25), Edgar (27), Sabin (27), Cyan (50), Strago (70), Setzer (27), Barrett (35), Vincent (27), Steiner (33), Amarant (26), Auron (35), Wakka (23), Basch (36), Sazh (40) playable male characters are older than 22-year-old Lulu; not counting temporarily playable characters over 22 (Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Seymour), characters of unknown age other than obviously elderly Fusoya (Shadow and Gogo), and non-humans 25-year-old Kimahri and 46-year-old Red.

There are no non-humanoid female characters.

This isn't completely objective, but I think I was very fair in saying male characters are more than twice as likely to be allowed to be unattractive as female characters (also, I thought Gau was 14, but he's 13 so I'm amending my "attractive" to 13+ for the sake of erring on your side).

To my knowledge, no male characters pose in a way designed specifically to expose their secondary sex characterstics.

Before you delve into your many examples of sexualized males, I want to point out that I feel like a major issue here may be people thinking "sexy" and "sexualized" are synonyms. They're not. Leonardo DiCaprio is always sexy no matter what he's doing or wearing. A sexy person/character is "sexually interesting or exciting," or desirable.

According to the American Psychological Association, a person is sexualized when:
-a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or sexual behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics;
-a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy;
-a person is sexually objectified—that is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than seen as a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making; and/or
-sexuality (def: expression of sexual receptivity or interest especially when excessive ) is inappropriately imposed upon a person.

So, please, if you would give me some examples of male Final Fantasy characters who are sexualized, it would help us get on the same page. Also I want you to honestly ask yourself when you look at a male character's exposed skin whether you feel that skin is being exposed in order to be tantalizing to females/homos or whether it's meant to emphasize that they are physically powerful.

Also, just for posterity and because I hate for anyone to think I just talk out of my ass, here are some choice quotes from a few highly regarded studies, primarily the APA's report:
"Games were significantly more likely to depict female characters partially nude or engaged in sexual behaviors than to depict male characters in this way.

"Dill, Gentile, Richter, and Dill (2005) found that in the 20 top-selling games in 1999, only female characters were portrayed as highly sexualized."

My primary source for these is the Wiki entry on sexualization. I know there's always someone who goes "Pfft, Wikipedia," but each statement has a citation, so you're welcome to skip the wiki and read each of the citations if you prefer.