Feminism and Final Fantasy
The Ponygirl asked me if I might write something on sexism in Final Fantasy games, which prompted me to want to do some research on the topic. It’s a rich source of material, it is. Ideally, I’d be writing a Master’s dissertation, with a nice fellowship stipend funding the core research on the topic: playing all the Final Fantasy games I can get my hands on.
Having played the main sequence Final Fantasy games IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, and XII qualifies me for something or other, probably a nice quiet room and recreational sedation. X-2 and XII are still works in process, and it’s been a while since I played some of the early games. But there’s Wikipedia to the rescue! And GameFAQs. Reading is dangerous business — I’d always thought Tifa was wearing shorts in Final Fantasy VII, but I read that it was a miniskirt, and that there had been some serious discussion among the creative types at SquareSoft (now Square-Enix) whether to put her in a miniskirt or pants.
Why couldn’t it have been pants!?
Okay, so I’ve been putting this off for a while now, and I’m just going to babble for a while and try to get a discussion started. It will include tangents into non-Final Fantasy games, since there aren’t many console RPGs that don’t owe at least something to this 800-pound gorilla of a franchise. It’s the Tolkien of the cRPG world.
Here’s the thing: Final Fantasy veers wildly in its portrayal of women. Within the past few years, we’ve had Final Fantasy IX, where the playable characters include three women, three men, and two of indeterminate gender. Yeah, I know everyone called Vivi ‘he,’ but there’s no indication that the Black Mage dolls even have gender at all. None of the three women are presented in an exaggeratedly sexualized manner. Freya Crescent is one of my all-time favorite characters. In a regendering of the older-than-dirt boy on a quest to save his girl story, she’s searching the world for her lover, Sir Fratley Iron-Tail. The strongest warrior in the world is a woman, General Beatrix.
But even within FFIX, there are things that make me twitch. Early villain Queen Brahne is, for what it’s worth, not actually a statuesque dominatrix — but they’ve just turned the sexualized image of women upside-down and made her a hideous monster of a person. Allegedly she looked a lot like Princess Garnet/Dagger when she was young, but… Oh, I don’t know. How did she get blue? The Alexandrian army is an all-female force — but the uniform is effectively a steel Speedo. Gah. >.<
While there are female antagonists, the ultimate boss is almost always male: FFI, Garland/Chaos; FFII, The Emperor; FFIII's end boss is the female Cloud of Darkness, but she doesn't appear until the very end when Xande, throwing a hissy fit when he's beaten, summons her from the Dark World; FFIV, Zemus/Zeromus; FFV, Exdeath/Neo Exdeath; FFVI, Kefka; FFVII, Sephiroth; FFVIII has the only serious female end boss in Ultimecia (and also has the Sorceress Edea, who I love); FFIX, Kuja; FFX, Yu Yevon; FFX-2, Shuyin; FFXII, Vayne.
And then there's Fran, from FFXII. She could have been great, she really could! She’s tough, she’s strong, she’s got great attitude and voice. And then we come to her toon, and she’s got something chitinous crawling all over the bits that need to be covered for modesty (and an ESRB T rating) crossed with a sheer teddy. I have no idea. Yes, some of the men are improbably armored (though not nearly as much as in Vagrant Story), but there’s nothing quite like Fran and her sisters, the Viera. Or their shoes. Penelo’s outfit is actually pretty good, especially the boots, but Princess Ashe is apparently wearing a table napkin for a skirt. Just me, but I’d think she risked frostbite on some very important parts when they’re in the ice/snow regions.
In the end, there really isn’t anything definitive to say about the women of Final Fantasy. It’s too big for that. It’s definitely skewed towards the sexualized portrayal of women, but there are a lot of very good women characters. On the other hand? There are more appalling women than not. There’s worse out there, much worse, but that’s not a recommendation.
May 14th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
There is a lot that is sexist about all the FF’s. Especially with the toons/sprites.
Even right down to the programming, IME. Like how the girls ALWAYS get picked on by the monsters/bosses/etc. So the girls get felled more, lose out on exp and always end up lower level than the guys. (unless it’s a feminized guy like Prince Edward the Bard who loses out on Exp because he runs away whenever he gets hit, bah - doesn’t pay to be a nice guy in a FF that’s for certain.) Not to mention they never get the stat boosts that the guys do when they DO level. A NNOY ING!!
That’s one of the reasons that despite the wardrobe malfunctions of Fran and Ashe, I love FF12. No programmed in penalties for being female! It’s about damn time! (Incidentally that’s also why I love NWN&2)
I’m just hoping that (even though I’m not buying a PS3, so therefore won’t be playing the game) that they do a decent job with FF13, which is supposed to have a female lead.
P.S. Forgive me if I spoil for anyone, but I believe the final boss in FF12 is actually Cid(ofolus). (WHY???)
May 14th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
One particular thing that annoyed me recently about FF’s. I just bought Origins and was excited until I heard the voice for Maria… it was so weak and faux-femme - not at all like the tough strong girl they had set her up to be. I found myself very annoyed and wondering “Why the hell did you have to ruin a perfectly good character by making her act like such a simpering little child?” Kinda like I wondered how they could ruin perfectly wonderful characters like Tifa, Lulu and Fran by dressing them in inappropriate for battle outfits. I mean… I guess I could take it as “they kick so much butt, they don’t need REAL armor” but… I know it’s just pandering to the lowest denominator and it irks me.
All that said. I love FF. I wish they’d redo and upgrade them all to FF12’s system and graphics. And alter things, little things, like wardrobe malfunctions and simpering weakling voices that are totally out of character with the concept of the … um… character… I mean… /sigh.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Is Ashe picking her nose? :p
May 28th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
If you take into account how many females actually play final fantasy you should realise why they are sexualised.
Yes its annoying, but it obviously makes it slightly more appealing to the male audience who are usually the main buyers of playstation games.
Yes it annoys me that you can see Fran’s whole naked ass basically in Final Fantasy 12…
But if the male audience did not continue to buy final fantasy for multiple reasons such as the sexualised ‘Shiva’ and the female characters in skimpy clothes, maybe Squaresoft/Square-Enix may have stopped creating FF a long while ago.
So long as they keep making games with amazing storylines, i wouldn’t care if the female characters had leaves to cover thier nakedness.
May 29th, 2007 at 8:25 am
How many females actually play Final Fantasy?
May 29th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Um… I know of me… and that’s about it.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:57 am
So… I’m not sure what’s next, actually. Do women have any legitimate basis for protesting the way that games are designed for and marketed to young men using highly sexualized images of us?
May 29th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Uh, hello … who’s the blogger all excited that FF is coming back to the Wii?
May 29th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
I am actually not a fan of the Final Fantasy series. The only FF game I have is FFX-2, which I like, but that’s kind of the exception to the rule for me. I’m not a big RPG fan.
I agree with what you said for the most part, Moira. That IS one excessively small skirt that Ashe is wearing…ha ha…I didn’t really notice it in the commercials or anything until you pointed it out. From the (admittedly) little bit of FF games that I have seen, it seems to me like there are always outfits like that to be found. If indeed that is true, it’s probably because, as some have alluded to, the developers know that most FF players are guys, so they try to…ehem…cater to their “tastes.”
I don’t get the whole animal/beastly appearance mixed with skimpy clothes thing. That was one thing I never understood about FF games. Like with Fran for example. When I saw her picture, I was just like, “huh?” There are also a few outfits/dresspheres like that in FFX-2. What is the point? Attraction? I don’t think it’s attractive! Or IS it attractive to some people? I don’t know.
I like to see balance in a female character’s outfit. Give a girl character an outfit that is not wildly sexual, but is not totally “plain Jane” or beastly-looking either. I think Penelo’s outfit is a good example of that type of balance.
May 29th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Greg: unfortunately, I think that the intersection between gamers and furries is a little more pronounced than it is with other subcultures; so Square is just promoting that. Fran is just another variation of catgirl, designed to appeal to people who want to make excuses for the fact that they’re basically into beastiality. (bleah)
May 30th, 2007 at 8:44 am
She’s a playboy bunny. Inside joke or Freudian slip?
May 30th, 2007 at 8:59 am
“Uh, hello … who’s the blogger all excited that FF is coming back to the Wii?”
Oh right! That makes 2 that I know of! And after talking with my siblings, I can add 4 more to the list of women I know who like/love Final Fantasy. (My sister, Sis-N-Law and 2 of my older brothers X-GF’s). So yay! So now I know of 6.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:08 am
May 30th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
“She’s a playboy bunny. Inside joke or Freudian slip?”
Or both? Ha ha…
Oh, and I’ll buy that explanation you gave, Mighty Ponygirl…ugh!
May 31st, 2007 at 10:56 am
I think final fantasy is a great game but there is some unappropriate costumes and acts but, it would be boring if none of that was in it. I don’t know what you guys are babbling on about because you have no taste
anyways i’m a female and i ave every single ff game, i think they are great, i think this pile of rabble is a waste of time personallly :X
May 31st, 2007 at 11:14 am
…and yet you took the time to post here. Funny, that.
June 12th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I, female gamer, own the compilation of FF I-II, FF3 DS, FFVII, FFX, FFX-2, FFXII, and the three Kingdom Hearts games. I guess I qualify as FF fan.
You know what the funny part is? I hear a lot about how most male FF protagonists look too ‘girly’. And the amount of Cloud/Sephiroth, or Sora/Rikku porn writing by girls is pretty amazing out there.
I think its all about what forums you lurk when it comes to the mighty FF franchise. Huh.
June 13th, 2007 at 9:46 am
“Yes its annoying, but it obviously makes it slightly more appealing to the male audience who are usually the main buyers of playstation games.”
Because guys never play games if there aren’t objectified women in them. Like Metroid. Our poor boys will just crumble and die if they don’t get their FDA-approved Recommended Daily Allowance of innapropriately dressed women.
June 14th, 2007 at 7:30 am
…designed to appeal to people who want to make excuses for the fact that they’re basically into beastiality.
Wait, what?
June 15th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Kk so it’s probably not really my place to say anything here but I’m gonna anyway.
First… the clothing. Yes. There are a lot of girls in the FF series that are dressed in half shirts and mini skirts that could be considered little more than a belt at most. But there are also quite a few female characters that are quite modestly dressed. I’d say it’s fairly even. Even still, they can’t ALL be modestly dressed. It would stunt the diversity of the characters. It’s called emulating life. Look at the world YOU live in. Unfortunately for you and me there are tonnes of girls who dress just as such. People aren’t all the same irl, so why should Square make their characters as such. I HARDLY think Tetsuya had objectifying women in mind while designing the characters.
Second… What is this talk “there’re barely any female gamers that love Final Fantasy.” What the fuck are you talking about. Most of my friend are female and most of them love the Final Fantasy series. There are plenty of girls that love FF. And obviously most of you people here are fans despite your dislike like in some of the wardrobes.
Thirdly… bestiality?! WTF?! 1) Talk about going off topic! 2) To clarify Fran for example is a Kemonomimi, NOT a furry/anthro. Anthro are animals with human characteristics, Kemonomimi are humans with animal characteristics. Got it? Kemonomimi has also been around and in myth for thousands of years in most if not all different cultures. centaurs for example. You think think it’s a new thing? Wrong.
The bestiality comment was totally unnecessary and out of place. Wanna complain about something stupid? At least stick to the topic at hand.
Before you call be a biased manpig, I’m gay. I don’t want to see the panty shots or the massive celvage so you can’t blame my opinnion on my labido. But honestly get a grip. That’s how a lot of girls dress. You wanna be mad at someone, don’t be mad at Square, be mad at the girls that are objectifying THEMSELVES and giving you the bad rep. Not to meantion Final Fantasy isn’t the only game with skantily clad girls. There’re games far worse.
June 15th, 2007 at 5:31 am
I REALLY don’t think it is fair to call final fantasy sexist based on clothing. It may be sexist to dress all the girls in bikinis. But as of late the men have dressed similarly..
case in point:Tidus and Vaan.
June 15th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Zak, blaming real life girls for the way men portray women in video games is insulting and monumentally sexist. Don’t. There are plenty of sexist gay men in the world; fucking men doesn’t give you a pass on that.
I don’t care what Yoshida (the character designer for XII was not Tetsuya, but Yoshida Akihiko) had in mind when he was designing Fran and Ashe. He probably didn’t have that in mind. But the effect is sexist and objectifying nonetheless. It’s part of an environment in which women have been portrayed in games (and in visual media in general) as sex objects/victims first and warriors, mages, or thieves after. I think we put far too much emphasis on intention when we talk about bigotry and prejudice and not nearly enough on outcomes.
Brad, we’ve been over this. Vaan (and some other men) may be sort of portrayed in a sexualized way, but there’s a much wider variety of costuming for the men. I personally think Balthier is sexy as hell, but he’s not dressed to display his sexual characteristics the way Fran and Ashe are dressed to display theirs. Frankly I think they’d have done better to make Fran entirely naked. She’d have been less on display; her not wearing clothes would’ve had more to do with being non-human than with emphasizing her breasts.
June 15th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Zak: For real?
It doesn’t matter whether the designer intended to objectify women. Most objectification, I would argue, isn’t the sort where the person thinks “I’m going to objectify women.” It’s often completely unintentional. That doesn’t make it better.
Further: Are you really trying to argue that it’d be impossible to have a diversity of characters without hypersexualizing some of them? For reeeeal? Come on.
Finally: The fact that there are worse isn’t an argument that this is good. It’s an argument that… well… something else is worse. Big frickin’ deal. The fact that there are worse problems doesn’t invalidate anything said here.
June 17th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
A video game character doesn’t exist. But of course it still makes us guys think (more often) about the sexual appeal of women than their other qualities. So if you hate video game artists and advertisers for portraying women this way, what does that say about the women who do this in real life, and of their own free will? Perhaps you should be concerned about that instead.
I admit I like looking at it, it’s obvious any guy would. But it doesn’t mean I like girls who dress like that in real life. A video game company wants my money, and they trick me into giving it to them with sex appeal, but I’m glad I get good games in the process. With real people who give off that image, what will I get by associating with them?
That’s really why anything like this used to be censored or be for mature(er) audiences only. That way younger, more easily influenced people wouldn’t get wrong ideas from it and do this stuff in real life.
An adult should know how to keep things in their place, and accept eye candy as just that.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:05 am
See, Jeff, that’s the problem. “it’s obvious any guy would.”
Wrong. I find it annoying. I find it sexist and annoying and I don’t like it. In fact, I think it reflects poorly on a hobby I enjoy a lot, and it fosters a Men’s Only attitude in a lot of gaming circles. So, no, I don’t like it it, thanks.
Also, I think it’s worth noting that there are probably gay men who don’t particularly enjoy looking at hypersexualized images of digital women.
And, you know, if a woman wants to wear outfits like the ones described in the post, that’s her choice. What do you “get” by associating with those women?
Women are people, and you stand to “get” as much out of associating with any woman as with any other woman, regardless of how she dresses. That one woman wears a tiny skirt or a low cut shirt doesn’t make her less interesting as a person, or less funny, or less intelligent, than a woman wearing sweatpants or a woman wearing jeans or a woman wearing doctor’s scrubs.
June 18th, 2007 at 10:14 am
So if you hate video game artists and advertisers for portraying women this way, what does that say about the women who do this in real life, and of their own free will? Perhaps you should be concerned about that instead.
It says that women who dress current fashion are sluts. Duh.
Jeff, this is a gaming site. We talk about games. And because we’re women, and feminists, we notice that women are overwhelmingly portrayed as sex objects first and heroic badasses after. It makes us painfully aware that we are not the target market for most games, and if we want to play the best games, we have to buy the ones with the sexy/ist portrayals of women. It doesn’t have to be this way.
“But research shows that girls will play games with boy PCs, but boys won’t play games with girl PCs (unless they’re really sexy).” Not true. And I don’t really count Samus Aran of the Metroid franchise, despite my abiding love for the Metroid Prime games; her gender is almost completely obscured by the armor and the first-person perspective. I’m thinking more along the lines of Final Fantasy III/VI, The Longest Journey, Beyond Good and Evil.
Like I’ve said elsewhere, giving players the option to play Master Chief as a man or a woman wouldn’t have made a whole lot of difference to Halo.
Besides, I’m sick of my virtual worlds being more sexist than the real one.
June 21st, 2007 at 6:15 am
I think you’ve got to also take the context of where Final Fantasy comes from.
Japan is a massively sexually oppressed society, where the female only just recently acquired the right to exist on her own and it was forced on their government by a foreign occupying power. From a country where porn is sold in vending machines on the streets and is almost always rape related one would expect to find games and other media that heavily objectify women. The culture doesn’t even seem to have the same “balance” of sexism we see in America where females are to be thin and sexual and males are to be strong and masculine. In most Japanese media, cartoons, games, etc, the male characters tend to be physically nondescript - almost as though they were ignored while the polygons for the curvature of the female’s asses and breasts were spent long nights on.
Anyone here every play “Dead or Alive”? Just thinking about that game makes me morally cringe.
I don’t think we can expect most of those games to change until Japan’s own concept of sexuality start to change.