Comments | auriond: Of FF13, feminism, and lesbianism

auriond

Of FF13, feminism, and lesbianism

Mar 21, 2010 11:08

(Disclaimer: it's been a long time since I've written anything resembling an academic essay, much less one about gender and sexuality, so my vocabulary is extremely rusty. I'm going to use terms that are not entirely accurate, and I'm going to grope about for ways to convey what's on my mind. Forgive me if it goes off the mark in places.)

( an essay. warning: very long, LOTS of text, but with some pics to hopefully break up the monotony. )

Comments 7

glazzal March 21 2010, 15:52:49 UTC

I'm going to speak from my experience of watching Japanese animation. I don't actually know if the context of gaming is close to that of anime, but I'm going to assume they are similar ( ... )

auriond March 21 2010, 22:14:09 UTC

XD I'm not sure. Okay.

Yes, the hero who fights in heels is damn common indeed. But their aesthetic is geared towards the straight male gaze, so yes, what you say about femmeness caving in to heteronormativity (is there such a word?) Not being a lesbian, however, I'm not really in a position to say what appeals to the gay female. But I suspect that it's not really much different from what appeals to straight females, since taste in people shouldn't be entirely reliant on sexuality.

Masculine women really are rather un-common in video games. In that sense, FF was being brave in bringing out a masculine female fighter, and yes, they were breaking a stereotype. But then I'm conflating the history of FF with the history of video gaming, because at least in the FF games that I've played, there have been no actual good female warriors (as opposed to mage or healer). And the first one I encountered could only do so by taking on the characteristics of its typical male warrior leads (the leather garb, sullen personality etc.). But yeah, ( ... )

this is the brainless reaction glazzal March 21 2010, 15:56:10 UTC

Ooooooooh pretty peekture! They're cute!

Nice post and interesting topic!

Re: this is the brainless reaction auriond March 21 2010, 22:14:37 UTC

XD FF always delivers in the realm of eye candy, that's for sure.

popcorn_oracle March 23 2010, 06:36:31 UTC

Haha sorry random journal lurker here, but this came up when I typed Vanille/Fang. I pretty much bought the game after hearing some guys bitch about "feminist and lesbian undertones", which translated to me as MUST GET THIS GAME NOW. And I honestly didn't expect it to live up to my expectations, but wow it exceeded them. But yeah, I was pretty much thinking these exact things as I played/was taking the same notes, and you've pretty much written the basics of the essay I'm probably still gonna write on this. All in all, I so agree! And Fang is amazingly awesome. I'm so proud of FF as such a mainstream series to take steps like this.

auriond March 23 2010, 09:46:39 UTC

:D Brilliant how it got the same reaction! What I love is how completely matter-of-fact about it, as if we live in a world where all this isn't remarkable at all.

Would love to see your take on the essay!

popcorn_oracle March 23 2010, 23:08:51 UTC

Haha, yeah that's whats great about the way they treat gender roles in that game. In a way of course I wish they'd address it, but I'm also really glad to never hear them doing the "explaining away toughness" cliche, where they're "only strong because I had to because this ___". Or hearing that Vanille and Fang are "like sisters" haha. I haven't finished the game yet but I hope to this week, if not, spring break is coming up very soon and I'll for sure have things together by then.