Final Fantasy X's Women, i.e. Dagas_Isa is SMART

[auronlu]

dagas_isa  -- writing under my very favorite icon of hers -- had an interesting and thoughtful post comparing Yuna and Nao of Liar Game. Much thinky thoughts were posted.

However, I must snip out this paragraph and frame it on the wall, because it's so obvious, and yet I never quite crystallized the thought:

Plus, Spira appears much bigger in the sense of gender equality than our world is. As far as I can tell, there's really no intentional sexism in the way that Spira's drawn out, and it's possible to find women incorporated in the military, sports, and in the religion. That is, any sexism in X isn't so much within Spira, as it is in the people who produced it.

Purple emphasis mine, of course.

So yeah. We have our Lucils and our Donas and our Elmas and our Lulus and our random blitzers and Shelinda the Token Doormat. We have rather more male than female characters being movers and shakers within the storyline. We have Unnamed Mother Syndrome for Rikku, Yuna, Tidus and Seymour. But in the world itself, as opposed to the cast we happen to bump into, it appears that women might pop up in any role.

Except. Deflation time. I see no female maester, no female leader of any group from Al Bhed to Ronso, until we get LeBlanc in X-2, who is not the most flattering leader-figure. Maybe Spiran women can be in any role -- military, religious, sports -- but there is still a glass ceiling?  Or do we blame that on game designers' allocation of PC/NPC roles?

It still looks to me like it would be a lot easier for Lucil to make maester (or meyvin) than it would be for a woman in our world to get signed as a free agent in Major League Baseball or acquire "President" as a job title.

Also, Bechdel Test. Flying Colors. There are conversations [not about men] between all female PCs, and between a number of NPCs and PCs. (Even the Marshmallow of Yevon).

This post is tangentially related to the whole "why are women not being written in fanfic" conversation being carried out in some other fandoms. One thing our canon has which some fandoms do not: Women. Lots. In many different roles.

Cf: LoTR.  (sigh)

Comments

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Hmmm hmm hmm.

It's so easy to see the same material in different ways, like those optical illustions that can be two faces or a cup.

The lack of female maesters jumps out at me, and I recall a couple mentions of High Priests but no High Priestess references (although there are nuns and monks at each temple). Good call on New Yevon being more guys than not. There are many nuns/priestesses in New Yevon, but they're mostly outside the Court of Yevon, wandering around the promenade, instead of in the inner sanctum/Court area with Baralai.

However.

Two items to consider.

"Lucil being the first woman who made it into the Crusaders."

In canon, Lady Yocun was a Crusader before she became High Summoner. That was 100 years before the game. Also, I'm not sure if this was deliberate or an accident, but her guardian appears to have been a warrior monk. I keep meaning to go back and write about Yocun and this woman I have named "Lilith" for no good reason:



There are few Crusader NPCs you can talk to in the game who refer to Lady Yocun: a Crusader on the Mi'ihen highroad who's hoping to emulate her, and a few Crusaders in the Gorge in the Calm Lands who say that was where Lady Yocun trained, making it "sacred to the Crusaders."

It's possible Yocun could be unusual as well.

Or, it's possible the Crusaders could always have been unorthodox in this, as in other things. Lord Mi'ihen had to walk to Bevelle to head off excommunication, and the Crimson Blades changed their names to Crusaders and agreed to report to Yevon. But obviously the Crusaders were always problematic: that's why Kinoc and Seymour used Operation Mi'ihen to "prune" them. The Youth League arose largely from disaffected Crusaders. All of which makes me think the Crusaders, and then the Youth League, may be more egalitarian than Yevon.

Then again, Shelinda gets appointed Captain of the Guard, evidently in charge of the warrior monks in Bevelle, towards the end of FFX. And the presence of women on professional sports teams is something unheard of in our world. (Although none of them are team captains.)

Re: Male summoners being "actually quite rare."

Problem: more of the High Summoners are male than female. If more summoners were women than men, yet men have a higher success rate, that would irk me. Small sample size, of course.

I still lean towards dagas_isa's idea that the world itself has women in military, religious, all other professions, but the game designers tend towards typical Final Fantasy game mechanics in which women are mages/healers more than fighters.

But YMMV. I can see it both ways.

I agree with you about Nhadala being something of a leader, and originally had that in my post before snipping it out. I see her as analogous to Lucil: in a position of authority with people under her command, but not at the top of her group's hierarchy. That may be wrong; I'm thinking Cid is still the Al Bhed elder in X-2, but one could argue that the Al Bhed have fractured into splinter groups, and she's the leader of one of them.

Apropos of nothing, I wish we knew the name of Kimahri's girlfriend. She popped up in FFX at Luca Stadium a few times (if one equates sprites, which is dicey). Blue hair. Gives backrubs. That's all we know, meh.

[euphonious-glow.livejournal.com]

Ah. You do make excellent points. Consider this my lack of canon knowledge showing. I haven't played the game in quite a while =( The way I saw it, male summoners are not as common, yet they hold the positions of power in Yevon. Perhaps the Youth League, Crusaders, and blitzball teams are part of a growing modern movement that Yevon is holding out against.

How much to credit the developers with is of course important.

Hey, it happens...

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

I didn't figure out that point about Lady Yocun either, until I'd already written fanfic making her a priestess and a nun.

Interesting how my own assumptions paralleled ones that the game designers often make about women in FF games. Except -- wait, the assumption was mine, even though her statue has a sword!

I only noticed my mistake while compiling the FF script, when I bumped into a few Crusader NPCs that mention her.

Here's an odd bit of trivia: despite all the people calling her lady Yocun (and her sprite being this woman (http://auronlu.istad.org/ffx-script/characters/crusadergray.jpg)), the crazy old coot in Besaid village calls her Lord Yocun. Oops, game designers! :)

Canon is never entirely consistent.

[azurite]

Thanks for reminding me of Yocun! I forgot about her and her guardian!

Also, I'd say the Al Bhed definitely seem to have splintered off. There's Gippal's Machine Faction back at the former Djose Temple, Nhadala out in the Sanubia Sands, Cid moping in the Thunder Plains, and Brother, of course, on the Celsius with the Gullwings.

Also, the success rate of known High Summoners is actually dead-even:
Yunalesca, Yocun, Yuna are the females (3)
Ohalland, Gandof, and Braska are the males (3).

These are just the named High Summoners in-game; there are plenty of would-be and former summoners, but they appear to be equal in number, too:
Dona, Belgemine, and Ginnem are the females (3)
Seymour, Father Zuke, and Isaaru are the males (3).

Considering Sin's not exactly consistent with how often it comes back, I suppose it's possible that there is one or more summoners not on this list that journeyed and either failed (died or gave up) or succeeded but, for whatever reason, were not mentioned in the annals of Spira's history in-game like the others. I don't think becoming a Summoner was meant to appear as an easy task, but for a whole world of Spira, I imagine there's a lot more failed or would-be summoners out there, right?

Also, do we know if Kimahri's girlfriend was maybe one of the Ronso blitzball players? There were a few females on the team, and I know you can view their names....