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

[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....