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

I'm the LJ spamgirl tonight...

[vieralynn.livejournal.com]

Found this and dagas_isa's post via ff_press.

FFX definitely passes the Bechdel Test.

(I wish there had been more Female-female interaction in FFXII because when it happened, it almost always passed Bechdel with flying colors. Women Talking To Women About World History and Political Current Events == Giant Win!)

Interesting how these two posts and their comments are making me rethink Yuna. I loved FFX's portrayal of women in the professional sphere. Women held positions similar to men, it was natural, end of story.

But, for some reason, Yuna sort of grated on me. Too much of the dutiful sacrificial lamb. Although lots of fans saw her as a strong character, I had trouble with how she was portrayed. BUT -- the big but -- if FFX isn't a sexist world (or not in the way our world is), then Yuna should be judged by her cultural standards. If women in Spira aren't bogged down by expectations of being the sacrificial lamb, then Yuna's role is powerful and my own biases are the problem.

Elsewhere, ellnyx and I have talked about what happens if FFX's story is played out with FFXII's cast or vice versa. Those convos were mostly spurred by comparisons of Yuna vs Ashe.

BTW, I was out and out relieved when Ashe didn't have a Yuna/Tidus in the lake romantic encounter. Even though oceans of fans complained about FFXII's lack of romantic subplots, I think a confirmed romance with Ashe/? would have ruined the story. It would have been a "Woman made whole by Man taking charge." Thankfully FFXII didn't go there.

Re: I'm the LJ spamgirl tonight...

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Very much agreed that one of FFXII's strengths was that it skipped the "woman being made whole by a man" plot.

Yuna troubles me, but I feel she made her choices more based on the culture's expectations about children related to great fathers than on sexism. Seymour, Yuna, Rikku, even Tidus have parents-issues. It's particularly interesting in Spira, because many children do not remember their parents. Those that do seem to exist in the umbra of their illustrious predecessors.