In the recent FFXV new female character topic, much debate is going on over whether the new character - due to her low cut shirt - is an example of a negative attempt at sexualizing the female for the male audience. But since that thread really is supposed to be about discussing that character, I wanted to expand the conversation a bit because I think there's some fertile ground here.
First let me preface by saying I think most of us can agree that there is definitely a problem in Japanese and Western videogames with oversexualization of female characters, women-as-sex-objects-and-nothing-more.
But there is often two other sides, as far as I can tell, that people often fail to consider when we enter these sort of genuinely concerned discussions about whether the depiction of a certain female character is wrong. I'll break up the way I see it into two separate categories.
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CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
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The example I used in the FF topic was of Fran from FF12. Fran is a Viera whose people in FF12 live in Eruyt Village, they live deep in the woods in the trees and a very clear hunter/gatherer/mystic type lifestyle. They are by many Western cultural points of views, quite thinly dressed. And of course there's the whole bunny girl fetish people seem to have.
But now reference some of the cultures from our own planet. Many tribes in the Amazon, for example, are not just scantily clad, they're completely nude. Do you enter that village and start complaining about their sexually deviant culture, or how the females in that village exist simply to serve male lust?
Consider another point. The Viera in Ivalice segment themselves into independent male and female communities. Wouldn't the fact that females all live with other females (and all male Viera with other male Viera) also necessarily mean there might be different cultural sensitivity toward what counts as 'sexualization'? And how is it possible to insert our own narrow cultural view about sex into this completely different environment?
It's a fantasy game and so people can be very creative with just how they create cultures. But I do think it's important to stop and consider why a certain creation might view the world differently than you do.
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CONTEXTUAL SIGNIFICANCE
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In the tradition of continuing to use Final Fantasy games as are starting point for this discussion, now consider Chocalina. As far as I can tell she is designed after the Cabaret/Varieté show girls that dance, entertain, sing, etc. But what is the context for her outfit here?
Consider that we never see a show like that with her in it. Consider that as a character she is essentially empty, with no motivations or cultural context we can place her in. She stands around and she sells you things (so, not a Cabaret dancer?). She is scantily clad for the sake of being scantily clad, and so viewed in the context as a game designed by a specific culture - Japan - we can place her in the prism of a character made to be very sexually attractive to some males. We can debate about whether that is the purpose of her character, but the point is it's much easier to interpret her this way given the issue.
So, context matters.
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#NOTALLMEN
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Now, given these two categories, another side conversation people often bring up is how men who are not wearing much never get brought into the discussion. Why are these men not sex objects being overtly sexualized? Is this a problem as well? Or is our inherent real world social/cultural perspectives negatively influencing our ability to independently judge each character within the context of the world's they are contained within?
In the FFXV debate ongoing, the issue is with a female mechanic who is dressed pretty normally other than the fact that she is wearing a pretty low cut that shows her cleavage. So, placing the male character above in the same context of this world, does that change things? Should it?
I personally believe a big reason this is not an issue as often is because Men have already had a zillion powerful and decently characterized people within games they can point to and smile at. It's far less a problem than depiction of women in games have been. So, people put it aside because it sort of devalues just how serious the problem can be for women.
But, for the sake of full analysis, should we talk about it? Should this context matter when evaluating the female mechanic in the same game?
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DISCUSS
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What do you guys think? What other categories can we add in terms of the way we evaluate whether a female (or male) character is being turned into an object of fan service? Is there nuance here, can a character be both empowered and an object of fan service?
Anyway, thought this would be interesting.
First let me preface by saying I think most of us can agree that there is definitely a problem in Japanese and Western videogames with oversexualization of female characters, women-as-sex-objects-and-nothing-more.
But there is often two other sides, as far as I can tell, that people often fail to consider when we enter these sort of genuinely concerned discussions about whether the depiction of a certain female character is wrong. I'll break up the way I see it into two separate categories.
_____________________________________________
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
_____________________________________________
The example I used in the FF topic was of Fran from FF12. Fran is a Viera whose people in FF12 live in Eruyt Village, they live deep in the woods in the trees and a very clear hunter/gatherer/mystic type lifestyle. They are by many Western cultural points of views, quite thinly dressed. And of course there's the whole bunny girl fetish people seem to have.
But now reference some of the cultures from our own planet. Many tribes in the Amazon, for example, are not just scantily clad, they're completely nude. Do you enter that village and start complaining about their sexually deviant culture, or how the females in that village exist simply to serve male lust?
Consider another point. The Viera in Ivalice segment themselves into independent male and female communities. Wouldn't the fact that females all live with other females (and all male Viera with other male Viera) also necessarily mean there might be different cultural sensitivity toward what counts as 'sexualization'? And how is it possible to insert our own narrow cultural view about sex into this completely different environment?
It's a fantasy game and so people can be very creative with just how they create cultures. But I do think it's important to stop and consider why a certain creation might view the world differently than you do.
______________________________________________
CONTEXTUAL SIGNIFICANCE
______________________________________________
In the tradition of continuing to use Final Fantasy games as are starting point for this discussion, now consider Chocalina. As far as I can tell she is designed after the Cabaret/Varieté show girls that dance, entertain, sing, etc. But what is the context for her outfit here?
Consider that we never see a show like that with her in it. Consider that as a character she is essentially empty, with no motivations or cultural context we can place her in. She stands around and she sells you things (so, not a Cabaret dancer?). She is scantily clad for the sake of being scantily clad, and so viewed in the context as a game designed by a specific culture - Japan - we can place her in the prism of a character made to be very sexually attractive to some males. We can debate about whether that is the purpose of her character, but the point is it's much easier to interpret her this way given the issue.
So, context matters.
______________________________________________
#NOTALLMEN
______________________________________________
Now, given these two categories, another side conversation people often bring up is how men who are not wearing much never get brought into the discussion. Why are these men not sex objects being overtly sexualized? Is this a problem as well? Or is our inherent real world social/cultural perspectives negatively influencing our ability to independently judge each character within the context of the world's they are contained within?
In the FFXV debate ongoing, the issue is with a female mechanic who is dressed pretty normally other than the fact that she is wearing a pretty low cut that shows her cleavage. So, placing the male character above in the same context of this world, does that change things? Should it?
I personally believe a big reason this is not an issue as often is because Men have already had a zillion powerful and decently characterized people within games they can point to and smile at. It's far less a problem than depiction of women in games have been. So, people put it aside because it sort of devalues just how serious the problem can be for women.
But, for the sake of full analysis, should we talk about it? Should this context matter when evaluating the female mechanic in the same game?
______________________________________________
DISCUSS
______________________________________________
What do you guys think? What other categories can we add in terms of the way we evaluate whether a female (or male) character is being turned into an object of fan service? Is there nuance here, can a character be both empowered and an object of fan service?
Anyway, thought this would be interesting.
