Rebuttal: The Roles of women

by Drome McKauliff

I'm not sure what your point is with that posting other than the following:

1) You feel like the designers from Sqaure use complex mathematical formulae in the determination of plot in the Final Fantasy games. (Ex: The second woman met plays a part in the personal history of the main character, etc...) Give me a break, girl.

2) You feel that FF games are selling on sex, with characters like Tifa wearing tight miniskirts, and you're blaming it on sexist approaches toward women. What kind of argument are you making, when you acknowledge that the men are shirtless? Plus, the way that you mentioned it, "we can have shirtless males parading around with no problem, like Barret and Sephiroth. If they can be comfortable, why can't the women?" shows that you refuse to acknowldge Square's use of sex to appeal to YOU, Ms. female RPGamer. If you want equal treatment of men and women, or whatever it is you're ambiguously implying in your poorly-written letter, what more could you ask for than shirtless men with sixpacks running around next to the scantily-clad women.

3) You have a funny definition of woman, calling Porom a woman... what is she, 9? 10? Come on, now. Plus, your differentiation and use of Porom as an example of female sacrifice in FF games (when it should be the sacrifice of her AND her brother, no longer making it gender-specific) shows that you're biased and your points are nothing more than slanderous propaganda.

4) You obviously don't know much about women's underwear. Tifa is, at most, a small C-cup. 34DDD? Come on. Give me a break. She's more likely a larger B-cup. Those who are done with training bras, Meagan, and have proceeded into the realm of THINKING THINGS THROUGH before making a rediculous statement about the so-called unfair treatment of women in a video game wouldn't have made the same mistake. You're not adding any credibility to your "theory".

Besides the fact that no one should listen to Meagan is the fact that Final Fantasy games have, since FF5 anyway, and possibly earlier, included very real and well-written females into the stories. Terra (who, by the way, isn't the main character of FF6... arguably it's Celes or Locke) is a well-rounded, interesting character whose creators didn't rely on the use of sex to make her interesting. Or take Alma from Tactics-- she's a strong, scrupulous character who is the one who posessess the potential for ultimate power. FF8 is filled with strong, well-written, true-to-life females, as well... the strongest character so far (I haven't finished the game) is Edea, a woman. I could go on, I could bring up more examples, I could support those examples as well as the ones I've provided more fully, but I need not.

The bottom line is that Square has some great writers, and their games have stories that are of wonderful content. We don't need the weak of mind influenced by the poisonous, pointless garbage that non-feminists like Meagan are putting up. Come on, Meagan. If you want to attack someone's use of females, pick a good target. There are plenty of them.

Phrases like, "I always thought it was the men who were supposed to protect the women", taken from Meagan's letter, aren't helping the situation much, either. Meagan, if square makes games where the women are strong enough to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, in which women are the heros, you should be applauding them, not whining about a miniskirt.

Original Editorial: The Roles of Final Fantasy Women