X2’s slut factor
This comment pretty much encompasses the reasons why FFX-2 has been perceived as a ’slutty game’. Yuna wears shorts so short that they reveal part of her rear, Rikku’s in constant bikini form, and Paine’s probably the most decent looking of the bunch. The credits sequence in the beginning of the game also juxtaposes the girls’ breasts with their respective preferred weapons.
There are also some pretty disturbing sequences, like the whole ‘Jack Leblanc’s satisfaction up!’ through massaging, and she gives some very, very disturbing noises. I was Not A Fan of the wording (’Jack her up?’ Christ, the sexual overtones can’t get any more obvious than that). Not to mention that Yuna teases Brother that he has to pay to see her dance, which pretty much screams ‘I WANT TO BE A LAP DANCER’.
(For the record, I’ve seen even more disturbing sequences than this. God of War II had such a hilariously bad scene and I was just dragging my jaw around for the rest of the day).
But the sexual overtones end there. Yuna, Rikku or Paine do not actually sell themselves out in any way. Sure, one can say the revealing dresses panders to the ‘my penis likes to talk’ demographic, but what about the story? In FFX, I lumped Yuna together with the ‘helpless girls who get kidnapped and need to be saved because they are special’ heroines (see: Garnet, Rinoa and Aeris) and couldn’t tell from the four of them. X-2 gave her a character makeover, and I’m glad for the fact that she actually gets angry and frustrated at people who aren’t villains. Paine, as indicative of any ‘badass’ stereotype, projects nothing that can be seen as sexual. Rikku’s probably the more passive of the three, and her reaction towards Gippal’s joke that they used to be together made me roll my eyes and mute the TV.
There was some debate that asked if revealing dresses subverted the characterization of females in games. You have Lara, who scales the skyscrapers of Tokyo barefoot and in a skimpy black dress. You have Ivy, who clearly needs a good ol’ bra. You have Mai Shiranui, whose bouncing bosom has been a subject of debate even within SNK itself. All these girls are strong - fighter strong, even, but has the sexualization of these women actually subverted their strength?
I think this is a very different issue than the whole Jade Raymond incident. The problem here is that the women are already sexualized, and there has never been some sort of survey done that actually measured what people felt. Jade, in contrast, was a woman working in a professional capacity, and became a sexual object. Perhaps this goes to show that gaming culture truly does affect our perceptions. There are psychological studies to show that violence in gaming is correlated to the amount of violence exhibited in real life (Anderson & Dill, 2000), despite gamers’ protests. Perhaps this correlation of violence can also be carried over into perceptions of women, and since violence is essentially a physical activity, it can be possible that the ‘nonphysical’ can be manifested more readily. Since physical aggression harms people, and everyone knows it, stereotyping and discrimination becomes a more acceptable form of aggressive behaviour.
It’ll be a very interesting study to partake: gauging the type of attitudes men have about women, and the correlation between video games that presumably sexualize females.
Back to FFX-2. No, I don’t think the game actually made them whores. Character development on any of the three girls don’t show that, and while the style of dress is objectionable, it’s not extremist. The other dresspheres looked pretty decent and appropriate - the dark knight and warrior dresspheres are but two examples, and hey! NO CLEAVAGE. I suppose in that sense, it pretty much caters to both the male and female demographics - the males can jack themselves off looking at the outfits that are revealing, and the girls can squeal at the massive amount of clothing they can change into.
Anyway, it’s not how sexual the game was that killed it. It was the motherfucking minigames.
