RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Zyrusticae · **03-02-2015, 06:26 PM**

(03-02-2015, 06:02 PM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote:

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But that's just it. time and time again, threads like this one pop up and we see how the vocal part of the community reacts. It's not a fault with the community or the people. Nor the question, which was good-intentioned. But it's going to happen to pretty much any heated topic eventually.

At the risk of sounding "backwards" or "regressive" (and who knows? I'd like to think I'm not, but there's certainly societal norms that I've been steeped in like anyone else), is there really any merit in trying to explain a point to people who aren't listening? Or worse, explaining a point for an intended audience that isn't going to read it? As already stated earlier, the "good RPers" to one's own judgement will RP "good characters" and the same for "bad RPers". There isn't a battle there. But there is certainly a choice.

People are going to reach out and surround themselves with people who share their opinions and play style. Trying to force someone who isn't interested in something to think or RP a certain way (even if it's better for everone) just isn't something that's going to happen. It's just a hurt-feelings generator.

So let's all have fun with our respective groups, and try to get along. There is no perfect homogenized community. That is a myth.

I believe the mods have said enough, but I just wanted to note that I find value in discussion itself for its own sake, and I don't necessarily require that the other party fundamentally change from it, though obviously I have no interest in trying to speak with someone who is blatantly disrespecting me or my position from the off.

And, yeah, it IS a public forum, so even if the person I am talking to doesn't necessarily take it in and think about it properly, there are lurkers who will. And that, on its own, is enough for me.

(03-02-2015, 06:03 PM)Knight Kat Wrote:

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Wow, I'm going to get my say in before this thread is locked.

How about we consider that Eorzea is not the real world, and has many many factors that would make it so our typical real world culture and gender roles do not apply to all things?

Roegadyn women. So big and strong that about the only males who might be just as strong, or stronger, are Highlander men and Roegadyn men. Female Roegadyn would probably make excellent hard-labor workers and soldiers.

Lalafell men and women are built almost identical. Size and shape is pretty much the same. It's often hard to tell the difference unless you see facial hair, makeup or gender-based hairstyles.

Miqo'te may be portrayed in a highly sexualized manner, but also consider that the lore absolutely confirms that males are born far less often than females. In such a society, males are too few to be the primary hunters, fighters and workers. Females would have to do most of that, and they would have to be good at it or they would die out.

You might try to apply typical real world culture and gender roles to Elezen and Hyur then, but there are many female Hyur and Elezen in the Grand Companies and Law-enforcement forces. You see them everywhere.

Then there is aether. It can be used by a tiny Lalafell to cast big fireballs to destroy magitek robots.

"Size matters not." -Yoda.

What is my point in all this? Gender roles and modern culture exist for a reason. But, the factors that make our real world culture what it usually is do not fully apply to this fantasy world. Sure there are sexualized portrayals of genders in Eorzea (just look at the female workers in the Golden Saucer...), but there are also legendary heroes like the female Dragoon named Rainette.

What is and isn't an accurate depiction of a woman or a man in this game can not be accurately judged based on our real world culture and ideals.

Man, I see this argument a LOT.

The problem with it is that Eorzea is still a world of pure fiction, made by human beings with all the values and perspectives of humans from our own planet Earth. And of course, the other people playing those characters are all human beings themselves, all from planet Earth, and there is simply no way to ignore this. It colors everything, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in really overt ways (the dragoon gut window and the ninja hakama being really obvious examples, among others). Ideally both the developers and the players would focus on making the fictional world as believable and immersive as possible, but this doesn't always happen... hence this discussion.

Female to Male Ratio

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes