This PC culture and gender politics is getting way out of hand.
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This PC culture and gender politics is getting way out of hand.
Again, we need to ask how far is too far? Where is the line drawn?
You can already make very feminine and androgynous looking characters. Pushing the boundaries further would lead to characters resembling children.
I can't help but think that those desperate to make a character look exactly like they do are overly invested and need to take a step back and consider that maybe it isn't reasonable to expect the development team to cater to each and every possible niche out there.
I think if viera men are added then they should be tall, well-built and classically handsome. Since they're likely to use elezen as a base they could take inspiration from Urianger's model - he's quite beefy, particularly in the arms. With adjusted proportions and animations I think it'd look quite good. Especially with a muscle tone slider.
I think if viera men are added then they should be around the same height as the females, slim, elegant, and have facial features similar to the females (rabbit-like facial structure). Since they're likely to use an elezen base, I hope they could take inspiration from Omega m's model - he's quite slim, particularly in the arms and torso. With adjusted proportions and animations I think it'd look quite good.
We already have feminine men in FFXIV. We don't need to double on it. Want feminine men? Play Elezen
https://i.imgur.com/Nd3kfgV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Xp4wCzu.jpg
I could never imagine someone living their entire life in a jungle looking feminine. Some of us would like male Viera to make sense based on where they live, their LIFESTYLE, their counterpart (female Viera), and what has been presented before (official art sketches).
I think you're dealing with abstracts now to the point that this is becoming foggy. The way Gwenorai laid out the personality traits is pretty helpful (although you can add more to these, such as traits like neuroticism, agreeableness and so on.) Both males and females exhibit these traits, but due to biological/evolutionary reasons, men express the traits to differing degrees to women (i.e. they fall along different bell curve distributions), who by and large were more preoccupied with child-bearing and -rearing historically, something which has tempered the evolution of their personality traits. Viera women are no exception to this, and their co-dependent social structure in order to protect their villages and rear their young is a facet of this. Because Viera choose to organise as hunter-gatherers, and because the males take it upon themselves to defend the Wood, the females have to be prepared to defend their villages as a last resort and also to assist with the hunting. This does not negate their more feminine characteristics, but it's probably why Gwenorai says they would appear androgynous in this facet. Certainly to modern eyes. Another thing to add is that it can also come down to differing expression of similar traits, and differing application of them (e.g. men are biologically inclined to show an interest in things/concepts, whereas for women this tendency is more in the area of people.)
Now compare to the males, who are solitary hunters. That is by far the most extreme type of masculine personality inclination you can get. The fact that they don't act as leaders in this regard is irrelevant, because they're not involved in the management of their villages at all.
Thus I don't consider the application of the term to the females to be particularly enlightening here.
You can associate certain physical traits with masculinity and femininity, however gracefulness is not one of those. They have more to do with anatomy and ratios indicative of fertility or virility. The same applies to facial beauty, but I think the term "beautiful" is a pretty gender-neutral term, anyway.
I in turn can't imagine someone living their life dressed in black lingerie armor that has their whole booty hanging out and expecting it to actually protect them from threats, but that's just how it is on this bitch of an earth.
Even if bunny boys were nothing but drag queens, they'd be just fine.
Ideally for me, I'd like for them to be as tall as or taller than the females.