Eorzea views on sexuality...

[TinyRedLeaf]

Personally, I don't like it when fantasy mediaeval worlds have to be written to fit modern-day notions of political correctness. For example, imagine such pressure forcing a show like Game Of Thrones to drop all use of misogynist imagery and language, simply because modern-day audiences find them offensive.

And I think people often forget that games such as FFXIV are available to different people in different parts of the world, with different values and different ways of handling sensitive issues such as these. I well understand the eagerness to promote such views, and I may even support them in real life. But I'm not comfortable with them having imposed on people who don't share such views.

That said, it is an imaginary world, so its social institutions can be whatever its creators want. I'll go along either way.

[Alberel]

Personally, I don't like it when fantasy mediaeval worlds have to be written to fit modern-day notions of political correctness. For example, imagine such pressure forcing a show like Game Of Thrones to drop all use of misogynist imagery and language, simply because modern-day audiences find them offensive.

The irony here is Game of Thrones DOES feature same sex relationships.

A lot of people argue that it's 'political correctness' but what many fail to realise is that same sex relationships have existed throughout history. They have ALWAYS existed. Just because your history textbooks don't talk about it doesn't mean it didn't happen. There are a LOT of things those history books leave out.

If anything any historical setting trying to pretend same sex relationships don't exist is misrepresentative by omission. The only reason companies do it is because it fits societal expectations based on ignorance and saves them any backlash from the bigots.

[TinyRedLeaf]

A lot of people argue that it's 'political correctness' but what many fail to realise is that same sex relationships have existed throughout history. They have ALWAYS existed. Just because your history textbooks don't talk about it doesn't mean it didn't happen. There are a LOT of things those history books leave out.

Same-sex relationships have always been around. Did I dispute that?

What is also true is that such relationships have been frowned upon in most societies throughout history. That's a historical fact. What I actually think about this is besides the point. Sure, there were societies that turned a blind eye to such relationships, just as there were a handful of other societies that even actively practised such relationships. But it's quite a major leap to go from there to the suggestion that just because such relationships existed, therefore societies were okay with it — if they were, we wouldn't have the culture wars that we're dealing with today!

BUT, as I've already pointed out, all this moot. This is an imaginary world, and there is no rule that all imaginary worlds must mirror our historical experience to a T. I'm willing to go either way, so long as the circumstances are backed with a good amount of lore to explain why it turned out that way in Eorzea.

And I have no wish to drag this out any further than necessary. I'm sure no one wants to argue over this in a game forum. I'm not even for or against either side of the debate, in any case.

[IceMateria]

Same-sex relationships have always been around. Did I dispute that?

What is also true is that such relationships have been frowned upon in most societies throughout history. That's a historical fact. What I actually think about this is besides the point. Sure, there were societies that turned a blind eye to such relationships...

BUT, as I've already pointed out, all this moot. This is an imaginary world, and there is no rule that all imaginary worlds must mirror our historical experience to a T. I'm willing to go either way, so long as the circumstances are backed with a good amount of lore to explain why it turned out that way in Eorzea.

#Rome #Sparta. 'nuff said.

And if it's a fantasy world making history moot, then why drag your crappy opinion to the thread? You literally said that it doesn't matter, so all your posts are literally pointless.

[Lukha]

What is also true is that such relationships have been frowned upon in most societies throughout history. That's a historical fact.

And by 'most of history', you actually mean European history since about 300AD, when the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity reigned.

The taboo against homosexuality is mainly rooted in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam, Christianity), which do not exist in Eorzea, or indeed, in most fictional Fantasy worlds; remove this set of religions, and you remove its influence on culture and societal norms. This isn't to say that your fantasy word can't have taboos regarding sexuality if you want it to, but it also means that there is absolutely no reason why it must. You're building a world from scratch; just because the level of technology is approximately the same as Medieval Earth doesn't, and shouldn't, mean that your cultures are as well.

Now more on topic, views on sexuality could differ a good deal between the various Eorzean cultures.

As previously mentioned, considering the structure of Seeker society, same-gender pairings are pretty likely, for both sexual and child-rearing purposes - one male would have a pretty hard time actively helping to raise the children of twenty to fifty females, so the females might pair off to help each other. in the U tribe's village, we see at least one pair of females apparently cohabiting in one of the houses, talking about one's next scheduled quality time with the Nuhn.

Ishgardians, on the other hand, could very reasonably have taboos against homosexual relations built into their culture. Between their harsh environment and being constantly at war, their people are constantly dying; anything that could get in the way of producing children would pose a serious threat to their ability to keep the population up...and that's not even taking into account the potential for plague, famine or other acts of the gods to suddenly wipe out a chunk of the population.

But we DO have in-game evidence of same-sex hanky-panky going in in the ranks...Note that most of our current Ishgardian NPCs are involved with the war effort, however; whether or not their culture gives a whit about sexuality, it wouldn't be unreasonable if such relations were encouraged, or at least tacitly permitted, within the military. we see soldiers of both genders, and people WILL go on having sex no matter how you try to stop them...but imagine the trouble if half your military force were constantly getting pregnant! Far simpler to turn a blind eye to a minor act of heresy, than risk being undermanned at a critical moment.