The tawdry female bosses are tiresome, and we could do with more male fanservice.

[Eldevern]

no one says there isn't any differences to the biological sexes. but none of those differences are "women are sexy are men are not" what is or isnt sexy depends on who looks at it, both personal opinion and society. males and females do have biological differences, both can be sexy in their own way, but for some reason, FFXIV only tends to show sexy females, that's the issue the OP is talking about.

I get your point but I can't let pass such formulation as "social gender norms". Hormones have real impact on brain. I can't let says it is cultural especially since neo-feminist talk a way that despises feminity as if it was something bad or the result of some machist culture. Women in Sweden are, based on feminist criterias, more free to choose than women in asia. What did researchers discover : women in Sweden tend to choose more "feminine" studies when women in asia will choose rather "masculine" studies. Based on current neo-feminist theories, it should be the opposite.

Now, come back to the OP point. Most gods-like characters are based on mythical sources where males are beast and women are dangerous beauties as a metaphor of the Nature. Is it possible to make more human-male-looking bosses? Of course. But it is not useful to use such words as tawdry or obscene.

[Joven]

Ask yourselves why this game needs more attractive, scantily clad males. If your answer is because 'it's only fair' then you're wrong. Fairness has nothing to do with it because as a creative work of fiction, the only thing that matters is what the creator chooses. If they choose to only have scantily clad women then that's their perogative. If they choose to add in more scantily clad men then that is also their perogative. Saying that they need to because 'it's only fair' doesn't apply. There doesn't have to be even 50/50 in everything because that's not how things work.

[Lauront]

I get your point but I can't let pass such formulation as "social gender norms". Hormones have real impact on brain. I can't let says it is cultural especially since neo-feminist talk a way that despises feminity as if it was something bad or the result of some machist culture. Women in Sweden are, based on feminist criterias, more free to choose than women in asia. What did researchers discover : women in Sweden tend to choose more "feminine" studies when women in asia will choose rather "masculine" studies. Based on current neo-feminist theories, it should be the opposite.

Correct - it's misguided to try attribute these things purely to "societal brainwashing" or whatever. They are rooted in biology.

The funny thing is, looking more closely at the image the OP is talking about, she's not even really scantily clad - the outfit is just made to give the illusion of it.

Ask yourselves why this game needs more attractive, scantily clad males. If your answer is because 'it's only fair' then you're wrong. Fairness has nothing to do with it because as a creative work of fiction, the only thing that matters is what the creator chooses. If they choose to only have scantily clad women then that's their perogative. If they choose to add in more scantily clad men then that is also their perogative. Saying that they need to because 'it's only fair' doesn't apply. There doesn't have to be even 50/50 in everything because that's not how things work.

I agree, they don't 'need' to do it, nor would it make sense to just adhere to some 50/50 criterion. There's already quite a few monstrous females anyway - people just don't always realise they're female (like the benthos queen), or like to pretend they're not, so they can maintain their agenda that SE is "sexist". Still, some more attractive male character bosses, like Innocence, would be appreciated.

[craybest]

I get your point but I can't let pass such formulation as "social gender norms". Hormones have real impact on brain. I can't let says it is cultural especially since neo-feminist talk a way that despises feminity as if it was something bad or the result of some machist culture. Women in Sweden are, based on feminist criterias, more free to choose than women in asia. What did researchers discover : women in Sweden tend to choose more "feminine" studies when women in asia will choose rather "masculine" studies. Based on current neo-feminist theories, it should be the opposite.

Now, come back to the OP point. Most gods-like characters are based on mythical sources where males are beast and women are dangerous beauties as a metaphor of the Nature. Is it possible to make more human-male-looking bosses? Of course. But it is not useful to use such words as tawdry or obscene.

not very true actually, most greek and roman mythology which is considered one of the most well known ones, has LOTS of sexy seminaked males. and none of them are in FFXIV. so it's not a mythology thing. it's the company actively choosing only sexy female inspiration and designs, and not male ones.

[Eldevern]

not very true actually, most greek and roman mythology which is considered one of the most well known ones, has LOTS of sexy seminaked males. and none of them are in FFXIV. so it's not a mythology thing. it's the company actively choosing only sexy female inspiration and designs, and not male ones.

There are far more mythologies than only the greek one... Actually FFXIV refers a lot more to celtic, asian (India included) or Mesopotamian myths. They avoid both Greek/Roman myths and Egyptian myths.

EDIT : They avoid Arthurian legends too.

[Joven]

There are far more mythologies than only the greek one... Actually FFXIV refers a lot more to celtic, asian (India included) or Mesopotamian myths. They avoid both Greek/Roman myths and Egyptian myths.

They did have Scylla in the World of Darkness and she's from the Greek mythology the Odyssey:

[Eldevern]

They did have Scylla in the World of Darkness and she's from the Greek mythology the Odyssey:

There are a few other as Sophia but it is noticable there are a lot more asian references (though Shiva is a tricky one since she not refers to the god but to "shiver").

[Joven]

There are a few other as Sophia but it is noticable there are a lot more asian references (though Shiva is a tricky one since she not refers to the goddess but to "shiver").

Maybe they're not avoiding them so much as they haven't gotten to them yet or they just don't want to blow through everything too quickly and run out of content.

[ReiMakoto]

There are far more mythologies than only the greek one... Actually FFXIV refers a lot more to celtic, asian (India included) or Mesopotamian myths. They avoid both Greek/Roman myths and Egyptian myths.

EDIT : They avoid Arthurian legends too.

They don't avoid Arthurian theres literally a Knights of the Round boss

[Krotoan]

They did have Scylla in the World of Darkness and she's from the Greek mythology the Odyssey:

and.. Cerberus.