I just want to put out there that I was playing FFIX with a friend who has never played a FF game before (though he does like the RPG genre quite a bit). When I was showing him some of the summons, when we got to Shiva he said "Oh Shiva, I assume she is the fire elemental summon?"

So lets keep in mind that while there is something to be said for "Classic FF Shiva", "Classic FF Shiva" is, in fact, kind of really messed up. (Not to mention Shiva is male).