question how far is to far

[Noxifer]

TL;DR: I don't agree with crossdressing
[...]
From what I can see, S-E is looking towards removing some items and making it unisex. While I don't personally like that choice, it is their game and I will not say a word about it if I see it, but personally, it won't sit well with me.

The problem is that most of the time, female characters are perfectly allowed to crossdress (since many of the "male-only" items are, in fact, unisex). Male characters aren't.

IRL, women are allowed to crossdress (trousers, suits/tuxes, masculine flannel shirts) without anyone opposing it, other than maybe people assuming that for places requiring 'formal wear', women must wear high heels and dresses. Men aren't without people questioning their sexuality, gender identity or beating them up for assumptions regarding those. (Yes, there are rare cases when men can "get away" with it, if they're fortunate to live in a city where people generally are more tolerant. It'll still cause quite a few raised eyebrows and comments. I tend to wear a long skirt at home, because it's comfortable and it's more socially accepted than wrapping a duvet cover around my waist because it's clothes. Went to the shop once during the summer without switching to trousers, crossed paths with a small group of people in their early twenties or late teens and heard semi-loud comments to the point of "people should really make up their minds (about gender)" -- probably because I'm also long-haired... with a beard. Glanced at the group. Three of them were short-haired women with jeans. Yeahhh... people should really make up their minds, no? *amused*)

Anyway, I get side-tracked. The point is that it should be fair for all players of this game. When gearsets are female/unisex, that's not fair. If they're female/male, that's fair. If they're unisex/unisex, that's fair. I for one am glad that SE are looking at levelling out the already-existing unevenness in addition to evening out the release pattern for current patches. Whether they do that by making the gearset pairs into unisex/unisex or female/unisex/male (by introducing new male-only gearsets to match the themes of previously released ones), it's pretty much the same to me.

And while I did make the comparison with IRL also allowing more freedom when it comes to clothes, the fact of the matter is that in Eorzea gender equality isn't really a struggle, is it? I mean, we know they can change quest text based on character gender, because not only pronouns get different, but we're addressed slightly differently in some texts depending on our gender. If text boxes started questioning our life choices of becoming the warrior of light if we happened to be playing a female character, or if female NPCs stopped being guards or other "dangerous" jobs because it wasn't "responsible" of them... then it might be fair to assume social rules when it comes to clothes may be similar.