of aerith and religion and sex, oh my!
After much deep thinking and thorough evaluation (read: my mind blanking out while walking from my room to the shower), I've realised that I really want to read a fanfic where Aerith's not selling flowers, but... flowers. You know, the winkwinknudgenudge kind.
Disclaimer: Although no one should suffer the blame for my weird, wandering thoughts, I nonetheless suspect icor's Cleris!Tactics transcript inspired this ("tinder-box", huh). Love you, girl. <3
[EDIT] I don't think I have to worry about this for my FList, but just in case an unwary victim passes by-- if the tags haven't clued you in, this post mulls over sex before marriage and prostitution, in a generally not-so-condemnatory light. If you can't stand those ideas, or if you can't stand that such serious issues are being applied to a video game character, please don't read the cut. Just label me crazy and move on with life.
But no, I don't have some fetish for reading about young girls getting involved in prostitution. I realise "winkwink!flower-seller" is something of a joke, something the Aerith-bashers use (maybe, I dunno, never did visit those anti-Aerith sites)-- but it has more to do with the whole "maiden" image of her. I get the feeling the street-savvy, down-to-earth, ends-justify-the-means-especially-if-it-involves-this-cute-guy-in-a-dress Aerith we witnessed in the Wall Market will be but a relic, preserved only in old fanfiction and fanarts of Cloud cross-dressing. The Aerith of the Compilation is either your Virgin Mother Mary angelic figure radiating compassion, or something of a harmless cutesy sweet young thing (though I just heard she's 15 in CC, so that's not so unexpected, and she does show some sass in her interaction with Zack).
And I'm thinking further about Maiden of the Planet, and how that word-- "maiden"-- seems to justify that Aerith had to be a virgin and that, somehow, being a virgin indicates morality/purity, which seems to be this presumed, unspoken condition for qualifying for the position as Guardian Mother of the Planet. No one who advocates Aerith = virgin is saying sex is bad, of course. But there's also that notion that, no, not Aerith-- Barret probably had sex, Dyne definitely did, Tifa's dad did, Cloud's mom did, Godo did, the Turks can all go have one big, blue-suited pretty orgy; but not Aerith!
I think the idea that Aerith may not be a virgin just yanks her down from that position high up, and suddenly she's just mortal like the rest o' them. It's like one post I read about The Da Vinci Code-- the poster's parents could not, would not, be able to believe Jesus could've married and had sex. Whether it's true or not was another matter entirely, but just the idea was something too impossible, too human to even consider. And Aerith is as Jesus-y to FFVII as Optimus Prime is to TF.
It's also got to do with this assumption that virginity = purity. I don't wanna get into the more seriaz discussions of sex before marriage, morals and whatnot-- suffice to say, I disagree that having sex means you're spiritually and morally "impure", doesn't make you a prostitute. And being a prostitute does not put you on a moral lower ground than being a nun. If Aerith did the deed with Zack or Cloud, I don't think that disqualifies her from becoming the Maiden of the Planet.
Finally, it's also got to do with this idea I'm mulling over: that the worth of virginity depends on which religion and which era you look at. I'm pretty sure everyone's heard something about those orgies and whatnot in Aphrodite's or Artemis' festivals. To make a grossly general connection, I think the further you get from today's monotheistic (and, interestingly, patriarchal) religions, the less emphasis there is on a woman's virgin purity. There used to be religions where sex was GOOD, and the goddess was as much a symbol of motherhood as she was of sex (also interestingly, these were more... matriarchal religions? Er, geez, not sure what the proper term is, but women/female figures held pretty central roles, rather than existing as a footnote).
And look at the "religion" in FFVII-- it's not very Christian or Islamic. To risk speaking as an uneducated outsider, the Promised Land+living with nature makes it feel closer to Shinto and Buddhism. But it's also very animistic, believing every tree and rock is created out of the planet's "soul"/Lifestream. And the focus is on the female Cetras-- yes, males existed too, but it's Aerith and Ifalna (and Jenova, the faux-Cetra) who take centre-stage. I've just got this craaazy idea that the Cetra wouldn't have cared two bits about pure virgins.
So, why prostitution in particular, and not just have Aerith and Cloud do some extra-curricular activities on the gondola? Likely because it links back to the idea that "maiden" = "virginity" = "moral purity". If Aerith had sex with Cloud, it's pretty much assumed that she'd do it out of love. And that gives the sex a very rosy glow. But prostitution-- such a dirty, dirty word-- it has such terrible imagery, makes you squirm, makes you shudder. You get the impression that a woman can't go any lower. Put Aerith in that position; yet upon death, she becomes the guardian of the planet-- there's just something really appealing about that idea.
And it would be even more awesome if Cloud knew and didn't care.
Disclaimer: Although no one should suffer the blame for my weird, wandering thoughts, I nonetheless suspect icor's Cleris!Tactics transcript inspired this ("tinder-box", huh). Love you, girl. <3
[EDIT] I don't think I have to worry about this for my FList, but just in case an unwary victim passes by-- if the tags haven't clued you in, this post mulls over sex before marriage and prostitution, in a generally not-so-condemnatory light. If you can't stand those ideas, or if you can't stand that such serious issues are being applied to a video game character, please don't read the cut. Just label me crazy and move on with life.
But no, I don't have some fetish for reading about young girls getting involved in prostitution. I realise "winkwink!flower-seller" is something of a joke, something the Aerith-bashers use (maybe, I dunno, never did visit those anti-Aerith sites)-- but it has more to do with the whole "maiden" image of her. I get the feeling the street-savvy, down-to-earth, ends-justify-the-means-especially-if-it-involves-this-cute-guy-in-a-dress Aerith we witnessed in the Wall Market will be but a relic, preserved only in old fanfiction and fanarts of Cloud cross-dressing. The Aerith of the Compilation is either your Virgin Mother Mary angelic figure radiating compassion, or something of a harmless cutesy sweet young thing (though I just heard she's 15 in CC, so that's not so unexpected, and she does show some sass in her interaction with Zack).
And I'm thinking further about Maiden of the Planet, and how that word-- "maiden"-- seems to justify that Aerith had to be a virgin and that, somehow, being a virgin indicates morality/purity, which seems to be this presumed, unspoken condition for qualifying for the position as Guardian Mother of the Planet. No one who advocates Aerith = virgin is saying sex is bad, of course. But there's also that notion that, no, not Aerith-- Barret probably had sex, Dyne definitely did, Tifa's dad did, Cloud's mom did, Godo did, the Turks can all go have one big, blue-suited pretty orgy; but not Aerith!
I think the idea that Aerith may not be a virgin just yanks her down from that position high up, and suddenly she's just mortal like the rest o' them. It's like one post I read about The Da Vinci Code-- the poster's parents could not, would not, be able to believe Jesus could've married and had sex. Whether it's true or not was another matter entirely, but just the idea was something too impossible, too human to even consider. And Aerith is as Jesus-y to FFVII as Optimus Prime is to TF.
It's also got to do with this assumption that virginity = purity. I don't wanna get into the more seriaz discussions of sex before marriage, morals and whatnot-- suffice to say, I disagree that having sex means you're spiritually and morally "impure", doesn't make you a prostitute. And being a prostitute does not put you on a moral lower ground than being a nun. If Aerith did the deed with Zack or Cloud, I don't think that disqualifies her from becoming the Maiden of the Planet.
Finally, it's also got to do with this idea I'm mulling over: that the worth of virginity depends on which religion and which era you look at. I'm pretty sure everyone's heard something about those orgies and whatnot in Aphrodite's or Artemis' festivals. To make a grossly general connection, I think the further you get from today's monotheistic (and, interestingly, patriarchal) religions, the less emphasis there is on a woman's virgin purity. There used to be religions where sex was GOOD, and the goddess was as much a symbol of motherhood as she was of sex (also interestingly, these were more... matriarchal religions? Er, geez, not sure what the proper term is, but women/female figures held pretty central roles, rather than existing as a footnote).
And look at the "religion" in FFVII-- it's not very Christian or Islamic. To risk speaking as an uneducated outsider, the Promised Land+living with nature makes it feel closer to Shinto and Buddhism. But it's also very animistic, believing every tree and rock is created out of the planet's "soul"/Lifestream. And the focus is on the female Cetras-- yes, males existed too, but it's Aerith and Ifalna (and Jenova, the faux-Cetra) who take centre-stage. I've just got this craaazy idea that the Cetra wouldn't have cared two bits about pure virgins.
So, why prostitution in particular, and not just have Aerith and Cloud do some extra-curricular activities on the gondola? Likely because it links back to the idea that "maiden" = "virginity" = "moral purity". If Aerith had sex with Cloud, it's pretty much assumed that she'd do it out of love. And that gives the sex a very rosy glow. But prostitution-- such a dirty, dirty word-- it has such terrible imagery, makes you squirm, makes you shudder. You get the impression that a woman can't go any lower. Put Aerith in that position; yet upon death, she becomes the guardian of the planet-- there's just something really appealing about that idea.
And it would be even more awesome if Cloud knew and didn't care.