Next, Tifa, Aeris, Yuffie, Rinoa, Selphie, Quistis, Garnet, Eiko, Freya, and Beatrix. The one thing that I hate more than anything else is the 'fans' of one who hate the others. Excuse me, but I think it's a little stupid to be so condescending towards one character when they all fall under THE SAME COMBAT ENGINE. It's okay to hate someone from a different game. You didn't like how that world was, you didn't like how combat was carried out, you didn't like their particular special moves. But when you hate someone of the EXACT SAME GAME as the person you like, it's quite a bit tougher to earn any respect from me.
For instance, it's okay if you don't like their moves or maybe they aren't as effective as someone else. But when you start getting into how they look, act or how pathetic the damage is that they deal out, you start getting into the wrong area.
All of the FF games have randomized increases in attributes. Naturally, someone is going to be a lot more effective if their attributes go up. I've had Aeris in three different games. In one, she took damage pretty well, but didn't deal out so well. In another, she dealt out a sizeable amount more, but didn't take damage that good. In the third game, she could do more with her magic than everyone else, but her attack and defense sucked chocobo dung. The point is, her attributes went up randomly.
Now that the third part is done, let's get around to how they act. Now, considering that women are still looked down upon in many countries, the fact that more women are appearing in FF games as crucial characters is very impressive. Look at most RPGs. A good portion of the cast before 1990 is male heroes. After 1990, we start seeing more girls, but we also see a lot more robots and things that can be considered masculine, but not human.
And given that a lot of these are also plotted out in advanced by inventive people, then "corrected" by executives, the story and the characters are forced into certain positions, whether or not they'd actually be in those positions. Since they actually have to get INTO those positions, the characters have to act a certain way. Take the elevator scene with Rude in FF7. Unless he had a gun in your characters' faces, you would have just fought him instead being captured.
Besides, try to imagine that these are women who aren't hardened against the world, who still believe in love and you'll get a better understanding of why they act the way they do.
And finally, their appearance is selected by the designers. If you think someone looks like a slut, blame the designers, not the character. Take Tifa for example. When the game starts, she's running a BAR. And she actually has to make MONEY in a MALE DOMINATED SLUM so AVALANCHE can take down Shinra. Don't tell me you think explosives and information are free. She was probably funding AVALANCHE to help find Cloud, but once she found him, she probably wanted to keep Cloud around. Cloud was in a mercenary mood, so he wanted work and pay. Guess where Tifa had to get the money. HER BAR. Barrett, Biggs, Jesse and Wedge were probably not loaded up with cash to begin with either, so Tifa probably also had to pay for food and maintanence of her store.
In the end, if you don't like someone, don't use them as much. Find out when you'll need them and make sure you level them up beforehand. But make sure you _do_ dislike them for their actual shortcomings.