This question has pretty bad wording. You're asking about physical attributes, Bubblegum. In that sense, to answer your question of how the men at the Don's mistook Cloud for a woman, it's pretty easy to answer.
First, take in cultural context first. The Japanese tend to be shorter and thus smaller than European men. They usually have a finer bone structure (for example, not as thick or pudgy fingers or the like) as well as not usually having as pronounced a square jawline found more commonly in Europeans. In short, because Asians (not just strictly Japanese) have smaller frames, the features that Western cultures attribute with being 'male' are not as pronounced and thus the obvious facial differences between Asian men and women are not as gapingly obvious as it is between Western men and women. And yes, those two bumps on the chest are easily simulated with bags of sand.
Also, costumes and makeup can be amazingly deceptive. The general rule goes that, when you want to go into hiding (for guys at least), you shave your head and grow a beard. Not even your mother would recognize you. For Cloud, already having a finer bone structure than we'd typically associate with being obviously 'male', a wig and a lot of makeup could do wonders to change his appearance. Look up what cinema makeup artists can do and you'll be floored by some of the things they can pull off with just some latex and paint.
Also, to address the bad phrasing: 'manly' is highly subjective, as evidenced by some of the replies we've seen here. You've seen LOTS of people bash Cloud for 'not being manly' because he has emotional conflicts. As if men are supposed to be devoid of emotion and should exude nothing but badassness and tough-guy attitude. It's really a very silly and very unfair stereotype. According to this stereotype, men want to do nothing but copulate and punch people.
So, just because Cloud is a character that has emotional conflicts -- like all human beings have, unless they're a sociopath -- he is often seen as 'whiney' and 'weak' and 'a pansy'. In fact, it is because of this depth of realism in the character (being that he had a specific role-model in life which was like a superhero to him and suffered from fearing that he wasn't good enough) that makes him so appealing. When you have a character that is nothing but 'I R badass I keeeel j00 with sw33t mov3!!!!1one', it gets boring and trite, not to mention it doesn't make a very empathetic character. The key to such games for the creators is to get the player to have emotional investment in a character. You don't play the game for the repetitive battle system, nor for the complicated plot, but because you want the characters to win and see what happens to them.
In this, Cloud certainly excelled. He has his problems, ones that heroes "shouldn't" have but he's got anyway. It was refreshing to see a hero that is certainly formidable in combat while suffering from low self-esteem and acting awkward around girls. It makes such characters human and endearing. Yet for this, some people classify Cloud as being '40% manly.' Such classifications stretch deep into social issues and double standards between men and women, and are simply illogical and unfair. I would encourage all that think in such a way to rexamine their evaluation. Men are just as emotionally influenced as women -- expressing emotion does not, in any way, dictate if you are less than a 'man'. And the social definition of what a 'man' is, is horribly distorted and unnatural.
Think of it this way -- if a woman is very unemotional, is she any less womanly? Of course not. Therefor, if a man is emotional, is he any less manly? No. Emotions influence us all. If anything, it makes him more human.
Likewise, i disagree with some of the comments here about Cloud 'controlling' his emotion to the extent that it's considered manly. Think about what is being said. Essentially, that women cannot or do not control their emotions. That's simply ridiculous. Men are socialized to appear unemotional and not express emotion, whereas for women, there is no such restriction. If such social stigmas were not in place, you'd see men and women emote in equal proportions. The only humans that do not feel and express emotion are sociopaths. This entire idea of 'men don't show emotion' and 'women emote a lot' is an archaic holdover from extremely flawed and biased theories created centuries ago. They are not true, and they simply perpetuate harmful ideas. It's time society came to grips with reality and stopped flaming others for not strictly adhering to an utterly unnatural measure of what is an acceptable type of human and what is not.
First, take in cultural context first. The Japanese tend to be shorter and thus smaller than European men. They usually have a finer bone structure (for example, not as thick or pudgy fingers or the like) as well as not usually having as pronounced a square jawline found more commonly in Europeans. In short, because Asians (not just strictly Japanese) have smaller frames, the features that Western cultures attribute with being 'male' are not as pronounced and thus the obvious facial differences between Asian men and women are not as gapingly obvious as it is between Western men and women. And yes, those two bumps on the chest are easily simulated with bags of sand.
Also, costumes and makeup can be amazingly deceptive. The general rule goes that, when you want to go into hiding (for guys at least), you shave your head and grow a beard. Not even your mother would recognize you. For Cloud, already having a finer bone structure than we'd typically associate with being obviously 'male', a wig and a lot of makeup could do wonders to change his appearance. Look up what cinema makeup artists can do and you'll be floored by some of the things they can pull off with just some latex and paint.
Also, to address the bad phrasing: 'manly' is highly subjective, as evidenced by some of the replies we've seen here. You've seen LOTS of people bash Cloud for 'not being manly' because he has emotional conflicts. As if men are supposed to be devoid of emotion and should exude nothing but badassness and tough-guy attitude. It's really a very silly and very unfair stereotype. According to this stereotype, men want to do nothing but copulate and punch people.
So, just because Cloud is a character that has emotional conflicts -- like all human beings have, unless they're a sociopath -- he is often seen as 'whiney' and 'weak' and 'a pansy'. In fact, it is because of this depth of realism in the character (being that he had a specific role-model in life which was like a superhero to him and suffered from fearing that he wasn't good enough) that makes him so appealing. When you have a character that is nothing but 'I R badass I keeeel j00 with sw33t mov3!!!!1one', it gets boring and trite, not to mention it doesn't make a very empathetic character. The key to such games for the creators is to get the player to have emotional investment in a character. You don't play the game for the repetitive battle system, nor for the complicated plot, but because you want the characters to win and see what happens to them.
In this, Cloud certainly excelled. He has his problems, ones that heroes "shouldn't" have but he's got anyway. It was refreshing to see a hero that is certainly formidable in combat while suffering from low self-esteem and acting awkward around girls. It makes such characters human and endearing. Yet for this, some people classify Cloud as being '40% manly.' Such classifications stretch deep into social issues and double standards between men and women, and are simply illogical and unfair. I would encourage all that think in such a way to rexamine their evaluation. Men are just as emotionally influenced as women -- expressing emotion does not, in any way, dictate if you are less than a 'man'. And the social definition of what a 'man' is, is horribly distorted and unnatural.
Think of it this way -- if a woman is very unemotional, is she any less womanly? Of course not. Therefor, if a man is emotional, is he any less manly? No. Emotions influence us all. If anything, it makes him more human.
Likewise, i disagree with some of the comments here about Cloud 'controlling' his emotion to the extent that it's considered manly. Think about what is being said. Essentially, that women cannot or do not control their emotions. That's simply ridiculous. Men are socialized to appear unemotional and not express emotion, whereas for women, there is no such restriction. If such social stigmas were not in place, you'd see men and women emote in equal proportions. The only humans that do not feel and express emotion are sociopaths. This entire idea of 'men don't show emotion' and 'women emote a lot' is an archaic holdover from extremely flawed and biased theories created centuries ago. They are not true, and they simply perpetuate harmful ideas. It's time society came to grips with reality and stopped flaming others for not strictly adhering to an utterly unnatural measure of what is an acceptable type of human and what is not.