Halo 2 & Gender--a Question
June 29th, 2007 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families
I sometimes play Halo 2 and other video games with my teenage son. One of the battles we like the most takes place on a bridge in Halo 2.
The Marines have been getting hit hard and the Halo 2 players--in this case my son and I--are airlifted in, along with a Marine commander, to try to take the bridge. We like that particular battle because:
a) it's challenging because there are so many enemies massed there
b) I get to use a tank (pictured), one of the very few weapons in the game I am able to use with at least a little effectiveness
Now here's the question. When the three of us land, the Marine commander talks to two soldiers on the ground who are giving us a report of the grim events that have occurred. One of them is brave and straightforward, the other is a sniveling coward who wants to evacuate as soon as possible. One of the two is a man, and the other is a woman.
My question is--is there a single person reading this who does not already know with 100% certainty which one, the man or the woman, is portrayed as the coward?
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June 29th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
The man is the coward. I guessed it.
June 29th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Thing is, although neither of them would be cowardly in real life, as they are trained soldiers. It is more funny to mock the cowardly man, as if the female was scared then the gamer would feel sorry for her and want to remove her from the danger.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
The message might be more prescient than intended.
If the gender divide continues to widen, by the time we reach the era of your video game, would a man have any incentive to serve the interests of those who sent him into battle?
June 29th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Rob Case - Damn good question.
June 29th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
"would a man have any incentive to serve the interests of those who sent him into battle?" Prescient question indeed. If honesty was as common as societal misandry then we could say that at present there does not exist an incentive for a service member to serve this country today. The service member is told he is protecting 'rights' that are assumed to be enforceable and that they exist just because they were written down over 200 years. Besides this, he is also protecting 'the American way of life', which is nothing more that a vague assembly of platitudes. Some will no doubt take umbrage at what I have said but this site and many others have shown just what 'rights' a service member actually has when it comes to his fundamental human and natural law right to have a relationship with his own child. Why would any man desire to serve a country, defend 'rights' that are non-existent or removed from him the very moment when he would depend upon them? The issue of family and the rights of fathers can be and should be answered by the veterans of the last 20 years. I believe that if they rise up in mass, politically or otherwise, the issue may actually see the light of day.
June 30th, 2007 at 4:40 am
I get the angle you're coming in from on this Glenn, but the game's not as unbalanced as all that.
There are plenty of strong male characters to balance out the snivelling coward. In that scene alone, the 'Master Chief' (main character) is male, and the General is male too.
If you wanted to put a different slant on it, you could argue that it shows strong men going to the aid of a woman and a 'beta' male (though I hate that term) who haven't been able to cope in battle.
June 30th, 2007 at 9:48 am
I get the angle you're coming in from on this Glenn, but the game's not as unbalanced as all that. There are plenty of strong male characters to balance out the snivelling coward. In that scene alone, the 'Master Chief' (main character) is male, and the General is male too.
yes, of course. I particularly like the Master Chief's speech about "In my day, we only had sticks and rocks" to fight with. I also like the lady who is in charge of the space ship--she's smart, cute, and honors the memory of her father, who had also been a space leader. However, my point about the coward still holds.
June 30th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Really, the female soldier is just a token role, just as they have token latino soldiers in the game. I guess if they made her cowardly feminists would assme that the game designers were trying to make a point about women in combat, which they weren't.
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:13 pm
"I guess if they made her cowardly feminists would assme that the game designers were trying to make a point about women in combat, which they weren't."
And herein lies the problem. When game designers, and society, begin to care less about the reaction of feminists or more about the reaction of MRAs, then we have taken a giant step forward.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:38 am
Hey Glenn, as a video game fan and a Halo 2 palyer the scene where the guy is a coward and the woman wants to fight is taken becasue the woman is played by popular actress Michelle Rodriguez who is known for playing 'tough chick' roles. If my memory is right the guy goes with you and even though he is there on your tank he is crying like a little girl while the female character is sniping away. Depending on the level you play on, both will end up dead once you cross.
Honestly, when I played it I thought it was kind of funny that I took this sniviling little cry baby along only to have him get wasted. As one of you commenters noted the game has plenty its share of tough guys. Although the game has a wife type character in it since Cortana is the one barking orders at you and telling you what to do all the time.