In Response To: Gender in Halo 2 (response to DanteThePoet) LONG (Cody Miller)
: I just found DanteThePoet's critique of gender usage in Halo 2 , and thought
: that is was actually a pretty fascinating topic. I was suprised that the
: thread wasn't longer. Seeing as how he wanted feedback, I thought I'd
: chime in with my own thoughts. Dante seemed to give the game a glowing
: review when it came to gender equality and stereotypes. I'm going to throw
: out my thoughts about the three females he analyzes (Cortana, Miranda, and
: the female marines.)
: At first it would seem that women are given equal status in the Halo
: universe. With Halo 2 in particular, we fight along side female marines,
: and no particular fuss is made. These marines are not sexualized; in fact
: they closely resemble their male counterparts. However, it is quite ironic
: that in order to gain equality, women must take on traditionally masculine
: roles. The female marines do not seem to have much femininity left, as
: many such feminine traits are obscured by their costumes, and military
: behavior. The very idea of a soldier and a fighter is traditionally
: masculine, and so while these women gain equality, they do it at the
: expense of their feminine identity. The marines still equate femininity
: with weakness ("Did you forget your purse?" and other remarks),
: reenforcing the notion that femininity is undesirable.
: Bungie does do something very smart with the female marines when the player
: (through the male gaze) looks at them for long periods of time. They give
: the player comments, such as "The last guy that looked at me like
: that? I kicked him right in the nuts" and "Eyes downrange, not
: down shirt". With these comments, the male gaze becomes apparent and
: attention is drawn to it. While the game is still designed around the male
: gaze, at least attention is called to it, similar in its satire to a
: bikini clad woman explaining that her sexuality is being exploited. In
: this situation however, the player himself is being indicted, which is why
: it is effective.
: Cortana's change in image is quite simply to make her more attractive. While
: the female marines lose their femininity, Cortana become more feminine,
: purely for the purpose of being more attractive visually. It is very
: difficult to design games (or any other visual art for that matter) in
: which a feminine figure is not subjected to the male gaze, due to the
: male's propensity to fetishize the female form. In this sense, it's tough
: to create a character whose femininity is not exploited for male visual
: pleasure. This is why when trying to avoid this, most female characters
: are either very masculine, or mostly de-sexualized. This is something
: inherent in all visual media, and is no way solely limited to Halo 2.
: Miranda Keyes is somewhere in between the female marines and Cortana. She
: retains a feminine image physically, with her long hair and visible
: breasts, but it is not flaunted for our pleasure in quite the same way as
: Cortana. Her uniform is gender neutral, according to The Art of Halo. She
: carries respect, is resourceful, decisive, intelligent, and embodies
: femininity, but does not use it to titillate.
: Unfortunately, Miranda Keyes becomes the typical damsel in distress by Halo
: 2's end, being captured and dominated by Tartarus. The index is decidedly
: phallic, and her refusal to put it into the slot on the control panel
: despite being forced to do so by Tartarus can be seen as a rape motif. It
: very well could have been her that escapes and drives the scarab, but
: instead it is Johnson (whose name is slang for penis, again implying male
: superiority). She ends up in a situation that is similar to a woman in a
: patriarchal society: helpless and under the control of men.
: This is not to say that Halo 2 completely misogynistic; in fact a lot about
: Miranda Keyes implies quite the opposite. I think Bungie should be mostly
: commended for their treatment of women in a hyper-masculine shooter. I
: just have one question: why'd you have to sex up Cortana?
TITILATE VISIBLE BREASTS!!!!!!!
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