Team Fortress 2 Character Breakdowns

Team Fortress 2 (commonly referred to as just TF2) is a multiplayer, team-based, first person shooter than can be played on Xbox, PC, or PS2.  While not experienced in the console versions myself, the PC version's multiplayer games normally consist of 20 to 32 people.  Just in a few seconds of querying servers to play on, over 600 popped up.  Not all the servers are filled to capacity, but it is obvious that quite a few people play it daily.  The playable characters constantly taunt each other, and while the art style is cartoon-like, deaths are extremely exaggerated.

TF2's 9 playable characters each have their own personalities and are created from stereotypes for a comedic element.  Even though it is intended for comedy, the fact that the characters' ethnicity are easily recognized from there stereotypical personality says something about how strong the stereotypes are.  The soldier sounds a lot like the common view of an American army drill sergeant.  The scout is a skinny, white, smart-mouthed New Yorker equipped with a baseball bat and cap.  The demoman is described as a "black Scottish cyclops" and is foul-mouthed and drunken.  The pyro is unintelligible and hidden inside a full-body flameproof suit.  The Heavy is a soviet style Russian who is very large and taunts others calling them babies.  Engineer is noticeably from Texas, complete with the accent and phrases like "Giddy Up" and "Yippekayahee."  The medic is German and is somewhat militaristic and disciplined.  The Spy is french, and is suave and polite, kinda like the personality of James Bond.  The final class is the Sniper in which I will go into more detail about.

The Sniper is clearly Australian, has the accent, a Crocodile Dundee getup, and says phrases such as "Go on then, mates" and "crikey."  Some of his taunts include calling people women or wusses.  The sniper takes pride in his job as an assassin.  In his introductory video (of which every class but pyro has), "Meet the Sniper," he attempts to justify his profession.  He states that as long as two people are left, one of them will want that other dead.  You get the idea that he thinks violence and killing are normal.  To him, sniping is a good job because it is challenging and is done out-doors, which makes it seem very manly.  My favorite line in the video is when he is talking to his father and his father calls him a crazed gunman.  The sniper says that he is different from a crazed gunman because his killing is a profession and the other is a mental illness.  If the sniper kills for personal gain, then what is the difference between a murder killing for personal enjoyment or other such reasons.  While it is supposed to be fun, the line shows that sometimes a distinction is made in why killing is done in an attempt to justify it.

Team Fortress is funny, but its comedic value can desensitize players to the violence and stereotypes it show. After all, the characters' personalities are pulled from some real world views.  I also find it more personal than some other shooting games.  The characters are likable, funny, and you really get familiar with them while playing, ignoring that they are all killers.

A very gory death scene.

The other "Meet the Team" videos.

"Badass" of the Week

Badass of the Week is a site dedicated to telling some short stories or summaries of the lives of would could be considered very masculine people.  A good portion of the chosen "badasses" are male warriors or soldiers. While there are some stories of women, athletes and fictional characters, even they tend to be about violence.

The writing style of the author is very harsh.  The author uses a large amount of profanity to give the vibe of being tougher and grittier.  He also uses a plethora of terms associated with masculinity like "balls of steel."  While not having the time to read all of the stories, the ones I did read seemed to be about the portrayal of masculinity as something involving things like violence and independence.  The strongest feelings coming from the stories are things like pride and anger.

While a good bit of the "badasses" are what many would consider heros, posts like Megalodon, a giant shark, and the fictional weapon, "The BFG 9000," show that there is quite a fascination with power and killing.  The site servers as a good example of what can be considered as very masculine.

A couple of soldiers shown.  There are quite a few soldier stories on the site.

   Maurice Richard the hockey player shown bruised after a fight.        

Henpecked Husband

While thinking about the types of men portrayed in media that we learned in class like the lazy and dumb working-class man compared to the successful and suave middle or high-class man that tend to be the more common in media, I got to thinking about a different portrayal.  This type of man is a married man who is bossed around by his wife, sometimes called the "henpecked husband."  This type of character is often part of comedies and is looked down on.  In contrast, women being bossed around by their husband in the same way is viewed more negatively and seriously.  One noticeable example is that in the show Roseanne, Roseanne will sometimes boss her husband around once stating, "I don't push Dan around. I am trying to put him in touch with his submissive side."  I find it a bit ironic as the show is supposed to support feminism but shows her doing what would most likely be found unacceptable in the reverse.