I strongly disagree with the article about GTA V degrading women, and this is coming from a woman myself. While I do agree that the game does degrade women, I believe that the author is making it seem worse than it actually is.
First of all, while the game degrades women, you can also point out that it also degrades men. The game portrays men as merciless murderers, who only care about drugs, sex and money, but the author doesn't talk about that aspect of the game, probably because he thinks he's doing the female population a favor by speaking against the game using the portrayal of women as his main argument. Yes, GTA V does portray women as trashy sluts, but it doesn't glamorize men either.
Continuing, this game is meant to attract the male population, which is why the three main characters are men. How many games these days are targeted towards men and have a female as a main character? Not many. How many of them are played by millions worldwide? Just a couple. While having a female protagonist is a great idea for a game, it doesn't attract many gamers, therefore it wouldn't bring in much money, and we all know that money makes the world go round.
Finally, the author says that, "perhaps the great tragedy of GTAV is that too much of their audience is comfortable with it". Considering there have been fifteen Grand Theft Auto games that have been released since 1997, and billions of dollars in sales, Rockstar knows what they're doing. With that many games having been released, their audience is used to the amount of violence within the game, and the way they badly portray both the women and the men, not making it a problem with the audience for being used to it, but with the company for making the game this way.
GTA V may not be the best game if you're looking for a game full of 'girl power', but the thing is, it's just a game. It's not meant to be realistic at all, and the GTA franchise is known for the women in the game being portrayed as whores, and the men as psychos, which is a formula that has been found to work and allows the company to make a lot of money. So next time, if you know you don't like these types of games, just don't buy the game, simple as that.
I find your opening paragraph to be contradictory. You "strongly disagree" that GTA V degrades women based on the article, but then write "the game does degrade women". I also think it is interesting that you believe the author makes the degradation seem worse than it is. Are the levels of degradion? Are some more acceptable than others?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that the game vilifies men. Why do you think he believes he is doing women a favour? What do you think the game says about society when men are vilified and women are sluts?
You are right that the primary consumers of the game are men. That said, I can't help but think that one female protagonist would appeal to female gamers, and perhaps allow the company to grow their market.
I don't buy that GTA V is "just a game". While I don't think people (men) who play this game are going to become horrible people (my husband is a fan of the franchise and he's pretty great), I want people when playing the game to think about they're doing in the game and see that the game does reflect segments of society.
Although it seems like the creators of the game are the ones who are to blame for the sexism and merciless murders, I think it's more to do with the people that buy GTA V. Like you said, there had been fifteen GTAs before GTA V so the makers of the game obviously know what aspects of the game will make it the most popular game for the consumers. Not only are people used to the amount of violence, but they enjoy it and the company making the game is just supplying it to make money off of the same formula of sex and violence every time.
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