(WARING: THIS GAME CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE GAME GTA 5 AND OTHER GAMES IN THE SERIES. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)
Ok, for those who actually read past the title and actually read this, let me just say that this is not an anti-feminist post. It is simply a post about how I think the idea of GTA, and GTA 5 in particular, are being Misogynistic - or shows a dislike of, contempt for, or a string prejudice towards women - is wrong. Admittedly this idea is most often pushed by Feminists, especially the Feminists of a certain ilk who seem to use gaming in general and feminism in particular as a money making scheme.
This topic came to my attention when I was reading various articles about the cast of actors and voice talents used in the GTA 5, was trying to identify a female radio personality in the game that sounded a lot like Trish Suhr from Clean house. Come find out Pam Grier also did a female DJ's voice in the game as well, or at least was used in the game. Which took me by surprise considering that GTA 5 wasn't supposed to be using any famous or well known people. But I digress, sorry.
As I looked through link after link of various sorts that discussed the game in general, and its portrayal of women in particular, I came to realize something that most if not all of these people never seemed to realize. GTA 5 is not Misogynistic, if it has to be classified as anything other than a form of entertainment it would be misanthropic - the dislike of, contempt for, or hatred of humanity - is anything at all. I came to this conclusion based on the three protagonists and the people they are closest to in the game. So i guess the best place to begin this is with the three main characters or protagonists of the game; Michael De Santa a.k.a. Michael Townley, Franklin Clinton, and Trevor Philips.
Each of the protagonists for Grand Theft Auto 5 each brings something unique to the table, and as far as I know with my experiences with the GTA series entirely the first time you could play as one of three different characters at various times. With the ability to change between characters when they are in missions together and interacting with one another. Each one displays characteristics most people would find reprehensible in people we associate with everyday, but as characters in an interactive form they are excellent characters to play. And besides that, given the behaviors of those they interact with in the game as friends and as enemies they aren't quite that bad by comparison... except maybe Trevor Philips.
The game itself does not portray these three men, or the characters they interact with for that matter, to be good people at all, except for maybe Wade's cousin Floyd who actually is a good man. But then he doesn't really last that long either before falling victim to a more depraved character - Trevor ends up killing poor Floyd and his nasty girlfriend/fiance in a fit of rage. Let's start with Michael De Santa.
Michael is a retired bank robber who sold out his friend in order to start a new life with his wife and kids in Los Santos. Judging from the game and the things in it that describes Michael as a person he appears to be not only a violent psychopath who murders people but also prone to having sex with strippers and other ... let's say sexual proclivities that they never go into detail on... thankfully. Michael is not a nice guy, and given his reactions to events that happen to him in the game it seems reasonable to assume he is not a good man, not a role model and definitely a poor representation of what it means to be masculine or a male. So already we see just from the male protagonists that the portrayal of males in the game isn't so flattering. And I'm not even gonna gets started on the portrayal of his wife, who is by all accounts a massive slut who has slept with everyone from the gardener and her tennis coach to her sons third grade teach and some homeless dude.
Franklin is probably the least violent and least mentally disturbed of the three, which is saying something considering he's a drug dealing, murdering, car stealing criminal himself. Franklin is kind of like the character Carl Johnson(CJ) from GTA: San Andreas. He's a young man from "the hood" who is involved in gangs and gang violence and other criminal activities such a thing entails, the stereotype of the classic "gangsta" or "hood" from the "ghetto" as it were. Again, not a flattering portrayal of a male character, but certainly the most stable of the three protagonists of the game.
Trevor is probably the most disturbed of the three protagonists, and if you play the game and pay attention you will learn some very interesting things about Trevor Philips. Where to begin with this guy... how about we start with his rage issues. Trevor is a violent, psychotic, sociopath who has murder people numerous times, tricked the character Wade into thinking his friends abandoned him after Trevor actually murdered them, talked a man named Ron into becoming a crazy conspiracy theorist who left his wife... Trevor has strange sexual appetites, some of which bordering on the violently homosexual such as screwing a stuffed bear in the eye and forcing Floyd to sleep in the same bed as him so he can "spoon" with him. Though from Floyd's cries and mumbling "Why God!? Why!?" during a small cut scene when switching to Trevor there is an implied forced sex scene. Then there is the kidnapping of Matin Madrozo's wife Patricia and the subsequent "falling in love" between Trevor and Patricia. Let's see, anything else.... Oh... did I mention Trevor's a cannibal?
As we can see just from the main character, men are not portrayed in a positive light either. However, when we look at the rest of the games characters we find most if not all of them are just plain vile people. Lester wants you to assassinate people, one of his targets promote child labor and outsourcing of jobs to sweat shops, another of his targets is producing a Viagra like drug in the game that gives the user heart attacks. You have so-called "police" and the FIB(the FBI of the game) shooting people for the littlest offenses and murdering and torturing people for cash and drugs and other things.
Even the political atmosphere in the game is filled with vile people, with a right wing candidate running for office who is a so anti-immigration he actually is racist towards foreigners and a left wing candidate so screwed up she promotes group think and hive mind mentalities among other things.
The game doesn't leave anyone out with the denigration, ridicule, and insult to humanity. He targets everyone one, portraying male and female character alike who are violent, vindictive, weak minded and willed, and possessed of poor moral character. Not to mention the sluttiness of both male and female characters as alike.
So the claims of GTA 5 being Misogynistic are wrong, especially when you take the entirety of the game into consideration and look beyond self-concerns. The only people who would think GTA 5 is misogynistic or misandristic or targets a specific group of people are individuals who have a very self-concerned or self- centered view of the world where they concentrate solely on what they see that offends only them based on aspects similar to them.
If a man or woman sees a representation that targets females or males specifically with GTA 5, they seriously need to reconsider their own political views and sensitivities to portrayals of people who share characteristics with them, because GTA 5 lampoons everyone.
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