A petition signed by over 40,000 called for its removal, but other R-rated DVDs and games still remain on the retailer’s shelves. A move that’s one step forward and another back.
Target Australia released a press release today announcing that the retailer will be pulling Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V from their shelves following massive negative feedback regarding the depictions of violence against women.
Target Australia’s corporate affairs executive Jim Cooper explained that the decision to remove the game from the retailer’s shelves was what the majority of their customers wanted. It’s highly probable that the petition created on Change.org a few days before the announcement influenced this outcome especially since more than 40,000 people have supported it as of this writing.
While the petition generally advocates to women survivors of violence, it specifically highlights the violence towards sex workers in the game: “This game means that after various sex acts, players are given options to kill women by punching her unconscious, killing with a machete, bat or guns to get their money returned,” the petition reads.
If you’ve never played any of the Grand Theft Auto games before, the page linked this video as an example:
I think it’s quite interesting how this whole activity started in earlier games. The game didn’t specifically instruct players to kill sex workers after the deed to get your money back. I don’t think players even knew that they could get their money back. Perhaps, someone realized that you could have a freebie and it grew into a thing. I encountered this when I was seven years old and I was more fascinated in getting something for free in general than the act of killing a sex worker. Heck, I would do the same thing if that worked in Cluckin’ Bell.
Anyway, I commend Target at the very least for listening to the complaints and treating it as a valid concern. The problem is that it probably is only a concern for them because a majority of their consumers said so. They wouldn’t be pulling it if only a select group of people complained regardless of the validity of the complaints.
I also think that the solution is quite problematic. The retailer is pulling one game with misogynistic elements from their shelves, but will still continue to sell other Rated-R games and films? There are countless other titles that are exclusively for treating women like crap. While former GameSpot writer Carolyn Petit drew ire for calling out the game’s misogyny, she still thought the game was worth playing and gave it a high grade of 9/10.
It’s not far-fetched to assume that most of the petition’s supporters backed the campaign without playing the game themselves. Yes, it’s really horrendous that we can mistreat women in the game but there’s a lot more to the game that needs to be taken into consideration before making a decision like this. It’s like basing your vote on merely one YouTube video of a presidential candidate’s speech on a singular matter.
I’m not undervaluing the experiences of women survivors of violence. I’m sure that seeing videos like the one above triggered unpleasant memories that they’d rather forget and they fear that the pleasure gamers take out of it will translate in real life. However, cutting one bad tree in a forest of misogyny won’t solve the problem. It would stop people from being exposed to it, but it won’t help them understand why it shouldn’t be there in the first place. They’ll just move on to the next tree which could probably be Drive Angry or Saints Row. Cutting everything won’t help either because people will just plant new trees to replace what they’ve lost.
This GIF says it all
Removing Grand Theft Auto V was an easy yet ineffective solution for both parties involved. If they want real change and progress, why not campaign towards promoting dialogue and reforming companies’ attitude toward women. Both sides has its problems. Target could have been more careful in advertising the game. It’s no surprise since this road requires more time, money, and effort, but that’s what’s needed to enact real change instead of temporary band-aids.
Rockstar Games isn’t without blame, but that doesn’t mean they should stop making games altogether. Gamemoir’s own LGBT & Gender columnist Philip Wythe shared his two cents on the matter: “We should be pressuring Rockstar to create better female characters and a woman player character, and identifying the games’ problems. That’s what most feminists really want; very few gaming feminists want Rockstar’s series pulled from shelves.”
Everyone and everything has its own faults and strengths. Grand Theft Auto V is a great game, but it can be better. It can’t be that if we take it away for good.
12 comments
I’m of the stance that until Rockstar can make a game without pernicious and straight up in your face misogynistic elements they might just need to ait in the corner and think about what they’ve done. What better incentive is there than to hit someone in their pocketbook?
When I played Red Dead Redemption despite the fact that I am loath enough to play male protagonists from companies I actually trust, I found myself enjoying it a good bit. I really enjoyed the character of Bonnie MacFarlane. I was, then, as you surely understand, extremely upset and panicky when we get to the scene where she’s implied to have been raped, beaten, and strung up to die.
This isn’t some minor failure on their part and it isn’t just a one off. They have a long history of this stuff and as such I am heavily in favor of economic sanctions until they quit being so anti-woman.
My main beef is that their main solution is to ban one game and ignore all the others. That doesn’t solve the problem. That doesn’t change how things are. It’s just looking for a scapegoat.
For every bad thing in GTA, there are good things about it. I’m not saying we should ignore it, but it’s not a title that mainly focuses on treating women like crap. There are games where the main objective is to stalk and harass women.Sometimes even rape and murder them. You can do other stuff too whether good or bad.
That’s fair, I like holistic solutions but it’s also important to remember that GTA is one of the largest names in gaming. A successful embargo of sorts would be a very visible motion. Would it change gaming? Probably not. But I understand why they’re doin what they’re doing.
They reflect society in these games, societies have been very commonly brutal to the female gender, I will never see these games punished for showing what happens even today. Would you expect something else to happen in the time setting of Red Dead given her situation?
I feel like if the reflection of society was far more harsh towards men exclusively dudes wouldn’t be so in favor of hyper realistic historical gender treatment. Dude can ride a horse for hours and can take forty bullets to his chest, gravy. Women not getting raped? SO UNREALISTIC
There is gameplay allowances and there is narrative choice, the two cannot be compared. I would personally love to play a game that treated men like dirt as it was in some culture at some time or another, it is a reminder of why where I am now is significant.
I think it’s telling of the internal writing culture of Rockstar itself as well, seeing how there’s a long history of objectification and misogynistic humor throughout most of their games. Between L.A. Noire – where many women are largely either in the fridge or live in relation to men – or the severe laxity in policing some of the flat out disturbing online mods available for GTA Online, I do think it’s clear that Rockstar internally doesn’t care about misogyny in gaming.
And of course, there’s also co-founder Dan Houser flat-out admitting that “The concept of being masculine was so key to this story” that they couldn’t even possibly consider adding another gender into the singleplayer storyline. it’s been, what, 17 years since Rockstar gave players the option to do so?
I’m not sure how I feel about stores removing the game. But I agree with the idea of market pressure – I know I won’t be purchasing GTA V or any subsequent GTA games either until Rockstar fixes the plethora of problems with the series.
Don’t worry, they don’t need you.
If you don’t like playing as men in videogames, why are you even playing games anyway?
What do you mean? I never said I didn’t in the article. It would be fun to have a choice between playing as both genders in the single player campaign. As I’ve said, I’m fan of the Grand Theft Auto series and it’ll only make it better to cater to all kinds of fans.
Because video games should never be just a boy’s playground.
There are no problems with GTAV. It was a perfect 10/10 masterpiece. It needs no changes. I have 100% completion twice. There are problems with the minority group actively promoting the concept that adult female and male gamers are supporting violence against women by purchasing this game. No animals or women were harmed in production or playing of this game in real life. The story needs no changes. There needs to be a variety of content available for people with different interests. To encourage them to not produce this in future is nothing short of censorship against adults. It violates freedom of speech. The minority groups actions are disappointing and have disgusting uneducated, intentions against all people. We will vote with our wallet and refuse to buy any products from Target across their entire product line, a total boycott of their store.