Happy fucking Memorial Day.
I am having a great day spending time with my sexist, ableist family! For real.
Without naming names, I do not think it is ok for ANYONE, but especially my 17-year-old brother to be playing Grand Theft Auto Four, you know, the game were you can frequent strip clubs and kill prostitutes? Really great stuff. And no, the alternative is not to go out and kill real strippers (a joke a few of my family members made) and YES it is THAT BAD. Why aren’t people concerned about this? It’s so easy to say “it’s not that big of deal” especially if you like the game and just sort of brush over the blatant misogynistic over tones. What does it matter. Sex workers aren’t real people anyway!
And you know what I’m really sick of? People throwing around the words “retard” and “retarded” like it’s a perfectly unoffensive term. HELLO! Future special education teacher here. Look, I don’t try to pretend like I’m miss perfect here, but for shit’s sake, I heard it like 17 times over the course of dinner. My siblings are smart folks. They can come up with more creative vocabulary.
Furthermore, I hate how my siblings purposefully antagonize me. As I am very vocal about these issues, I draw a lot of attention to myself. I don’t mind an actual intellectual discussion. But, christ on a cracker, as a die-hard atheist, I don’t make fun of my siblings’ affinity for a magical sky father on a regular basis. Though I would dearly love to.
It really makes me insane.
AH!!
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May 27, 2008 at 1:41 am
D
At 17, by law, he’s old enough to play the game.
Secondly, I really hate when people call it out as “killing prostitutes”.
Yes, you can. You can also kill the police. The fire department. EMTs. Random passerby, of both sexes.
I would think it would be *much* more sexist if you could kill anyone male, but were blocked from harming women. It would be treating women as some special, fragile protected group that needed to be kept safe.
It’s not as though the game encourages you to kill prostitutes, or gives you bonus points for it, or somesuch.
Most (feminist) websites that talk about it, gloss over this fact, or use flat out false information to make their point. Whether or not you choose to kill a prostitute is fully in the player’s hands. Same as killing anyone in the game.
May 28, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Ryan
I really think that this approach to GTA: 4 is wrong. I have always felt highlighting a fact like this is sensationalistic and misses what actually is wrong with the game. It does not sort of sum up everything wrong with it.
There are plenty of things to criticize GTA: 4 on. It is a sexist game. I am like half way through it right now and so far all of the main characters are male with the exception of the virgin uber catholic sister of a criminal I hang out with (really). All of the strippers or sex workers are female; adjectives like heteronormative or male-centric would definitely apply.
Some of the stuff on the radio stations in the game if taken at face value is also sexist but the dialogue on the radio is clearly meant to be satire. Is it ridiculing cultural attitudes? It may be doing this a little bit. How people are going to interpret the content on those stations probably has more to do with the viewer than the content itself.
This is probably more of a reflection of just our society but GTA: 4 is completely saturated with violence. As pointed out by the poster above, nobody is spared. I think it is fair to critique the game on those grounds but to focus on killing prostitutes is hyperbole that when said with a straight face shows that one is not very familiar with GTA:4 (or maybe games in general). I feel pretty comfortable saying that GTA: 4 is not really any more or less sexist than a slew of other offerings from the game industry. However, it is far above the curve in gratuitous violence.
May 30, 2008 at 6:39 am
Caukee
“Retarded” IS an inoffensive term – the fact that it is used as an insult merely indicates the bigotry of the speakers, who obviously think that being retarded is something to be ashamed of. Past teacher of severely and profoundly retarded adults here. Also I have a sister who is retarded, and my siblings and I all volunteered with a local association for the retarded. There’s nothing wrong with the word. I’ve heard many, many different ways to insult retarded persons. There’s something wrong with people who use it as an insult, but banning “retarded” won’t change that. When I was growing up, “queer” was a common, all-purpose insult. Then homosexual people started to refer to themselves as “gay” more and more, esp. as more came out (yay !) and NOW “gay” is a common, all-purpose insult. As well as an everyday word for homosexual that is not an insult. Won’t change anything to stop using “retarded” as an ordinary descriptive, but it will [and already has done] make non-profits with that in their name,not to mention schools, etc, spend a bunch of money changing names – and everything that has the name on it adds up – so there’s even less money for programs. Whoever thought up this campaign was well-meaning, I’m sure, but dead wrong. That’s my 55 years of experience with bigots talking.
Excellent blog, though. Keep speaking out ! Too bad about your family values – maybe you can find better people to hang with. We weren’t allowed to say hateful things about people because of looks, color, sex, abilities, or anything else out of their control; more importantly, we were taught that was because every kind of person belonged – in our home, and in our lives, and everywhere, as valued people just like ourselves. We weren’t stopped from expressing negative things about hateful behavior, just not with those kinds of words. So, sexist pigs and most all politicians were fair game. My parents were far from perfect, but I’m glad they got that much right.
May 31, 2008 at 4:01 pm
goingtomontreal
D: I do agree with this sentiment–that being to kill only men would be sexist as well. But why include prostitutes at all? The fact that sex workers are there sort of bothers me. Really, if it has nothing to do with the game at all, the feature should be gone. It’s not like they include EVERY PROFESSION EVER. I never believe that features in games (or movies, books, tv, or any media) is random or by accident. The process that goes into designing these features is too costly and lengthly to be put in “just because.” The feature itself is born of a dark, sexist space in our cultural subconscious. I think by threading together sex (strippers giving lap dances, prostitutes servicing the main character in the car) and violence (killing them after sexual exchange,or while they are clad in stripper-wear) is a very wrong combination. The problem is that. You can’t have sex with cops or EMTS or anyone else…just like you can in real life….so while you can commit violence against these NPCs, you can’t have sexual contact with them as well.
Caukee– I agree that the actual word “retarded” is inoffensive on it’s own. It’s saying “what are you, retarded?” or “this ______ is retarded!” or “so-and-so is a retard!” is what bugs me. I had a talk with my parents and the word is now on the “words we should try to not say” list.
May 31, 2008 at 6:51 pm
D
But why include prostitutes at all? The fact that sex workers are there sort of bothers me. Really, if it has nothing to do with the game at all, the feature should be gone.
Because prostitution exists? It’s a criminal act like any other in the game. That’s why it’s there. It’s not meant to show the bright, sunny side of humanity, it’s meant to show the shitty, seedy side.
June 1, 2008 at 5:20 am
Ryan
I take it back. I finished playing through the game (I made my first comment ~halfway through the story part of the game) and I just do not think that is true anymore. It would probably be a waste of time detailing the specific content in the game that changed my mind but I did.
June 5, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Being Amber Rhea » Blog Archive » links for 2008-06-05
[...] Why do people think that feminists are always fair-game? « Dirty Rotten Feminist “But, christ on a cracker, as a die-hard atheist, I don’t make fun of my siblings’ affinity for a magical sky father on a regular basis. Though I would dearly love to.” (tags: assholes) [...]