Grand Theft Auto V and Misogyny

By now I’m sure you’ve heard the complaints coming from the usual quarters: GTA V contains “disturbing” attitudes towards women.  It more-or-less started with a GameSpot Transexual praising the game, aside from this one “issue,” and since then it keeps popping up all over.

Quite frankly, I’m sick of it.

And yet, GTA V is a game that does merit conversation; it’s a game that contains theft, murder, and torture, over and above the alleged misogyny – surely this is worthy of discussion; by what grounds to we deliver a resounding “Shut your fool mouth, woman!” to the feminists that want to discuss spousal abuse?

The short answer is that what they seem to be talking about isn’t what they’re actually talking about; this is a classic case of Liberal chicanery, the proverbial camel with its nose in the tent.  The long answer – well, we need to start by asking the question “Is GTA V misogynist?”

No; no it is not.

Misogyny is a neurosis wherein a boy, who’s been deeply abused by a woman during his childhood, grows into a man who simultaneously craves, and is terrified of, the love of a woman.  The coping strategy he develops is one of ego-destruction; he undermines his partner’s self-esteem with verbal, sometimes even physical abuse, teaching her to be dependent upon him.  He convinces her that she can’t survive without him (likely feeding into her own co-dependent neurosis), and he’s comforted that she doesn’t have the strength of character to leave him, or ever harm him.

I can imagine a game which simulates this neurosis – in fact, one probably exists (not that I see it selling very well) – but does this describe GTA V?  Certainly not.

A lesser form of misogyny – and here the feminists have a hint of an argument – is that found in men who’ve just been through a bitter divorce, or an abusive relationship, where they’re so full of bile that they hate and distrust all women.  We see a lot of these Walking Wounded in the manosphere (created, funnily enough, by the very laws feminist put forward to allegedly combat misogyny), however this is not a virulent form; these men are processing their emotions, and they restrict their bile to complaining online – very, very few of them become the “Type 1” misogynist, seeking out women in their lives to destroy.  Most of them heal, or swear off women altogether.  These men are deserving of empathy and aid, not fear and scorn.  The worst they do is leave a nasty comment on a woman’s YouTube video, and quite frankly, this is the Internet: get used to it, there are trolls everywhere.

Hypothetically, these men could use GTA V as an outlet – disproportionately targeting the female civilians in the open-world sandbox environment – but this doesn’t make the game innately misogynist.  Several years ago there was a game on Newgrounds where you got to play a black man beating up K-Fed, Britney Spears, and their infant.  Racial hatred?  Misogyny?  Pro-post-birth-abortion?

Nonsense; it’s a cathartic expelling of the annoyance felt with the then-latest Hollywood phenomenon.  Few – if any – of the players were so imbalanced that they’d want to actually beat a child to death, even one birthed by those two, and if any Black Panthers played it, I doubt that they found the hate-whitey catharsis they were looking for; race was incidental to the narrative.

The game was about annoyance with Britney Spears, not hating babies, whites, or women; similarly seeing a bitchy woman get decked is hilarious and cathartic (kudos, Sarah Silverman) since it so seldom happens, but it’s not about hating women as a class – it’s about hating individuals.

Grand Theft Auto V is not misogynistic, and serves as a very poor misogyny simulator.

Next question: is it anti-feminist?

Yes; yes it is.

Your moment of Zen.

Grand Theft Auto – in case you hadn’t noticed – has always been deeply subversive of left-wing narratives.  And right-wing narratives.  In fact, it’s irreverent and satirical of all sacred cows, even video games themselves.  Unlike John Stewart and Bill Maher, Rockstar pokes fun at whatever they want, within the limits of what they figure their audience will understand (don’t expect great diatribes on Calvinism or race relations) – and I’m all for this!  Pompous blowhards everywhere deserve to be deflated, and nobody should be exempt from satire – and yes, that includes myself.  When these feminazis and leftoids target Grand Theft Auto, it’s yet another case of them being able to dish it out, but never take it – check out Larry Correia for examples of this intellectual dishonesty if you don’t believe me.

Criticizing feminism is misogyny, they say: not only does this water down the true meaning of the term, harming the true victims (the same way equating “I had three beers and I regret it” sex with actual rape is harmful to rape victims), but it raises up feminism to a Sacred Cow which Must Not Be Questioned.

Feminism is a political theory – not a class of people – and a particularly vacuous, destructive, and dishonest one, at that.  When I point out that feminist legislation is destroying families, or that women are far less happy today than they were forty years ago, or that abusive legislation is turning men into misogynists, or that women no longer have the choice to stay at home and raise their children, or that women have different innate characters and interests than men, or that being a woman is no excuse to act like a jerk – I am not being a misogynist.  I’m simply pointing out a reality which may-or-may-not make you uncomfortable; and if it makes you uncomfortable, take it up with God; I’m just describing the world He made.

When a feminist says that Grand Theft Auto is misogynistic, what they’re actually saying is “This idea is sacred, and you can’t criticize it!”

Grand Theft Auto V contains theft, murder, and torture; it goes beyond merely playing an anti-hero, to playing an outright villain.  A productive conversation can be had by asking the question “What does this say about our society?” Don’t get me wrong – I own GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas, and had great fun with all of them – but I can also admit to some concerns about a game which celebrates tearing down a civilization, rather than fighting to build it up.  Only the most ignorant of the Moral Majority are advocating censorship; what I”m suggesting is a conversation.

Conversation is the last thing that the Anita Sarkeesians of the world want.  As far as their concerned, GTA V doesn’t have the puppies, unicorns, and strong female protagonists that they crave, and that’s the entire problem: all video games, in their eyes, MUST have these things, along with an in-game monument to Lorena Bobbit, feminist icon.

Imagine a hypothetical for a moment: if, in addition to the theft, murder, and torture, what if GTA V also contained a scene where you raped a woman until she gave you the information you wanted?  Would you still play this game?

I sure as hell wouldn’t; quite frankly, the torture might be too much for me (I haven’t played it, so I can’t say) and I’d tell Rockstar as much: “Dear Rockstar, I don’t want to play a game where I’m a rapist!” And I’m pretty sure you don’t, either.  The feminists would be screaming for censorship, while all of us sane people merely boycotted it.

What if, on the other hand, you had to save a woman from rape?  That’s the sort of scene that, handled correctly, could add a lot of pathos to the game.  You and I might enjoy it, or we might feel that it was too dark – but once again, we wouldn’t be demanding censorship.  We’d merely boycott.

But more to the point – it’s telling that in a game where you play as a monster, there are still certain actions which are too sacrosanct to perform: namely, rape.  Namely, gaslighting and abusing a woman’s psyche.  Even when we’re playing villains we don’t want to play a misogynist.

And yet feminists overlook this point because it doesn’t serve their motives.

When a feminist complains about video games, she’s trying to manipulate the social environment into one where her ideology can never be questioned; examination of the facts is an anathema to her, spend five minutes studying feminism and you’ll see what a monstrous thing it truly is.  She manipulates language, creates emotional arguments, and makes false claims to manipulate the readers, while simultaneously threatening you with the title “Woman Hater” if you disagree with her.

This isn’t about video games, it’s just the latest front of the war of ideas; on our side there’s logic and reason, rational debate – on theirs, violence and suppression of dissent, censorship and government threat.

Choose your side wisely.

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