Playing GTA 5 as a girl: Sexism, objectification and lack of inclusion

GTA 5 is one of the most popular games out there and every single person who is into video games must have played it at least once in their lifetime. GTA 5 is one of the biggest open world games and naturally you would expect a bit of inclusion of strong female characters, especially if you are a girl. Yes, there are female gamers, very less compared to males, but existent.

Lack of strong female charcaters in GTA 5

It is no news that you can’t play GTA 5 or any other GTA as a female character and there are many petitions online saying that the upcoming GTA should have a female character in the lead. Well, that is not what bothers me. What bothers me is that there are no female characters which have any effect on the storyline of the game.

Objectification in GTA 5

GTA 5 Poster. Image: AliExpress

Women in GTA are reduced to sex objects and not humans, and this is probably where my blood boils. Every main poster of GTA has a woman, scantily dressed, showing cleavage giving alluring glances. EVERY. SINGLE. POSTER. Why? To attract the male crowd? To make sure that more guys play GTA just for the sake of female attraction?

Those who play GTA 5 know that there is a feature where you can pick up prostitutes in your car if you slow down the car in front of the girl. Now, if you park the car in an empty street, the car will shake signifying that you are engaged in sexual activity.

In GTA 5, you can also go ahead and kill her in order to get your money back by just making it look like a car accident. Isn't that great? GTA 5 also shows that the place from where you can get your girlfriend is the strip club. One night stand with a complete stranger from a strip club. That is how you can get a girlfriend in GTA 5. Wow!

The female characters in GTA 5

Mother-daughter duo Tracey (left) and Amanda (right). Image: PlayTube.

Even the wife, Amanda De Santa, of the main protagonist, Michael De Santa, in GTA 5 was a stripper. Not only that, it was also implied that his daughter, Tracey was doing pornographic shows when nobody was in the house.

The two noticeable female characters in GTA 5 also had to be in a profession where people treat females as merely objects to get turned on.

Toxic masculinity in GTA 5

Yes, I get it, that GTA is all about masculinity, but it would not hurt to have female side characters who would not have smoky eyes and would not give sexy glances. There should be a fine line between misogyny and masculinity. And it is scary how many children are into playing a game where misogyny is celebrated.

Subconsciously, it does affect their psyche to treat females or talk about them in a particular way.

Lack of inclusion in GTA 5

GTA 5 or any other GTAs have never welcomed female players and have never been even slightly empathetic towards their feelings.

As a female player you can like GTA, maybe you can even feel a bit indifferent towards how women are treated because it is nothing new, but you can never feel empowered by it, you can never love the game.

Conclusion

All said and done, I do believe that GTA 5 and the other GTAs are very entertaining, and I don’t believe that all men playing and loving it are misogynistic. But it would have been better if it did not feature women as the quintessential “damsel in distress” or money laundering sex objects.