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Jocelyn Hernandez
Professor Derohanessian
English 113B
16 February 2015
The Truth Behind Grand Theft Auto V
Violent video games are well known for their method on allowing others to choose who they
kill and what type of item to use for that purpose but behind most of these games, there lies the
second reason as to why they are so popular to the public. Sexism in video games has been seen
as early as 1982. One example is the game Custers Revenge created by the company
Mystique which was categorized as an adult video game. From that period of time, the game
industry has emerged women to look more realistic in the body features leading young teens now
trying to find a way to buy those games. As a result of this issue, Gamergate was created.
Gamergate is an argument involving the video game culture created by Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu,
and Anita Sarkeesian. After GamerGate evaluated many games, they came to a conclusion of the
top five sexist games in which the most popular game Grand Theft Auto 5, was included. The
video game "Grand Theft Auto V" portrays sexism towards women by exposing their bodies for
advertisement, manipulating others to think it is acceptable for players to act violent and
becomes disrespectful to women.
The company creates this illusion of women having a perfect body to raise their profits
selling games by putting women as the cover of the CD and the way they display womens
physical appearances throughout the game. The article Women In Video Games: A Critique, by

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Jen Larsen, explains Anita Sarkeesians position for the reason as to why women should be
advertised when the percentage of players in the game industry does not accumulate with the
marketing method. Recently, the Entertainment Software Association released a study showing
that adult women actually make up 36 percent of the gamer population- while adult and teenage
boys surprisingly lag behind at 35 percent and just 17 percent(Larsen). With this result, the
question remains on why women are seen with small, tight clothing all through the game,
including a strip club in which the players choose to watch them strip and have an option on
receiving lap dances.
Violent video games tend to give players a mission and once finishing then they move on to
the next level but in Grand Theft Auto V, they receive extra bonus points by luring women into
their vehicles, have sex with them and shoot them after. Though many might say how it is just a
game and they know the difference in behaving towards the game and reality, it can affect the
younger group of players when they are in the stage of understanding how to become an adult.
Research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video
games will increase aggressive behavior and feelings (Anderson & Bushman). This quote is
given by authors Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman in the article Effects of Violent Video
Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal,
and Prosocial Behavior proving the idea with research that video games can affect people and
the way they can act in reality. This useless bonus for players to use women and after get rid of
them can cause major affects to believing that using them for their enjoyment and leaving
afterwards is fine to do. Not only can this cause sexual assaults or rapes, but also to domestic

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violence once these victims are in a relation where they believe that hurting their partner is
acceptable.
In the game GTA V, the characters have the ability to speak for themselves and have phrases
which they say depending on the issue or situation they are in. when players control the
characters to kill or physically harm woman, the characters say a phrase like thats right b*tch
or f*ck you!. Although players dont have the fault to these comments the video game industry
gave to the characters, they are still being expose to that dirty language towards women not
knowing that it is verbal abuse. He may be repeating his childhood scenarios. It's learned
behavior, explains Western New York counselor [Sharon Sisti]. We fall back on what we
know.(Continelli). This quote was given in the article When words inflict welts on the psyche
verbal abuse has long lasting effects published, by Louise Continelli, explaining how a man
called his girlfriend and said the most foulest things to her when she was with her friend
watching a play. Though GTA is rated 18 years and older, minors have this way of manipulating
parents to buy the games without them knowing what they are about. Another way adolescents
are able to receive these types of games is by asking an adult in front of the video game store to
buy these games for them as well. Children are being expose to verbal abuse in an early age
which can effect their future. Verbal abuse is seen as a joke to those who do not see that this issue
can lead to violent crimes and effecting someones life.
Grand Theft Auto V is known not only for the violence but also how women are portrayed in
it. The game exposes sexism by putting women, half naked, as advertisement, allowing the
players to act violent towards women receiving bonus points for it and bringing out the

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exposure to verbal abuse by giving characters comments towards them. The purpose of video
games should not be to demeanor women but to bring amusement to the audience. Video games
can still be popular if they take out this issue, all the industry need is to understand the misusage
of women and portray them the same way as men.

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Citations
Reporter, By LOUISE CONTINELLI - News Staff. "WHEN WORDS INFLICT WELTS on the
PSYCHE VERBAL ABUSE HAS LONG-LASTING EFFECTS: CITY Edition." Buffalo News,
(1992): C.1.
Bushman, Brad J., and Craig J. Anderson. "Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive
Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial
Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature."
Http://pss.sagepub.com/content/12/5/353.short. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.
Larsen, Jen. "Women in Video Games: A Critique | JSTOR Daily." JSTOR Daily. N.p., 16 Sept.
2014. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.