Misrepresentation Of Women In Grand Theft Auto Five Video Game

In today’s society many leaps and bounds have been conquered towards equality for both men and women. A lot has changed since the turn of the century. Although there has been much progress there has also been staples of popular culture that have chosen to bring back many of these biases. One of these staples is the Grand Theft Auto 5 video game. As the “most sold game with over 54 million copies sold” (Macy, 2015) the game has been played by many people including myself. However, the popularity of this game does not do anything to change the way women are treated in the game. “The underrepresentation and exploitation of women in gaming culture leads to serious steps backward for gender equality.” (Sherman, 2014) For a game with so much impact …show more content…
In the game women are created for the pure pleasure of the audience playing the game, which is mostly men. Unlike the male counterparts who for the most part have bodies that are realistic, the women in the game have bodies that have been over exaggerated for the audience’s pleasure. Whether a woman is jogging down the road or sun bathing at the beach you will always find picture perfect bodies through the very revealing clothing. This conflicts with the representation of the common women in today’s society. This misrepresentation of women not only speaks to how women are represented in the game in terms of body image but it also deals with sexuality. As touched upon earlier women in the game are made out to look conspicuous and less intelligent than their male counterparts. Having women dressed that way with over exaggerated breasts only goes to strengthen this imagery through the game. This sexuality can be seen in the game mission where the male character “has you chaperoning a paparazzo as he tries to photograph an aging actress’s “low-hanging muff.”” (Hoggins, 2013) This not only further exemplifies the objectives of women but also goes to show how women in the game are specifically designed to be admirable by the men. These are all the issues that prove to show how the game of Grand Theft Auto 5 misrepresents the body image of women and