2023-12-05 23:39:52
Ten years after its release, Grand Theft Auto V It remains the second best-selling video game in history. Despite its unstoppable success, fans of the franchise were looking forward to a new title full of new features. Now what GTA VI has been officially presented with a first trailer to hit stores in 2025, it is confirmed that it will be the first installment with a woman as the protagonist: Lucía, a criminal who works with her partner in Vice City, the Miami equivalent of this universe. Does this mean that they are finally going to pay off their debt with poor female representation?
The fear machine or how to play at controlling the population with hoaxes
Although the announcement has been marred by a new leak, which adds to the many that have been shaking the video game since 2021, the networks have been on fire with the preview. To the rhythm of Tom Petty, it shows different snapshots that characterize the saga: cars, beaches, violence, action, criminality and an apparent portrait of a stratum of American society, which on this occasion also incorporates the presence of social networks… now Lucia, of course. She is the first playable woman since in the first installment you could choose between eight characters, four of them female.
This is quite a milestone considering the antecedents, because in its efforts to combine the hypermasculine power fantasy with a certain social mockery full of violence, the Rockstar saga is known for exploiting women and controversies. After all, the department of marketing, Initially sponsored by the controversial publicist Max Clifford, it has pursued controversy to promote itself from the beginning. Therefore, the fact that he has now opted for a young Latina as the axis of his next story perhaps means that something is changing.
The great American satire?
Since its premiere in 1997, the cultural impact of Grand Theft Auto has been unquestionable. Capable of conquering several generations with their open world proposal, the freedom they offered has been one of their great attractions. As the cultural journalist Alberto Corona, contributor to elDiario.es, explains, “his world sandbox “It has been absolutely essential for the construction of a genre and the triple-A video game as we understand it today.” He also states that, “beyond cinematic references, he puts a lot of weight into building colorful characters through dialogue that sounds good, is witty and has a lot of rhythm.”
Video game communicator Victoria Belver agrees with this, who highlights “how casual their titles are, and the level of detail they have always had”, and Marina Segovia, director of the podcast We are Gamers, for whom “good mapping and detail” are complemented by “unrealistic physics,” from which “part of the fun comes.” That obvious exaggeration is part of his imprint, as is the underlying controversy. Hence many of its defenders argue that it is simply a satire of American society. Although the journalist clarifies that “it is only from the criminal world,” she does not consider that there is anything offensive in the saga because it is focused from humor.
However, Iván Carmona, Business Analyst at Outright Games, expresses that “normalizing rape does not justify the satire they claim to make of American society.” Corona goes further, as he assures that “satire is a safe conduct that has begun to be used in recent years”: “Vice City It is a tribute to the aesthetics of the 80s Scarface” and, in that sense, GTA V It has turned out to be “a particularly misogynistic game.” He considers that the problem of the franchise has to do with the fact that “the GTA They are theme parks, based on a very nihilistic way of seeing things to facilitate all that violence and freedom when it comes to moving.”
Consequences of freedom
In 2014, some users modified the online game of GTA V to appear without pants and simulate rapes of other players’ characters. Another practice recognized by the community is that of murdering prostitutes after hiring their services, to recover the money invested. Behaviors like these have fueled many debates over the years, but Segovia points out that “in games of this style you can decide how to play.” However, Carmona believes that the problem lies in the fact that “dailyizing attitudes that occur within the game can be something very negative for society.”
When attempts have been made to point out the intrinsic machismo in the franchise, the response from the community has been aggressive. Thus, when the journalist Carolyn Petit reviewed her last title in 2014, many users were offended, insulted her and even asked her to fire her because, despite the fact that she rated it a nine, highlighted his “rampant misogyny” as a negative aspect. Belver explains that, in the end, its audience is so massive that it offers “a miniature version of what society is”, so “there are people (and therefore players) who live in absolute denial of social progress” .
Consequently, it is not surprising that, with the last trailer, hundreds of players celebrated on social networks the presence of brothels, an iconic enclave of this universe, at the same time that others criticized the leading role of a woman who seems far from the stereotypes that Until now they had lived within the world of Grand Theft Auto.
Strippers and prostitutes
Prostitution is a recurrent presence in GTA, since its universe revolves around violence, crime and sex. However, men embody complex characters, full of nuances, so that despite doing terrible things, they show complex personalities. On the contrary, women have been reduced to secondary They work as strippers or prostitutes and they limit themselves to being sexual objects, damsels in distress, victims or everything at the same time. Hypersexualization is one of their greatest traits, but they also tend to be unfaithful, histrionic and superficial.
This, furthermore, has not changed much over the years, since according to Carmona, “GTA “It continues to maintain the same stereotypes of the first installments.” For example in Vice City One of the missions is to get actresses to shoot a porn movie, while in GTA V You have to rescue the daughter of one of the protagonists from working on a film for adults, in two situations with different nuances, but the same backdrop. For this reason, although the previous installment has been harshly criticized for its misogyny, Corona explains that “there are examples of stereotypical female characters from the beginning,” as occurs with Catalina in San Andreaswho is presented as a manipulator designed to be hated by players.
The drawback is that this supposed satire reinforces the status quoespecially when, instead of against other gangsters, This violence is carried out mainly against prostitutesa marginalized group in real life, or against women in general ―whether they are cis or trans, another usual focus of jokes of the franchise―, so that the hyperbole only falls on those who are already oppressed. So what can it mean for Grand Theft Auto have your first female protagonist?
A feminine future, but not a feminist one
If the misogyny of Grand Theft Auto was a consequence of the lack of depth of the female characters, the new installment may be a good opportunity to redeem themselves. Victoria Belver, however, is cautious, since she believes that it can also mean “having a sexualized character to appeal to more people.” Iván Carmona also does not consider that “it represents a big change.” “Adding a woman as a protagonist is one of these ‘tools’ that are used as a way of inclusivity, but if they do not correct the violence against women within the game, it will not be of much use,” he clarifies.
Alberto Corona speaks in similar terms, who reflects on how “the mechanics used GTA They are always very masculine and violent”, so that “a priori there is not going to be any change because now it is a mafia shooting.” Although in his case the “pre-cooked glamor atmosphere” of the trailer does not convince him either, the possibility of having a Bonnie and Clyde-style romance in the center seems like an interesting change of direction, especially because Rockstars has hardly worked on stories of love. But to know the final direction that the franchise takes, we will still have to wait for its new installment to debut in 2025.
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