Grand Theft Auto V has been taken off the shelves in every Target and Kmart in Australia due to the numerous claims that the game supports violence against women. A change.org petition was launched by former sex workers that took offense over the fact that the game allowed players to “commit sexual violence and kill women” and have demanded that Target stops selling the title. The petitioners also expressed the opinion that one of the worst parts of the game was the simulated sex scenes with a prostitute, and having the option to kill her after the deed was done to get the player’s money back. In response to these claims, Target has announced that they would not be selling Grand Theft Auto V while saying that the “game’s depictions of violence against women” is just too much for most customers.
Jim Cooper, Target spokesman said this in a statement, “We feel the decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers.” Kmart shortly followed Target’s lead and they too announced that they intend to take the game off of their shelves as well.
But the gaming community has fought back in the form of numerous mock petitions to get the point across that Grand Theft Auto V doesn’t single out any one group for persecution, and that the claims by the sex workers that it does is ludicrous. One such mock petition is a Bible ban, claiming that “the incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get ‘god’ points.” The petition references instances in which the Bible gives readers the options of either stoning women, cutting off their hands and killing their children, in addition to setting prostitutes on fire.
Other parody petitions demand that Target change their “violent name and aggressive logo,” a petition to ban knife sales as well as demanding to ban Fifty Shades of Grey. The Super Mario Bros games have also been mock petitioned, being blamed that the games promote the “willful murder of wildlife”, the “consumption of hallucinogenic flora” and, my favorite, the “collection of income without declaration of tax.”
Needless to say gamers everywhere are pissed off at the decision to ban GTAV, while at the same time trying to show that the game is not degrading to women. Thousands of comments on this subject alone has been posted on various video game forums explaining why Grand Theft Auto shouldn’t be under this kind of scrutiny, especially when there’s movies and books out there that have the same amount of violence within their content as well.
In GTA5 players are allowed free reign to kill anyone they so wish in the game, be they men, women, police, etc. No one gender or ethnicity is singled out for violence. The Grand Theft Auto franchise is rooted in the idea of giving the people who play the games the freedom to do whatever they want. The game gives you choices to make and as the player you do what you want to with said choices.
What do you think about this unfortunate entry into the Gamergate conundrum? Do you think that the Austrailian Target ban of Grand Theft Auto V was justified or do you think Target should keep the game on the shelves?
