Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

May 20, 2008

Among the many criticisms leveled against the Grand Theft Auto series are complaints that it is misogynistic. This judgment typically stems from the oft-heard  "have sex with a hooker and then kill her to get your money back" complaint.

But a video review on lesbian site AfterEllen looks at GTA IV from the gay woman's perspective and finds it not so bad. Or, at least, an equal opportunity insult to both sexes since all of the guy characters portrayed in the game are lowlifes.

As one of the reviewers, Tracy, explained it to GamePolitics in an e-mail:

The review looks at the political satire in GTA IV and came as a shock to many readers since it didn't simply jump on the GTA = evil bandwagon. We run a lesbian video gaming site and received many emails and comments about how well-rounded our review was and how it made people rethink the GTA IV political debate.
 

Catch the video here.... (fast forward to 19:00 for the GTA IV review)

UPDATE: While the video appeared on AfterEllen, the reviewers call Lesbian Gamers their home base.

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Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

That's pretty freakin funny.

Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

an equal opportunity insult to both sexes since all of the guy characters portrayed in the game are lowlifes.

It's just like the death and mayhem. People focus on the cops and prostitutes, but don't seem to care that you can kill anoyone else. "We deplore violence, especially if it's [group A] or [B]. But we'll only speak out if it's those two groups. If it's anyone else, we're silent."

Just watching the show now. Well, now that makes sense. They're Aussie, and they're not politicians. So of COURSE they're more reasonable than some people in the US. ;)

"There isn't one morally good character in this [game].... Guys should not be proud of their representation by Rockstar in this title either."

A fact sadly overlooked by most talking heads.

I agree with their rip on IGN over that video reducing GTAIV to a series of hooker encounters.

On a side note, my neice (who is 22) swears up and down that there's nudity in the game, and from what I've seen of the videos on YouTube, she's full of it. She claims that if you bring "certain" girlfriends to the strip club, you get nudity you don't get with the others. But she's been known to... well... Jack Thompson would love her, because she'd make up all sorts of bull about video games in order to "shock" people...

-- If your wiimote goes snicker-snack, check your wrist-strap...

Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

A new reason for Jack Thomson to hate the game; those evil, man-hating, 'bringers of the fall of marriage and family values' lesbians like GTA IV. [/sarcasm]

Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

Ye gods!  Rockstar employees must be man-haters, too!

Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

Eep, GTA got the lesbian vote!
Clearly that makes it evil...

Okay, but really, these girls did a good job of reviewing the game. It just depresses me that it took someone with a unique look at the topic to bring to attention all the things that everyone should have seen on their own.

As the creator of some moderately deplorable content (see sig link - at least it's funny ;) ) I can say that the idea of young kids indulging in my content is a little unsettling (the podcasts more than the comic). But you can't let that keep you from creating your content, it just means you have to be responsible about it. We don't advertise on "kid friendly" sites, we don't try to market our crap on FaceBook (We even reserved the name so no one else could), and we don't have cute camels smokin.... wait. Rockstar has taken similar precautions. They had the game rated, it comes with warnings, and the commercials aren't misleading. At some point it becomes the parents responsibility to look at videos like this, that are even handed, and make educated decisions about their children's entertainment - the generational gap might mean you don't enjoy playing the same games as your kids, but it doesn't mean you can't understand them.

Black Vatican Comic. Updating 5 days a week! http://www.blackvatican.com

Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

I find it strange to have a lesbian view of a game. I don't really think that a lesbian gamer view would be any different from other girl gamers unless lesbian has a large part of the game itself.

Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV
A lesbian is definitely going to bring a unique point of view to a review of a game. Sexual identity is an extremely large part of most video games, particularly those which are action oriented- if only because anything which deviates from the heterosexual hypermasculine norm is rendered invisible. I think it's easy for heterosexuals (and I include myself in this criticism) to forget that we don't have to call attention to our sexuality ("to make a big deal out of it" as some like to say) in our day to day lives because that sexuality is assumed to be the norm.

For instance there was a thread on Kotaku not long ago about a man who was forced to change his gamertag because it was "Gayergamer." A lot of the comments felt it was rediculous that the man felt the need to call attention to his sexuality. However, as others pointed out, heterosexuals do this all the time. However this is normative and so it doesn't really grab our attention. I've seen tons of gamertags on xboxlive expressing heterosexual virility and nobody bats an eye at those (myself included- doesn't really bother me), but as soon as a man dares to openly declare his homosexuality, the community is all up in arms.

I know that you weren't talking about xbox live or anything, but i just thought that served as a good example of how we often fail to recognize that heterosexuality is proclaimed as the right way, as the desirable way to live everyday- and it informs how we think and act so much that we often fail to recognize it's influence. Thus marginalized groups, such as lesbians, definitely have a unique take on things, especially video games, which have traditionally been a bastion of normative heterosexuality.
Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV

While I agree with you about calling attention to our sexuality I think his comment was more about the previous poster:  "It just depresses me that it took someone with a unique look at the topic to bring to attention all the things that everyone should have seen on their own."

 

 

Re: Lesbian Game Reviewers Love GTA IV
Yeah, I love their blog. I had a very very hard time understanding them at first.

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