DiTommaso 1

Joseph DiTommaso
Professor Jon Beadle
English 115
7 December 2016
GRPG: Gender Role Playing Games
As we progress towards a more technologically advanced society, we note that popular
culture is even fed to the viewers through video games, specifically an adolescent audience. One
notable example is the critically acclaimed video game Grand Theft Auto V. The premise of
the game revolves around three male criminals who plot bank heists as well as run a drug and
weapons cache, while treating women more as sexual objects rather than counterparts. This
storyline feeds the audience information of a society based on heightened sexual characteristics,
in which men are not masculine enough if they are not robbing banks or killing prostitutes and
women are not feminine enough if they do not have an appealing body. In turn, this can prove to
be detrimental towards the psyche, and cause men to engage in criminal behavior, and for
women to feel discouraged of achieving career-oriented goals, simply because of a societal
expectation of women to be feminine and subordinate towards their male counterpart. Truly
Grand Theft Auto V, through its interactive gameplay engages in a negative manner similar
towards that of the media we see today, with unattainable heightened masculine and feminine
traits, as well as locking people in narrow gender roles to boost revenue of the game.
Grand Theft Auto Vs interactive gameplay exploits the usage of unattainable
heightened masculine and feminine traits as a means of increasing revenue for the video game.
The heightened masculine and feminine traits shown in the game are to display gender norms in

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terms of sex, albeit in a very extreme manner. Such is the case with Judith Lorber in her article
Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender, where she explains that with society and
gender, Gendered norms and expectations are enforced through informal sanctions of gender
appropriate behavior by peers and by formal punishment or threat of punishment by those in
authority(Lorber 28). Society places this demand that women must look and act in a certain way
to adhere to gender norms, and can be punished should they not follow them. In Grand Theft
Auto V, this is shown where one of the antagonists, Martin Madrazo, yells at his wife Patricia,
for not providing good hospitality towards the main players, Michael De Santa and Trevor
Philips. This prompts Martin to yell obscenities at his wife and threaten to hit her. With this
shown, the game places heightened traits upon men, such as Martin Madrazo, as they can easily
beat women for not following gender norms, such as good housekeeping, a stereotypical
representation of womens jobs. Women, like Patricia Madrazo, are almost trapped in this
expectation of a serving men, and can easily be punished for not living up to a certain
expectation placed by society. The usage of heightened masculine and feminine traits in Grand
Theft Auto V display the harsh connotation of gender roles that are placed on both sexes.
Along with heightened masculine and feminine traits, Grand Theft Auto V and many
other media outlets, specifically films, have pushed gender roles upon society, with the intention
of displaying that an uneven representation of both genders exists today. Within the premise of
each movie, it displays the idealistic family as well as certain roles for each individual to
achieve. Aaron Devor, in Becoming Members of Society states that, Gender role
characteristics reflect the ideological contentions underlying the dominant gender schema in
North American society(43). With this, Devor explains that gender dominance is influenced by

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the types of gender roles each individual takes on, and with men seemingly taking more
dominant based roles, they are considered to be the powerful beings, with women or anyone
harboring a feminine trait as subordinate. This is shown firsthand in the game Grand Theft Auto
V where one of the main protagonists, Michael De Santa, a professional criminal, constantly at
odds with his wife Amanda. Between the two, Michael is the aggressor and Amanda is the
suppressed, feeling entrapped in her marriage. The entrapment the wife of the protagonist
displays is a cry for help due to the gender role she is placed, as being a housewife to a
professional criminal. This displays a classic example as to how gender roles facilitate the
family, and can even place fear into the subordinate individual that the dominant individual can
run their life.
Likewise, through any media outlet, this is a display of harsh treatment to the subordinate
gender. Even with individuals that are expected to be subordinate, they are met with harsh
criticism should they not adhere to the gender roles placed by society. Director of Forensics in
the Department of Human Communication Studies at California State University, Fullerton,
Ericka M. Thomas, in her article, Punishing Unfaithful Wives and Working Mothers: Messages
of Postfeminism in Contemporary Film, she states that films such as The Devil Wears Prada
that female characters who are, single, unfaithful, and career driven women, respectively-as
unhappy women who are ultimately punished for their choices. These representations endorse
and perpetuate images of a good mother and wife-married, loyal, and family oriented(77-78).
This is shown within the game as the protagonist, Michael De Santa, with his daughter, Tracy De
Santa, where she is always brought with criticism towards her goals of becoming a movie star.
Tracy, often met with negativity from her father Michael, is punished for going against her

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norms of trying to do well in school and achieve a professional career by trying to make it big by
becoming a movie star. With Thomas claim, it notes of an enforcement of gender roles, and
specifically targets women to being subordinate towards men.
Likewise, video games similarly display the message to a rising generation of women
that society only appreciates them for their body, exemplifying the notion of uneven gender
representation. This is shown to be true especially, as Sociology Professor at the University of
Michigan Christopher Near, in his journal, displays that, ...female characters are not given
representation equal to male characters in video games and are often created from a male
perspective that is less than realistic, exaggerating their sexual or feminine traits(252). Even
within video games, such as Grand Theft Auto V, there is a certain type of bias towards men
and women are objectified and not taken seriously. This is shown firsthand in the game, as it
revolves around three male criminals, Michael De Santa, Trevor Philips, and Franklin Clinton
and any supporting female character in the game is shown either as a sexual object or a
subordinate character to the protagonist. By these actions, it notes of the uneven gender
representation by demonstrating women in subordinate, sexualized roles. This, in turn, can prove
to be detrimental towards adolescents and can cause either criminal behavior in men or shattered
dreams of women, something that should not be accepted in todays society.
While video games such as Grand Theft Auto V do display heightened masculine and
feminine characteristics, as well as placing characters in narrow gender roles, most video games
are seen towards players as an escape from the everyday struggles of work and school rather than
to encourage gender roles of each individual. Someplace that people feel comfort from the
troubles of everyday living is in video games. For example, Super Mario Brothers can be looked

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upon as showing weakness in women by being the damsel in distress, with the male protagonist,
Mario, saving the day. In some respects, we do see that bringing a controversial topic such as
inequality among genders very off putting when the intention of video games is for leisure.
However, games such as Grand Theft Auto V require the usage of these gender roles and
unrealistic expectations of both men and women in order to boost record sales of the game. The
expectation of men robbing banks and women selling their bodies for sex might seem unrealistic,
however, these actions are what prompt people to buy the game, as Grand Theft Auto V
generated more than $2 billion in revenue in the first 6 months of its release, according to Forbes
Magazine. This necessity to include such violent and graphic representations do indeed display
how narrow gender roles are a means to increase profit sales for Grand Theft Auto V, and
many other similar games as well.
Within Grand Theft Auto V and other media outlets to a larger extent, denote that
inequality of genders exist, as well as unattainable, even reckless characteristics of both men and
women. It creates an almost expected image for both men and women to attain, however, it is
rather impossible to do so. Rather than the focus of driving up profit for video games such as
Grand Theft Auto V by placing unattainable characteristics of men and women, as well as
narrow gender roles, the primary focus should be to create a story in which there is an even
representation of sexes in order to promote equality for all. Through the education that media
outlets should not be taken literally is how people can feel empowered by achieving their own
goals and feel comfortable in their own skin, and with that, could possibly lead to even
representation of gender and realistic character traits in future games.

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Works Cited
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. Composing
Gender. Edited by Rachel Groner and John F. OHara. 1st Edition, Bedford/St.
Martins, 2014, pp. 35-43.
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender.
Edited by Rachel Groner and John F. OHara. 1st Edition, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014,
pp. 19-30.
Near, Christopher, E. "Selling Gender: Associations of Box Art Representation of Female
Characters with Sales for Teen- and Mature-rated Video Games." Sex Roles. 1st Edition,
Springer Science, 2012, pp. 252-269.
Rockstar Games. Grand Theft Auto V Official Cover Art. Rockstar Games. Rockstar Games, 2
April 2013. www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/49291/grand-theft-auto-v-official
-cover-art.html.
Thomas, Erika M. Punishing Unfaithful Wives and Working Mothers: Messages of
Postfeminism in Contemporary Film. Media Depictions of Brides, Wives, and Mothers.
1st Edition, Lexington Books, 2012, pp. 77-88.