Change You Cannot Believe In: GTA V Pulled By Target and Kmart

So, this just happened. A petition on Change.org has successfully convinced Target and Kmart to pull Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) off their shelves on the grounds that the game promotes sexual violence against women. This annoys me on a number of levels, which I shall neatly outline in a variety of dot points later on, but on a whole, the petition itself pisses me off because this is a wonderful example of how factual inaccuracy, media coverage and sheer utter ignorance results in a moral panic towards a medium that already has enough criticism levelled at it from within and without.

While Target and Kmart have every right to pull GTA from their shelves and people have the right to complain and take action against what they perceive to be a potential threat and/or dangerous to the social fabric, I detest the fact that the success of this petition rests on faulty claims and clearly being used to further a particular agenda. An agenda criticising the portrayal of violence against women, a proposition that I do not disagree with but nonetheless is misguided in this instance.

Firstly, I shall pick apart the petition and point out exactly what is factually inaccurate about the claims made and hence undermine the entire premise of the petition.

• The authors claim that GTA V "that encourages players to murder women for entertainment. The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points."
• First of all, the game incentivises you to commit crime in general. It does not differentiate between violence against men or women, allowing the player to indiscriminately attack and potentially kill both men and women in various ways.
• Second of all, there is no mechanic allowing the commission of sexual violence against women. I will concede that you can abuse women by choosing to punch them but at the same time, you can abuse men by choosing to punch them, so I'm not sure what the issue is here.
• Third of all, there is literally no point in the game where hurting a woman will forward the game's narrative and there is absolutely no way to get health points from killing women, let alone anyone. On the contrary, attacking a woman (or a man) will almost always get the attention of the police who will bear down upon you as a force of almighty vengeance, which actually harms your health, not helps it.
• The authors also claim that "after various sex acts, players are given options to kill women by punching her unconscious, killing with a machete, bat or guns to get their money returned."
• Yes, but you're given the exact same options to deal with any non-player character in the game.
• Also, you can't punch anyone unconscious. Typically punching an NPC results in death.
• The author clearly has never played the game because machetes are not present in GTA V at any point. A knife, yes. A golf club, yes. A police baton, yes. A machete, no.
• "This misogynistic GTA 5 literally makes a game of bashing, killing and horrific violence against women. It also links sexual arousal and violence."
• Again, the game lets you kill any NPC regardless or race, gender, body size, body weight, body shape, religion so, I wouldn't call it misogynistic.
• I'm not sure what she means by the linkage between sexual arousal and violence. A further explanation would help.
• Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. It is fuelling the epidemic of violence experienced by so many girls and women in Australia - and globally.
• Oh good, another person in the camp of every gamer gamer is an idiot who cannot differentiate between reality and a video game world. Yes there are people who cannot tell the difference but they are in the minority.
• Also, the same could be said of violent books, television and movies, why not get rid of those as well?
• Gamers are not all boys either. A lot of them are men. And a lot more of them are women, for crying out loud.

Secondly, I should point out that the authors highlight the fact that they themselves have encountered sexual violence in their past. If this is true, I am honestly sorry for them but it does not justify this false crusade based on strawmen and factual inaccuracies. While the game may glamorise the criminal life and allow many depraved acts of violence, it should be noted that the game is also a work of satire. It often pokes fun at the player for committing violence with wanton abandon and punishes the player for excessive violence through a vigilant police force. 

Thirdly, I'll cover why the results of the petition are disappointing.

• People actually genuinely believe that the game is misogynistic and promotes violence against women now. If you don't believe me, read the comments in news stories about it or why people signed the petition on Change.org. This further delegitimises and adds to the already weighty opposition to video games as an entertainment medium.
• We, as in gamers, fought for an R-rating in Australia for so long for the reason that we do want to play games with mature themes but recognise that they should not be accessible by minors. That is the point of an R-rating. By simply pulling the game off the shelf, this undoes years of work to provide gamers the freedom to make their own choices while trying to protect minors. 
• This is not a victory for Target and Kmart as responsible corporate entities. It simply removes a form of revenue for them and redirects business to other companies. It's not as if the game cannot be bought anymore. People can just go elsewhere to get it.