Free Republic

As video games grow ever more violent and realistic, the latest sign of "progress" is the arrival of female characters you can take into combat in the latest version of the war game "Call of Duty." You may watch a hundred commercials selling this product, but no one tells the audience what's really in it. There's a reason: You'd be shocked. A panel of young pundits on the gaming website IGN.com recently pondered the question "How does it feel to have a woman get stabbed in the face?" One young man admitted with a bit of shame that "I'm so,...

-snip- Yet the majority of the game critic community has decided to treat “Grand Theft Auto V’s” rampant misogyny and violence against women as a pesky housefly, a slight annoyance that doesn’t detract from all that’s remarkably polished. Though some of the defensiveness may be genuine for this ambitiously free-form game, it’s also rooted in the fear of being labeled as one of those clueless souls who doesn’t quite get the joke or, worse, is offended by it. But much of this knee-jerk cheerleading is a lost opportunity. If “Auto V” had advanced as much culturally and emotionally as it...