One of the most popular gaming franchises of all time is Grand Theft Auto, which allows players to wreak havoc in the city and work their way through criminal underworlds with the most memorable characters. The latest entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto 5, has been a record-breaking, financially lucrative success for Rockstar, leading to the game being released across three gaming generations. Though GTA 5 has brought gamers countless hours of fun, audiences have naturally begun to wonder where its sequel is. Fortunately, Rockstar has confirmed that the next mainline Grand Theft Auto game, presumably Grand Theft Auto 6, is in development.
With GTA 6, Rockstar has an opportunity to once again prove why it has a golden reputation in gaming. It can do this by pushing visual boundaries and expanding the freedom available to players in the open world that the developers craft. However, Rockstar should also focus on its female characters, which is an aspect that critics and gamers have complained about for over a decade. After years of badly fumbling its female characters, Rockstar should finally apply the same kind of nuance, depth, and subtlety it has shown itself to be capable of with its male characters.
The History of Women in Grand Theft Auto
Since the first Grand Theft Auto game was released in 1997, the series has always had a masculine identity. Consequently, it has never featured a female protagonist, and female characters have only appeared in the peripherals as minor characters or as nameless NPCs. Nobody would argue that GTA is the gaming franchise that anyone should look toward for role models, however, there has consistently been a stark difference in the representation of male and female characters. Regardless of a character's moral alignment, men have the potential to be in a position of power, while women rarely have the opportunity.
This trend is seen regardless of whether one analyses playable characters or characters who work against players. Past protagonists have all been male, and they have come from varied backgrounds. For example, there is Claude, a mute prison escapee who seeks revenge, Carl Johnson who comes from a life of gang-banging, Johnny who is part of a mean biker gang, and Michael Townley who retires to a life of luxury in Los Santos after a successful career as a heist-man. Regardless of where they come from, through hard work and a knack for disregarding the law, they all have the chance to acquire unimaginable riches, an arsenal of weapons, and essentially be a living god in the city capable of taking on the entire police force single-handedly.
In comparison, women in the game are never presented as being similarly powerful or influential. An exception to this is perhaps Catalina, who appears in GTA 3 and GTA: San Andreas and is aggressive enough to intimidate both Claude and CJ. However, she is depicted as being unhinged rather than being remotely in control of her actions. Furthermore, she falls victim to a common trope that plagues almost every female character, which is over-sexualization.
Women in Grand Theft Auto Are Overly Sexualized
The archetypal female in Grand Theft Auto is vapid, brainless, materialistic, annoying, and most importantly, overly sexualized. Examples in the game of overly sexualized women in GTA are too numerous to list in totality, but it is worth discussing a few particularly egregious cases. Notably, in several GTA games, female NPCs exist who serve as strippers, lap dancers, and prostitutes. In contrast, male sex workers cannot be found.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City introduced Candy Suxxx, a porn star who always appears wearing a skimpy bikini. In a series known for making biting satire about modern American society, Candy Suxxx could have been an avenue for the game to critique several social issues relating to the sex work industry, and it would not feel out of place in GTA which critiques plenty of other aspects of society, including crime, police corruption, and religion, to name a few. However, Candy Suxxx herself is the butt of most of the humor. Similarly, Catalina had the potential to be an exception to the rule and be a powerful female character in the series, but this opportunity is missed when GTA: San Andreas instead chooses to sexualize her and focus on her BDSM fetish.
How GTA 6 Can Include Better Female Characters
There are numerous ways GTA 6 could redeem the franchise and offer better representations of female characters. The best way it can be done is by implementing multiple protagonists in GTA 6. However, this time around, one of the protagonists should be female. By doing this, players will have the opportunity to see the character progression of a male and a female character, allowing both genders equal opportunity to be depicted as complex individuals. Even with a female protagonist, Rockstar could still drop the ball by overly sexualizing her, so developers should take care to ensure that even if they choose to explore the sexual aspects of her personality, it does not become the only aspect of it.
Additionally, it may be time for Rockstar to drop the prostitution mini-game present in most GTA titles. While it may have been boundary-pushing decades ago, it currently seems like an immature addition that does little except denigrate women and downplay violence against female sex workers while adding nothing in terms of plot or tone. While there would probably be grumbles from fans if it was omitted from the next GTA game, it is hard to imagine too many gamers would miss it.
The number of rumors surrounding GTA 6 is a good indication of how highly anticipated it is. There have been claims that the game will span across different decades, that GTA 6 will take place in Vice City, and that the map will be dynamic and constantly updated. Like prior GTA games, GTA 6 is likely to push forward gaming and set a new standard for other games to aspire towards. Hopefully, one of the ways it innovates is by ditching GTA's tired stereotypical depictions of women for something more well-thought-out.
The next Grand Theft Auto game is currently in development.