It doesn't portray all women negatively. Kate in GTA4 is one of the very few "good" characters throughout then entire series. She's actually a genuinely good person. The only real criticism that you could level against her is that she doesn't flip on her family. But considering what it would mean for her if she did, it's not surprising that she wouldn't.
You also have characters like Asuka and Elizabeta who are handled in every way as equals to the men in the stories. They're both absolutely ruthless much like the main characters in the games.
GTAV basically has a repeat of that character with Tanisha, too.
GTAV has pretty shitty writing and humor in my opinion, and i agree with the notion that some of the jokes are just crass trash, more than satire, however it seems like some of the comments on here come from people who don't remember the game.
I also refute the notion that a game (or any other piece of entertainment) should be held as a straight forward educational tool for young people, even when it's not directed at them, that's just nonsense.
Sure everything you create has an impact on society, and you have to own up to that, which is why critique exists in the first place, but it doesn't have to be taken at face value at all.
A film like Scarface, which can be easily interpreted as a story of self destruction driven by mindless, aimless ambition and violence, is taken as an inspirational tale by a lot of kids born in the wrong place at the wrong time (see Gomorrah for an example of that, that shit is all too real).
I don't think that's DePalma's fault though, unless you're willing to render down any piece of entertainment/art to a pathetic level of hand holding, removing any sort of subtlety.
Tony Montana dying alone in a pool of his own blood still wasn't enough for some people to see it as a story of failure, and would rather extrapolate a martyr element from it.
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With all that said, and i think it does apply to GTA, it's still worth analyzing and critiquing our media, just not with the expectations of them babysitting every one of us to the logical conclusion.
Again, not a direct defense of GTA's shit writing or poor satire.
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Personally i disagree with the notion that GTA is one-sided in its pot shots (except maybe for its transphobia) as they make fun of pretty much anything in they wake, from the macho military mentality, to the empowering feminist buzzwords and mantras, to spiritualism, etcetera.
The problem is that at this point it's just lazy writing, they shoot in all direction afraid of leaving someone out, but they don't seem to apply any sort of thought into the satire, the result is a messy, crass, collection of cheap jokes at the expense of every target in sight, with usually the lowest possible hanging fruit approach.
If you match this, with the inequalities that exist in the real world, the final picture won't look as even and it would have.
To use a metaphor, if you apply the same amount of water to glasses that aren't as evenly full, only some of them will overflow.
The way to remedy this would be for them to take a step back and see what GTA has become.
It's not the cartoon GTA3 was anymore, and with deeper characters and a deeper world, they need to start implementing some deeper writing and deeper satire, put some thought into it.
Having listened to some of Lazlow's interviews though, i don't think that'll be happening, i have little faith in that guy to bring anything deeper than what we currently get.
Look at something like RDR, and (although not the perfect progressive manifesto) you can see what they can potentially do, without the shackles of the GTA franchise, and its expectations of "outrageous comedy that takes no prisoners", but that really, it's become just a tired dude yelling dick jokes in the street.