Prostitutes call for ban on GTA

 

  

I’ve decided that I will try everyday to post a new article related to sex work that I find.. let me know what you think of this one..  

  Prostitutes call for ban on GTA

Sex workers cry foul, say game “accrues points to players for the depiction of rape and murder of prostitutes.”

By Tim Surette, GameSpot

Posted Feb 14, 2006 3:48 pm PT

“The Grand Theft Auto franchise is getting attacked from all angles. Joining the ranks of politicians, policemen, and attorneys in their crusade to see the game lifted from shelves are the nation’s sex workers. On its Web site, the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA is asking parents to assist them in calling for a ban of Take-Two Interactive’s controversial game.

Citing a 2001 document from the National Institute on Media and the Family’s David Walsh, SWOP is calling “on all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto.”

The organization quotes various points from Walsh’s paper, including, “Children are more likely to imitate a character with whom they identify with. In violent video games the player is often required to take the point of view of the shooter or perpetrator.”

Though the organization admits to being “adamantly opposed to any and all forms of censorship,” as concerned parents themselves, they “wish to inform other parents of the potential danger extremely violent video games pose to children.” Likewise, in the interest of promoting the rights of sex workers, the organization is opposed to the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes.

In the games, players can solicit “services” from prostitutes by driving their cars slowly near them. No sexual acts are in clear visible view, but during the “transaction,” the player regains health and loses money. Though the player cannot actively rape prostitutes in the game, a possible rape is alluded to once during the storyline of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The prostitutes, like every other character, are also subject to homicide at the hands of the protagonist.

According to its Web site, SWOP USA is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of sex-industry workers and to the promotion of a safe working environment for the industry.”

I was searching through the internet for interesting articles about sex workers to post up here, and I came across this article… I come from Chicago, I haven’t heard about the Sex Worker plee to ban Grand Theft Auto…

This happens to be one of my favorite video games, just because I can take my aggressions out on pedestrians on the street by running them over or using a bazooka to blow up cars… or even better… helicopters! I was fully aware that I could get a prostitute and raise my health, in fact I could run from the cops faster … but in this game they don’t specifically target prostitutes, they target all people as victims of crimes… The main purpose of this game is to be an outlaw, to defy everything we know as being legal. The greatest part of the game was knowing that cops and city officials also used the service of sex workers. There are always little missions that tell you to go and pick up sex workers for parties of City officials and Cops… It wasn’t entrapment, they weren’t being forced, they enjoyed their work, even though they had a pimp, the girls were treated nicely. You got the idea that they were not coerced into being prostitutes in the game.

As you can tell, I have finished this game several times..

I mean sure you could have sex with a prostitute in the back seat of a car, sure u accidentally run her over while driving away satisfied… but the funny thing is, is that you can run over, beat or shoot ANYONE and get money from them in the game.

 I personally thought it was a honor including sex workers in the game because, the character obviously paid for her time and not just for the sexual act. In order to get the provider to service you in the game, you must find a location where no one will see you during the session. As you drive around looking for a quiet location, the indicator at the top of the screen shows you that every minute that the provider sits in your car you pay for, so in theory he wasn’t paying for sex, he was paying for the providers time in his car, what they did was consentual amoungst adults… lol

 There was a mature warning on the game, so if the parents buy this game for their children, which is currently still on the market, then the parents already know that adult material may be present when playing the game!

Besides, not many people who play the game know that you can get a prostitute, or even how to get them to service the main character, it was a cheat code! That’s how special sex workers are….

 ~Mistress Seraphina