The video game Grand Theft Auto IV presents the “Ladies of Liberty City”. A trailer shows prostituted women being run over and shot after having sex with a john. These disturbing videos express the disposability of these women in our culture:
Long version:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/209411.html
Short version:
http://boinkology.com/2008/04/29/the-ladies-of-liberty-city/
Apparently the game publisher, Take-Two Interactive, has become embarrassed by this trailer, and is trying to remove it from the Internet, so watch it soon.
Another option not shown in the trailer is burning the women, as observed by Slobs of Gaming:
For research on violent video games and their effects on gamers, please see the work of Karen E. Dill:
http://www.lrc.edu/psy/dillk/researchlinks.htm
See also:
Register Now for Media Madness: The Impact of Sex, Violence, & Commercial Culture on Adults, Children, & Society, July 8-11, Boston
For the 14th consecutive year, Wheelock College is offering the very popular summer institute on the role that the media (television, movies, magazines, video games, advertising and pornography) plays in shaping children’s development and behavior, as well as our overall cultural attitudes. The institute will be held on Wheelock’s Boston Campus.
Link of Media to Violence Accepted, But Porn Has No Effect?
Film
critic Michael Medved notes that: “More than 3,000 research projects
and scientific studies between 1960 and 1992 have confirmed the
connection between a steady diet of violent entertainment and
aggressive and anti-social behavior.”[37] The American Academy of
Pediatrics concluded: “The vast majority of studies conclude that there
is a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and real-life
violence. The link is undeniable and uncontestable…”[38]
One
of the most common findings from media studies is that “increased media
viewing is associated with more stereotypical views, especially about
gender,” and that “being exposed to consistent and repeated
stereotypical gender images shapes cognitive structures.”[45] Simply
stated, what we see affects how we think.
Robert
Jensen: When Examining Complex Social Phenomena, Scientific Method Has
Limits; Listen to the Stories of the Victims (explicit language)
Ms.
X, a Native American woman, described how she was raped by two white
men who made reference to a pornographic video game called “Custer’s
Revenge” in which a white Army officer scores points by raping Indian
women:
They held me down and as one was running the tip of his
knife across my face and throat he said, “Do you want to play Custer’s
Last Stand? It’s great. You lose but you don’t care, do you? You like a
little pain, don’t you, squaw?… The only good Indian is a dead
Indian… A squaw out alone deserves to be raped.”
Boston Globe: “Spike in violence in middle schools raises concerns”
Educators, police, and national school violence specialists struggle to explain rising violence among younger students, which is also reflected in national statistics. They cite an array of causes, including violent video games, movies, and television shows and news coverage of violence at school and in the community, which results in copy-cat incidents.
Prostitution: “It is high time to expose and challenge the liberal consensus”
..all but a tiny minority want to stop selling sex…
…Such women are 18 times more vulnerable to homicide than other women,
and suffer regular abuse from pimps, punters and passers-by…
…I thought, ‘These women are just seen as throwaways. They service the
men, serve their purpose, and can then just be disposed of.'”
Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations (explicit language)
As recently as 1991, police in a southern California
community closed all rape reports made by prostitutes and addicts,
placing them in a file stamped “NHI.” The letters stand for the words
“No Human Involved.” (Linda Fairstein, Sexual Violence: Our War Against
Rape, 1993, New York, William Morrow.)
…83% of prostitutes are victims of assault with a weapon. (National Coalition Against Sexual Assault)
Dorchen Leidholdt, “Demand and the Debate”
I had never heard of a single instance in which a secretary or college
professor had been flung out of a window of her workplace to her death
on the streets below. And while married women were leaving abusive
homes in droves, their prostituted sisters often didn’t have homes to
leave. It would be six years before I would encounter the Canadian
Report on Prostitution and Pornography with its finding that
prostituted women in Canada suffer a mortality rate 40 times the
national average. But it was no secret that prostituted women were the
special targets of serial killers. How many jobs had murder as a
frequent workplace safety hazard?
Prostitution Research & Education: How Prostitution Works
Real
sexual relationships are not hard to find. There are plenty of adults
of both sexes who are willing to have sex if someone treats them well,
and asks. But there lies the problem. Some people do not want an equal,
sharing relationship. They do not want to be nice. They do not want to
ask. They like the power involved in buying a human being who can be
made to do almost anything.
Escort Prostitution: A Response to Tom Vannah, Editor of the Valley Advocate
While a few women may choose a life of prostitution in a truly
voluntary fashion, the reality for most is a history of sexual and/or
child abuse, separation from their family and/or country, and poverty.
Addictions to drugs or alcohol are common. They are routinely lied to,
coerced, abused, threatened, and blackmailed (e.g. ‘I’ll hurt your
family back in the Ukraine if you don’t cooperate’).
When a
“progressive” outlet like the Advocate runs ads for commercial sex
enterprises, it not only publicizes them but legitimizes them. It also
puts a big dent in the Advocate’s moral authority. If the Advocate
truly wants to
be a friend to underdogs, it needs to side with them over callous profiteers.
MSNBC
Investigates Human Trafficking and Prostitution in the US; Valley
Advocate Advertises “Foreign Fantasies” Where “Everything Goes”
Valley
Advocate Website Announces 2008’s “Best” Adult Entertainment Club;
Holsopple’s Inside Report on Stripping (explicit language)