GTA V removed from Target Australia stores

[Gahars]

​

2005 called, they wanted to remind us that they ain't no hollaback girl. Also, they want their moral panic back.

Target Australia will stop selling the R-rated video game Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5) following feedback from customers about the game's depictions of violence against women.

Target General Manager Corporate Affairs Jim Cooper said the decision was made following extensive community and customer concern about the game.

"We've been speaking to many customers over recent days about the game, and there is a significant level of concern about the game's content," Mr Cooper said.

Target.com.au

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And here is the petition that seems to have spurred this action:

Spoiler

Target: Withdraw Grand Theft Auto 5 – this sickening game encourages players to commit sexual violence and kill women


It's a game that encourages players to murder women for entertainment. The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points – and now Target are stocking it and promoting it for your Xmas stocking.

This is Grand Theft Auto 5. This game means that after various sex acts, players are given options to kill women by punching her unconscious, killing with a machete, bat or guns to get their money returned.

Please Target – we appeal to you as women survivors of violence, including women who experienced violence in the sex industry, to immediately withdraw Grand Theft Auto V from sale.

One of many fan clips on YouTube shows the woman being run down, run over, set alight and, still screaming, repeatedly shot. This misogynistic GTA 5 literally makes a game of bashing, killing and horrific violence against women. It also links sexual arousal and violence.

We have firsthand experience of this kind of sexual violence. It haunts us, and we've been trying to rebuild our lives ever since. Just knowing that women are being portrayed as deserving to be sexually used by men and potentially murdered for sport and pleasure – to see this violence that we lived through turned into a form of entertainments is sickening and causes us great pain and harm.

This game spreads the idea that certain women exist as scapegoats for male violence. It shows hatred and contempt for women in the sex industry and puts them at greater risk. Women in the industry are 40 times more likely to be murdered by a man than any other group of women.

Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. It is fuelling the epidemic of violence experienced by so many girls and women in Australia - and globally.

Target, you pride yourself on being a family company, caring for local communities, and have a strong ethical sourcing policy. How can you do this while contributing to hostile and callous attitudes toward victims of violence and, more broadly, to all women?

We urge you to follow the example set by the New Zealand’s largest retailer, NZ Warehouse Group, in upholding Corporate Social Responsibility and ethical corporate leadership, by removing these games.

This would also set an example to other stockists of GTA V.

Please put ethics before profits and make a strong statement that you do not condone sexual violence, sexual exploitation or the abuse of women as ‘entertainment’.

Nicole, Claire and Kat

"They don't gotta burn the books, they just remove 'em," indeed. This is some real bullshit on parade, especially considering the fact that the stores stocked the game for well over a year. Beyond that, Australia already has an R rating equivalent for games with graphic content, so it's not as if this is being sold to lil' Mikeys left and right. If people don't want to buy the game, awesome, but to refuse to sell it altogether? Crikey, mate.

At least the petition's good for a laugh.

 

[purupuru]

Get over it clown. Target is a private business and as such they have the right to carry or not carry any product they want. As a manager of a retail store I had to make these types of calls all the time and no books were ever harmed in the process.

 

[Veho]

2005 called, they wanted to remind us that they ain't no hollaback girl. Also, they want their moral panic back.

I thought 2005 was about the general violence in the game, not violence against women specifically.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Meh. So Target loses a little business, not much harm in it other than some whiny mothers get to feel good I guess. With digital distribution and online shopping nowadays, this won't affect jack.

 

[Gahars]

Get over it clown. Target is a private business and as such they have the right to carry or not carry any product they want. As a manager of a retail store I had to make these types of calls all the time and no books were ever harmed in the process.

Of course they're a private business, but a company being pressured into removing a game (or movie, book, etc.) over false outrage is still, you know, concerning. GTA V is a big game, it'll be fine, but it sets a bad precedent; the next developer might not be so large or capable of weathering through.

If as many people opposed the game as the petition claims, then they could simply refuse to buy the game and the market would take care of the problem. Instead, they want to dictate what other adults spend their money on over claims that are simply false or, at best, extremely misleading. I don't know about you, but I find that objectionable.

Also, where did I say books were harmed? I think you misread my Bulls on Parade joke.

I thought 2005 was about the general violence in the game, not violence against women specifically.

Eh, tomato, tomahto.

 

[Thesolcity]

INB4 every major retail outlet in Australia follows suit, leading to a nationwide ban of the game.

 

[Veho]

Eh, tomato, tomahto.

One of those complaints has merit (very little, but some nonetheless), the other is hypocritical bullshit.

 

[Catastrophic]

"It's a game that encourages players to murder women for entertainment."

It's a game that encourages players to murder everything for entertainment. That's been a common theme for every single GTA game up till this point. This is why nobody takes social justice warriors seriously.

 

[jonthedit]

Solution : GTA VI : Social Warrior's Revenge.

 

[Trevor Belmont]

I can't wait to get a copy just so I can kill people for fun!
I mean, enjoy my video game...

P.S. Don't tell my mom.

 

[RevPokemon]

Honestly here is my problem with acts like thus. They act like video games are making people violent while not considering other media. For example sure GTA has stuff that's not OK in real life but so does movies (Godfather which is considered one of the greatest movies ever is also extremely violent) music (listen to rap you hear the b word, n word and often lyrics with violence) and books (Stepehen King anyone) yet many people is the media and what not act like video games are the only form of media that has violence when in fact its been around forever in other types of media.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Honestly here is my problem with acts like thus. They act like video games are making people violent while not considering other media. For example sure GTA has stuff that's not OK in real life but so does movies (Godfather which is considered one of the greatest movies ever is also extremely violent) music (listen to rap you hear the b word, n word and often lyrics with violence) and books (Stepehen King anyone) yet many people is the media and what not act like video games are the only form of media that has violence when in fact its been around forever in other types of media.

And movies and TV shows and books and music and the internet have all gotten the same treatment and have survived. Video games are just the new scapegoat when all the rest failed. Next it'll be all about those dirty "brain wave transmission units!" and whatever other technology people want to blame their problems on.

 

[redact]

Kmart has now followed and pulled it too.

Rip australia. We're not mature enough for that R18 rating we fought years to get ;-;

 

[RevPokemon]

And movies and TV shows and books and music and the internet have all gotten the same treatment and have survived. Video games are just the new scapegoat when all the rest failed. Next it'll be all about those dirty "brain wave transmission units!" and whatever other technology people want to blame their problems on.

Not sure about new as people in politics and the media have stated that video games caused people to become sociopathes ever since Columbine

Kmart has now followed and pulled it too.

Rip australia. We're not mature enough for that R18 rating we fought years to get ;-;

Also forgot Australia is pretty bad bout censorship of games think the censored

South park stick of truth

Left for dead

Overkill

And many other games

 

[BlackKnight666]

LOL. Excuse my language, but this is just fucking stupid. Where abouts in the game does it tell you to go out on the street and beat the crap out of women? Nowhere? That's what i thought.

 

[Trevor Belmont]

LOL. Excuse my language, but this is just fucking stupid. Where abouts in the game does it tell you to go out on the street and beat the crap out of women? Nowhere? That's what i thought.

I guess identification cards, the ESRB rating system AND parenting aren't good enough these days.
Such a shame and a waste. Tsk-tsk-tsk!

 

[Hells Malice]

We should inform Australia that there are many, many games with freedom of choice. It's not even graphic in GTA. In Fallout 3 you can blow a chicks head off and teabag the headless corpse while doing copious amounts of drugs. Bit worse than GTA i'd say.

On second thought lets not tell Australia.


Either way importing and digital purchases basically just mean the stores are losing sales for basically no reason. Their loss honestly.

 

[The Catboy]

Australia removed a GTA game? I'm sooooooo shocked

 

[Nathan Drake]

We should inform Australia that there are many, many games with freedom of choice. It's not even graphic in GTA. In Fallout 3 you can blow a chicks head off and teabag the headless corpse while doing copious amounts of drugs. Bit worse than GTA i'd say.

That reminds me: in New Vegas, I got the first chick who gives you quests out in the middle of nowhere, chopped off her dog's head with a machete, then met her violent response by chopping off her head with the same machete and teabagging the corpse. This is why I can't play games like this.

 

[RevPokemon]

Australia does not have explicit freedom of speech in any constitutional or statutory declaration of rights, with the exception of political speech which is protected from criminal prosecution at common law per Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth.