GTA 6 having a female protagonist is great but I’m afraid of toxic masculinity ruining her impact

metro.co.uk:

The rumour that GTA 6 will have the series’ first female protagonist has been applauded in most circles but not amongst some male gamers.

Grand Theft Auto – a universe free from the constraints of your moral compass, where you’re encouraged to steal cars, assault civilians, and celebrate your crimes by having sex with strippers. It’s arguably a world dominated by male fantasy, so reports of the franchise’s first female protagonist sparked heated reactions amongst the online gaming community. Unsurprisingly, not everyone was too delighted at the news.

Following its debut in 2013, GTA 5 has gone on to sell a staggering 169 million copies, making it by far the best-selling traditional video game of all time (beaten only by Minecraft). Fans have been impatiently awaiting its successor for almost a decade, but current rumours suggest it won’t be out until 2024 at the very earliest. The lack of official information has meant talk of the next game has been limited to conspiracies, until a recent report suggesting that GTA 6 would include a female, Latina character as one of the game’s two Bonnie and Clyde style protagonists.

Personally, I was elated at the news because for female gamers like myself, this representation is long overdue in the series. Statistics show that in 2019, a mere 5% of protagonists in games were women*, despite 41% of gamers in the US being female. Reports claim that the pandemic led to a 20% increase^ in female gamers, further illustrating that the typically male-dominated community is undergoing a cultural transformation.

Considering the increase in female engagement with video games, current depictions of female characters are sadly nothing less than misogynistic and bleak. GTA 5 is particularly guilty of