Given all this – and the way the series has allowed you to visit a prostitute, then kill her to get your money back – perhaps the horrified reactions shouldn't be surprising.
It was the same in the last game: women were there to nag you, or be bribed – whether with fancy dinners or cold, hard cash – into having sex with you. There aren't any female characters to root for, be impressed by, or even fall in love with. You can rescue one whose car has broken down, spy on another having sex with her boyfriend while she checks her phone, and, of course, visit the obligatory strip club and "make it rain" bank notes. In the latest instalment, released last week, women are once again pushed to the margins. Loved by teenagers, it has become one itself: yet in the 16 years of its existence, it hasn't once offered players the chance to experience its sprawling scenery and high-octane thrills as a female character. The GTA series certainly isn't female-friendly. So why are so many people I meet so shocked that, as a woman and, whisper it, a feminist, I enjoy playing Grand Theft Auto? If we rejected every creative work that is in some way "problematic", the canonical cupboard would be bare. OK, I didn't do any of that, because that would be absurd. Finally, I threw my television out of the window because Breaking Bad's Walter White is a drug-dealing psychopath, and the show's fans love him for it. Then I burned my copy of The Hunger Games, because it's all about children killing one another for entertainment. On Monday, I had to switch off Classic FM when it played Wagner, since he was an antisemite.