G - too much T and A

I may have reached rock bottom.  I needed to pay a cheque into the bank today.  I couldn't afford the stamp to post it, or the petrol to drive there.

I then the spent the evening watching Dan apparently shagging some skanky tart.  Of course it wasn't really him, it was his nasty little character on a rather violent computer game.  Still, all a bit weird don't you think? And is it offensive for me to call a computer image either skanky or a tart? It also helps to make sense of the complete lack of empathy my year 10 boys feel towards Curley's wife.  "Well, she's a ho Miss.  A slapper.  A tart.  She deserves it.  She shouldn't be playing around."

I know, it seems very wrong to blame video games for violent attitudes.  I don't believe that.  Fundamentally violence has been around as long as...well...survival, surely.  That makes sense.  And I know there will always those people who use "Catcher in the Rye" or "Natural Born Killers" as the inspiration for some horrendous crime.  That does not represent the majority of the people.

But I feel very uncomfortable watching those games, the average 35 year old gamer using these extreme games to escape from the daily grind, the responsibility of life.  The average 15 year old who is playing these 18-rated game has nothing to escape from.  They already have no responsibility.  Their attitude to crime, to women, to life is formed partly by what is represented from these games.

It is not merely the scantily clad women, designed by men who rarely come into contact with real women in real life, it is also the lack of any positive representations of women.  I saw one woman in a low cut suit and glasses demonstrating that women can be clever too, boys.  I could go on about the one black character I saw committing a range of violent crime.

I'm going to complain.  To someone.  I'm not sure who.  As soon as I've finished ironing this shirt.