A Swedish association which helps women escape the prostitution circuit has developed a mod to GTA V. The objective? Raise awareness among “young men” about a social problem.
“ Saving the prostitutes of Los Santos »: this is not a new update of GTA V by Rockstar Games, but the objective of a mod (additional content often created by independents or fans) manufactured by a Swedish association. Named Talita, it provides help to women who wish to escape the prostitution circuit. And she imagined an awareness campaign by surfing the springboard GTA Vwhich has sold nearly 200 million copies since its release and remains a huge success.
Talita uses GTA V firstly for a question of target, aiming at the “ young men », i.e. potential future customers of priced relationships. “ With this campaign, we hope to provide a perspective and a reason for young men to talk and think about the problem of prostitution and sex trafficking », Indicates Talita in an FAQ. The mod is available at this address since March 8. It is free, but requires ownership of the PC version of GTA V.
Using GTA V to raise awareness about the problems of prostitution is smart
The mod proposed by Talita takes the opposite view of what the essence of GTA V, where the player — or the player — can interact with prostitutes with the aim of exploiting them, abusing them, or even killing them. “ With Mission Talita we offer a modified version of the game, in which players can help prostitutes have a better life », Describes the association. She consciously chooses to position women in the role of victims, because this is the case in real life. “ Many believe that prostitution can be voluntary, but after meeting prostitutes for 25 years, it has been discovered that most of it is linked to poverty or sexual trauma. », explains Talita.
Mission Talita is structured around four missions based on true stories, the fruit of the numerous testimonies collected by Talita. For example, we can help Carmen, a 24-year-old Colombian who found herself in a precarious financial situation in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. She was rescued by Talita in 2021, after being exploited along with twenty other women.
The objective of each mission is to save women by getting them out of prostitution, knowing that the situations are different each time (age, country of origin, etc.). The mod was developed by FelixTheBlackCat and Vxruz_Danz.
Talita’s initiative is interesting, especially when we know that GTA V is associated with sexist overtones. However, it faces a certain limit: the “ young men » that she wishes to raise awareness must first be aware that this mod exists and, then, download it. It’s not like a shock advertising campaign that we would display for everyone to see in the streets and which would impose itself on us. Here, you have to be an actor in raising awareness, which reduces its impact. The only real springboard for Talita? That content creators with a massive following stream the mod. Without them, the reach of the message will unfortunately be tiny.
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