Red Dead Redemption 2 gives the player the choice to act in a variety of ways, with their actions ultimately affecting their moral rating and the way they are perceived by other characters.
Some gamers are now using free will to attack a suffragette character who can be seen in the the industrial city of Saint Denis, campaigning for her right to vote.
Standing beside a ‘Votes for Women’ sign on a public street, the sash wearing woman can be heard declaring ‘let me vote’ in a manner some gamers have described as being ‘annoying’.
Despite not being an evil or violent character, some gamers have taken pleasure in beating and torturing the suffragette; feeding her to crocodiles and tying her to train tracks.
A YouTuber by the handle Shirrako uploaded a video entitled, ‘Red Dead Redemption 2 – Beating Up Annoying Feminist’, where he unleashes his rage upon the character.
At the beginning of the clip, the suffragette can be heard shouting ‘I am an American, come on people! Let me vote! It’s a national disgrace’.
Shirrako then makes the character of Arthur charge towards her, before engaging in a brief conversation about politics where the suffragette accuses Arthur of being a ‘cynic’.
Suddenly, Arthur can be seen shoving the woman before punching her in the face with such force that she falls to the floor.
The video has been proved popular, having been viewed well over one million times. Many of the comments have shown hatred for the suffrage movement and subsequent feminist causes; describing equal votes as being a ‘mistake’.
Of course, attacking somebody in this game for fun is not unusual, but the enthusiastic response to this particular punch has had quite a nasty, sexist undertone.
One comment read:
This is the correct course of action when women demand the “rights” to vote WITHOUT the responsibilities that comes with it like men have.
Another said:
If men from the past could see the present, women would not have gotten rights to vote in any country, ever.
Speaking about the reaction to the video, Shirrako told Motherboard:
I know you’re probably expecting some political answer but the truth is it was simply a funny moment from one of my streams which I’ve decided to upload as a separate video.
Not sure if it was intentional by Rockstar Games but the NPC is made to be rather annoying, when you try to shop for clothing in the game, your dialogue with the shop keeper keeps being interrupted by her shouting, so I simply wanted to shop in peace, I’m sure that as a gamer you’re familiar with these annoying NPC situations.
They also clarified how they did not agree with the sexist comments which had quickly filled the comments section:
I mean obviously I don’t agree with the sexist comments, but there is not much I can do about them, I don’t like censoring people’s opinions, regardless if I like them or not.
I dread to think how angry some of these gamers would feel after watching the film Mary Poppins…
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.