The Problem of the Female Gangster

Kind of a weird post to wrap up the year, but it probably is my last post until January.

This time out I consider the recent talk arising from the release of the Grand Theft Auto V trailer about the possibility that some fans were holding out for a female protagonist for the upcoing title. This is something that I have given some thought to in the past, and in the post, I hope that I articulated a lot of my thinking about it.

To me, writing a credible female gangster is problematic because Rockstar tends to rely on historical and cultural precedents. The female gangster and really women and criminality are both actually rather alien or strangely handled concepts in Western history and media.

Here are a few more thoughts on the potential pitfalls of trying to build this type of character:

The Problem of the Female Gangster