wacking a hooker

I'm really trying to have an open mind. I'm taking an amazing class at MIT from Hnry Jnkns, a renowned media/cultural theorist who researches and writes on fan culture and gamers. I knew before I took the class that he was very pro-media - in other words dismising those who call violence in media having negative effects. This all came to the fore today in class.

We read a fun book called, well, "The Theory of Fun" -written by a famous video game designer - who btw, seemed somewhat defensive and ambivalent about violence in videogames - anyway, we were talking in class about some of the legal work that my prof has done - i.e. writing amicus briefs - or maybe just signing them, probably, about not making violent video games illegal. Then, a lad spoke up in class. The whole class consists, pretty much, of grad students who are part of the Comparative Media Studies program. This guy is writing his thesis, I think, on the history of video games. Anyway, he made a comment about some video game called Grand Theft Auto. He said, "Well, when I play this game, I get so into it that I don't think about the actual killing off a prostitute..." HUH??? I wanted to shout???? What if that prostitute had your mother's face on it? What if that person were a black man in slave garb?

I'm failing at having an open mind on these techno-utopians who see everything media/tech as positive because we, as consumers, are able to control what we do with this media - as my professor calls it "poaching" of the media forms - doing with it what we want....