On the first day of my Gender Communication class in college, my professor split up the men and women and asked us to list every slang term we have heard used to describe the opposite sex. The young men in my group were timidly writing words like "babe," "arm candy" and "honey" until my professor came over and chided us for holding back. We then proceeded to list an immense vocabulary of misogyny. My professor then had us do something I am still ashamed of to this day. He had us transfer our lists to the chalkboard for the whole class to see.

I knew the Bible declared both male and female as made in the image of God and I knew that women are "heirs with [men] of the grace of life," yet I had been clueless about the sexism that surrounded me. In that moment, with all those abhorrent words starring back at me from the board, I realized that I was complicit in this widespread misogyny.

Grand Theft Auto V, the latest entry in the hugely popular, open-world crime series, has been widely criticized for being deeply misogynistic. Those concerns, however, don't seem to have significantly affected the game's critical or commercial reception. The game is currently sitting at 97 on Metacritic and had sales of over 800 million in its first day. This disconnect is holding video games back as a medium.

Los Santos, the setting of Grand Theft Auto V, is tremendously well realized. The city is incredibly detailed, with vast neighborhoods of differing character. Driving up and down the coast and through the mountains very much looks and feels like Southern California. You can also watch television, race jet skis and help the paparazzi take pictures of celebrities. The game places players in control of three very different protagonists, each of whom players can switch to at any time. Switching to Michael in between missions, for instance, finds him accusing his son of playing too many video games. Such moments bring GTA V's world and characters to life.