#i never expected to write an essay about the narrative purpose of cuckolding in gta v but here we are

[irreverentworm]

You underestimate the extent to which men think about cuckolding. Getting cucked is literally one of the Most common Straight Male insecurities, especially in right wing circles. A significant portion of right wing politics stem from sexual insecurity: incels, framing immigrants as rapists, cuck jokes, etc. The women rarely face consequences because, in this framework, women are 1) property/status symbols and you shouldn't damage your own property and 2) incapable of agency, mere automata, slaves to the instinct to want a more masculine man (evopsych bullshit). Getting cucked is humiliating because nature (acting through the automaton woman) has declared that you are less masculine than this other man. Everything is about sex, except sex, which is about power.

Tarantino's foot fetishism is gratuitous because it serves no narrative purpose, whereas cucking in GTA V is used for characterization. It's played straight with Floyd, Johnny, and the real estate guy, who are framed as "weak" men compared to Bob and Trevor, but inverted with Michael and Fabien. Under the cuck framework, you'd expect that Amanda no longer likes Michael because he's "gone soft" after leaving his life of crime, and once he returns to the criminal (aka masculine) life, he wins back her heart, but this is not the case. She dislikes how emotionally distant (aka not soft enough) he is, cheats on him with someone even "softer", and pushes Michael even further away because of his criminality. In this instance, cucking serves to characterize Amanda: it indicates her agency and preferences (which certain people might think are irrational, as it contradicts the "alpha fucks, beta bucks" idea). This is the root of much of the ire directed towards her stems from this (not unlike the way Breaking Bad fans hated Skyler). In the end though, Michael reasserts his masculinity over Fabien through (masculine) violence, specifically at Amanda's behest, so I think the point was kind of lost.

Trevor, too, calls out Michael for being emotionally distant and unable to express affection except through snarky quips like he sees in the movies—a direct critique of Michael's emulation of toxic masculinity in media. Michael is the stoic man to Trevor's emotional woman ("You sound like some bitch he ain't called. Like, Ooooh he lied to meee." "I am some bitch he didn't call. For ten years!"), and the narrative frames Michael as in the wrong for it.

However, I genuinely don't think Trevor would have been accepted by the fanbase if he weren't also literally insane (and a man, but that goes without saying). They root for him when his emotions are expressed through (masculine) violence, and laugh at him when he is just plain emotional (too womanly). His mental illness provides plausible deniability for the emotional parts they don't like. His bisexuality and affinity for dresses are often similarly dismissed with "lol isn't that so funny because he's crazy."

There's a lot more that can be said about masculinity in the game, but this has kind of gotten off topic, so I'll leave it here.

So I randomly fell down a GTA V hole and I want to write a long post about how this game from 2013 about hyper masculine violent men made for teenage boys surprisingly tries to teach it’s players to be more accepting of people but also I want to know who on the game developer team has a cucking fetish because men are getting cuckolded left right and center followed by them being humiliated by the lover.

The yoga scene with the fit young instructor rubbing it in Michael’s face that he’s sleeping with his wife but also kinda flirting with him while talking about Michael being impotent culminating in Michael ending up in the pool? That might as well be cuckold porn.

Then we have poor little Floyd who sits at home in his fiancé’s apartment worrying about his penis size while she’s off fucking some guy named Bob.

And if you’re into some really hardcore stuff you’ve got Trevor cuckolding a biker, then talking about fucking the biker instead and finally killing the biker by stomping on him.

And you know it’s kink because the women never face any consequences (Debra only died because she shot Floyd) As in all cuckold fantasies it’s the men’s own fault because they couldn’t satisfy their woman. It’s like watching a Tarantino movie and knowing all those shots of feet aren’t innocent.