Is a video game centered on raping women acceptable to sell? Is it constitutional to ban it? Will it cause someone playing the game to act it out in the real world?

These questions and controversy surrounding the sexualized portrayal of women in video games has been around for as long as video games themselves. In 1984, Custer’s Revenge was released for the Atari 2600. The object of the game is, as a naked General George Custer, to cross the desert and have sex with a naked Native American woman tied to a pole.

The making of controversial video games has continued up to the present day. The popular Grand Theft Auto series has taken heat for giving players the ability to hire a prostitute, then physically and verbally abuse her and kill her after having sex with her. Even more striking are the Japanese games Battle Raper and RapeLay (which are not sold in the United States but can be played via the Internet), in which the entire objective of the game is to stalk, then sexually assault- and depending on the player’s choice, impregnate- young women.

These games have caused an uproar from concerned parents demanding that the games be pulled off the shelves and removed from the Internet. However, video games are protected by the First Amendment since they are considered works of art. An issue concerning whether video games were protected by the Constitution arose in California in 2005, when a law regulating the sale of violent video games was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

“Video games communicate ideas—and even social messages—through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world). That suffices to confer First Amendment protection,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia in the majority opinion in that case..

Because of the ruling, parents and women’s rights activists continue to be disturbed and concerned that games of this nature are still available to kids.

“The images of sexualized women and sexual violence that are provided to young people and adults alike via gaming serve to endorse a sort of interactive misogyny that… only normalizes this behavior,”  wrote a blogger from the University of California Davis School of Law. “While adults may be at liberty to chose from an array of violent, sexist, and generally distasteful material…misogyny does not need yet another audience in today’s youth.”

This issue was covered in a 2005 Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode entitled “Game”, in which a mentally unstable gamer commits a crime that mirrors a video game called Intensity, in which the player tortures, rapes, and kills women.

But can this situation happen in real life?

A 2007 Harvard Medical School study reported that gamers do know that they are playing a video game and can distinguish between real life and fantasy. In fact, the study showed that playing regular (non-sexual) violent video games can have a therapeutic effect.

“Playing violent video games provides a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings,” said a 2007 Harvard Medical School study. The study reported that 45% of boys play video games to “get [their] anger out” and 62% played it “to help [them] relax.” As they get older and start buying games with sexual violence, the study said, those games could still have the same effect and relieve sexual tension.

As long as there are adult-themed video games, there will always be controversy. Although the right to free speech is specified in the Constitution, in sensitive issues such as this one, there is rarely a black or white.