This seems to have been done for the shock value (and its resultant publicity).

Especially since full frontal male is far rarer than female in the movies, modern arts, etc.

Mike from Morgantown

EDITED to reflect that reference to art was in post-classical-Greece/Roman civilzation (by modern I mean since the Renaissance).

Not that I don't agree, but that's still incredibly subjective. Aesthetics vary greatly from culture to culture.

What about the Ancient Greeks who believed that the most aesthetically pleasing, mathematically perfect form, was a young male body?

Also, bewbs.

at least put the effort to make it look a bit more realistic... looks like they just stuck on something.. it doesn't even have any physics or movement.. just tacked on for some comedy/shock value >.

That very moment that we are commenting on a penis on a videogame is showing how gamers think about a human organ that its porpose is for urinating and reproduction(well not always) is affecting the marketing campain of Rockstar's GTA DLC.

Lolita stated the obvious BUT the difference is that our current society always state evrything that has to do with the reproductive organs of the human body as a taboo because the industry in the name of profit made the most beautifull thing that the two different sexes can enjoy into a sexual pervetion by the media and our every day life advertising.

So a penis bring in people's mind the sexual intercourse of the two sexes and thats not the natural thing the human mind should think first,we are not animals we are humans and we define our actions by logic not by instincs.

So many wonderfull paintings,sculpsures,ancient greek statues define the beauty of the naked human body.

But that's art-games are not art,are toys-toys are played by kids-kids are forbidden to the knowledge of the human anatomy-penis is a human part of the human anatomy-penis in the mind of the mob is for sex-sex is forbidden for minors-so here we have a contreversy that rockstar uses to promote a game.

Next step huge sales and millions for rockstar.

Many of you folks are failing to remember 2 important things:

1) It's just a penis. Grow up.

2) Hahahha it's a fucking penis, all dangling around willy-nilly all over the internet and MicroSoft paid $50 million for it! Hahahaha!

This is a good point. Particularly what you had to say about video-games-as-toys. The immaturity of most game developers and gamers is what holds this medium back from becoming a legitimate art form analogous to film or literature.

Rockstar is brilliant. They put one flaccid, possibly prosthetic, penis into a cutscene, the entire world overreacts, they sell tzxillions of units. It's a hilariously blatant publicity stunt.

Fun Fact: Representations of the nude human body still had sexual connotations throughout art and history (ie: Ancient Greek sculptures of nude men and women were meant to be erotic to a certain degree). BUT sex was also viewed differently ... for better or worse.

For more interesting facts about penises read about the Lingam found in Hindu art. It's an avatar of Shiva, personafied as a giant penis.

 @Montana

I was actualy not just refering to you but to all who think like you.

If you look at a guys wodger and it makes you feel revolted or makes you feel it detracts from your movie/gaming experience then you got som issues you need to think about. As others have pointed out some of the most important cultural artistic moments have fully nude people. Look at iconic sculptures such as greek and roman era, you have the disc thrower and the statue of david. When people go to vist them do you think people look at their penis and think "oh it would of been better if they left out his willy"? Obviously not. Or when people go to vist world famous galleries to look at art and they see things like Picasso's Sa Vie en Rose or when they see Margret Walters Through the Looking Glass do they rush out after seeing a penis thinking the outrage! Or when you go to a cinema to watch a film. When you saw some of the most important films of all time such as American Werewolf in london, Caligula, Clockwork Orange, a room with a view, Life of Brian, Trainspotting etc etc, when you saw those did you think it was ruined because you got to see the male anatomy?

If games want to be accepted in the same artistic world as all the other medias then  you have to accept when they say on the box "contains nudity" they might mean more then just seeing some girls boobs.

Most people could not give a flying monkies that there is a penis on show in a game, they find the scene in that it is used funny, the same as the scene when in the life of brian he stands at the window with his penis out and there are like 300 people outside his window. I wonder if you saw that scene did you feel embarrased?

trixie360 got that thrown in for the ladies.

after all they "done" and the money spent on this DLC for GTA4..the biggest thing people are talking about is a penis...great job rockstar... no wonder GTA4 didnt hold my interest for more then a few days....

LOLOLOLOLOL and then I read it again and LOL LOL LOL.  fity million for a weeny?