Strip clubs, high-speed car chases and shoot-outs turn many young male gamers on but they might also be turning them into misogynists.That's according to a study that has found that games such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are creating a generation of young men who are unsympathetic to women and see them as sex objects.The subjects of the study, by the universities of Ohio State in the US, and Milano-Bicocca and Genoa, in Italy, were 154 Italian high school boys between the ages of 15 and 20.A report on the study, published in scientific journal Plos One, said that "this reduction in empathy partly occurs because video games such as Grand Theft Auto increase masculine beliefs such as 'real men' are tough, dominant and aggressive."That's exactly what the executive director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, is trying to fight as she advocates more female game designers to change sexist portrayals of women.Mlambo-Ngcuka said the technology sector had the "archaic" view that technology was a male domain."It has contributed to the prevalence of pay gaps, and the persistence and deepening of unconscious bias," she said.The study received a mixed reaction from gender rights and gaming experts.Shakila Singh, a senior gender education lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said the games depicted men as aggressive and females as sexualised."Many parents are complicit in promoting sexist attitudes by reproducing traditional gender norms in their different [and opposite] expectations of boys and girls," she said.Gaming enthusiast and writer Pippa Tshabalala said: "I'm certainly not arguing that video games aren't a culprit here. But they are not the only culprit."Professional gamer Sharon Waison said how people perceived games depended on their mindset."I've been playing a shooting game called Counter Strike for about 11 years and I don't have less empathy for people being shot."..