Thursday 14 May 2009

Quick hit: iGirl creates iVomit

A review of an iPhone game goes as follows:
For those who cannot work up the urge to kidnap their own young girl there is iGirl.

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I am not sure if iGirl: At Your Command is supposed to be the cheap solution to those who cannot afford Silicon based sex dolls, or if this type of creepy entertainment is supposed to have some sort of less bizarre purpose. When looking at iGirl it does not take a radical feminist member of the anti-pornography league to see this as a little misogynistic.

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You get a three dimensional image of a girl standing in a variety of different situations. She can be dressed as a school girl or in other clothing, depending on your fetish. Yes, you can decide what she wears, her hair color, and pretty much everything else about her.

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The most disturbing part of this application is when you hit her with your finger, which inspires her to make sexually provocative sounds. This alarming feature incorrectly teaches the user that underage schoolgirls like to be hit.
Click through for the whole mauling.

Urgh.

7 comments:

Anna said...

I just don't know how this sort of stuff makes it into pop culture. Offensive shock tactics seem to be the mark of pop culture at the moment. It's like there's a progression of 'can't you take a joke' going on - from stupid stuff like Tui ads, to things like this which suggest sexual violence - and each new level of offensiveness gets justified with the same sorry refrain that anyone who isn't laughing is a prude. Makers of stuff like this tend to claim that no one takes them seriously, but when you're surrounded by a range of cultural products depicting women disrespectfully, it becomes really hard not to be influenced by it - especially for young people, who tend to be quite engaged with technological products like this one. It just about makes me despair.

pauline said...

In pop culture its almost like feminism never happened

Anna said...

Sadly, Pauline, I think you're right. I feel a post coming...

Pauline said...

Anna - having recently returned to the south after 20 years absence, I am constantly amazed how much worse sexism is (on the whole) down here (Mosgiel). Have you noticed a difference with your move?

Anna said...

Hmmm - that's a tricky one. Most of the people I've met since moving to Welly (most of whom are actually workmates) have been pretty good, although I'm surprised to hear the odd homophobic remark.

My experience of the south (and I'm probably thinking more of Southland than Otago) was of quite rigid gender roles, upheld by both women and men, more than overt sexism - although there was certainly a bit of that from time to time. The Dunedin pubs which market themselves to students have a lot to answer for in terms of promoting disrespectful stereotypes of women - and, unfortunately, the young women go along with it, because otherwise they're prudes. Sigh.

Pauline said...

Spent my first 20 years or so in INvercargill and I agree that rigid (traditional) gender roles is probably more what I am talking about here - and yes both men and women upholding them.

So far perhaps I found a lack of diversity (or acceptance of diversity/difference) in many ways

electrokid said...

And then here comes another gender bending app from the same developer: Drunk Sniper.