Current Article

Hell’s Toy Store

By Pat Racimora on April 19, 2009 at 9:25 AM in Current Affairs

OK, my cartoon illustration is largely the figment of my darker imagination, but one of the games actually exists. And it gives new clarity to the term “disgusting.” Can you guess which one it is?

Maybe I am getting old, but when I was a little kid Monopoly was the most aggressive game you could buy. I also recall running around outdoors every day until our mothers called us in for dinner.

Today, videogame simulations rule. Pale-faced children (mostly boys) spend hours alone in darkened rooms during daylight hours chasing and shooting everything from human-looking foes to alien creatures (who also look human, save for their hue, extra bumps and knobs, and dermatological issues). The realism is increasingly stunning. It’s like being there.

Rapelay, developed in Japan and not sold in the United States, allows the player to stalk three women (who don’t look particularly Japanese). However, thanks to clever pirates, downloads are available on the Internet that have been translated into English. If you enter “Rapelay” into Google, you get a half million hits.

The action is not pretty. Here is a descriptive clip by “Zigfried” :

After several painfully tedious minutes, the poor girl runs away in fright, presumably to tattle to the police, a neighbor, or a Junker. Unfortunately, all three women choose to run somewhere secluded where it’s easy to pin them down, tear off their clothes, and anally rape them. There are other options too, such as coerced blowjobs, but none of them are consensual. It all boils down to raping women and jizzing into or across their bodies.

“Sniff… sniff… I w-w-want to die…”

That’s the kind of dialogue you’ll hear after each rape. Then you’ll either snap some quick photographs of their desecrated bodies or rape them again to shut them up. RapeLay contains a lot of rape.

I don’t want to keep going on with this, but if you are interested, Leigh Alexander wrote a well-done review of Rapelay in its cultural context. Alexander’s conclusion after playing the game:

In fan forums, the feedback on RapeLay is as creepy as the game’s premise–”hours of fun,” one user posted. After downloading and playing the game myself, I would have to disagree with that review–a more accurate assessment might be “hours of getting depressed about the fate of humankind.”

Whether Rapelay encourages players to seek out and mimic an actual assault remains an open question. Research reveals that violent pornography does trigger acting-out in some people. The bigger issue is the power of desensitization, and that can overpower anyone. Being exposed to anything over and over again blunts any emotional impact or moral outrage it might have had earlier on.

As for the other games pictured, I pray they stay buried deep in the basement of my own head. When rape, torture, and killing become “ho hum” we will surely have lost all of our humanity.

Astra14

This is totally sick that such a “game” exists. If a child of mine – and I don’t care if my child was 50 years old if I found this “game” in their possession – I’d take it, destroy it, and get my kid to counseling! ASAP!!!!

choo choo magoo

Excellent point.

Many players are not kids. Not by a long shot. And this is not even remotely acceptable for anyone at any age.

Hg

“Many players are not kids”. You got that right. I know a minister who is addicted to those games. Not RapeLay but other violent games where he stalks other men with his assault weapons of war. The preacher is 46 years old. Sad but true.

http://noquarter foxyladi14

i.m glad he is not my preacher..this man is very sick..

creeper

Unbelievable. What have we come to?

PompPump

How can Japan has the some of the most sexually deviant types media available in regular, mainstream stores (I lived there for 3 years), yet it has one of the lowest rates of sex crimes per capita in the entire world?

Rapeplay is pretty mild compared to some of the other stuff available on the shelves.

BlueTopaz

Lowest rates of “REPORTED” sex crimes?????

Pat Racimora

Correct–the report rate for sex crimes in Japan is believed to be very low.

I’m a Linda too

OMG. I’m speechless. Sick. Giving thanks to even a participant for at least stating the obvious obervation after watching it “Hours of getting depressed about the fate of humankind”

Sadly we know this will increase real life Rape as we’ve been hearing an increase in Sexism and Male Violence on Women, a la Rihanna and Brown…or Lynn’s personal encounter of a ?man? dragging her friend by the hair across the floor in a DC hot spot. When you have a president of your country displaying sexism and demeaning comments which basically signals an approval of this conduct and we see the increase by his supporters and promoters, we KNOW this will increase their rage for wanting to do rape and increase the actual rapes.
pm317

I am horrified and outraged.

Japan culturally is very desegregated gender-wise and does not uphold women’s rights to the extent it should. Is that cause for desensitization in the first place and therefore this commercial product? How old is this game and how have others reacted to it? Where is the outrage and the outcry?
Paula Revere

And we wonder why kids pull crap like Columbine. Really sad. No way would I let my kids play this vile nonsense. WTF is WRONG with people these days? I feel bad working in the media sometimes, because I know that TV, Movies, etc. have influenced the attitude towards violence in our country. But this stuff is inexcusable.
JohnnyB

Right on target, Pat.

This is one of the reasons it is so easy to send more troops to our ‘wars’. The 20 year old soldiers have been playing these games over the past 5 years and longer. They get more violent with each one, like having to shoot more heroin to get the high.
The Drone Pilots sitting in Nevada are just playing a video game as they shoot their missles into someone’s home in Pakistan/Afghanistan/Iraq.

To have a Rape game, is there no limit? I think we have all ready crossed over to the land of inhumanity.
choo choo magoo

Sad, Mad, Disgust! But shocked? Not so much. We have been moving backwards on gender attitudes and norms for quite a while. Time to start drawing some lines in the sand.
oowawa

Pat, thanks for the upsetting but very pertinent cartoon. The common denominator to all off the titles you imagined (and the “real” title) is cruelty towards the weak and helpless. This, to me, is much worse than the usual video violence where the player is blasting away malevolent and formidable opponents. In such games, the player is fighting his way through or out of a nightmare; in the games you list, the player is the sadistic perpetrator and cause of the nightmare. I think this is an important distinction. I can think of the notorious game Postal as being one of the first that encouraged the player to revel in being cruel, psychotic, evil. Very disturbing. Heart of Darkness.

NoBamaNoWay

exactly; when i was a teenager in the ’80s, when video games were first getting big, one of my favorite games was called “Defender;” the player shot down hostile spaceships that were trying to pick up your people on the ground, then you had to catch the people before they hit the ground to save them.

anyway, that game, and most games at the time were about protecting yourself and your people from hostile attackers, or overcoming some difficult obstacle; nowdays, the player *is* the hostile, psychopathic attacker. if that isn’t messed up, i don’t know what is.

a lot of people will say “but…but…just because someone plays these games doesn’t mean they will do these things in real life.” i don’t care; those games are as sick and wrong as anything can possibly be, and any society that promotes them will reap what they sow.

http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com Uppity Woman

Pat, hope you don’t mind if I cross post this. I have a piece on Rapelay in queue and could never launch it because every time I try to finish the post, I get more angered. I cannot believe the shit that young people are buying into today and it is a very sad sign of just how convoluted things are getting. No wonder we are seeing more and more sicko crimes and looking at people who should have never been spawned.

http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

Children are having children. The procreating children are also listening to misogynistic, violent rap music. They haven’t got a clue how to be parents. The child gets insufficient, irregular nutrition, which makes the brain develop poorly. These kids are lost before they have a chance, and the damage is irreversible. I really don’t know what’s going to happen to so many of these kids — except that they’ll probably end up making lots of money for the private prisons springing up around the country.

Uppity, I dig your inability to finish the piece. There are some subjects so painful … like the videos I’ve seen of women being whipped in Swat Valley. I could post the video, but I can’t bring myself to write accompanying commentary.

NoBamaNoWay

right; children are raising children, and both groups were themselves raised on crime-loving rap music and violent video games, movies, etc. these “values” become self-replicating as one generation passes them on to the next.

http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

“Grand Theft Auto” — one of the biggest hits in the U.S. Gangs, as I recall, stalk a woman on the streets and attack her, rape her, kill her. They win POINTS for doing as much harm as possible, as I recall.

I remember my boss’s sweet daughter, who played the flute in the school orchestra and went to church every Sunday, begging her dad to buy it for her for C’mas, because ALL the kids had it and played it.

PEER influence is a big factor.

(Caveat: When mine was a teen, she begged me to learn “Doom,” and she had lots of good laughs as I struggled and kept getting killed. But I didn’t see much harm in that game because we were killing atrocious, ferocious, scary monsters. It also required a lot of skill to get them without getting killed. I kind of got into it! Then there was the time that we downloaded the add-on that turned all the monsters into Barney, which made it hysterically funny.)

OF NOTE: Stay tuned for a hell of a piece by John Batchelor that fits in perfectly with Pat’s remarkable piece.

I’m a Linda too

My favorite games were PacMan, Qbert, Centipede and I think Gallacta (something like that…whre you moved the ship acros….kinda like Centipede)

I’m a Linda too

And if anyone has found their way here because of the subject of this post, do everyone a favor and try a new game….and OLD one that is less damaging and most damage being addictive.

http://www.oldfungames.com/asteroids.php
Ima Blue Dot in Texas

I’m a Linda too, i think you’re thinking of Galaga. That was my favorite. Everyday we’d scarf down lunch and then spend the rest of our lunch hour at the Nickelodeon. Frogger was fun, too!

Athena the Warrior

Ok time out. If you are going to talk about a video game please be accurate about it. In the GTA series, none of the scenario about stalking women raping and killing them is true.

Anyone and everyone can be killed in the game. A side part of the game like robbing people is that you can pick up a hooker for sex and be charged money for it. Some gamers do decide to go back and kill the prostitute to get their money back but it is the same as robbing and killing a man on the street. It’s not women specified violence like Rapeplay is which is disgusting.

You can question the morality of the game all you want but don’t be misleading about what the game is about.

I think you’d be quite surprised at the number of not only adults who play games like GTA, Halo, first person shooters but also the number of women and gay gamers who play as well.

yttik

“It’s not women specified violence like Rapeplay is which is disgusting.”

Being able to have sex with a female and later murder her is pretty darn women specific. The fact that you can also go kill men in the street, does not somehow cancel out the gender directed violence being role played in the name of entertainment.

Athena the Warrior

Did you read what I said? SOME gamers choose to go back and kill her or beat her to rob her of money like you can do with every other non-playable character in the game.

If you don’t want to pick up a prostitute you don’t have to. If you don’t want to rob her you don’t have to. It’s not gender directed violence at all. Misrepresenting a game to make your point is unfair.

yttik

Just the fact that that there are prostitutes in the game makes it gender specific. Saying, well you don’t have to kill them if you don’t want to, doesn’t make it any better.
NoBamaNoWay

well, since you put it that way, it sounds like real stand-up game. NOT

xax

In the interst of accuracy, GTA has no rape scene. The most sexual content you get is an unlockable attribute of the game where you can pick up prostitutes, have sex (the car counces up and down with certain noises coming from the car) and then pay her or kick her out of the car.

However, the violence of the GTA is not for children and Rapelay is just a disgusting by-product of a sadistic mindset. Personally, anyone who would find that interesting or fun needs to be monitered.

yttik

“GTA has no rape scene.”

Sigh.

Listen, the average age of a prostitute is 15. Were she not on the street, people exploiting her for sex would be charged with child rape.

It’s not “sexual content” to use a woman’s body as if she were just a disposible receptical and then to kick her out of the car like you’re throwing a way a bag of trash.

Athena the Warrior

The prostitute is a non-playable character just like the businesswoman, businessman, student, pilot, flight attendant, beach goers, construction workers, police officers, drug dealers, gang members, Vinewood executives, etc. Like in real life some people choose to go to a prostitute most don’t. If you don’t want to you don’t have to. It has no bearing on the game.
goldengrahme

“Throwing out the trash” I actually saw this
happen one day. Standing at an ATM, I heard a commotion turned and saw a woman hit the road, thrown from a van. It was broad daylight. I was shocked. It didn’t take much deduction to
figure out the scenario: woman used up; woman
no longer useful; woman tossed.

A caring man in another car driving by stopped
and came to her aid.

I guess the video game entrepreneurs are running out of ideas to rachet up interest.
One thing always leads to another…and down
the tubes we go. Where will it end? The logical conclusion would be acting violence out in real time. It’s called devouring our own. Kiddie porn is a perfect example; we
destroy our future.

NomNomNom

If only it were just in video games. But no, there’s not one place I can go and not be bombarded by porn and violence for the viewing pleasure of all the men and boys who are obviously considered as more important than I.
I can’t go to a convenience store, a bookstore, turn on the tv, or walk down the street.
The BBC last night expressed concern that Hamid Karzai’s new law allowing men to rape their wives and not allow them outside their homes (ie get an education, hold a job, talk to anyone) might begin to undermine all the great progress women have made in Afghanistan. Srsly. That’s how unreal the situation is to men. The women were all just made slaves and it might begin to undermine their progress.
Until you can fix the problem of men not grasping that women are people, you can’t fix the video games.
BTW you might want to rethink that “Pale-faced children…”. I grasp you mean that they are not going outside, but not everybody watching violent pornographic video games is white. White people are a majority, not a standard. And it’s hardly just kids “playing” these games.

Katmoon

I have to mention, in doing research for my criminal law class this semester, I found out several of our own states, only recently changed their laws to consider rape of a spouse a crime, as recently as 2006 I believe for my own state; I think there were about 18 states total, I am not positive and don’t have my research on the ready right at the moment, but will gladly post it when I find it. Suffice to say, I was shocked.

Katmoon

Here is one source in relation to the post above:
http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32701

Spousal Rape Laws: 20 Years Later

Force or Threat Required

Another way that some states treat rape of a spouse is treated differently than non-spousal rape is the requirement that force or threat of force must be used by the spouse. For instance, in Tennessee, a person only commits rape or sexual battery of a spouse when the person is armed with a weapon or credible decoy, causes serious bodily injury to the victim, or when the spouses live separate apart and one of them has filed for a divorce or separation. (12) Similarly, in Nevada, marriage is a defense to sexual assault of a spouse except where “the assault was committed by force or by the threat of force.” (13) In contrast, many non-spousal sexual assault laws refer to lack of consent, rather than the use of force.
Offenses Precluded for Spouses

Still, in many states, there are some offenses which are unavailable to victims who are married to the offender (14). In some, offenses which involve sexual acts other than penetration are precluded for spouses. For example, in Kansas, sexual battery consists of “the intentional touching of the person of another who is 16 or more years of age, who is not the spouse of the offender and who does not consent thereto, with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of the offender or another.” (15) In Ohio, the offense of “sexual battery” does not apply to a spouse, and the offense of “rape” by the use of a drug or intoxicant which impairs the victim’s ability to resist only applies to a spouse who is living separate and apart from the victim. (16)

Reporting Requirement

While all states recognize spousal rape as a crime, still, there are ways in which spousal rape is treated differently than non-spousal rape. One difference in some states is a reporting period which is shorter for spousal rape than for other crimes. In Illinois, “prosecution of a spouse of a victim under this subsection …is barred unless the victim reported such offense to a law enforcement agency or the State’s Attorney’s office within 30 days after the offense was committed, except when the court finds good cause for the delay.” (9)

Prior to 1993, California victims were required to report the offense to a peace officer or prosecutor within 90 days of the crime. In 1993, the state’s law was amended to expand the reporting period to one year (as opposed to at least three years for non-spousal rape). (10) The amendment also broadened the professionals to whom the report could be made to include medical personnel, clergy, attorneys, shelter representatives, counselors, judicial officers, rape crisis agencies, and firefighters. The reporting requirement does not apply if the victim’s allegation is corroborated by independent evidence that would be admissible during trial. A suggested reason for this and other restrictions on spousal rape victims is that the legislators are afraid people will make up stories of rape for use in a custody proceeding, or to harm their spouses (11).
Force or Threat Required

Another way that some states treat rape of a spouse is treated differently than non-spousal rape is the requirement that force or threat of force must be used by the spouse. For instance, in Tennessee, a person only commits rape or sexual battery of a spouse when the person is armed with a weapon or credible decoy, causes serious bodily injury to the victim, or when the spouses live separate apart and one of them has filed for a divorce or separation. (12) Similarly, in Nevada, marriage is a defense to sexual assault of a spouse except where “the assault was committed by force or by the threat of force.” (13) In contrast, many non-spousal sexual assault laws refer to lack of consent, rather than the use of force.

NomNomNom

I remember when my state North Carolina outlawed marital rape. It was in 1993.
Ugh. I wouldn’t be surprised there’re places even more stupid than here which still haven’t amended their laws.

Pat Racimora

BTW you might want to rethink that “Pale-faced children…”. I grasp you mean that they are not going outside, but not everybody watching violent pornographic video games is white. White people are a majority, not a standard. And it’s hardly just kids “playing” these games.

Points very well taken, NomNomNom

NomNomNom

Should have said that a lot better/ nicer. Sorry : talk about rape and porn really makes me angry.
.

wodiej

I cannot believe this type of crap exists!! I have long thought video games had become too violent and they are influencing young people. Where the HELL are the parents at??!! Women need to grow a spine and not allow this kind of vile material in their homes. It’s unacceptable. It should not even be allowed to be sold, it’s pornography.

Pat Racimora

The problem with Rapelay, Wodiej, is that you can download it off he Internet (along with many others I did not discuss). So parents have a mych harder time controlling that.

Linda Anselmi

Unfortunately we can’t simply point the finger at kids or even parents. The makers of video games and software are adults and the average game player – 35 years old! As a DS video game playing adult, I find it difficult to find fun, challenging games that aren’t all about graphic violence or geared toward the teenage boy mind set.

Top 10 entertainment software industry facts:

1. U.S. computer and video game software sales grew six percent in 2007 to $9.5 billion – more than tripling industry software sales since 1996.

2. Sixty-five percent of American households play computer or video games.

3. The average game player is 35 years old and has been playing games for 13 years.

4. The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old.

5. Forty percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent).

6. In 2008, 26 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.

7. Thirty-six percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002.

8. Eighty-five percent of all games sold in 2007 were rated “E” for Everyone, “T” for Teen, or “E10+” for Everyone 10+. For more information on game ratings, please see http://www.esrb.org.

9. Ninety-four percent of game players under the age of 18 report that their parents are present when they purchase or rent games.

10. Sixty-three percent of parents believe games are a positive part of their children’s lives.
Katmoon

The bigger issue is the power of desensitization, and that can overpower anyone. Being exposed to anything over and over again blunts any emotional impact or moral outrage it might have had earlier on.

Pat, so true. I think these games, and certain scenarios available on the web are our, “gladiator” venues. With the same predictable results. What is further disturbing, products are not commercially made unless there is a readable market for them, and I do not for one second put this on kids only, actually I believe you will find more adults probably engaged in these types of games, than kids. Referring to over 18. Think about it, how many people do you know, where you have seen the adults actually playing video games as an activity, on their own with no children in sight. I know of many.

Regardless, it is a “thing” that I cannot get my head around; why would anyone want to play a gmae like this? Why would it be considered entertainment, or even a “game”? Reducing one of the most humiliating acts one can commit on this earth to be purchased and conveyed as a game is in fact minimizing a felony, and allowing for the behavior to be participated in in a cyber fashion; (perhaps this is why it isn’t openly marketed in the U.S.-pretty to think so) which of course you know at some point a “player” (rapist) will not be satisfied by the game any longer, then,what?
Diana L. C.

My son and two step-daughters, in their 30′s now, did a summer exchange during consecutive years with Japanese kids who had spent time with us during the previous summer on an exchange. I do remember that even then, they all came back with stories about how this type of sexual violence and just plain violence was depicted everywhere in Japan, on television, on comics and magazines on display, etc. What surprised them and me is that the actual violence in Japan was so much less than that here in the U.S., statistically, anyway.

Since my kids could not communicate well while there, they would take lots of things with them whenever they went on an outing with their host families, just in case they would need something.

One of the girls said that she went with her host family to an extremely crowded amusement park. They wanted to get on a ride, but all her gear would not fit. This included her expensive new camera, etc. They told her to put it on a nearby bench, which she did. When she got off the ride, her stuff was still there untouched.

It’s a phenomenon I would still liked explained. How their viewing and reading habits can be so different from the reality of their lives.

(If someone has explained this, sorry–I’m packing for a trip and didn’t have a chance to read all the comments.)

Pat Racimora

I don’t have the total answer, but groping women in the subways in Japan (adapted as the main so-called “story line” of this awfil game)actually is a serious problem.

Diana L. C.

Thanks for the response. Perhaps they as a society are able to hide their dark side better.

Eastan

From a comment above:

But I didn’t see much harm in that game because we were killing atrocious, ferocious, scary monsters.

That is the scary part. You are “learning” to identify enemies. In GTA anyone that has a car or money is treated like an enemy, if you want to TAKE their stuff. After a while its gets easy to think that way. In RapeLay, from the descriptions it seems, young women are the “enemy” because they have something you want to take.

I remember a pre-presidential run video of 0 talking about his girls listening to a rap song. I looked it up. It was vile. I don’t know if I am 100% with the idea that games and movies are a direct cause of violent action. But I don’t take chances. Some CDs, DVDs and games don’t make it through our front door. And, yes. I run a pretty tight ship on our home computing network.

Pat Racimora

In RapeLay, from the descriptions it seems, young women are the “enemy” because they have something you want to take.

Yes, you are right Easton. Also, the rapist feels justified because in the so-caled “story line” the mother and her 2 daughters (the rape victims) had previously reported the rapist for fondling on a train. This is a problem in Japan–fondling women in the subway system.

SoCalGal

This is disgusting. I can’t imagine what kind of people created and manufactured such a video “game.” I don’t even want to think of how this will affect the minds and imaginations of those who would buy such an item.
Pat Bakalian

Pat,
Thank you so much for bring this issue to light. It is hard to imagine the people developing this game but what I like most about your post was when you said “The bigger issue is the power of desensitization, and that can overpower anyone. Being exposed to anything over and over again blunts any emotional impact or moral outrage it might have had earlier on.”

This is why this and many other examples are scary for women and for the health of our society.

This is part of the work that Campaign for Gender Equality is doing. We are posting it on our website http://www.campaignforgenderequality.org. Please visit our site.
Thanks again,
Pat Bakalian
Executive Director
Campaign for Gender Equality
Tricia Spiegel

I wonder what the Founding Fathers would say if they knew what the First Amendment has come to. I have a hunch that their bones are twitching in their graves.

I guess this one of the heavy prices we must pay for a free society…
Don X

This is outrageous. Seems exploiting people’s baser instincts for money is alive and well. This example will no doubt lead to unscrupuous game developers in this country to race to see who can come up with equally or more disgusting, depraved new products to put online. Parents, beware of what your kids are watching and the games they acquire from their friends.
Rich

Wonderful cartoon!!

I feel this cartoon brings to light problems few people speak about. I have heard the saying that today’s young people’s knowledge base is a mile wide, but only and inch deep. Sounds funny until you think about what does that mean? To me it means that they know how to access information but not really think about the information and without being able to think about and analyze information how can you really know what the information means. It also means that they will have more trouble understanding the consequences of their own actions.

Add to this the fact that parents do not take the time to really understand the games their children play, many of which are very violent where killing people including the police, children, and women is very acceptable. Steeling, beating up people, and raping is also acceptable and sometime the goal of the game. Even in the movies, and I like action movies, when the action hero goes after the bad guy there does not seem to be any consequences for all the damage caused by the hero in that attempt. Cars get turned over, building damaged, and somehow no one cares. TV, where boxing used to be the violent sport is now mild compared to shows like the ultimate fighters.

Then add to that the fact that so many children and young adults live in this electronic age where talking to another person on the phone or in person is rare. And, you end up with some research showing that these children instead of being able to communicate and understand each other better because of their constant communication with friends, actually have a harder time communicating in person and understand facial and body cues. This inability maybe one of the reasons that they do worse in school, since they can not pick up the teachers cues. To me this means they again only get service information which and do not relate to each other as people with emotions and feelings which requires depth of knowledge.

I also believe that children and young adults who do not have a need for depth of knowledge have a lake of inquisitiveness and add to that the fact that they do not know how to really read body and facial expression means they do not really understand each other, and are not really understood by their friends which I feel leaves the children of today, in spite of their constant communicating with each other, actually very isolated. People who feel isolated have more mental illness or become so angry that they can go and kill people without much feelings about it or can get satisfaction from doing so.

Rich
yttik

Great cartoon! Creepy, but true.

Anybody see the latest burger king commercial? Measuring women’s behinds, talking about how they are booty, all done with Sponge bob and rap music. I saw it last night on the cartoon channel.What’s the message kids learn after hearing this crap for a decade or so? That women are not actually people, they’re booty like a happy meal toy, inanimate objects. And so the rape culture is born…

http://thenewagenda.net/2009/04/15/action-alert-sponge-bob-likes-big-square-booty-tell-burger-king-and-nickelodeon-no-sale/

ConfusedAmerican

here it is on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gMZ62PsvRM

What has our world come to?
Benjamin Franklin Berfle

My wife and I were floored by that sh*t. It was even worse than the Arby’s commercial with the girl dressing up for her slacker fat-arse boyfriend and the Arby’s symbol coming to “attention” when she brought him his heart attack on a plate..

Benjamin Franklin Berfle

I haven’t eaten at Arby’s since and won’t be eating at Burger-Flop, either.
alphaBeach

This post saddens and sickens me.

Benjamin’s comment reminded me of another sick sick sick ad a few years ago… I don’t think it stayed on the air for long….guy and girl on picnic, girl wants to go swimming or something and the guy looks at the sandwich(?) or burger in his hand, looks back at her, makes a wish and she disappears in a frame-broiled puff. Guy smiles and goes back to stuffing his face. (probably carl’s jr. but I cannot recall)

http://madfeminist.blogspot.com/ AM

Rape is torture.
Jackarooty

I have known Leigh Alexander since the minute she was born. Her mother and I have been friends for over 40 years. She is an extremely bright young woman and a very talented writer. Her writing reflects her good common sense.
Linda Mac

Gasp!!!! This is disgusting. I recall big discussions in various psychology classes in which the argument was always made tht games do not cause kids to be violent. I am not convinced that is true; HOWEVER, I know one thing and that is that games habituate kids to volence. If it were not so then the military would not use games for training purposes. We cannot eliminate violence by legislatng against it but we can teach all our children from a very young age what type of behavior is accetable and what is not acceptable. Playing a game which simulates stalking and raping is NEVER acceptable no matter what the age or circumstances. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
http://ksclematis ksclematis

Pat….thank you for another mind-riveting ‘toon.

In an earlier post, Tricia wrote: “I wonder what the Founding Fathers would say if they knew what the First Amendment has come to.”

I haven’t looked at the topic “game”, and after everyone’s comments, I’m not sure I really want to…but Tricia’s thought was my thought early in the above posts. If any of the producers of the worse and the worst of these “games” were to be sued, they would holler: “first ammendment rights” and no further action would/could be taken. None of this would have ever been in the minds of the writers of the Constitution. And, nothing is being done to squelch this horrendous material…and what will/can it lead to in the future???? The POTUS watching the hip-hop stuff with his children???!!!

The exploding electronic age, all methods inclusive, is only spiking the reasoning power of children away from too many growing minds. However, it is not that this hasn’t been coming on by the previous generation
because their families wanted their children to have “more than ‘they’ did”. It is not totally surprising that the greed of the CEOs, CFOs, et al is bringing down the financial systems of the world.

What will the future come to for the mid and younger generations….how far can it go? Thanks, again, Pat.
John

I have a nephew (age 25, lives on his own) I am not on speaking terms with because several months I went to his house to watch a football game, and during halftime he insisted on playing a video game that featured his character picking up a prostitute and later murdering her. I told him that this was disgusting, put on my shoes, and walked out. I got home in time to see the end of the football game, at least.

His mom has called to ask me “what my problem was.” I explained it to her and she agreed with me but thought I “overreacted.” My nephew thinks I’m the one with a problem because I walked out. This is a seriously fucked up world.

Katmoon-Adams

John, you have it right and (I apologize for saying this about your family members)unfortunately your nephew and his mother are not only losing your good company and judgment, they are also not paying attention to what really is a serious lack of understanding and comprehension of cause and effect of “snuff” gaming.

Katmoon-Adams

CLEAN UP ON AISLE 8! Bring the BLEACH!
Katmoon-Adams

Thank you Administrator.
mamakay

Im really dating myself here but the only game we has when our children were young was PONG. I guess my main thougt is why are parents afraid to say no to their children. Unplug the tv, take the computer away etc. Parents are so concerned to offend or upset their kids. I realize that they can go to the friends house and see this crap but their is a lesson to be learned that in their home and in their family this is unacceptable. Also why do kids have so much money to spend on this stuff? Many may work but whats wrong with a savings account? Do parents just dish out cash for whatever? Im glad my children are grown.
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JTomorrow

Outrageous and disgusting!
Marvin

I think what’s interesting about video games is the fact that they make you a participant, not just a voyeur, like with a movie. There’s nothing funny or entertaining about rape. But with a film (and I’m talking about films produced for public consumption, e.g., Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible, or countless of “Rape & Revenge” films made during the seventies and eighties–and I bring up these movies because they exist, they have been made, they’ve played theatrically, and they’re available) there’s ultimately a moral point being made by the filmmakers, however transparent and absurd that point may be, such in the case with the R&R “subgenre.” With a video game (and I mean any video game), on the other hand, the characters are static until the gamer decides to manipulate them, so there’s no inherent “morality”/right or wrong present in the narrative of the game (unless, of course, from the outset you think killing people in a video game is immoral). The point in every video game seems to be, simply: participate in this and enjoy. Then, it’s you who have to decide whether you feel comfortable participating in the game.

I received a link to Rapelay months ago, and, unlike Mr. Alexander (who I can understand is perhaps so didactic about his journalism to the point of needing to experience the game, and therefore, am not blaming/accusing him of anything) I did not need to play the game. I decided that it was wrong as soon as I realized what it was. I understood the point immediately, but instead of getting depressed, I simply threw the email where it belonged: in the trash folder.

Life is beautiful. You have choices. Why let trash like this ruin it?
vivi

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Benjamin Franklin Berfle

Your mother must be so proud of you, little snip. I bet you wouldn’t be so tough out there in the real world where women would kick your scrawny ass.
heartland dem

~~Yeah, Rapeplay is a lot cooler than AG2. Lots more options. But I still play AG2 now and then.~~

[ADMIN: This person has been permanently banned.]
Paula Revere

Wow, that’s some really disturbed stuff, even for the loser Bots. Wow. I wonder if they will get to play Rapelay in the Obama indoctrination youth camps?
Solara 7

Kevin, I hope you don’t know any real girls!
Benjamin Franklin Berfle

You only like that shit because real women find little boys like you who wear beanies and chin straps very unappealing.