There is a rape video game, named Rapelay, that has been on the market for some time now in Japan and was recently picked up by Amazon.com and then subsequently dropped after a backlash. The goal of this video game is to rape a mother and her two young daughters. It encourages players to force the virtual woman they rape to have an abortion. It also has a feature allowing several players to team up against individual women. I don't even know how to put into words how amazingly infuriating this is to me.
As someone who has now down a fair amount of research into the connections between media exposure and aggression (yes there is a connection) and exposure to violent sexually explicit media and aggression against women (yes people who consumer violent sexually explicit media are more aggressive to women), the fact that there is a first person video game which basically models for the consumer exactly how to go about raping someone is beyond belief. Have we really come to a point where we need to glorify rape? Is this really what we want people to be sitting in their living rooms doing?
And just for the record, the research on exposure to violent sexually explicit media and aggression against women has found no support for the idea that men get their kicks off by watching/playing and then do not enact. In fact there is support for just the opposite, where men learn how to engage in the behavior and are desensitized to the negative aspects of it, thus feel less reservation about engaging in the behavior. ACK!
Review of Rapelay
Amazon starts carrying it
Amazon stops carrying it
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7 comments:
Incredible (in a disgusting way)...but not unbelievable (sadly). I've heard that there is a sitcom or serial of some sort in Japan called Rape-man. You can guess what that show might be about. I would verify this, but I am at work and it was bad enough looking at the links for this "game".
um, WHAT?!? i think you put it best: "Are you f-ing serious?"
OMG, WTF.
Albert Bandura would be very disappointed if he saw this. I think my favorite part of the game is when the player finally gets to the end and gets to rape the 10-year-old girl while she cries and bleeds. Nice feature.
that's horrible and horrifying. :(
Clearly the game is vile and morally reprehensible.
Your post points out the many problems with this software and Amazon made the right choice by choosing not to sell nor profit off of it.
Given that the main questions posed by your post are WTF? and Really? I am curious to know what if any action against this game you would advocate beyond asking "really?" Ban this game specifically? Amend laws to prevent content such as this that you disagree with? Let the courts decide whether or not it is obscene? Keep it on the market even though most would find it morally reprehensible?
Yes indeed, I do spend the majority of my time saying WTF and really? on this blog, as this is my space to rant about the insanity that I see happening in the world around me.
To answer your questions in specific, to be honest I do not know what I would want to do about games like this. I would prefer for sure that they did not exist, but at the same time I am strong believer in freedom of speach and freedom of choice. As long as what people are doing is not harming others then I think people should be allowed to do what they please. The gray area with this particular game is that it may actually directly be related to harming others in the future or even others in the present depending on how potent the modeling effect is on the individual. Thus, for me I would prefer to see that media such as this is never made. But feel conflicted about putting a law down about it. Hopefully that makes sense.
of course my immediate reaction on reading this was WTFWTFWTFWTFWTF! but, as that has already been written in the comments, i decided to take a little time on a break from thesis writing (almostdone) and read a bit more about this game and what's being written about it in the blogosphere.
first of all, i guess this game (sadly) is just the pinnacle of a whole genre of hentai games -- hentai being a type of japanese porn that glorifies violent sex, kind of like s&m without the m.
but it makes me think, how does it differ from the Grand Theft Auto series? i've played it a bit, and run over pedestrians and blown up cop cars, and it seems like another stupid-but-fun bit of ultraviolence. except (i guess, tho i've never seen this part), you can fuck prostitutes? and then shoot them and take your money back? i don't know why once you bring sex into violence it all becomes more disconcerting. I guess because violence against women is somehow seen as more acceptable by a significant population of the world?
this is the point of the bloggers over at the feminist blog thecurvature.com, who wrote:
"The point isn’t “oh my god, this game is going to create rapists.” The point is “oh my god, this game is going to make rapists think that people are on their side.” Which, of course, too many people actually are already, through their rape apologist jokes and excuses. The premise of the game reinforces the idea of rape as okay and not a big deal. It reinforces the idea that women exist for the sexual pleasure and abuse of men."
I think they mean "pleasure of and abuse by men," but it's a good point. while people have a lot of anger against the police, cop-killing is not such a prevalent problem. violence against women, however, is pretty pandemic (thanks, swine flu, for bringing that word back into my vocabulary). I think that's why GTA's killing of prostitutes is more troubling than the killing of cops, and why shit like rapelay gives me chickenskin, not a hardon.
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