One of the Most Disturbing Things I've Ever Seen

While looking around mediawatch for something to blog about I ran across one of the most horrifically disturbing things I’ve ever seen. Apparently the Japanese video game company Illusion has made some very distasteful games, such as, RapeLay and the Battle Rapper series. After looking a bit more I came across the story line for these games.
In RapeLay the objective of the main male character is to stalk, grope, molest, enslave and repeatedly rape an entire family of women. The female characters are a mother and her three young daughters. There are sexual positions a player can choose, as well as, appearance options to choose for the female characters. The game also includes options of gang rape and photos of the girls naked and covered in semen. The Battle Rapper series, Battle Rapper and Battle Rapper2, are similar to RapeLay in that the game consists of beating, stripping, molesting and raping the female characters.
Apparently these games cannot be bought legally in the U.S. and aren’t supposed to be sold outside of Japan but at one point RapeLay was available on Amazon. After harsh criticism Amazon has removed the game and EBay won’t sell it either. Of course you can find it free, in English online.
Members of the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault have strongly encouraged everyone to speak out against this game and others like it and are calling for a ban on any kind of sales of these products in the U.S. I can’t honestly believe that anyone would make or buy a game that is so totally wrong on so many levels, it’s inconceivable to me that any human would play this crap.
I realize that traditionally the Japanese have thought that women are second class citizens but this is outrageous and absolutely ridiculous. I think that Illusion should be ashamed of themselves for creating such totally degrading and detrimental material and that anyone who buys, supports or plays these games should be ashamed as well. We as a whole in society globally should make these games obsolete because of their promotion of violence toward women and Illusion should not be able to gain financial profit for this kind of material. I do understand that even games made here are degrading to women and contain too much violence but these particular games take all of it to the next level.

Microsoft and Girl Scouts Making Internet Safer for Teens/Tweens

Microsoft has teamed up with the Girl Scouts of America to help make the internet a safer and a more understood place for preteens, teens and adults. The LMK website features an interactive group of Girl Scouts that will be educating teens and parents on internet issues. These issues include cyber bulling, online predators, social networking, tips on technology and advice about issues that face teens today. The Girl Scouts are hoping that teens will be more likely to listen to peers regarding these issues. They will be holding monthly meetings to seek out different internet issues to discuss. The Girl Scouts will be issuing a monthly newsletter for parents about everything that they have learned. They believe that this will help teens and their parents discuss dangers associated with the internet more openly. On LMK teens (and parents) can also take quizzes and polls, read related articles and participate in a question- answer column. This link between Microsoft and the Girl Scouts of America is a tool that teens can use to become empowered and educated on internet safety. This may also help non-computer orientated parents understand more about the things their teens use technologically and dangers that are presented with these types of mediums. This is a great new media resource for teens and parents.

How the Media Veiwed Them: Sarah Palin vs. Hillary Clinton in the Election

In the last election we had two key women players; Hillary Clinton, a candidate for the Democratic Party for President and Sarah Palin; a vice presidential candidate for the Republican Party. This is not my opinion it is how I saw the media viewing these two women. How were they seen differently in the media? Well, Hillary Clinton was seen as this anti-feminine, power suit wearing woman who alienated many people, men and women. On the other hand, Sarah Palin was seen as a sex symbol. These two political women were viewed as extreme opposites. Hillary Clinton was viewed as a woman who was too strong, too greedy, and too masculine. There were many comments about here physical appearance, such as her power “pant suits”. There was even a doll made in her likeness, “The Hillary Nutcracker”. The box comments on “I can feel Bill’s pain”…Barack Obama and “Hillary Nutcracker—that’s redundant.”…John McCain. I actually received one of these dolls, as a joke, for Christmas.
But the media took Sarah Palin to the opposite extreme commenting that she was a sex symbol, too naive for such high office. She was portrayed as ultra-feminine. Sarah always wore high heels and skirt suits opposite Hillary’s pantsuits. Sarah also was called a beauty contestant finalist despite photos that showed her with a rifle and a Moose head that she killed, even with the fact out there that Sarah was a long standing NRA supporter and participant.
Why were these two women viewed politically so different? They were both viewed in ways that took power away from them, either being too masculine or too much of a sex symbol. Who benefits from this, the male politicians! They keep the power. They have and discredit the women candidates’ any way they can, from both extremes of the spectrum. This should bother us because if the future races remain this way we will never see a woman candidate as serious enough or capable enough to actually be president or even vice president.