These videogames are not art. They are extreme pornography

[kassandra/sabelmouse]

Has imagery of violence against women become so normal that we no longer notice it?

Mark Kermode says we should be relaxed about adult themes in videogames (Should we avoid violent games?, 11 December).

He confesses to knowing nothing about these games: "I don't play them and probably never will." But he then says, "I do know something about horror films, and the moral panic they provoke," and takes issue with the "ominous sense of ill-informed outrage" about the modern videogames market. He then advises readers looking for a sensible opinion on the subject to refer to "someone who knows, someone who plays them, someone who actually likes them". In short, the fans.

My organisation, Equality Now, has heard a lot from the fans of some of these games. We highlighted the game RapeLay, produced in Japan, as one example of many that promote violence against women. In RapeLay the player manipulates an onscreen penis to simulate rape of a woman and her young daughters over and over again.

Our international campaign called on the Japanese government to ban games that promote sexual violence against women and girls. Fans of these games were outraged. They asked us why we were targeting RapeLay when, they said, it was mild compared to similar available games. In Japan there is a whole genre of extreme pornography, known as hentai, which takes in cartoons and comic books as well as videogames. Imagery includes women and girls being molested, stalked and gang-raped.

We received hundreds of emails from around the world, many calling for our own rape and murder. "By the way, I played RapeLay (doing the 13-year-old was best)", said one, referring to the pre-pubescent girl whom players "rape" in the game.

Kermode recalls media coverage in the 1980s – when horror movies were seen as likely to "deprave and corrupt" – and suggests that we now have a more sophisticated attitude to that genre. "With almost any genuine art form, the most important works can rarely be taken at face value," he asserts.

But if games such as RapeLay can now be classified as art, maybe the popular media promotion of sexual violence against women is so normalised that we don't even pay attention any more. Does "killing" a prostituted woman in Grand Theft Auto just reconfirm to a gamer the "lesser value" of women in prostitution generally?

What we know is that violence against women and girls is all too real. The NSPCC for example reported in September that a third of teenage girls in a relationship suffer unwanted sexual acts (including rape) and a quarter physical violence such as being slapped, punched or beaten by their boyfriends.

Certainly the UN's women's committee believes that gender stereotypes, including those of women as sex objects, and gender-based discriminatory attitudes, contribute to violence against women. Will the players of RapeLay act on their threats towards us? It's just a game, don't threaten our free speech, say the fans who tell us to shut up or else. Maybe Kermode was right after all when he said we should ask the fans. They certainly gave us their answer loud and clear.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/16/adult-videogame...

[MisterShadow]

While I think a lot of his jokes were in poor taste, his question of the day did bring up an important issue.

"So I want to know guys... I want to know what you think the difference is between a man raping a woman and a woman raping a man, because in our society a man raping a woman is seen as so much worse than a woman raping a man when really it shouldn't be any different. Like you know, if a guy goes around and sleeps with a ton of women he's considered a stud. He's the man, but if a woman goes around and sleeps with a bunch of guys people consider her a slut or a skank. But I don't think that's right because that guy going around sleeping with all the girls is just as much a slut as the girl is. This is what I don't understand. Like if a girl has a threesome with two guys everyone's like, 'ah, what a fucking slut. she got double teamed. whore' but if a guy has a threesome with two girls it's like, 'oh my god, he's the fucking man'."

While his jokes were inappropriate, what he said about how he actually feels about the situation is pretty spot on. Some people just don't like shocking humor I guess.

[charles baker]

WOW some one took that to seriously.

I LOL because people are still talking about that stupid FLuffee video that I posted not about rape it's self.

And yes I find his sense of humor funny it's good to joke about serious topics and I don't think that that's traveolising them.

(traveolising spelled wrong)

[MisterShadow]

Trivializing maybe?

[Gabrielle]

... and "itself," too.

[charles baker]

Yes that's it thank you.

[Gabrielle]

I realize I am beating a dead horse, but think carefully about the wording there. "...that stupid FLufee video..." Calling the video stupid trivializes it and its contents. And if its contents are rape... Well... You can see where it's going. I'm not going to reiterate everything everyone else has already said- this takes it right back to the beginning, so uh... just reread the ENTIRE tangent on this discussion topic about that video.

[MisterShadow]

That's really just beating a dead horse and nit-picking. If we're going to be nit-picking the content of the video wasn't rape, but a person doing stand-up basically. His material happened to be of a rape that had happened recently and was really a social commentary on how our society perceives rape that is committed towards men. As he himself said later in the very same video, "in our society a man raping a woman is seen as so much worse than a woman raping a man when really it shouldn't be any different". So if you're getting upset at the content of this video and the message behind the video, you're really getting upset about the view that a woman raping a man is just as serious as a man raping a woman. He was making a point in a comedic way, but making a point nonetheless. Basically, the point being, that if the story had been switched around and it was three men raping a woman and he had done the exact same thing, almost nobody would have found it funny whereas I'm sure a good amount of people thought that video was funny.

[Gabrielle]

Call me one of those "almost nobody"-s, then. Hypersensitive? Sure. sense of humor? No. Just not about rape, of any kind- I'm not one of those "good amount of people"s.

[MisterShadow]

As it turns out I was right. Close to 12,000 ratings and the video itself is at 5 stars. Not that I think most of the people rating it had any idea what the social commentary meant, or that some of the people who commented realized that the video was directed at them...

There was one comment that said something along the lines of "well, you have to look at it this way. When one key can open many locks it's called the master key, but when many keys can open one lock it's called a shitty lock". I don't think that that person understands the point of the video.

Anyway, I don't really think you're hypersensitive on it. Rape is a subject of comedy that I think is only really used for shock value.

[Gabrielle]

Hm, I meant to say, "NO sense of humor," sans caps, but it looks like you understood me, anyway. Which is more than I'm sure others would have done.

Thanks.

That leads to what would probably be a quite interesting discussion about shock value and the value in it, but that's for another place.

[MisterShadow]

Well we've already gone into one topic that is extremely off base. You're probably right in deciding to not climb out onto the limb from the branch we've already ventured onto.

[asano_man]

All of the stuph in the second paragraph is awful and truly a flaw in our society. I don't know how any of that connects to video games, though. Did the guy who raped the girl get the idea from a video game? Was the judge who sentenced him a gamer as well? How about the Ning chatters? I guess all of them game as well, seeing as how they all abdicate rape so much.

I'm not saying that rape and all that is alright. I'm just saying that you cited an article and then listed a whole bunch of things that have no connection to the issue at hand. Please fix this.