Rape is the new Tetris?
Posted at 8:18 pm on March 31, 2010 by Catherine
I sat down at the computer tonight with every intent to write a nice, happy post about Spring or Easter or Bernstein Bears. But as my computer was loading up this article caught my eye and now I can think of nothing else. Has the World truly gone entirely mad?
I hope that you will click through and read the article yourself, but here’s the basic bad news. Japan has a video game called RapeLay, apparently one of several similar available games, where the entire point of the game is to meet, molest, and rape young girls and their mothers, sisters, and friends. Your motive is revenge and you can choose your method of assault.
No. I’m not joking.
Yes, there was international outrage, and yes the games were removed from shelves. But the outrage fueled the great Flame, Internet. The game went from being obscurely hidden in Japan to available for free download worldwide. Japan has no censorship laws about what topics and themes can be involved in video games and as long as they are being made there they will be put online for the world to play. I know that censorship is a tricky topic but making and playing a game in which the object is to assault and rape young girls and women seems like a bad idea for everyone.
And I do mean for everyone. Yet the CNN article said that these games invoked outrage from many “international women’s groups.” Really? Is this such a niche issue that it requires Feminists and Women’s Rights activists to get involved? I’m not surprised that they would but it seems like sane peace loving people everywhere should and could and would step and say “WHAT?!?”
Apparently this game, this genre of games, and the outrage produced by them are nothing new – maybe I’m the last to know. And while it would be nice to say that the passage of a law or two would solve it, of course its much more complicated than that. With the internet anyone, anywhere can think up something, put it online, and then anyone, anywhere can access it. No boundaries. That’s what I’m doing right now.
But still – this is shocking news to me, and not good news for civilized people, men as well as women. I’m not at all a conspiracy theorist. Typically when I hear things this ridiculously horrible I roll my eyes and wait to hear the other side of the story. But I’m having trouble believing that in this case there could be one.
Thoughts? Please chime in – I need to talk this through.
I can’t even read the article due to nausea. I may have to try again later and scroll down a bit before I start reading. This is so disturbing. I had no idea.
Okay I skipped ahead a bit and was able to read more. This quote from the interviewee disturbed me, “The idea of banning it, or telling people what they can and can’t do just because on the off chance some kid might get involved with it is just ridiculous,”
I agree that parents need to be the ones to protect their children and control their media exposure. But the reason this game shouldn’t be on the market, etc isn’t JUST because it would be bad if a child saw it.
Wow-I have to feed off of Heather-first of all, there isn’t just an “off chance” a kid’s gonna get a hold of it-there’s a VERY GOOD chance a kid is gonna get ahold of it….all i can think about is a young teenage boy getting ahold of it because his hormones are screaming at him to do whatever he can to explore his sexuality and the first of his experiences are of rape…and how that can be a very slippery slope into the rest of his (and his peers’) lives that rape is normal and what is expected. There is obviously a right and wrong issue of rape and for the most part men/boys/teenagers know rape is wrong, but doing it over and over in a game and the characters may or may not care or there are rewards for doing it in the game has got to desensitize the next generation of men. Horrible.
This is SO bad that I have no words. I agree with Heather about the interviewee’s quote. Hello! This isn’t just bad for kids! We live in such a sick world that people would even think playing this sort of game (I hate to even call it that) is okay. I am sick.
It’s a very disturbing theme for a game. I think we don’t question game content enough if it has to get this horrible before we notice (this post was the first I had heard of such a game). I don’t think we’d have to look far to find awful content in our mainstream games in the US. What about the common and extremely popular first person shooter games? Killing people with guns is also a terrible theme for a game, yet seems to be acceptable entertainment, going largely unchallenged in our society.
Clearly, you were not the last to hear about this, as I join your list of commenters who had not known of it until your post. Thanks for taking the time to alert us to this ugly side of gaming. As a mom of three adolescent boys, and one adolescent girl, I find this truly disturbing.
What kind of sick person thought it would be ok to creat a game like this? It is not just the game that is disturbing, it is the fact that ANYONE would find sport or entertainment in this kind of sick behavior!! It makes me physically sick to think my boys are going to grow up in such a depraved world. It really makes you think about all we expose our minds and hearts and eyes to.
Thanks for sharing this with us Cath.
Wow, my heart hurts for the world our children are growing up in. I agree with previous posters, this is not just an issue of “what if a child sees it” – having something as appalling as rape become mainstream contributes to the desensitization of society to such atrocities. Having content out there, especially in game form that essentially glorifies rape is a disservice to humanity.
This is insane. The game that is..The makers yes- but more the consumers of the game- it speaks to a huge social issue- namely desensitization to atrocities.
But- I can’t get on board with banning it. Even as a rape survivor. Why? well by banning it you make it more attractive to consumers. Also when does the banning stop what level of violence? When the violence turns realistic?? Well then you would have to ban a ridiculous number of games. When someone gets offended??
Ban them out of concern for young people who get a hold of them thereby exposing them to violence and setting them up for unrealistic expectations of life experiences? Again- so many TV shows and movies and games would have to be banned.
The unfortunate fact is that so many popular computer games glorify violence and while I do not like them are perfectly legal. As much as they offend my sensibilities- banning them would not fix the problem.
It is my responsibility as a mother to give my children a moral compass and help them learn these things. As much as I abhor this game and movies and games like it- banning is not a solution. Education is.
You can however be darn sure that if I caught my kids playing with that kind of material there would be repercussions.
Oh my god. This is disgusting, but I don’t know what the answer is. I agree with Elizabeth, that by banning it it becomes even more enticing, but I sure as hell don’t want it available to my kid. (Thank God he’s still a baby and I have all the control right now!)
Ultimately you’d hope no one would make a game like this so it wouldn’t be an issue, but I guess we’re past that point now.
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