Forgotten Years

COLUMN: ‘The Aberrant Gamer - Material Girl’

[the aberrant gamer is a weekly, sometimes nsfw column by leigh alexander, dedicated to the kinks and quirks we gamers cater to to keep under our hats those predilections and peccadilloes less commonly discussed in conventional media.]

By now, just about everybody’s heard of Miss Bimbo, the browser-based “game for girls” that’s ruffling feathers with its anti-feminist gameplay. Girls adopt a glam-o-rama avatar and, spending virtual “bimbo dollars” on chocolate, fashion and some unspecified “medicines,” complete various simplistic challenges with the stated goal of becoming “the finest, coolest bimbo that ever existed.”

This is, of course, the perfect recipe for auto-cringe: it embraces superficial and arguably destructive ideals, is ostensibly aimed at “‘tweens” (itself a cringe-inducingly trendy marketing buzzword), and the website itself is a car accident of cartoonish pink featuring some kind of skank with bunny ears. Aberrant Gamer is arriving fashionably late to this party, actually, with too many outlets to link already providing analysis and experiences with the dreaded Miss Bimbo (just Google it). As for me, the servers were so stressed I couldn’t even play to any significant extent. The universal verdict? Disgusting.

Luke Wilson - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Luke Wilson Biography - Movies.com
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Games like Miss Bimbo (created by a man, by the way) just can’t win. Women find them disgusting and offensive, and gamers worry about the bad PR. But aren’t we being a bit hypocritical?

Ew, Girl Games

Numerous studies seem to show that females like casual games, and that casual portals and certain Wii games are broadening the traditionally majority-male audience. But gaming in general is still majority male, and video games, be it console or online, enjoy a far more favorable reputation among males than females. Most women who are into games — your columnist included — have now learned that mentioning their hobby is a great icebreaker among men at parties. Among fellow females and potential galpals, however, being a gamer is a warning sign, a red flag, an oddity to be overcome on the rocky road to female bonding. This large-scale failure of females to enjoy gaming on a level playing field with males continues to perplex both game companies and audiences, who wonder when the girls are ever going to come and play with us.

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Maybe when we start welcoming them young? And yet gamers are usually perplexed and annoyed by the pink, pony-populous “games for girls” section at the store, many of us wondering if the target audience even likes being pandered to to such an extent. Take Ubisoft’s Imagine series on DS. The company says titles like Imagine Fashion Designer, Imagine Animal Doctor and, of course, Imagine Babyz, are designed to enable girls to explore their favorite hobbies and interests.The audience has largely approached them with an eyeroll and a snicker. Even females generally find pink things insulting. The Imagine franchise, however, is one of Ubisoft’s cash cows — it’s sold 3 million of them.

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Why do games like these bother us? Is it because they specify an audience that is not us? Do we have a knee-jerk, PC-feminist response to pink things that refuses to accept that some girls like that stuff? The women of today are very interested in telling the young girls of today what they may and may not be interested in — President, CEO, News Anchor (yes), Housewife, Supermodel, Princess (no). But really, why does every girl need to be Gloria Steinem?

This Barbie Will Self-Destruct

Teenagers and ‘tweens are particularly vulnerable. When people are babies, it’s almost expected to differentiate the bald, unremarkable little creatures with pink and blue blankets — if you’re the mom of a baby girl and you put her in a blue nursery, for example, you can bet nosy family members are going to be perplexed at your color scheme. And when kids are still single-digit in age, it’s perfectly acceptable to throw them gender-themed birthday parties; a little girl will quite normally have a Disney Princess party, while a little boy might have Ninja Turtles party decor on his special day. No one cries gender discrimination then, but when Disney Princess Gal hits puberty just a couple years later, it’s suddenly of concern or “dangerous” if she still prefers things that are pink and sweet? Doesn’t she have a right to?

Luke Wilson - AskMen.com
Profile of actor Luke Wilson, with comments and ratings on his personality, woman magnetism, and coolness factor. Part of AskMen.com’s Men of the Week series.

Being A Bimbo

The issue with Miss Bimbo, of course, is not just that it’s pink and targeted at girls. It’s that it seems destructive, espousing weight maintenance, consumerism and the superficial fashion-driven lifestyle. It presents your Miss Bimbo avatar with an “ideal height and weight” which part of gameplay revolves around maintaining, though Fox Ne …

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