Pranking and Culture Jamming

I thought the topic for this week was really interesting - I especially thought the Barbie Liberation Organization Organization was awesome - of course I had noticed that kid's toys are very gendered, but what the two talking toys say really reinforces certain cultural values - Barbie: 'i love shopping,' 'can we ever have enough clothes' is a pretty blatant advert for capitalist consumption and the G.I. Joes promote and glorify war even more through their speech. I think hearing the words coming from the wrong mouth [ie. hearing a Barbie promote violence and war] could also have the effect of highlighting this. I found this clip about the BLO - if anyone else finds other news items, or any interviews with parents from that time, they'd be great to see. Listen to what the kids say about the G.I. Joe.

Another site about pranking and culture jamming was also interesting to explore.

And given that we haven't had much [haha, ok, any] discussion this week I thought I'd put the link for adbusters here too - it is definitely worth a look.

Next Level Article: Some additional comments

I spent the weekend interviewing a few of my well known gaming friends. My discussions gave me a good insight into the representation of women in a range of games which I will share with you. I myself do not play any games ( apart from solitaire!) and was really shocked and disgusted by some of the things that are in current day games. Below is a brief summary of some of the games and the representations of women in them.

WOW ( world of warcraft)

• Female characters are barely covered with armour so as to accentuate the female body for male gamers
• Male characters in contrast are given full body armour

Age of Conan

• Includes topless female 3D characters and promotes female nudity

Grand Theft Auto

• This game passed the classification boards at first instance despite the fact that there is an actual intercourse section of the game.
• The game allows characters to pick up hookers, attend strip clubs and register and brothels

From my understanding, the gaming industry does not seem to be progressing in terms of representing women in a non sexual, objectified manner. It amazes me how there are strict policies enforced in the workplace about computer savers or desktops having females in swimsuits however no stringent laws apply to the production of games. There seems to be a real blurring of reality and fantasy within actual games despite the fact that most games imitate reality. In essence, the games seem to reflect a modern day reality without any law and order, where brothels and hookers are available and where women are always exploited. I don't mean to sound like a nagging protester but some of these games are truly terrible!