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Video Games

We'll Stick To Jane Fonda Could Wii Fit be causing up to $40 million in damages for women? A recent survey by an insurance company found that women damage their homes — and themselves — when they work out from home. The flimsy cord on the Wii remote can break under heavy use and can sometimes be flung (accidentally, of course) into televisions, furniture, and precious Ming vases (like the ones lying around the Lodge residence whenever Archie comes over). But mostly woman seem to just hurt themselves, by bumping into furniture or pulling a muscle. Sounds like the Wii is not the problem — it's more a lack of space and proper training for the women practicing in-home workouts. [Daily Mail]

game girls

Marketing Video Games To Women Almost Always Involves Pink

There was a piece on NPR today about marketing gadgets to women. Molly Wood, host of the CNET podcast "The Gadgettes," is one of the interviewees, and she tells NPR that one of her favorite gadgets marketed towards women is the Nintendo DS Lite. Wood describes it as not specifically designed for women, though it is "cute and small and portable." In addition, the games are "fun without being hardcore or alienating." Listening to Wood talk I realized I had seen the Nintendo DS ads already, but like a good capitalist pawn I only noticed that they featured America Ferrera, Carrie Underwood and Liv Tyler. I didn't even register what they were selling (except subliminally)! Anyway, the ad with Liv Tyler depicts the adorable actress lying on her bed in pajamas, cooing at a pink-hued game. I can't really tell what the game entails, but it IS markedly unthreatening. As many of our commenters and the legions of girlgamers out there can attest, a lot of women like games that are "hardcore" and don't find them "alienating." It's kind of insulting that Nintendo thinks it needs to show a superstar with her name bedazzled on her hand held game (yes, America's name is on her DS in rhinestones in her commercial) to sell it to women — don't worry, everyone, the DS comes in pink!. Liv's commercial is after the jump. More »

Vidiots Um, this video "game," "Carrie The Caregiver," is supposed to be fun or something. Targeted at kids 6 and up, the point is to "feed, clean and soothe adorable babies." The new version, "Camp Funshine," involves helping campers with birdhouses and S'mores and crap like that. Maybe it's entertaining for little girls, but how come there's no "Lulu The Lawyer" or "Cece The CEO" game, huh? (Click to see mind-numbingly dull embedded video) [Packaging Girlhood]

leftovers

Neo-Nazis Beat Up Swedish Feminists • Disco Queen Alienates The Gays

Swedish neo-Nazis attack feminists at rally with metal pipes. • Desperate Afghan women are turning to prostitution to make ends meet. • New Lincoln biography attempts to portray both sides of his rocky marriage. • Two Belgian "beer fans" invent a 2-person peeing video game for urinals. • Speaking of video games, Gears of War 2 is being made more "girlfriend friendly" with easier settings and flatter-chested female characters. Whatever. • Born-again disco queen Gloria Gaynor gives up weed, alcohol, and gay fan base. • Author says that hypermasculinity surrounding guns scares off some women from gun culture. • Nerds have a love of hierarchies, rules, but not irony (sorry hipster geeks!). • Non-Arabic-speaking, New Jersey mom becomes a activist blogger focusing on political issues and free speech in Yemen. • Breadwinning wives resent their husbands who don't pitch in around the house. • The $599 Hello Kitty cell phone: to be coveted by little girls and immature adults everywhere!

Games People Play Feministing points out that the brand-new, critically-acclaimed 'Grand Theft Auto' video game has lots of strippers and pole dancers in it. You can get a lap dance where the girl puts her crotch in your face. Also! As the trailer shows, you can pick up hookers and kill them immediately after having (explicit) sex with them. "Stay down or I will finish you off!" your character says after gunning down a prostitute. Blogger Samhita writes, "Given the popular nature of GTA, it is cool to be violent and kill prostitutes... Where does this put young women gamers? How do they feel when playing video games with such violent representations of women?" [Feministing, IGN]

no joy(sticks)

Gaming Industry Is Full Of Sexist Geeks

The editor behind MTV.com's Mulitplayer Blog has posted a series of interviews with women from all different areas of of the gaming industry in response to the internet humiliation of Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond (pictured). When Creed was released last month, Raymond was often in the public eye as she was actively promoting the game. Internet geeks 'round the world felt the need to weigh in on Jade, often denigrating her competence because of her attractiveness. The buzz reached a fever pitch when a website called Something Awful posted a defaming comic, which showed a cartoon named Jade fellating a trio of gamers, and according to our brother site Kotaku, it got worse from there. More »

low score

Is It Every Little Girl's Dream To Babysit? One Video Game Company Thinks So

Alice Taylor, a prominent gamer (and former nationally-ranked Quake player) blogs on a site called Wonderland. Her criticism of Ubisoft's new line of "girl-oriented" games that focus on "shopping, fashion, animals and babies" was inspired by a post on Kotaku and picked up by Boing Boing. Taylor admits that hugely popular game World Of Warcraft is at least 40% shopping, but says, rightly so, that shopping is not only what girls like. Ubisoft claims,
Those games were really designed for young girls who are just looking for fun games and ways to explore their favorite hobbies... From what we've seen, [the girls] didn't mention anything about being a police officer.
More »

high scores

Yup, It's True: Girls Play Games

Online Media Daily says that in a Denizens of Digitivity survey, 44% of women said that they owned a gaming console, compared to 39% of men. The stereotype of the American gamer — 18-34, male, single and white — is not necessarily on target, claims the report. Between the Wii, Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo DS, there's a a rise in the female gamer. "The Wii has really caused a democratization of gaming, because that has opened it up to all generations and both genders," said Ann Mack, director of trendspotting for JWT.
More »

dick in an xbox

Okay, That's It Ladies: Time To Buy A Playstation 3

Men have some biological advantages over us: no periods, fewer reasons for needing toilet paper, the fact that baldness is so widespread that it has just become evolutionarily imperative that they develop identities apart from their looks... BUT. The idea that guys are just inherently better at processing certain sorts of information? (Ahem: how cars work?) It's all just shit they picked up playing videogames, according to a new study written up in the Economist. In the study, psychologists gave a series of aptitude tests to men and women, and the women performed particularly shitty at a game called "Odd Man Out," in which they were supposed to locate the thing that didn't belong in a particular situation. But then! The psychologists forced the women to play ten hours of Medal Of Honor: Pacific Assault. More »