Feedback Loop: When Rape is Just a Game
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I have always been especially sympathetic to parody, satire, and general irreverence. I’m skeptical of authority and find tradition and convention extremely dubious. And when topics are off-limits or taboo, the benefits to silencing discourse rarely makeup for what’s lost as a result of doing so. But sometimes the tradeoff isn’t so one-sided. Earlier this week, Brandon Sheffield uneasily called out a new Kickstarter project for being in poor taste, and urged readers to contact the crowd-funding website and voice their disapproval. They must have done so, because Kickstarter canceled the project later the following day. The project in question is a fully funded card game wherein the goal is to rape as many school girls as possible in a fixed number of turns. It’s called Tentacle Bento. It’s disgusting. But does it cross the line? Writing at Insert Credit Sheffield said, “Tentacle Bento’s Kickstarter success is the product of a society that doesn’t take sexual assault against women seriously enough. It shows that enough people think it’s “not a big deal.” The argument comparing a game about rape to games about violence is limited by the fact that murder is almost universally penalized in our culture, meaning there is a clear line between fantasy and reality there. With rape and molestation, that line is not so clearly drawn, and it results in “cute” games like Tentacle Bento.” The problem with Tentacle Bento for Sheffield is that it trivializes an atrocity. In a context where, as Sheffield points out, rape is already not taken seriously enough this is especially problematic (see: the Catholic Church, almost any college or university campus with a vibrant Greek life, and how women who speak up are treated by the media). This is why sexism in videogames remains an issue as well. What makes Cammy damaging isn’t just that she’s purely a sex object: it’s that she exists as one in a world still plagued with rampant sexism and gender inequality. There are more women in the United States than men, but female members still only constitute a fraction of Congress. Women’s pay is slowly catching up to men’s, but not nearly fast enough given how much more qualified on average the former is than the latter. In other words, when women still aren’t taken as seriously or treated as fairly as their male counterparts: hyper-sexualized, half-naked caricatures matter. Even if video games like Street Fighter don’t breed these kinds of abusive attitudes they still contribute to the idea that those attitudes aren’t a big deal. Which makes addressing issues of female subjugation and adolescent misogyny in the real world all the more difficult. And yet if most of us are willing to tolerate Cammy and each of her reincarnations across the medium, why not tolerate a “cute,” “Cheeky,” and “satirical” game about tentacle rape? It’s not even a videogame, so the perversity is never even rendered on a screen. Instead, all of the violence in Tentacle Bento is confined to the imaginations of its players. Are we to become thought police and tell people what kinds of fantasies they can and can’t have? While I hesitate to say yes, I’m certainly not comfortable saying no, at least not in this instance. But why? Part of what really disturbs me is that hundreds of people would feel comfortable openly funding a project like this. We can’t morally judge someone for sexual desires and fetishes that are largely out of his control. We can, however, judge and criticize someone for voluntarily embracing them in the form of a mass produced and publically advertised card game. For another perspective on the issue though I contacted indie video game designer, Michael O’Reilly. He didn’t think the game was inoffensive, or even well put together, but he was surprised by the community outcry brought on by posts like Sheffield’s, or Luke Plunkett’s over at Kotaku. “I can’t help but to think the problem is that we’re looking at Bento Tentacle as something it isn’t,” O’Reilly told me. “It’s pornography and I am of the opinion that people should not be shamed for the pornography they enjoy as long as no one was hurt in making it and they can keep their feelings under control. “Sexism in general media or the attitude about rape in open culture is a lot more subversive and should be fought whenever it can. We should hold our ‘public’ media to a higher standard…But hands off the porn. Porn is indulgent and self aware and very much a part of our culture.” Both Sheffield and O’Reilly are calling for lines to be drawn in the sand, but with different demarcations in mind. Sheffield maintains that any unserious portrayal of sexual abuse, fictional or not, is damaging and has no place in our society. O’Reilly on the other hand wants to distinguish between “public” discourse and private play. And here I find myself conflicted. The premise of Tentacle Bento repulses me. Yet I find Sheffield’s stance somewhat hypocritical. Just because “public opinion” agrees that killing is wrong doesn’t somehow magically absolve other media of their responsibility for trivializing violence. The fact is that people do trivialize violence in real life. This doesn’t mean Tentacle Bento is kosher; it means that we should apply the same level of scrutiny to more “mainstream” porn like Grand Theft Auto’s rampaging butchery and Modern Warfare’s disaster carnage. The problem then isn’t that Tentacle Bento is uniquely perverse. It isn’t. The real issue is that we’ve rushed to judge certain fetishes and declare them immoral without applying the same standard to the rest of the gaming culture. We’ve decided that gamifying rape is immoral, and yet millions more people gamify brutal slaughter every year when the new Call of Duty is released, myself included. When the best selling games feature sociopathic endurance tests where killing not only solves every problem, but delivers the most pleasure it’s safe to say that each of is a bit of a sicko. |
A lot of people will probably disagree with me, but I’ll say what I always say about controversial matters in games: It’s just a game. If it offends you, don’t buy it, don’t fund it, don’t play it. Human beings have the horrible habit of messing with other people’s matters. Why should other people be forbidden/outlawed to play a game just because some people get all pissy pissy about it? Why should developers shut down projects because they made a parody out of a controversial theme? It’s a game about rape, alright, touchy subject. But hey, wake up, man, no people would be hurt during the creation of the game. It’s virtual stuff. Fake stuff. Why should you even care? I guess people can’t stand the idea of other people making a living out of stuff they hate or disagree. I also guess people aren’t thick skinned enough for most matters.
I’m kinda open minded when it comes to gaming, so I’d love to play such a game for some laughs and to see the author’s take on the theme.
@razikain No, you’ve just proven you are not open minded about stuff, because that would mean you considered the reality of the situation. Yes it is a game and true people offended by it will not play, buy or support it anyway as their right. But it is wrong to say that it will not affect them. The thing about culture is that you don’t have to be witness or privy to the details of what makes up that culture to be affected by it.
Rape isn’t considered a serious problem by a majority of society. They may pay lip service to it being a horrible thing, but when it comes right down to it, no society as a whole is pretty okay with it happening elsewhere. People will stand up and defend rapists who have confessed to their actions because it wasn’t “rape rape.” I am not about to list off the dozen of horrible incidents that happen every day to people and are ignored or blamed on the victim. Why? Because people have got it into their head that good people, real people don’t get raped and that those who do had it coming to them. In other word, to them it is unimportant. Then people look around for things that support their position. This is true for every way of thinking, not just the controversial. And when they see games, movies, books, tv shows, comic etc supporting that view either overtly or subtlety that thought becomes stronger in their mind causes them to search for more media, people, opinions that validate their own. When this happens with masses of people you have a cultural mindset. This affects everyone who lives in that culture. So no, even if they don’t play, buy or support it, it still affects them.
Also, because something is virtual does not mean it is fake. It exists and is real regardless of what form it is in. Or are you saying your bank account with it’s digital records of your money means the money isn’t real because it is in a virtual space.
And no, no one was hurt in the making of this game. But then that is not what people are complaining about. No one has said they did hands on research for the making of this game. They are complaining about the mindset and ideology this game promotes. They are objecting to it, utilizing their First Amendment right to do so if you will. No the game wont create a rapist, the game wont entice a person to rape, but it will make them that much more dismissive or frankly hostile of anyone who come out after being victimized.
@razikain I am one of the people who disagrees with you. You are right: a lot of people will.
“It’s a game about rape, alright, touchy subject. But hey, wake up, man, no people would be hurt during the creation of the game. It’s virtual stuff. Fake stuff.””I’d love to play such a game for some laughs”
These comments suggest you don’t really understand the seriousness of rape, the way society excuses and trivialises it, the problem of rape culture- or worse, don’t care. That’s not being open minded- that’s being an ignorant dumbass. There’s nothing “controversial” about rape- it’s a horrendous crime, and it’s not an appropriate subject for a parody. If you find rape funny, I think that’s pretty sick.
As consumers and decent human beings, we can of course vote with our wallets, but if want to change attitudes towards rape than we have to aim a little higher than that.
@razikain
I am one of the people who disagrees with you. You are right: I’m sure a lot of people will, with good reason.
“It’s a game about rape, alright, touchy subject. But hey, wake up, man, no people would be hurt during the creation of the game. It’s virtual stuff. Fake stuff.”
“I’d love to play such a game for some laughs”
These comments suggest you don’t really understand the seriousness of rape, the way society excuses and trivialises it by blames the victims, the problem of rape culture- or worse, maybe you don’t care. That’s not being open minded; that’s being an ignorant dumbass. There’s nothing “controversial” about rape- it’s a horrendous crime, and it’s not an appropriate subject for a parody. If you find rape funny, I think that’s pretty sick.
As consumers and decent human beings, we can of course vote with our wallets, but if want to change attitudes towards rape then we have to aim a little higher than that.
The vast majority of victims of real rape don’t even know that this game exists and, more importantly, are probably far more concerned with changing the objective factors that actually affected their own lives and have allowed real rape to happen, not wasting their time by trying to subjectively police a misguided card game that will not sell more than a couple of thousand copies at most (and I’m being generous with that estimate).
Horrendous crimes should not be tolerated in reality, as a matter of public policy, but once you start trying to mess around with the implicit and victimless fantasies of a mere hundred of individuals….sooner or later, someone else will draw the line in a way that personally affects your own obscure interests, even those that you consider to be “safe” because they aren’t as “bad” as this card game (which is, to say the least, among the most insignificant examples of triviliazing rape that any serious research would find).
Which is where the ridiculous double standard about violence comes in, as well as the even more ridiculous idea that violence in games should face a similar treatment.
@Souther Your comment kinda complements my thoughts about this subject, but in a much nicer, less asshole-ish way than mine.
I find myself half agreeing with this post. I agree that rape is bad and should not be supported in any form of media (though I’ve heard rape was used well in Silent Hill 2). On the other hand, I find myself unable to be as strict towards the idea of tentacle rape because it’s simply that. It’s about a squid/octopus spreading its slimy tentacles over someone’s body (usually a human female). It’s very ludicrous at heart and impossible to re-enact because those animals don’t work like that. If this game was about an actual human male raping a girl then that would be another story. Tentacle Bento isn’t like that though, nor is it explicit. The cards themselves don’t even depict any sort of rape. I suppose the implied rape is enough to stir a sick man’s mind to sexually assaulting a woman, or another man. Rape is, after all, not taken as seriously as acts of murder in our society.
I can see your point though, supporting rape in any shape and form is probably bad for us as a society. I’m torn here honestly. I feel if Tentacle Bento was a little less shameful and the goal of the game wasn’t to rape as many girls as possible I’d like it because tentacle sex (not rape) is just a ridiculous idea to me. It’d really help if the game at least TRIED to look like it was making fun of itself, but it really isn’t. Don’t get the wrong idea here though, I’m not supportive of this game, but nor am I filled with hatred towards it.
Also, what’s the problem with Cammy? Her outfit is a bit of an issue, but I never understood why she, of all fighting game characters, was such a problem. Aside from her outfit, she never seemed like a highly sexualized character to me. Last time I checked, her attitude and personality wasn’t very sexual.
@DarylNoir The game could just as well explored other, safer sexual fantasies without turning into a game based on how many unsuspecting women you capture and rape. This is the heart of it.
Had it been a game about women/men consensually having sex with tentacles, or seducing women with tentacles, this would be quite different and for some, even interesting. The game is about creating schemes for rape. Finding the perfect victim, stalking, scoping out good spots to abduct them, and rape them. This is pretty sick.
Just as a note, I don’t think my comments hold true anymore. Now that the devs are doubling down on “innocent satire”, well…. Fuck em. They’re striving to be the sort of subversive public media sexism that I hate.
I’d be more willing to give the game creators a “hands off the porn” pass if they weren’t actively denying in interviews that their game is about tentacle rape. You don’t get to ask for a porn-pass and then deny that you’re in any way porn.
I’d be more willing to give the game creators a “hands off the porn” pass if they weren’t actively denying in interviews that their game is about tentacle rape. You don’t get to ask for a porn-pass and then deny that you’re in any way porn.
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