Internet Miss Bimbo game for girls attacked by parents
Posted by relyingonintellect on March 26, 2008
Parents’ groups have condemned a new internet game in which girls as young as nine are encouraged to “buy” their virtual dolls breast operations and facelifts.
The aim of the Miss Bimbo beauty contest game, which was launched in Britain last month, is to become the “hottest, coolest, most famous bimbo in the whole world”, and contestants who compete against each other are told to “stop at nothing”, even “meds or plastic surgery”, to ensure their dolls win.
Well golly, I can’t see a darn thing wrong with this. If I had daughters I would want nothing more than for them to learn to obsess about impossible-to-attain, artificial standards of beauty and popularity. What higher goal could there be for a little girl than to become the “most famous bimbo in the whole world”?
Children are given a naked virtual character to look after. They compete against other players to earn “bimbo” dollars so they can dress her in sexy outfits and take her clubbing. They are given missions, including securing plastic surgery at the game’s clinic to give their dolls bigger breasts, and they have to keep her at her target weight with diet pills.
I honestly double-checked to make sure this wasn’t an Onion-style satirical piece when I read this part. This is almost too ridiculous to be real. Who in the hell thinks this is a good idea to market to children?
Bill Hibberd, of parents’ rights group Parentkind, said the game sent a dangerous message to young girls.
…
“Children’s innocence should be protected as far as possible. It depends on the background and mindset of the child but the danger is that after playing the game some will then aspire to have breast operations and take diet pills.”
While I’m sure Bill Hibberd and I might disagree on the extent to which children’s innocence should be protected, I’m with him on this one. This is really kind of sick.
He added that the game also posed a financial danger for parents if they did not keep an eye on the texts that were sent.
True… But here comes the part that pisses me off almost as much as the part where society wants to turn little girls into anorexic prostitutes:
In France, where Miss Bimbo’s sister website was condemned by dieticians and parents when it began last year, one parent threatened the creators with legal action after his daughter ran up a £100 mobile bill sending texts without his knowledge.
Seriously? You gave your kid a cell phone and didn’t bother monitoring what she was doing with it and now you’re suing someone else because you dropped the ball with the whole parenting thing? I’m sorry, but how hard is it to freaking parent your children?
I mean, I will bitch as much as anybody about the sad state of a society that places pressure on children to accept this sort of game as a normal and good and healthy outlook on life… but when it comes down to it, my children’s well-being (and cell phone usage, for god’s sake) is my responsibility. It’s called being a parent.
But I should probably try to limit myself to one soapbox at a time.
The British version already has nearly 200,000 players, most of whom are girls aged between 9 and 16. There are 1.2 million players in France.
It is very disturbing to me that these are the ages of girls playing this game. I could almost see the humor in it if it were marketed to and played by adults, but this is not the picture of normalcy that should be presented to little girls and teenagers.
The creators of Miss Bimbo insist it is “harmless fun”. Nicolas Jacquart, the 23-year-old web designer from Tooting, south London, who created it, said: “It is not a bad influence for young children. They learn to take care of their bimbos. The missions and goals are morally sound and teach children about the real world.
“If they eat too much chocolate in the game it is bad for their bimbos’ bodies and their happiness levels compared to if they eat fruit and vegetables, which reinforces positive healthy eating messages.
“The breast operations are just one part of the game and we are not encouraging young girls to have them, just reflecting real life.”
Almost fell out of my chair laughing here, not gonna lie. Miss Bimbo is a morally sound teaching tool for children. Gotcha.
Riya said
I’m 27 and use Miss Bimbo a lot. Personally, I love the site. It’s like having a barbie doll, but with out dealing with the pain of all the clothing changes. Better yet, there’s a ‘healthy’ weight of 127 lbs your to keep. Not 119, or lower, but 127. AND they’ve recently added he option to reduce your breast size, because people asked for it.
Your also encouraged to ‘expand your mind’ and work for a better job, by learning and training for a better job. No lying, cheating or anything else to get there.
Is it perfect? No. But, I’d bet it’s hard to find anything in a game that is perfect. If you don’t like the game, you don’t have to play it. If your a mother, you can tell your child you don’t want them playing it. Nothing says you have to. But, as there are far worse things I could do with my spare time, please harp on other things instead of this. Boys play games that parents LET them buy, that are far worse then something like this.