Ad Feminem

Big Boobs + No Food = Diet Pill Poster Girl

A quick update on Miss Bimbo.  Like Jessica Wakeman over at HuffPo, I've too been playing the game.  When I logged in today, my bimbo had lost all of her clothing, even the bra and panties she started out wearing before I put her in a skirt and top.  Also, she was 38% hungry and thirsty but 100% happy.  I've fed her nothing but vegetables and water in the three days I've been playing, and while feeding her some vegetables and water today brought her back down to 0% hunger and thirst, it brought down her happiness by 2% and her weight has gone up by 1.5 pounds.  The message:  starve and be happy, eat and get depressed because you're fat.  This game could be the perfect vehicle for Zalestrin, the diet pill that is marketed to women with the triple promises to help them lose weight, increase breast size and firmness and "turbo-charge" their sex drive.  If you want to learn more about this type of diet pill, Samhita from Feministing had an interesting post on this back in May.  We're rather surprised Miss Bimbo and the makers of Zalestrin or similar brands haven't yet teamed up.  Then again, perhaps they already quietly have... the game does feature those mysterious blue and white "medicines."   

Anyway, all of these messages certainly reinforce the game's stated objectives, but to that end, it's worth reprinting some of the rules for the Miss Bimbo game:

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Miss Bimbo Pretends to Develop a Brain Cell

New disclaimer on the homepage of the online Miss Bimbo game:

Dear Players,

Due to unforseen worldwide interest in Miss Bimbo we have had difficulty in maintaining our game in the manner players have become accustomed. We are sorry for this inconvenience and can assure you that our game will be up and running as soon as possible.

As a result of this rather surprising media attention we have decided to remove the option of purchasing diet pills from the game. We apologise to any players whom this may inconvenience but we feel in light of this weeks proceedings it is the correct action to take.

We would also like to sincerely apologise to our players for the media comparison of Miss Bimbo and Paris Hilton. We feel that this does a dis-service to the players whom send their bimbos to university, tea parties or chess tournaments.

At this time we would also like to remind players that the Miss Bimbo team assume no responsibility or liability for any fashion faux pas, hair style disasters or boob jobs incurred in real life as as a result of playing the Miss Bimbo game.

While removing the diet pills is certainly a positive step, the disclaimer here makes it clear Miss Bimbo's creators find it to be an inconvenient one.  It's also an insincere step, as players can still purchase "medicines," though there's no explanation what these medicines cure.  If the bimbo's biggest problem is  exceeding her target weight, will the "medicines" get her back on track?  We've set up an account, and as we continue to play the game, we will report back to you on the results...  And as always, the existence of medicines to cure problems of (deemed) unattractiveness take us back to the problem of artificial beauty being cast as an issue of health. 

An even more inconvenient step than removing the diet pills, we're sure, would be to remove the plastic surgeries.  Shirking responsibility "for any... boob jobs incurred in real life as a result of playing the Miss Bimbo game" is as disingenuous as New Beauty magazine claiming that it's possible for women to elect for cosmetic surgery without "influence, pressure or force" while simultaneously proclaiming they have the scoop on beauty "must-haves" and co-opting the concept of beauty as one that is artificially ageless.

 

Way More Insidious Than a White Teddy Bear and Some Mexican Pastries

Thanks to Lindabeth at Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend Was Smart Like Me for alerting us to the the Miss Bimbo video game where young girls are encouraged to get plastic surgery, take diet pills and refrain from chocolate or risk getting fat, go clubbing in revealing clothing, go tanning, and search for rich boyfriends.

 

 Above is a picture of the players' "clinic."  With the psychologist option next to the surgery option, need we point out the similarity to the depression and anxiety ads facing the surgery ads in our local LA Weekly?  Perhaps we wouldn't need therapy if we weren't relentlessly pounded with messages telling us that we won't be good enough, rich enough or popular enough (all actual goals of the Miss Bimbo game) without cosmetic surgery. It is further telling of the game's ideology however that a player's "profit" a.k.a. "bimbo attitude" a.k.a. "confidence" resulting from surgery will be far higher as a result of surgery than of therapy.   Without internal confidence or intelligence boosting activities available in Miss Bimbo Land, one wonders what its therapists might say to reassure their patients.  "Don't worry, dear, stop buying chocolate and you'll be able to afford surgery soon and then you'll be on your way to being cool!"  The unfortunate lesson here, as always, is that success and confidence are to be measured and gained by external factors internalized, not internal factors externalized.

The game does do one thing impressively though, and that's sink to a newer low than Mattel's MyScene Bling Dolls or Bratz dolls.

See a CBS video report in which the founders of the game struggle to justify their creation and the term "bimbo" as one of endearment. Also, see the following articles:
Miss Bimbo is a Virtual Nightmare for Girls
My Pet Bimbo
Encouraging Girls to be "Miss Bimbo"

*N.b.  Click here or here if you don't get the title reference.

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Busty Birds of Kensington

Emma Cowing of The Scotsman just reported that "the number of British teenagers having breast surgery has increased by more than 150 per cent in the past year." And we thought the American cosmetic surgery rates had gone up fast. Well, the British are following in our bra steps, and while their numbers are still well below the numbers of American teens "improving" their assets, if they keep up at the current rate, busty Kensington birds may become stereotypical than blonde California girls.

In fact, the numbers of British teenagers receiving these surgeries is still much lower than the sheer number of American teens receiving these surgeries. But Cowing goes on to report: "such is the demand among young women for plastic surgery that there is even a new clinic, Make Yourself Amazing, aimed solely at 18 to 35-year-olds." Note how the title of the clinic is yet another example of language which equates a worthwhile notion of selfhood with a surgically altered body.

Here's an idea. How about teaching young women that there is nothing amazing about going into debt (with breast augmentations going for £4,000-£5,000) so that they can look like the tabloids and the profiteers tell them they ought to look? Or how about teaching them that can make themselves amazing instead through education, art, politics or community service?

Venial Botox, Mortal Breast Augs?

There's a flurry over blogging over the list of new social sins just released by the Vatican. The ones that are most interesting to us here at Ad Feminem are high on the list: bioethical violations such as birth control and "morally debatable" experiments such as stem cell research, cloning, genetically engineering "designer babies." Each of these suggest a real concern over tampering with our natural bodies. If each of us is made in the image of God, as the Catholics believe, then this attempt to alter our bodies is an attempt to alter the image of God. So the natural extrapolation, it seems, would be to questions of cosmetic surgery. What is the Vatican's stance on elective cosmetic surgery? Does it qualify as a social sin under the guise of "bioethical violations?" According to the logic of the new social sins, surely elective cosmetic procedures equal aftermarket tinkering with the image of God just as much as genetic engineering equals elemental tampering with it. Further, if indeed surgery will now be in this category, how will one determine the severity of the sin? Will Botox be venial, breast augs mortal? Or is all this already covered by the original injunction against vanity? It will be interesting to see where the Catholic Church draws the line on this.

Vaginal Obscenity

Students at Reseda's Cleveland High School created a huge uproar on Valentine's Day by publishing an anatomical drawing of a vagina along with the headline "Have a Happy Vagina Day" on the front page of their newspaper.  The LA Times reported that school teachers and administrators confiscated the offending newspapers, with some being ripped out of the hands of students because they were "safety hazards."  Apparently inspired by Eve Ensler, the article accompanying the drawing urged awareness of violence against women.  Rachel Reyes, the article's student author, said that the "principal compared the word and the use of the word vagina to a swastika" and "to a picture of lynching."  See Reyes' comments on Steve Lopez's blog here.

The next day, several students who returned to school wearing t-shirts that read "My vagina is obscene" were sent home. 

If our teens are being taught that simple anatomical drawings of vaginas are obscene, dangerous and hateful, no wonder designer vaginal procedures are on the rise.  In this climate, the marketers of these procedures can sit back and relax while teachers and administrators do their work for them.