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The existence of perverted rape games reveals the prevalence of misogyny in the world of online gaming
I had come across this tasteless video game online a few years back while researching for Wikigender. The game is called RapeLay, (trigger warning: this link contains explicit descriptions of rape and other crime against women that could be disturbing) a 3D game created by a Japanese firm, Illusion, and it prods the player to rape a woman and her two teenaged daughters in a moving train, a park and a restroom.
The game lets the player rape, impregnate and abort the three women. Points are awarded for such acts of sexual violence, and the game, to this day, remains among the hot picks in grey markets across the world.
I remember there was a massive outcry in 2009 when some copies of this game were put up on Amazon, and the Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS), Japan’s PC game rating agency, had called for a halt to the retail sale of videogames that simulate rape. (The EOCS is a voluntary organization and the ban is not legally binding)
The Yokohama-based games manufacturer Illusion had then said that the campaign to have the game RapeLay banned in Japan was pointless because it was perfectly legal in Japan. Spokesman Makoto Nakaoka said he was bewildered by the move as it made games for Japanese tastes and laws and that he didn’t need to know what was acceptable elsewhere in the world.
In India, when the easy online availability of this game was brought to the notice of the Computer Emergency Reaction Team (Cert-In) of the Ministry of Information Technology a few years back, its spokesperson had said, “Our primary job is to prevent cyber crimes that threaten the national security. When such offensive websites are hosted in other countries, there is little we can do.”
Maintaining that obscene rape games may prove more dangerous than the offence of actual rape, cyber law expert Pawan Duggal said that the Information Technology Act, 2000, must be tightened, and that, “…these rape games are more dangerous than an actual rapist. A rapist may abuse one or two women before being caught, but obscene Japanese rape games like RapeLay would surely infect young and impressionable minds and lure them into becoming pervert rapists.”
(I just did a quick search on Google for ‘Japanese rape game’ and got 29,300,000 results in 0.18 seconds, including many that offer a download, while others offer a trial version)
I am a former bureaucrat, and have worked a lot on gender issues, disaster management and good governance. I am also the proud father of two lovely daughters. read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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