Breaking down borders in video games.
Highmind’s “Skirt Lift” iPhone Application
[Trigger Warning: Non-Consensual Upskirting, Rape]
The cover image of a woman in a low-cut red dress and fishnet stockings with a finger lifting up her skirt
Another day goes by, another application hits the Apple iPhone App Store that degrades women. Highmind have released a game called “a Skirt Lift” where the sole objective is to lift up women’s skirts to see their underwear. From the application information:
- Lift her skirt up with your own finger and find property of her underwear.
- Her eyes will follow where u touch
- Play simple 3 second game and give her energy which matches with her underwear’s property
- You can reset data by touching her breasts Left -> Right -> Left -> Right
This Will Be Fun!!
With only 15 reviews (all 5 stars, meaning this application has a high rating) this application popped up in my search yesterday. Why should I be subjected to seeing these kind of games right next to things like Bubble Pop, Peggle, and Bejeweled?
There is a craze in pornography with “upskirt” photos and videos. Salon.com ran an article about upskirt photography and how demeaning, offensive, and disgusting it is. Most of the positive commenters on this application are happy that there is a softcore hentai game for those who have panty fetishes. At Polymorphous Perversity, the writer mentions that we shouldn’t shut down all upskirt photography as it’s fine as long as it’s consensual (or simulated non-consensual). What do you think about this game? Do you think it’s fine as long as it appears consensual?
I didn’t pay the 99 cents for “a Skirt Lift” to try it out, and I won’t. Another picture after the “Read More”:
"Find out her underwear's color by lifting her skirt" - shows a closeup of a woman's legs with a sneak peek at her underwear beneath a skirt.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Cuppycake on January 20, 2010 at 4:16 pm, and is filed under Casual Games, Mobile Games. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
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about 7 months ago
Welcome to rape culture!
about 7 months ago
My thoughts exactly.
about 7 months ago
The concept behind upskirting relies on the fact that it’s non-consensual. If a guy just wanted to see a tight panty-clad ass he could pick up a Victoria’s Secret catalog. Like rape, upskirting is not about arousal but humiliation and power, allowing a photographer to be “a sexual aggressor but without actually having to confront a woman.”
Can a couple of responsible adults practice a little consensual upskirt play with each other? Of course.
Is it appropriate when it’s simulated non-consensual? Fuck no. Upskirting, like rape, has no place in the whimsical world of erotic sims and iPhone apps. Rape fantasy might work in the bedroom between two consenting adults, but it should never be a product to be packaged and sold.
I’m doubly disturbed that this is an iPhone app. I mean, if this kind of erotica must exist, why can’t it be kept at home with the rest of someone’s fap material? This really doesn’t need to be an on-the-go accessory. Can you picture how you’d feel sitting next to a guy on the bus playing this “game”?
about 7 months ago
^This. The upskirt fetish is closely tied to rape fetish and it’s ridiculous that such a thing would be approved for the iphone app store. Just because something is ridiculous doesn’t mean it’s unexpected of course, since I’m certain the folks at apple feel molesting women IRL is a healthy normal activity and a simulation is just fine.
This also brings up the issue of why there aren’t ratings for iphone apps, even if they didn’t go through the ESRB process and instead just did it in house I think many users would appreciate that, so you could tell the app store that you aren’t interested in apps that dehumanize Polynesians or apps that simulate molesting women and so on.
about 7 months ago
I definitely intend on writing a post here about this. There are SO MANY apps on the leaderboards that are nothing but pictures of mostly naked women – that you can’t even legitimately browse the app store without running into it.
Drives me NUTS!
about 7 months ago
Just wanted to say, Great COMMENT.
about 7 months ago
[blockquote]I’m doubly disturbed that this is an iPhone app. I mean, if this kind of erotica must exist, why can’t it be kept at home with the rest of someone’s fap material? This really doesn’t need to be an on-the-go accessory. Can you picture how you’d feel sitting next to a guy on the bus playing this “game”?[/blockquote]
The sad thing is that there are many dudes who believe that they can and should walk around with this on their phones and it should be no big deal.
Working in a telco, we get to see what people download and when you check our website the top downloads are at least 50% porn. It’s really disgusting, especially when you consider that some phones (looking at you Motorola) with a big cover screen display the wallpaper there too.
about 7 months ago
Can you picture how you’d feel sitting next to a guy on the bus playing this “game”?
Sadly, I actually read an article in the Washington Post a few months ago that was about the apparent rise of porn consumption in public. It’s really disturbing and altogether disgusting. Link via Feminist Law Professors.
about 7 months ago
I’m not about to give these creeps a page hit, but I wonder how many of those reviews are astroturfers.
I’d register a complaint, but it appears that you can’t even browse the app store without iTunes installed or an iPhone at hand. This program needs to go the way of that idiotic ‘baby shaker’ app, and fast.
about 7 months ago
Agreed with that. They don’t see to have a developer website either, that I could find anyway.
about 7 months ago
Gross.
I find it telling and extra-disturbing that the woman’s body is headless.
about 7 months ago
In picture books and cartoons, headless adults means that we are seeing from the perspective of a child.
Either way, even more disturbing.
about 7 months ago
I… I will never be able to remember Muppet Babies the same way again.
about 7 months ago
This.
about 7 months ago
It is really disturbing… those screen shots are horrendous. And for all those people writing positive reviews, it must be some twisted encouragement to accept and try it. Yuck.
about 7 months ago
I half wonder if those reviews are from actual customers or someone in relation to the game’s design. Eitherway, the encouraging pack mentality is no less disgusting.
-Ani8
about 7 months ago
It’s because she’s not a person, she’s an object. Immaright?
about 7 months ago
OFFS.
I think I threw up a little bit there. Seriously, this crap needs to go. I’d make more conversation making posts but Katherine really covered the whole gamut.
about 7 months ago
This is disturbing.
about 7 months ago
The idea behind creating,developing and finally placing such thing in Iphone App store is greatly disturbing ,wierd and beyond any rational defense. Still at first i thought that it can get only as much postitive initial “attention” as all things hinting “sex” or “erotism” etc can get, but in the end it beings rather devoid both from ‘sex’ and game factors it should quickly fall into nothingness. Yet reading articles linked in posts changed my initial thoughts ( still have hope though)..creepy..
about 7 months ago
On the one hand, I have very little trouble with people creating whatever kind of simulations they wish, (I’m one of those people who thinks that for some people it’s a way to excercise these impulses in a safe, cathartic manner).
On the other hand, the fact that these kinds of apps are (presumably) public, and have little or no age restrictions applied makes me uncomfortable, especially when it carries with it so many depressing ideas about female sexuality.
about 7 months ago
Would it be more or less offensive if the woman had a visible face, and instead of raising her skirt with your finger, you had to perform some other task (like tapping on a spot that appeared briefly) and if you did so, she’d giggle and flip her skirts at you herself?
On the one hand that would give the woman some agency and non-object-ness, on the other hand that would make it more of a “women should reward you with sex” thing.
about 7 months ago
This is akin to “would you rather drink ipecac or shove your finger down your throat?” even that example made me feel disgusted and activated my gag reflex.
about 7 months ago
“More or less offensive” would still result in it being offensive. And the product of that change still places the woman in the role of plaything and an object that “should reward you with sex” as you concluded.
-Ani8
about 7 months ago
[blockquote]“More or less offensive” would still result in it being offensive. And the product of that change still places the woman in the role of plaything and an object that “should reward you with sex” as you concluded.[/blockquote]
This. Also the fact that it reduces the woman to object that will reward you with sex is what’s one of the big problems here, which is why I strongly disagree with OdieDyne on the “simulations are harmless.”
[trigger warning]Pornography is a tool that is often used by abusers to break down the will of people by pushing a message that what goes on in the pictures is okay. It’s not a safe or cathartic mechanism, but much more of a desensitizing one.[trigger warning]
about 7 months ago
I wonder if we can get this app pulled for being in bad taste. There used to be a “baby shaking app” where you shook the iPhone until the picture of the baby got Xs over it’s eyes. If something like that can be pulled, we should be able to get this app pulled for being offensive.