iOS game lets you beat your boyfriend

[Astoria]

I think stupid is the appropriate word to describe this game. There's poking fun and there's abuse and this is definitely abuse. How is choking your boyfriend while he's driving funny at all? Hopefully it gets enough negativity and disappears.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Cool! Distilled sexism poured into a game! I shall use it in many an example!

I really can't tell if this is supposed to be social commentary or a the creators just didn't see the problem with the underlying message. I'm almost curious enough to visit an official website... almost.

 

[Something Amyss]

I think stupid is the appropriate word to describe this game. There's poking fun and there's abuse and this is definitely abuse. How is choking your boyfriend while he's driving funny at all? Hopefully it gets enough negativity and disappears.

Personally, I hope there's enough blowback people use it as a cautionary tale for devs to come.

Cool! Distilled sexism poured into a game! I shall use it in many an example!

I really can't tell if this is supposed to be social commentary or a the creators just didn't see the problem with the underlying message. I'm almost curious enough to visit an official website... almost.

Given the company in question, I doubt it's satire or social commentary. I can't guarantee it, but I would put good odds on this one being played straight.

 

[BabyRaptor]

That's...sickening.

I mean, yes. There are times when I'm inclined to kick my boyfriend, but...There's a difference between giving someone on kick to the shin or whatever for doing something idiotic and wanting to beat them senseless because they have imperfections. Just...wow.

 

[Hagi]

Glad to see that Jezebel site decrying this as well:

http://jezebel.com/5979986/theres-an-iphone-app-that-rewards-you-for-beating-up-your-boyfriend?post=56817037

Considering this was their stance 5 years ago:

http://jezebel.com/294383/have-you-ever-beat-up-a-boyfriend-cause-uh-we-have

There's still hope for the world maybe?

 

[Ryan Minns]

There is literally

No one is harmed, no gender hated on.

You constantly assault and abuse a man because he's not a little mr. perfect. That's hate in it's purest form. That's glorification of abuse in the raw. this shit is not defensible.

You assault pixels. Pixels are harmed. The ONLY harm it can do to someone is if they make the CHOICE to see it as harmful. NO harm is done unless you CHOOSE to be harmed.

it's identical to saying you're offended because two men are getting married one thousand miles away. it causes ZERO negative effect to ANYONE unless said person decides it's a problem and that means the problem is the person being offended, not to two guys getting married. Surely this is simple to grasp?

The game does not jump out and hit you? The game doesn't kill your mother? It doesn't make you lose your job? The last one is actually a maybe but also has to have someone CHOOSE to be harmed by it.

There are issues that cause suffering, there are also issues that cause suffering BECAUSE people make them issues. This is the latter. Ignore it and no one, not a single person is harmed? Make an issue out of it and you are making the decision to be harmed and the fault lies with you.

 

[Ryan Minns]

Because as we all now, we can't criticize anything that might send a message or glorify a certain behavior, we're only allowed to get angry at things if it flat out physically assaults us.

Yea, no. Doesn't work like that.

Where is this message? Where is the glory? All I see is a couple of pixels you and everyone here commenting on it only heard about when it got posted. This is not glorifying ANYTHING. As a man I don't feel threatened or harmed because it's a bunch of pixels made for certain individuals and to be offended by this only causes me stress which would be the only negative thing these pixels cause.

 

[Mcupobob]

Domestic abuse classy.

It a double standard honestly.


But whatever what can you do?

 

[lechat]

kinda sorta off topic here but

Another editor slapped a guy when "he told me he thought he had breast cancer." (Okay, that one made us laugh really hard.)

taken from jezebel http://jezebel.com/294383/have-you-ever-beat-up-a-boyfriend-cause-uh-we-have


what exactly am i missing in that statement that is meant to be funny? do they not realize men can get breast cancer too? or was the idea of a man dieing of breast cancer somehow amusing to them? i guess best case scenario the guy could have been joking about having breast cancer but i still don't see how that deserves a chuckle


anyway back on topic. i just want to see the "train your girlfriend" app released to even things out. as long as wife beater simulator v 2.0 gets the same level of response we can all agree all is right in the world but i'm sure we all know if they ever do release it it will be front page news and feminists will be burning whole cities to the ground

 

[AngloDoom]

Tasteless. That's all that can be said about it, really.

I fail to see the funny side of it due to my close friend being the victim of domestic abuse but if someone finds it funny than I guess there's a market and it's clearly not me. I just hope the people playing the game aren't using it as a 'getting even' sim.

 

[Kirov Reporting]

This reminds me of a show a few years ago. I think it was called "What Would you do?" or something like that. They had a scenario where a man was hitting his spouse in public to see how people reacted. The public almost immediately took notice and put a stop to it. Then they reversed the roles where the woman was beating the man and not only was it tolerated, one woman was actually enjoying it. It took quite a while for a random woman to stop the beating.

I remember that, didn't most of the crowd comment along the lines of 'he's obviously done something to deserve that', or 'good on her showing him what for!' when of course there's no excuse for violence like that, and obviously no one would have dared say such callous things in the first situation. It's very interesting just how far people are willing to run with this reverse discrimination.

Sorry, what I meant to say is all men are brutes and can't be the victims of physical abuse. Yes.

 

[Vegosiux]

....seriously?

Who's actually going to pay for such a thing? One, there are so many free "beat this guy up mercilessly" apps out there, and two, slapping the person's picture on a dartboard and going FOR THE EYES, BOO!!! is a lot more therapeutic.

 

[Palademon]

I understand how this is stupid, and considered quite sexist.

But it does occur to me that it may not have any menaing unless we put something on it. I'm sure it was affected by "lol woman hurting man" way of thinking, but it's just a piece of entertainment. Some men will enjoy it for that very reason. We may be paying too much attention to the genders, or projecting our own feelings.
As long as we realise that this is a game and shouldn't be used as an incentive for reality it's fine. It's not like we get all up in arms when a game comes out about killing people, so why should domestic abuse be seen as that great a deal if we can calmly remember it's a game.
I can beat up my spouse in Skyrim or Fable, and often will as I'm going around on an evil rampage. Is this game worse because the objective is that?
I mean that objective alone is quite boring, but y'know...murder

 

[Hagi]

I understand how this is stupid, and considered quite sexist.

But it does occur to me that it may not have any menaing unless we put something on it. I'm sure it was affected by "lol woman hurting man" way of thinking, but it's just a piece of entertainment. Some men will enjoy it for that very reason. We may be paying too much attention to the genders, or projecting our own feelings.
As long as we realise that this is a game and shouldn't be used as an incentive for reality it's fine. It's not like we get all up in arms when a game comes out about killing people, so why should domestic abuse be seen as that great a deal if we can calmly remember it's a game.
I can beat up my spouse in Skyrim or Fable, and often will as I'm going around on an evil rampage. Is this game worse because the objective is that?
I mean that objective alone is quite boring, but y'know...murder

I think what makes the game worse is that, unlike all those games with murder, it sets up a very disturbing causal relationship.

Games which feature tons of killing usually come with some sort of save the world plot. Killing tons of people part of some evil organisation intent on destroying the world as we know it will save the world, there'll most certainly be better ways of achieving that but it's a valid means. Murdering the bad guys will stop the bad guys.

Even in games where you can just randomly murder innocents there's no causal connection being implied that this is somehow an admirable thing. I can take a hooker in my car in GTA, do the nasty and then proceed to murder her but at no point will there be a radio broadcast lauding me as citizen of the year for my upstanding treatment of prostitutes.

This game is setting up a causal relationship that beating up your boyfriend will turn him into mr. perfect. That's the messed up part and how it differs from Skyrim or Fable. Beating up your spouse in those games has absolutely no implication by the game that this'll somehow give you a better spouse.

It certainly shouldn't be forbidden or anything, but the implication this game is putting forward that beating up your boyfriend will improve him deserves all the criticism it's getting.

 

[Kirov Reporting]

I understand how this is stupid, and considered quite sexist.

...

I mean that objective alone is quite boring, but y'know...murder

Optional murder. There is nothing in Skyrim (AFAIK) that compels you to murder a spouse, and any decision to do so is on your shoulders (and I would hope to know in advance, so I can keep my distance from you). It's not 'Skyrim: 50 ways to kill your lover'.

I haven't played this game, but from the looks of it, it is being sold as 'use casual violence to shore up that partner!'

Which, if true, is in very poor taste. Now, I'm going to get back to making my App, it's called 'How To Raise Your Kids: Sassback Gets Smacks'

 

[WendelI]

As a gay man i am almost glad that if me and my partner get in a fist fight we are both going to be weight equally in a court of law as apposed to a straight couple where the lady has the advantage. but then again she didn't have the advantage in the fistfight. I don't know how to feel about this; it all honestly seems like a mean spirited joke. Hear it from someone who enjoyed super princess peach I know that sexist jokes can be funny and even fun in a video-game.

 

[Auron]

where the lady has the advantage. but then again she didn't have the advantage in the fistfight.

I know a bunch of women who can break their partners in half, this classic assumption can be very incorrect.

anyway back on topic. i just want to see the "train your girlfriend" app released to even things out. as long as wife beater simulator v 2.0 gets the same level of response we can all agree all is right in the world but i'm sure we all know if they ever do release it it will be front page news and feminists will be burning whole cities to the ground

Yeah I think that's an important step towards equality. There's really no reason for us to go all activist about it as stupid as it is these developers have the right to make their retarded game and it shouldn't be censored, wish more people would realize it.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Just another "prrrt" disappearing into the great desert of gaming, but it's somewhat cathartic to see that sexism and tasteless seem to apply to both genders equally nowadays.