The Way Women are Portrayed at Arcades: This BUGS me!!!
Look closely.
Am I the only one annoyed by this? We try to be good parents. We monitor every single thing that comes into our house. The boys only get to play video games on the weekend, and even then, it’s Mario, Sonic, or Lego characters.
But what happens when you take your children to a restaurant/video game arcade? And not just one particular one, but pretty much all of them?
Scantily clad women waving flags on the motorcycle game. Ughhhhhhh. Why? Who is this for? Let’s look at this picture, shall we? Who is playing this game? A young girl and two young boys. Who just goes and stands around, occasionally getting to throw in a token ourselves? The grown-ups.
These games are mostly played by children, so why do we have showgirls waving flags? This is teaching this young girl “This is what you need to look like. This is hot. Aspire to this.” And this is teaching young boys, “Whoo-hoo! Women! Yeah! Don’t take us seriously.”
This doesn’t need to be set up as an accepted society standard of what womanhood means. My boys don’t need to deal with sexy images of women yet. They are young. I would never allow an image like that in my home or computer screen, so why would we want it in the arcade? Just because something is prevalent in our culture doesn’t mean it’s right, and the portrayal of women is one of those things.
This is how women are packaged in our society: as sex objects. Could we please get this out of our video games? Could we get this game out of arcades that are mostly frequented by children? Am I not the only one highly annoyed by this??
I hate seeing that myself! Luckily, my kids aren’t all that much into arcades, but even at Peter Piper Pizza the racing games have these sultry/scantily clad women starting the race! It is really all just messed up!
See, that is exactly what I’m talking about! This particular picture was taken at Corvette Diner in San Diego, which we still loved, but every arcade has these. Bleh!
I cringe whenever I take my Littles out in public, especially now that Middle is almost 13. It is soooo uncomfortable for me to know he is standing by my side while being exposed to the freaking poster or magazine aisle in Walmart. Don’t even get me started on video games… Does it really make the game better to put half-naked women in it? It numbs our boys to the serious issue of objectification before they are old enough to even appreciate the female body. Grrr. Thanks, April, for posting about such an important matter.
Oh, the magazine part of the check-out! The horrors. I didn’t even think to mention that one. It’s everywhere for sure, and the checkout line is another unavoidable place. *grooooooan*
Oh that is the worst,especially when they can start reading by themselves and try to sound out some of the stories!
No, you are not alone. It is a shame to be so objectified, and to not be able to take your kids much of anywhere where they aren’t exposed to it.
So true. It’s really everywhere.
Amen!! Yes, I totally agree! We too are careful with what our children see and it’s thrown in our face everywhere we go. Disgusting and sad!
Thank you! Now if only we could change it!
I agree. And it’s more than arcades. I hate the sultriness in girls’ toys and other marketed-to-girls products, too. The toy store aisles are filled with merchandizing from Brattz and other lines that are just inappropriate for little girls. Don’t even get me started on the Zombie and Monster characters lately! he Disney princesses, especially Tinkerbell, look so sultry to my eyes.
At the dollar store, I recently came across fillable loot bags for birthday parties. One package contained ten plastic loot bags with sweet little woodland cartoon characters printed on the front of the bag. The other package of ten plastic loot bags was printed with scantily-clad cartoon girls in sultry poses! These were both marketed to the same demographic — little girls having birthday parties! Yuck.
It’s really sending a terrible message to our girls. Thank you, second-wave feminism.
I have definitely noticed that, with the Bratz dolls and with little girl clothing. And most moms I know aren’t looking for that. It’s all so aggravating and sends all the wrong messages.
I agree with you. Glad that your children are blessed to have Godly parents to teach them the truth, but it is still harmful.
Thank you!
I so agree! Speak on, Sister!
🙂 You know I will. 🙂
You are absolutely right!
Thank you!