"Secret Flirts" game teaches girls 'toxic' lessons
We read:
"FAMILY groups have attacked a video game that teaches young girls how to flirt, describing it as a dangerous sexualisation of youth culture.
Called Secret Flirts, the game for Nintendo DS claims to show girls how to "make everyone fall for you".
A promotional video providing a walk-through of Secret Flirts starts with a groovy young girl giving a sly wink and a Cupid's arrow piercing a pink heart.
The first "lessons" of the game teach girls to do their make-up and choose clothes and accessories.
The next lesson is to "improve your attraction" by going to a hairdresser, a beauty centre and a gym. Then players are ready to listen to advice from the "Love Coach".
"Become more irresistible day after day – then win the heart of the boy of your dreams," Secret Flirt promises.
Source
Hard to see what's objectionable about it. There is no mention of sex in it as far as I can see. What is wrong with a girl wanting to be attractive? I suspect that it is only dried-out old uglies who are protesting.
8 comments:
Outrageous! No way I'll let my son buy this game. 13 is way too young!
Really, seems harmless enough. I would think that anyone who would consider buying this game already has some idea of how to dress and use makeup to attract the opposite sex.
Games don't transform people. The tendencies (if any) are already there, so this will most likely attract like-minded girls. I don't see a danger of it turning innocent girls into "loose women".
Ironically, it's the family/parents that have the power to educate children on the "reality vs video game" front, so they shouldn't ban the game, just remind the kid that it's only a game, and YMMV in real life.
Secret Flirts doesn't turn you into a whore just like Grand Theft Auto doesn't turn you into a killer, if anything, it takes you to an imaginary world so you don't get in trouble with the real world.
It's sort of like "The Sims," your character goes to the gym, cleans the house, goes to work, and does everything you should be doing in real life.
Just to play Devil's Advocate for a moment here, do we really NEED another voice telling our daughters that their entire self-worth should be based on how attractive they are to a man?
There is already powerful evidence that media exposure influences behavior (and if it doesn't, then the NFL owes Coke an awful lot of money back), so the cries that it's "just a game" ring hollow in the face of scientific reality.
But being aware of the message that the game sends, it is, as always, up to parents to raise "well rounded, self-confident" daughters who can not only laugh at the message this game sends, but kick every other girl's ass when playing it!
Well said Stan. If video games and media in general didn't have a strong influence on people, we wouldn't be drowning in commercials! Hundreds-of-Billions are spent every year to influence how people think, and therefor act. As for this particular game, the only real harm i can see is that it takes females one step further away from the reality of everyday life in the real world, in that it's teaching them that only the outer shell is important. Nothing can be further from the truth.
LOL!!!
Don't over-rate advertising
Read up about the Ford Edsel
Ford spent a billion in today's money on advertising but still could not sell it
That's true Jon, but his advertising campaign had nowhere near the exposure of todays products. Back then, a one hour TV program had perhaps ten minutes of commercials. Today, it's almost the exact opposite. They even flash commercials across the screen after a long series of commercials has just finished interupting the programing! Using todays "blitz-style" commercials, the Edsel might have lasted longer than it did, even though it was a total failure from the start.
BTW, the reason for the unlimited number of commercials shown on TV? Some years ago, in the dead of night, the lying crooks of the US congress gave their pals in the TV industry the ability (via a law) to show as many commercials as they want, which of course means much more $$$ for the networks. And what did the crooked politicians get in return? Instant and unlimited access to the microphones and TV cameras.
Another instance of girls being objectified for the benefit of men. It's as if men have no criteria with which to evaluate women except the way they look, and the game caters to that instead of trying to educate girls to the fact that there IS more to them than their appearance.
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