Well, Isn’t That Just Adorable
I read this post on Feministe the other day and haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. It’s bugging me, but not necessarily for the same reason it’s bugging a lot of people.
For those of you who don’t want to click on the link provided, here’s the synopsis:
Ubisoft, maker of apparently popular video games (the only one I’ve heard of is Myst, but I’m not a big gamer – the antique Atari games and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog are about the extent of my experience), has created a series of video games to be marketed specifically to preteen and teen girls to be released in October of this year. They have titles such as -
Imagine: Babies
Imagine: Figure Skater
Imagine: Animal Doctor
Imagine: Master Chef
Imagine: Fashion Designer
The first thing that popped into my head was:
Where’s Imagine: Ph.D.?
or Imagine: E.R. Doctor?
or Imagine: Film Producer?
or Imagine: Stock Broker?
or Imagine: Supreme Court Justice?
or Imagine: Architect?
It doesn’t bother me in the least if young girls want to investigate what it might like to be a fashion designer or mother. What bothers me is the lack of variety and the pigeonholing of what young girls might be interested in.
Here’s my thought: Ubisoft should market these products in two-game sets. So, if you buy “Imagine: Supreme Court Justice” you also get “Imagine: Fashion Designer” and if you buy “Imagine: Babies” you also get “Imagine: Firefighter.”
Growing up should be all about options and choices and an “I can be whatever I want when I grow up” attitude. Unfortunately, Ubisoft misses that mark with their new line of “for girls” video games. They’re all about the professions that are stereotypically female…something I don’t quite understand.
UPDATE: I knew there was something else I wanted to say, but was rushed when I typed the original post. Could Ubisoft please change the name of “Imgaine: Animal Doctor” to “Imagine: Veterinarian”??? You’re marketing to girls, not morons. You can use “big words.” Sheesh.
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August 10th, 2007 at 10:33 am
I want to be an Animal Doctor!
How about:
Imagine: Parole officer
Imagine: Repo woman
Imagine: Bookie
Imagine: Zamboni Operator (I would totally buy that)
Sorry, it’s Friday and I’m silly but I do agree that those games are B.S.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Well, they are trying to sell games, not provide an electronic guidance counselor.
Preteen girls are not adults–they still want to be chefs, ice skaters, veterinarians and fashion designers. While the terms they use may be silly, they picked these things because that’s probably what makes a fun game. If every pre-teen girl who said she was going to become a marine biologist actually became a marine biologist, there’d be little room for the fish. These games provide a fantasy and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Can you seriously imagine a game where you pretended to be a stockbroker or an attorney or a Ph.D? Left trigger shorts your position? Press Down to Deny Cert? Press A to defend your thesis, press B to spend another year smoking pot?
I can see a surgeon or something, but we’re still talking about 10-year-olds. Now you may have something with the Architect–but if it were all about reality, it’d probably still be a boring game.
August 11th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Yes, I can seriously imagine it. And just as I’m sure the Babies and Animal Doctor (NOT veterinarian) games are not full of reality (I’m not sure I know any mother who thought colic was a laugh riot), I’m guessing the same “artistic license” could be applied to games that expand horizons rather than stereotype.
If a company can make being a chef or having a baby look like non-stop excitement, I’m betting they could do the same with the professions of architect, film producer, or, yes, even stock broker…as a matter of fact, I played “stock broker” with friends when I was a teenager – we made the game up ourselves.
August 15th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
As a little girl, I dreamed of being, at one time of another, an engineer, a lawyer, and a chemist. I thought babies were gross, Barbie was stupid, and football RULED!
I played all the gender neutral games with my brothers (Pong, Frogger, Asteroid, Galaga) and if games had a perceived gender bend to them, I wasn’t interested.
Mostly this was due to the fact that I didn’t like other girls. They played with dolls when I wanted to climb trees. They worried about wrinkling their unifrom skirts on the playground while I was playing tackle football on the pavement.
Of course, now I love all the girly stuff, but I didn’t grow into until later. As much as it was a struggle for my mom to find activities that matched my interests, I’m grateful I wasn’t bombarded with all the silly and paronizing (?) games I see now.
I mean, come on, what kind of mother let’s her daughter play with a doll refered to as a Bratz???