p2pnet - rss feed: Evans-Jacquart ‘Boob Jobs’ Bimbo
p2pnet news view Kids & Kartels | P2P:- “Bimbo is a term that emerged in popular English language usage in the early 20th Century to describe an often attractive, yet clumsy woman,” says the Wikipedia, going on, “bimbo can also be someone who enjoys being pleased often by intercourse with unknown strangers. The archetype of a bimbo with sex appeal is much used as a stock character in comedies with sexual humor ……..”
When a player reaches skill level seven, she used to be told, “After you broke up with your boyfriend, you went on an eating binge! Now it’s time to diet.”
That’s from a Daily Mail article by Winifred Robinson.
The ‘game’ is Bimbo, and ‘players’ start at the age of nine. Unless, of course, they lie about their age.
Miss Bimbo can’t diet any more because public outrage forced her ‘fathers,’ Chris Evans and Nicholas Jacquart, to pull that aspect.
But little girls can still pretend to have breast implants, and want to tart themselves up so they can attract men.
Bimbo masquerades as a game, but it’s a cheap and nasty way to exploit young girls and it matters because it’s a rehearsal for adult life, as Robinson sums it up.
“As a society we are obsessed and terrified by paedophilia,” she says, “and yet we are encouraged to accept products which introduce our children to concepts of sexual allure totally inappropriate to their years.
“And if something is presented on a computer, a child feels it’s OK because someone in authority must have sanctioned it.”
‘They can dress her in sexy outfits and take her clubbing’
Miss Bimbo is an online game targeting girls as young as nine and where, “players are invited to meet the demands of a voracious, virtual teenager whose needs include binge eating and fasting - and plastic surgery,” Robinson explains.
‘The girl who chooses to play on this website is invited to adopt a character and provide for her care by performing online tasks to earn ‘virtual’ money to spend on her charge.The more you play, the higher you climb up a ladder of skills.”
In p2pnet’s first post on this, children are, “given a naked virtual character to look after,” we quoted the Guardian as saying.
“They compete against other players to earn ‘bimbo’ dollars so they can dress her in sexy outfits and take her clubbing,” it went on. “They are given missions, including securing plastic surgery at the game’s clinic to give their dolls bigger breasts, and they have to keep her at her target weight with diet pills. Although it is free to play, when the contestants run out of virtual cash they have to send text messages costing £1.50 (almost $3) each or use PayPal to top up their accounts.”
With already 1.2 million players in France, “the French have already condemned the doll and the game - with one parent already threatening legal action after his daughter charged over US$200 to his mobile phone, without his knowledge,” said Now Public.
Says Robinson, “Academic research suggests that it’s this setting of simple tasks that hooks in young minds, and accounts for the fact that once children are engrossed in a particular computer game, they never want to quit.”
But with Miss Bimbo, there’s an, “added toxic twist in the sheer, crashing vacuity of the character the nation’s daughters are being encouraged to nurture. She is a teenage mannequin, a ‘Bimbo’ - complete with bunny-girl ears, pouting lips, blank expression and pneumatic breasts” who, “must be provided with modelling jobs, diet pills, breast augmentation - and a fabulously wealthy man who will pay for her expensive tastes.”
The altar of marketing
According to Jacquart, the game, “simply mirrors real life in a tongue-in-cheek way”.
But, “Lee Dawson, medical director of the Rhodes Farm Clinic, which treats girls aged eight to 18 who have eating disorders, condemned Miss Bimbo as ‘lethal’, predicting that ‘a lot of children will get caught up with these extremely damaging and appalling messages’,” says the Daily Mail, continuing:
“Can you really imagine a nine-year-old 20 years ago acting out a game in which her doll goes on a fast and has plastic surgery?”
But above all, “Miss Bimbo is reflective of a current willingness to sacrifice childhood on the altar of marketing.
Says the story >>>
Dr Maye Taylor, a psychologist with two grown-up children, told me: “If this website had really been created for fun, it would be free to use, but of course it’s not.
“You can begin to play the game for free - the classic marketing tool to get you started - but once you progress through the levels, you must sign up to an online subscription so you can be charged £1.50 a time to send texts to the website, which in turn buy virtual money to spend on your character.
“The makers can smile and protest all they like,” she concludes, “but Miss Bimbo is not about fun, it is about cash, and cash that is earned in a way that is harmful to children.
“Companies understand that there is money to be made from children, and the attitude among some elements seems to be that if this involves the sexualising of young girls then so be it.
“Thongs, boob tubes and makeup for six-year-olds are always excused by those who wish to sell them as ‘harmless fun’.”
Bimbo was down yesterday, but it’s back and Evans and Jacquart are using the disgust shown by parents as a marketing feature.
‘It’s called parental control…’
At 5:21 am Pacific, there were 357,317 registered ‘Bimbos,’ but before they can start having virtual boob-jobs, they first to see, “As a result of this rather surprising media attention we have decided to remove the option of purchasing diet pills from the game,” and, “At this time we would also like to remind players that the Miss Bimbo team assume no responsibility or liability for any fashion faux pas, hair style disasters or boob jobs incurred in real life as as a result of playing the Miss Bimbo game.”
Would you want your nine-year-old —- or any other age —- daughter ‘playing’ at being an Evans-Jacquart Bimbo?
Adds Robinson in the Daily Mail, “The forces that gave rise to Miss Bimbo may be complex and global, but the answer is simple: as parents, we must turn away from what we are doing and catch up with what our children experience online.
“If we don’t like it, switch it off. It is called parental control ……..”
Miss Bimbo does, however, have her good points.
Emma, my 11-year-old daughter, pointed her out to me in the first place and she and I have now had several in-depth discussions on the subject of what’s OK and what isn’t, and why.
Computers are part of every day life and anyone who pretends their kids aren’t going to use them, or be influenced by what they see and hear online, is living in a dream world.
We can’t stop them from surfing, and nor would most of us want to. But we can try to teach them what’s good and what’s bad —- and what’s ugly.
And as a last resort, “If we don’t like it, switch it off. It is called parental control ……..”
Jon Newton - p2pnet
Daily Mail - One mother attacks Miss Bimbo, March 31, 2008
first post - Be an online Bimbo! Get a boob job!, March 26, 2008
Guardian - Internet Miss Bimbo game for girls attacked by parents, March 25, 2008
Now Public - Playing With Dolls or Daddy’s Wallet?, March 25, 2008
down yesterday - Sick girl’s site Bimbo offline, April 1, 2008
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April 2nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
So what? All of this is only relevant if you believe the assumption that acts on a computer reflect real life choices. This is like saying violent video games cause violent serial killers, which is IMHO, bullshit.
They are right that people are over-obsessed about pedophilia, however who is to say what is appropriate at what age (including the act of sex)? Much of that is and should be dictated/decided by cultural leanings and the individuals themselves. Girls used to get married at the ages mentioned in the article all the time, and then they had sex after. It’s the current cultural norm that we look down on sexual acts at varying younger age brackets, and I’m not saying I condone actions with those underage (actually I’m very against it), but we cannot make the jump that a girl giving herself a boob job online is going to go out and get a boob job in the real world, or even that it would encourage them to. Also, it is alluded that doing that sort of behavior online will also encourage them to go out and have sex. What ever happened to having sex when you loved someone and were ready? Are we as a society so inept that we assume our kids can be swayed to do anything because of a computer screen?
Like you say Jon, if you really want to have that kind of control, exercise some parental controls and then STFU.
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:38 am
When I was young, children played a game called [url=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboys_and_Indians”]”Cowboys and Indians”[/url]. The object was to “kill” the Indians with toy guns. Explain to me how that was better.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Andy, ”Cowboys and Indians” probably wasn’t better. What’s your point?
“This is like saying violent video games cause violent serial killers, which is IMHO, bullshit.”
It’s not just games. Violent content permeates virtually every form of popular media in existence. The effects are self evident to anyone who is paying attention. How many kids brought guns to school and shot up the place even 20 years ago? Just a fluke I suppose…