Bimbo primer

30th March 2008

posted in Body Image, Diets, Feminist Topics, Pop Culture |

CNN Headline news tonight ranted about a site that encourages adolescent girls as young as seven to give virtual dolls breast implants, dress them in lingerie and put them on crash diets. The UK-based ‘Miss Bimbo’ web site describes itself as a “virtual fashion game for girls” and encourages them to compete against each other to become the “hottest, coolest, most famous bimbo in the whole world.”

[Girls] are told “stop at nothing,” even “meds or plastic surgery,” to ensure their dolls win.

Users 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, which cost 100 bimbo dollars.

Breast implants sell at 11,500 bimbo dollars and net the buyer 2,000 bimbo attitudes, making her more popular on the site. And bagging a billionaire boyfriend is the most desirable way to earn the all important “mula” or bimbo dollars.

The advice on feeding the dolls is even more spurious, encouraging them to feed the dolls “every now and then” even though they want to keep their Bimbos “waif thin.”

My husband registered for an account - with no urging from me, let me add. The user console says the target weight for his “bimbo” is 127 pounds with an ideal height of a “slinky 5′6″.” This combination would result in a BMI of 20.5, the very low end of what the U.S. government considers to be average. His “bimbo’s” IQ is listed at 70, which signifies her to be mentally retarded.

Edit: With his initial $1,000 Bimbo dollars, Brandon purchased and fed his “bimbo” vegetables and had her go dancing. She gained more than 2 pounds in two hours. What kind of message does this send to young, impressionable girls if vegetables make their dolls gain weight?

The British site claims to have nearly 200,000 players, most of whom are girls aged between 7 and 17. The game is free to play, but if contestants “fail to find a boyfriend to be [their] sugar daddy and hook [them] up with a phat expense account!” they have to send phone text messages at $3 a pop or use PayPal to top up their accounts.

Apparently the site isn’t a new and disgusting phenomenon; it’s sister web site “Ma Bimbo” launched last year has been roundly criticized by dieticians and parents. One parent threatened the creators with legal action after his daughter ran up a $200 cell phone bill without his knowledge.

Meanwhile the site owners, two college-age men who also appeared on CNN news claiming the site to be “harmless fun,” insist the site does not promote boob jobs and crash dieting, but rather “reflects real life.” Hmm… waif-thin, big-breasted, mentally retarded women bagging billionaire boyfriends and dressing in sexy lingerie. Is this real life or some college boy’s fantasy?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 7:31 pm and is filed under Body Image, Diets, Feminist Topics, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On March 30th, 2008, vesta44

said:

The thing that gripes me is that they have the gall to call women “bimbos”. That’s a more pejorative word than “obese” or “overweight”, to me, and I hate both of those words. Talk about reducing a woman to a piece of meat, that word does it, making a woman a brainless lump of flesh good for only one thing. Do the young men who created this game really want their daughters treated that way? Is that how they would see their daughters, if they had any? Is that how they see all of their female relatives?

posted on March 30th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

2 On March 31st, 2008, Mei Jun

Hi, I’m Mei Jun a librarian from NLB. I found your blog useful and recommended it on our ASK! blog. You can view the entry here. Thank you and have a nice day!

posted on March 31st, 2008 at 2:06 am

3 On March 31st, 2008, Jackie

Now this is what I’m talking about, when it comes to horror-themed PC games. Seriously, and I think if they didn’t think of it first, Rockstar Games would have. Yes, I do loathe Rockstar Games.

posted on March 31st, 2008 at 7:19 am

4 On March 31st, 2008, Jackie

I just went to the site, out of a morbid curiousity. It now says on their site, they had decided to remove the diet pills from availability for purchase, due to the negative press they’ve received. Somehow I think that’s only the tip of the iceberg, but you can’t suddenly expect them to have their bimbos fully clothed, and reasonable now can you?

posted on March 31st, 2008 at 7:22 am

5 On March 31st, 2008, Jackie

Well here’s more good news, I tried the game out. It’s boooorrriinnnggg. I don’t know how long this game could possibly last, seriously, it’s horrible. I predict it will eventually die out from it’s lack of real gameplay and such and such.

posted on March 31st, 2008 at 7:28 am

6 On March 31st, 2008, ricki

Good grief. I would hope that any thinking parent would ban that site from their child’s computer.

It makes me sad that in 2008, there are people who think it’s cool and clever to have a video game where a female character “wins” by basically whoring herself out.

(I suppose, though, the “Grad School Success” and “Corporate Ladder” games were deemed “too boring”)

posted on March 31st, 2008 at 8:22 am

7 On March 31st, 2008, Rachel

Jackie - my husband grew bored, too. And they didn’t remove the diet pills; they simply renamed them as “medication,” which I feel is even worse. Medication is usually prescribed by a legitimate doctor, so these diet pills now have an aura of legitimacy to them they didn’t have before. It’s like putting DexiTrim on par with Prozac.

posted on March 31st, 2008 at 10:33 am

8 On March 31st, 2008, Ashley

This site should be closed down along with it’s sister site, no child or anyone for that matter should be exsposed to the crap that is on there.

posted on March 31st, 2008 at 3:34 pm

9 On March 31st, 2008, WeightingGame

This is just too depressing for words. I weep for the future of our litle girls. Whatever happened to games like Memory or Chutes & Ladders?

posted on March 31st, 2008 at 9:30 pm

10 On April 1st, 2008, Katie

Just so everyone is not misinformed:
20.5 is not the low end of the BMI index. It is right in the middle of the normal range. Underweight is anything below 18.5

Adult BMI calculator from the CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/adult_BMI/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.htm

posted on April 1st, 2008 at 10:57 am

11 On April 1st, 2008, Rachel

I disagree, Katie. Average weight is defined as 18.5 to 24.9, which places a BMI of 20.5 on the lower end of the scale.

posted on April 1st, 2008 at 11:13 am

12 On April 2nd, 2008, Raven

i’m so disgusted i hardly have words. and people wonder why so many young girls have eating disorders and self esteem issues.

posted on April 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 am

13 On April 5th, 2008, Earthencircle

I really value and appreciate all the work you do for this blog, Rachel, THANK YOU!

I am appalled and yet not surprised that a site like this is out there. Working with youth and fighting stereotypes (of all types) has led me to understand (not accept, however) that for every step foward we take in breaking down the ‘isms’ we seem to take two steps back because some arsehole can create a site (or something) of this nature that is easily bought in to by society. It is a motivating force that keeps me going!

posted on April 5th, 2008 at 3:17 pm