Miss Bimbo

The Miss Bimbo game has been all over the blogosphere, and I can’t help but jump into the fray. This game is a virtual world where players get a virtual bimbo and they can get her plastic surgery and control her eating so that she looks like a perfect bimbo and wins the Mss Bimbo contest.

There is a lot of discussion about whether this game is bad or just funny. The game is targeted toward 9 to 16 year-old girls.

When I first heard about this game I was convinced it was a fake site created to piss off all of the women of the world. The reality that it is a real site with 200,000 players makes me very, very sad. Have we come so far from the days of Reviving Ophelia?

I don't think this game is ironic or clever, I think this game is bad for girls. Nine-year olds might be sophisticated in some ways, but numerous studies have shown that girls are directly affected by discussions of diets and body types. That is why The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty exists.

The media affects the way that girls feel about their bodies:

· 9% of 9 year old have vomited to lose weight

· 81% of 10 year old are afraid of being fat

· 53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies

· 78% of 18 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies

· The #1 wish of girls 11-17 years old is to lose weight

Source: Body Wars: Making Peace with Women’s Bodies,
by Margo Maine, Ph.D., Gürze Books, 2000

As if we didn’t have enough problems with stereotypes and body image now girls can actually cut bits off of their characters.

I just wish that people paid more attention to the fact that what their child sees effects their views of themselves.

I would like to see this game die a slow death.