Why You Will Forget About This Sexual Assault Video Game

Have you heard of Rape Lay? It’s a rape simulation game that led to much discussion and justifiable outrage a few months ago. The game was eventually pulled form Amazon.   Unfortunately, Stockholm: An Exploration of True Love…is even worse:

” [Stockholm is] a terrifyingly vivid exploration of Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological condition in which a captive falls in love with her kidnapper. And you play the part of the kidnapper. With a limited number of options, you must figure out how to make her fall in love with you.” [ Via - Amazon]

This game is much darker than Rapelay in that torture, kidnapping, and psychological abuse are used as pre-cursors to love. [!?]

Why This Won’t Cause the Faux Outrage that Rape Lay Did

I call it “faux outrage” because the game led to the usual video game apologists trotting out their, “It’s a free country” song and dance while the uppity Westerners wag their fingers and say “oh my gosh those Japanese folks are seriously disturbed”. In the end, both camps walk away feeling better about themselves. 

Rape Lay was also a self serving news story for politicians like British Labour MP Keith Vaz who seem to worry more about banning a video game than about enacting more sexual assault education programs and strengthening laws to make reporting rape less of a fruitless hassle.  Rape Lay has also found support among misguided Libertarians like Penn Gillette who don’t seem to understand how a game like this reinforces rape culture in society. 

We can’t blame obscure Japanese culture for this game. As far as I know, it wasn’t produced in Japan for a Japanese market. Stockholm doesn’t allow ‘us’ to point fingers at someone else’s culture when we should really examine our own culture and why it continues to allow rape to go unreported and un-prosecuted. 

The Real Problem with Rape Simulation Games

I don’t believe these games create rapists. I argue that they make rapists far more comfortable then they should be. This is what separates Grand Theft Auto 4 from Rape Lay and Stockholm. Murder carries the heavy consequence of indefinite jail time (and sometimes death) in real life while rape does not. Many women don’t even bother reporting their rapists because the chance of successfully convicting their attacker is next to nil. 

So you’ll most likely forget about this Sexual Assault Video game. Doing something beyond banning the game takes the hard work of shining a light on a broken justice system that continues to sweep rapists and their victims under the rug.

Steps You Can take Beyond Internet Flame Wars

The Easy Stuff

Help Amazon filter out the bad stuff. I’m confident Amazon will pull this game once they receive enough complaints from consumers. Do your part by sending a note to Amazon here. 

The Awesome Stuff

Volunteer to raise awareness about the true nature of sexual assault (8 in 10 women are assaulted by someone they know). I did this in college and it was an amazing experience. Join V-Day and sign up to become a College or Community Organizer.

Write your elected official and encourage them to pass H.R. 80 the Military Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Response Act to better protect men and women serving in the military. 

H.R. 80 would reduce sexual assault and domestic violence involving members of the Armed Forces and their family members and partners through enhanced programs of prevention and deterrence, enhanced programs of victims services, and strengthened provisions for prosecution of assailants. [ Via- Change.org]

[Via - Jezebel]

Tagged as: rapelay, sexual assault video game, stockhold; an exploration of love