I signed up for an account at Miss Bimbo almost two weeks ago. I first came to know about the site from an article on Feministing and various other news sources (wiki gives links to a few) and my first reaction was that it sounded like one of the most horrible things in the world. Teaching kids to be bimbos and get plastic surgery and taking diet pills? WTF? A while after that, one bored afternoon, I decided to see what the fuss was about for myself.
Upon registration, I was awestruck by two aspects of the site. Firstly, one of the face-palmingly ironic aim of the game, which was to be the “most intelligent” bimbo… ever. Do these people not know what the word “bimbo” means? Secondly, I was baffled by the fact that the “bimbo” character that you start off with has an IQ of 70 and you need to work your way up from there. That’s… two standard deviations from the norm, i.e. you’ll be in the bottom 3-ish% of the general population in terms of the smarts. Why you are given an almost retarded virtual woman to start off with is a complete mystery.
As for the game play, it’s pretty shitty for a semi-popular virtual game that boasts to have 500-1000+ players at any one time. Many of the pages are incredibly buggy and poorly coded and the mini-games are horribly banal (except for maybe sudoku). Unlike other online games, Miss Bimbo seems to consciously try to limit the amount of time any player would want to spend on the site, as there is little activity that would motivate one to keep playing continuously at any one time.
On your right, is my “Bimbo” as she currently is.
As for the actual complaints and defences for the game? Here’s a couple of things to note:
- The creators of MB had tried to downplay the existence of plastic surgery in the game as being just a minor, “optional” thing. This isn’t true, as one of the actual goals to advance a level actually requires you to perform surgery on your character. Also, boob jobs and face lifts are by far the quickest and biggest ways to boost your “bimbo attitude”, which is a form of status currency in the game.
- The whole fear that “bawww little 10 year olds are playing the game!” is kind of unjustified; I haven’t seen anyone younger than 16 years old play, and usually the age ranges from early to late twenties. But still, doesn’t mean young women aren’t impressionable.
- They’ve gotten rid of the “diet pills” that apparently you could get before to lose weight, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that they have an “ideal” weight for one’s “bimbo”, which is 127lb (about 57kg). Given how the character is relatively tall, that weight is probably lower than what’s normal.
- I’m surprised that no one has complained about the fact that one of the main ways to earn money in this game is from your boyfriend. That’s right, you are more or less obliged to get a boyfriend, who does nothing but pay you daily (for what, who knows) and gives you status. The higher level you are, the “better” the boyfriend you could get, who then gives you more money and more status dollars. Also, to complete goals, you’re constantly asked to break-up with current boyfriends and get newer, better paying ones.
- A number of the goals require a ridiculously high number of “bimbo attitude” points, which is quite difficult to get. One of the main ways to get it is to spend lots of money on changing one’s hair, makeup, getting a tan, body scrubs and of course, plastic surgery.
- One of the daily flash games that gives a small amount of “bimbo attitude” points, involves “french kissing” as many guys as you can in a club.
- While there is a thankfully wide range of clothing you could get for your modelesque bimbo, there is a disturbing amount of clothing that is incredibly revealing and just plain tacky. Also, you’re encouraged to shop as often as possible for clothing, as various goals require you to have a certain amount of clothing. One of the end goals require you to own at least 500 items of clothing.
I play this game for the fact that I like dress-up, virtual games to an extent, though I tend to abandon them after a while (e.g. neopets). Besides the horribly coded site, I have to say that many of the clothing items and the “bimbos” themselves are nice to look at. However, is this a bad game in a general, “people harming” way? I’d err on the side of “yes”. If I were to do a psychological test, and I was tested before and after 20 minutes of game play to rate my self-image/esteem, I’d probably do marginally worse after playing than not because I simply do not look like that character, even though she’s being portrayed as a desirable, modern woman. It’s not a mind-crushing, “I’m going to kill myself now” comparison as obviously this is a game, but it’s still a vaguely negative experience. To my mind, it’s simply not possible to say this is only “harmless fun”, as the sheer amount of focus on artificial and specific appearances and the prevalent ideas that men are to be used as resources really creates a specific image of how women should be/behave. The game never contemplates different types of women, but that only all women want to be cool, hot, talented and intelligent, superficial and heartless.
There really isn’t any reason for me to continue to play, except that it really doesn’t take up much of my time and that the whole “levelling up” system touches on my RPGesque need to improve gaming characters I’ve invested in. Do I recommend it? Not really. If anyone’s curious to try it, feel free, but I hope what I’ve listed is distasteful enough so that you’d give this a miss.
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