Monday, May 26, 2008

Sex in the Digital World (Extra Credit Blog)



Adult Friend Finder

www.adult-personals-directory.com
























LuvStreet
www.luvstreet.com
















Grand Theft Auto IV
www.gameswatch.com
























PlayStation 2: Playboy the Mansion
www.gameshell.com

















www.sztab.com


















www.reviews.cnet.com
















PlayStation 2: The Guy Game
www.news.teambox.com























www.videogames.yahoo.com


















Tomb Raider video game
www.thegadgetblog.com
















The digital world has sex all throughout it. Video games, blogs, video and social networking sites, advertisements, and dating services (just to name a few places). It is pretty difficult to go on the internet or play a video game without being bombarded with sexualized images.

Artifact #1 and artifact #2 are both ads for adult “dating” sites. I say “dating” because that is the mild way of putting it when in reality the people using these websites are not looking to date but rather to find someone to have sex with. Adult Friend Finder and LuvStreet are places where adults, single or married, can go to meet other adults that are looking to add a little something new into their sex life. These sites are set up similar to dating websites in that the user creates a profile, posts pictures of themselves (most often sexual pictures), explain what they have to offer and what they are looking for in exchange. These digital hookups turn into real life hookups once the individuals or couples exchange information and decide to meet in real life.

One of the most popular aspects of the digital world is video and computer games. More often than not these games are filled with sexually explicit images and themes and all the rest of the artifacts in this blog revolve around this. Artifact #3 is an ad more the game Grand Theft Auto IV and this is a game that has been under some controversy over the years. Some argue that this game depicts women as sexual objects and that there is a large amount of violence towards them in the game that has been carried out into the real world of violence against women. Artifacts #4-6 are images from the PlayStation 2 game Playboy: The Mansion. In the game the player can choose to have their relationships with the playmates be casual, business, or romantic. The player also plays the part of the photographer of the Playboy photo shoots and he/she chooses what the playmate will wear and how she will pose for the photo shoot. The images in the game are of scantily clad women, partial nudity, and sex acts are performed in the expanded version of the game. Artifacts #7-8 are of the PlayStation 2 game titled The Guy Game. The game is described as a “topless trivia game” and it is modeled after the series “Girls Gone Wild” where the audience is typically drunken college aged males and the women in the game are drunk or semi-drunk college age girls described by some users as “spring break sluts”. Artifact #9 is an image from the Tomb Raider video game. The main character is an Indiana Jones type archaeologist named Lara Croft who goes in search of ancient treasures. Lara is sexualized in that she has a very curvaceous body and is dressed in extremely form fitting clothing however this game differs from the others in that Lara is not the victim of physical or sexual violence, she is not set on display as a sex object as the Playboy girls are, and she is not describes as a “spring break slut”. Instead Lara, even with her hyper sexualized body and clothing, is the action adventure seeker and she is portrayed as the heroine and main character of the game.

Whether one is entering the digital world in search of adult sex friends, playing computer games, or simply checking email, chances are they are going to run into some sort of sexualized image along the way.

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