Rapelay
Heart posted an appeal from Equality Now to the government of Japan to ban RapeLay, an especially horrendous video game currently marketed in Japan, which simulates rape more realistically than any pornography. This is from an action alert posted on the Equality Now site.
Women’s Action 33.1
May 2009Japan: Rape simulator games and the normalization of sexual violence
A schoolgirl around 12 years old travels on a commuter train. A man who has been following her gropes and sexually molests her. Eventually the train stops and she runs frightened into a public toilet, followed by her assailant who handcuffs and rapes her. The assailant takes her prisoner and repeatedly rapes her in various locations. Her mother and teenaged sister suffer the same fate. This family is targeted for rape as punishment because the older sister had previously reported to the police the attempted sexual assault of another woman by the rapist. This is the storyline of RapeLay, a rape simulator computer game produced by Illusion Software and sold in Japan, including on Amazon.
Extreme pornography in the form of cartoons known as hentai, in various media such as comic books, animation, computer games and online entertainment, is easily accessible in Japan and its use is widely accepted. Common themes of hentai include rape, gang rape, incest and the sexual abuse of schoolgirls. This latter form of hentai, known as Loli-Con, often portrays girls being sexually abused by adults in familiar positions of power such as teachers. A number of computer games involving rape, sexual harassment and stalking of women and girls has been produced in Japan. These go one step further than other forms of hentai by enabling the player to control what happens through manipulation, for example as in RapeLay, of an onscreen penis and hands to simulate rape and sexual assault.
The aim of the RapeLay game is for the player to repeatedly rape the mother and her daughters until they begin to “enjoy” the experience. First, the player manipulates the onscreen hand to sexually assault each woman or girl on a train. This assault disturbingly mirrors the real-life situation in Tokyo where, in 2005, the local government was forced to introduce women-only carriages after a survey found that 64% of women in their 20s and 30s had been molested on public transport. Most respondents said they had been groped several times over the previous 12-month period. The sexual assault in RapeLay continues as the woman or girl becomes increasingly distressed and eventually runs away terrified to a secluded spot where the player can then simulate raping her. Both young girls are virgins and their first rapes are represented by the breaking of their hymen with blood on the penis.
After on-screen raping of the mother and her two daughters, the player has more control over rape scenarios and must “rape-train” the woman and girls by subjecting them to multiple and varied sexual assaults, including gang rapes, until they succumb to each assault and even beg their rapist to indulge them. As the rapes continue the chances of the woman and girls becoming pregnant increases. The player must, however, force the woman and girls to get abortions otherwise one of the girls will stab him to death, again in a manner that sexualizes violence. Illusion Software has also issued a free download that includes depiction of the woman and girls in a cell being subjected to sexual torture, as well as a scene of a particularly brutal rape of the elder daughter with the mother and younger daughter being forcibly restrained and made to watch.
The Anti Pornography and Prostitution Research Group, an organization based in Japan which has been working to stop the objectification of women, says it has difficulty in trying to educate a government that even allows real gang rape videos to be sold in the open market. It was not until 1999 that Japan outlawed child pornography. However, pornographic computer games remain unregulated as they fall outside the legal definition of child pornography in the Law for Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography of 1999.
Japan ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1985 and was last examined on its report in 2003 by the CEDAW Committee, which reviews government compliance with CEDAW. While in its report the Japanese government recognized that “violence from husbands or partners, sexual crimes, prostitution, sexual harassment and stalking behaviour are grave violations of women’s human rights” the CEDAW Committee expressed concern that Japanese law characterized stalking as “acts to ‘satisfy love or other favourable feelings towards the person,’ or to ‘work off grudges resulting from the failure to satisfy these feelings.’” Such characterizations are rampant in hentai, which include a successful Japanese comic book series called Rape Man, portraying a male teacher who transforms into “superhero” Rape Man by night, raping women in order to settle grudges or “teach them a lesson” for jilting their lovers.
In its general recommendation No. 19 on “violence against women”, the CEDAW Committee confirmed that “[g]ender-based violence is a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women’s ability to enjoy rights and freedoms on a basis of equality with men.” Specifically, it commented that “traditional attitudes by which women are regarded as subordinate to men or as having stereotyped roles perpetuate widespread practices involving violence or coercion…Such prejudices and practice may justify gender-based violence as a form of protection or control of women…These attitudes also contribute to the propagation of pornography and the depiction and other commercial exploitation of women as sexual objects, rather than as individuals. This in turn contributes to gender-based violence.”
When reporting to the CEDAW Committee, the Japanese government admitted that “the image of women in the media, who were often portrayed as objects either of sex or violence, had a great impact” on gender stereotypes. The CEDAW Committee expressed concern about such stereotypes of women, “the prevalence of violence against women and girls and about women’s apparent reluctance to seek assistance from existing public institutions.” It also noted that “the penalty for rape is relatively lenient.” To prove rape in a court of law in Japan, judges often look at the level of violence perpetrated and/or the degree of resistance put up by the victim rather than whether the woman actually consented to intercourse.
Japan is considered a close ally by most US people and politicians. Has Japan ever been confronted on any of this by US officials? Occasionally Japan catches some flak over its hunting of whales and dolphins, but apparently this blatant encouragement of violence against women is not considered as meriting protest? Ah, priorities interfere. USA needs Japan to keep buying its debt. A little noise can be raised about the whales and dolphins, since there is no meaningful pressure on Japan to change its ways on that score, but this? Is this more evidence of the reluctance to challenge cultural traditions, such as was cited to explain the silence of the international community about the family law for Shiites recently passed in Afghanistan, with the ardent support of President Karzai, sanctioning marital rape? Obama could threaten to boycott Japan if it does not ban this video game, but that is so unlikely, I doubt it is even on his radar screen.
January 4th, 2010 at 4:16 am
What an ignorant post! Saying this game sanctions rape or that Japan should be threatened with boycott unless its government steps in like Big Brother is like saying that the US should be boycotted because the Grand Theft Auto game is glorifying cop-killing, hooker-beating, and grand larceny. If you want to personally boycott Illusion then go right ahead (their business outside of Japan I would imagine to be close to zero, so good luck with that) but to call for a foreign government to use YOUR standards to suppress free expression is more disgusting than anything in a video game.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
What I consider disgusting is that people like zergo call glorifying rape free expression, or in other words just good fun. Rape is a huge problem all over the world, far more common than killing police or even stealing cars. To feed that epidemic is hate speech, but expressions of hatred of women are just another form of free expression in the eyes of many males, who think women secretly enjoy rape, or should, so therefore, what is the problem with these women who object to male enjoyment of portrayals of rape? We must have no sense of humor, right? Sorry, guys, it is not funny, innocuous, or free expression you are defending.
January 4th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Glorifying rape? Go on the internet and compare the stats for violent sexual assault against women between Japan, where games and such of this nature are legal, with those in countries where it is banned. I have been to Tokyo several times, and it is not uncommon to see women young or old walking the streets by themselves in the early AM hours, in one of the biggest cities in the world. If banning this kind of media would eliminate or reduce rape, I would be all for it. What I consider disgusting is ignorant people trying to use the law to ban what they consider offensive, no matter how harmless it may actually prove to be.
Bottom line, no one in a free society should be imprisoned for playing a cartoonish video game, no matter how offended you are by its contents.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Who is talking about imprisoning people for playing the game? You may consider it harmless and cartoonish, but you really have no idea what effect it has on people. Certainly banning it would not eliminate rape, though it might reduce it somewhat. Rape has too many causes and is endemic in male-dominant cultures. Japan is not immune, though I would not claim it has anywhere near the highest incidence of rape. Sexual harassment and discrimination are still major problems there. Have you heard of the comfort women during World War II? You are making virtually the same argument as those who see nothing wrong with any kind of pornography; it is all free expression with no real impact. Women beg to differ. It is more accurate to say degrading images of women encourage and profit from hatred of women.
Did you bother to read the last paragraph I quoted? What is the Japanese government talking about, if rape is no problem in Japan?
January 6th, 2010 at 12:11 am
I don’t think it follows that the kind of people who enjoy this kind of game hate women, or at least the majority of such people. Many young men (anywhere, but I think it is particularly common in Japan) are very insecure about their dealings with women, and these kind of games may provide an outlet for their confusion and frustration that doesn’t hurt anyone. I think the vast majority of people who are attracted to these games (and yes, there is a tiny minority of women who enjoy this type of game, whatever their reasons) are not the type who are out sexually assaulting women.
January 6th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
So you think gratifying rape fantasies is harmless and does not hurt anyone? I am sorry, but I think you are naive. Portraying women as sex objects who should learn to enjoy rape is based on and feeds hatred of women, pure and simple. It is not a harmless fantasy. Are you aware that until recently, men could rape their wives with impunity? Women were supposed to lie back and enjoy it, if the man cared about her pleasure at all. Men who get off on rape fantasies should be insecure about their dealings with women; women would be better off not having to deal with such men at all.
Your argument that this provides a harmless outlet is a classic defense of pornography. Women who have to deal with men who get their ideas of what sex is supposed to be like from pornography know better. One would think men should know the difference between fantasy and reality, but all too often, that line gets blurry. What do you think is the real attraction of rape fantasies, if not the heady feeling of wielding that kind of power over a woman? Rape is one of the most vicious forms of assault. To make a game of it is to erase and trivialize what it means to women.
January 9th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Again, you seem to think that men are incapable of distinguishing fantasy and reality (I would hope for their own safety that most men who watch porn don’t think that pulling out and ejaculating on their lovers’ chest and face is going to get a positive response). I have seen nothing indicating any link between users of these games and real-life sexual assaults. I sincerely doubt that many of these men try to get their wife or gf in the mood by ripping her clothes off and slapping her into submission. Just as you wouldn’t expect fans of violent video games to act out on the street, there is no reason to believe that fans of these games are going to take this behavior into their personal relationships. Men who exhibit this kind of sociopathic behavior in real life generally don’t take their cues from video games.
January 11th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
It never helps a rational discussion for one side to assume what the other seems to think. You are willfully evading my questions and points. This may suit your purpose, but I have no interest in going around in circles. That you may not have seen something does not mean it is not there; people tend not to see what they do not look for, or believe is not there to be found. The classic example was the tobacco companies claiming there was no evidence smoking caused lung cancer. That was just a lie, but because it was difficult to prove a direct causal link, they got away with it for years. Do you think images portraying women as objects of sex or violence have no impact? The Japanese government would not go that far. I wonder why.
Rape is less common in relationships than it used to be, at least in cultures where feminism has made some inroads. Still, plenty of men are not too concerned about whether their partners are really in an amorous mood. Rape is far more common than sociopathic behavior, and anything that desensitizes men to rape is far from innocuous. Your argument raises a straw man, that those protesting Rapelay think it directly causes rape. No, the link is indirect, and in many cases may be a rather weak link, but it exists nonetheless. There is a difference between encouraging something and directly causing it. Perhaps Rapelay is just a particularly gross symptom of the male-dominant culture, which is the real cause of rape and other forms of violence against women. Still I have to wonder, what is the attraction of rape fantasies, and why would anyone think they are totally disassociated from reality?
January 14th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Perhaps these rape fantasies are a manifestation of a base biological drive of the male to mate with as many females as possible, in order to produce the maximum number of offspring with a variety of mates. A very primitive drive that is easily suppressed in just about everyone by the higher thought processes. Just as when we are walking down the street and have to poop, we don’t usually just squat right there on the sidewalk. But the primal instinct may still allow us to derive pleasure from the fancied fulfillment of this drive, especially when it can be expressed in private and thus without social consequence or causing harm to others.
January 14th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
What the hell does the fulfillment of the sex drive have to do with rape? Do you think the distinction between sex and rape is trivial? I doubt you do, but historically men have thought that way, and the blurring of that distinction was just about codified into law in Afghanistan. Perhaps you did not hear about that peculiar family law for the Shia there, basically saying a wife had no right to say no. That old concept of submitting to sex as wifely duty is not obsolete, in the eyes of too many men in this world. Do you know how many men will confess that they would rape if they thought they could get away with it? Do you understand that for women, rape is not a game, rather one of the most vicious forms of assault imaginable, tantamount to torture? Is gratifying such fantasies really harmless and without social consequence in your eyes? If this primitive drive is so easily suppressed, why is rape, and other forms of violence against women, such a huge problem in this world?