Feminist
Pro-Queer
Anti-Racist
Gaming

A new game has sprung up from the depths which may make games like Rapelay look like Nintendogs. It's taken me too long to write about this game. Every time I start to, I get sick to my stomach and filled with disgust and impotent rage. Imagine the sadistic depravity of games such as Tsuki Possession, Rapelay, Virgin Roster, or 7 Sins and combine it with the real-film look of The Guy Game and you may be getting close to understanding the sick trash that is Stockholm: An Exploration of True Love (Released 27 May 2009).

Stockholm is an interactive DVD in which you play a sadistic and creepy (even though it's first person) kidnapper. The point, as the name may suggest, is to get your victim to fall in love with you. This goal is to be accomplished through fear using torture, rape, forced nudity, suffocation, gassing, etc. Charming.

Billed as "The Controversial Masterpiece that was Banned from Amazon", Stockholm doesn't just trump other games featuring the domination of women in content alone. There are some things which challenge my beliefs. I don't believe in capital punishment, but Ted Bundy is a man I believe wholly deserving of that and more. I don't believe in torture, an eye for an eye, but I believe that the creator of Stockholm may deserve it.

Follow up:

The issue I have with this man, Stanton Audemars, is not that he believes that video games should not be censored or that they have no potential to influence. Contrarily, Stanton feels that video games as an artistic medium can have a dramatic influence on people. With this philosophy, he directed Stockholm with claims that it shows a different type of love that doesn't "turn lions into housecats". While Stanton claims that he claims to be very strongly opposed to rape and kidnapping, he simultaneously holds that:

There is something else that I am not a fan of. And that is the current, official, feminist-endorsed, Hollywood-promoted perspective on what love is. Roughly, this love:

1. Is always monogamist
2. Is never possessive
3. Is doting, not dominant

and that:

Stockholm is dangerous because it shows the truth about a powerful emotion. It is a first step in illustrating that there are versions of love that do not involve castrating the mind, or domesticating the male spirit. Many of those who have won Stockholm have realized that this type of undomesticated, uncastrated love can exist without kidnapping or rape. Kidnapping and rape might help illustrate it in a simulation, but they are certainly not prerequisites.

If it is about versions of love which "do not involve castrating the mind, or domesticating the male spirit" and that kidnapping and rape illustrate this version of love, this to me implies that kidnapping and rape are an acceptable and natural manifestation of this kind of "love" and cause me to feel no sympathy for the castrated male mind. Why is the acceptable or more desirable outcome based on the domination and subsequent castration of the female mind and body? Can this game in any way explore what he says it does? To me, this game only demonstrates what is already deeply embedded within our culture: that the domination of women is all fine and good. There doesn't need to be a game to tell us that – it already permeates most aspects of our (rape) culture.

When I was in undergrad, I was appalled at the frequency of rape in society and in the college environment. What appalled me more was learning in one of my psych classes that most ("acquaintance") rapists do not actually believe they have committed rape. This stems from an often unspoken dominating belief that women need to be dominated by men. Us docile things must say "no" to protect our virtue and it is up to men to put themselves to taking it so that we can remain pure. It's the same thing that leads some men to tell lesbians that they just "haven't had the right dick yet." It's the belief that women need men to dominate them. RMD Global CEO, Jared Roland, publisher of Stockholm attempts to claim that the decision to publish the game was the righteous one:

I faced that dilemma when I first was asked to publish Stockholm: An Exploration of True Love. I knew it would be controversial, and I knew that there would be a lot of negative knee-jerk reactions. I knew that some people would probably not only refuse to buy Stockholm, but would probably refuse to buy anything with the RMD imprint (and we have received many emails to that effect). But ultimately, I knew that “Stockholm” was brilliant, challenging, and upsetting. It deserved to be seen by anyone brave enough to explore it. My choice was between taking the easy path or taking the right path. It was a choice between bravery and cowardice. To me, the choice between bravery and cowardice is no choice at all. The game is: an exploration of one of the most important ideals in modern America, something that challenges the very foundation of our male-female interactions. I consider it to be one of the most important works of art produced in the last decade, and I am proud to represent it.

To me, though, this game and its release do not demonstrate bravery. Showing in a shocking way what is already a deeply ingrained aspect of our culture of expected male domination over women challenges nothing. The torture of women is not new. The rape of women is not new. The acceptance of these things is not new either. So, I cannot see this project as brave or groundbreaking. I do not think of it as a "masterpiece".

Take, for example, sexual aggression on college campuses which provides an excellent example of rape culture. Carr and VanDeusen report that "large and well-replicated studies report that approximately 15-20% of female college students have experienced forced intercourse" (279). More disturbing, still is the number of surveys that have consistently reported that college men acknowledged forced intercourse and sexual aggression at a ridiculously high rate. Additionally, "1 in 12 college men committed acts that met the legal definition of rape, and of those, 84% did not consider their actions to be illegal" (280). I hate to bore with numbers, but this is, unfortunately, also a very poignant example considering the marketing tactics being employed with this game.

After being banned from Amazon, RMD Global has launched a campaign to bring Stockholm to college campuses. Why? Because they claim:

The media has been blamed for trying to turn American men into docile, innocuous, weaklings. But in truth, American colleges are just as much to blame. That’s where men really learn to be servile weaklings, and learn that “true love” involves becoming a domesticated, self-abnegating, harmless, overly emotional pussy....It’s time to put the current, officially accepted version of romantic love on trial. Let’s see if it can stand up to the same rigorous analysis, the same comparison to opposing ideas, that every other idea receives in a university setting. It’s time to start a dialogue that fundamentally challenges that skewed version of love.

They are urging college men to fill out requests to get Stockholm on university library shelves, to promote it in college newspapers and radio/TV stations, or give presentations about it. In exchange for this, providing evidence of the deed earns the guy $100 worth of stuff. On the director's weblog he boasts that 8 different universities now have Stockholm available. RMD has a distributor program as well which they are pushing toward college men and urging them to send messages/posts from their Facebook page. Given the numbers regarding college men and sexual violence, this type of aggressive marketing is beyond irresponsible and borders on sociopathic – especially if considering that in 156 societies examined

Rape [has been] associated with a cultural configuration involving interpersonal violence, male dominance, sexual separation, and an "ideology of toughness"

Too many studies have found a link between watching violent pornography and acceptance of interpersonal violence and increasing arousal to depictions of sexual violence, especially in college men. Too many studies also show a link between these factors and female acceptance of rape and an overall tendency to blame the victim.

Look at most internet porn and you can see how un-groundbreaking Stockholm is. I have made it my mission to find which US universities are carrying this and to stop it. I understand arguments regarding freedom of speech and artistic expression, but I also believe that people should act in ways that are responsible and will not or do not bring undo harm. Check your university, see if it carries it, and, if so, urge them not to. If one email or phone call doesn't work, keep writing and calling. I can't destroy RMD or Stanton Audemars, but if I could...