[FA] Fathers Say Stop Simon & Schuster's Panty Raider (fwd)

[Scott F Kiesling]

Perhaps we should make an effort to not use S&S texts for a while...
BTW I checked out some web sites (check out
http://pc.ign.com/previews/14066.html) and the game is real, and even the
game sites I looked at think it's pushing things. The models also look,
well, inhumanly proportioned, shall I say.
Last BTW: The subtitle of the game is "From here to immaturity"

Scott

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Fathers Say Stop Simon & Schuster's Panty Raider

(Duluth, MN, April 26, 2000) The national advocacy group Dads and Daughters
today called on Simon and Schuster Interactive to halt its scheduled May
release of the CD-ROM game called Panty Raider. To win the game, boys must
strip supermodels down to their underwear, then provide photographs of them
to aliens who "wore out" their one lingerie catalog - or else the aliens'
"hormone driven anger" will destroy the earth. Among the gamers' tools to
induce the undressing: "Lures - Items such as tiny mints (lunch!) and
credit cards. No self-respecting supermodel can resist these items." From
making fun of anorexia to objectifying girls to assuming that boys just
want titillation from computer games, Panty Raider is a disgrace.

Among the objections raised in a letter to the company, Dads and Daughters
said: "Anorexia KILLS people, and holds painfully long years of recovery
for those girls and women who do survive. It's no more suited for joking
than cancer. And then there is the stereotype that the ideal girls are
obsessed with shopping and appearance. We have daughters and we know
better. And, we are offended when our daughters are repeatedly subjected to
the destructive stereotypes disseminated by games like Panty Raider."

DADs executive director Joe Kelly added that the game is also offensive to
fathers of sons. "We don't see the humor or fun in glorifying what Panty
Raider calls 'hormone driven anger' in boys, especially after tragedies
like the Columbine shootings. We are offended when our sons are repeatedly
subjected to the destructive stereotypes of boys objectifying females,
placing titillation above all else, and using violence or its threat to get
their way."

Dads and Daughters suggests that other parents use the company's website
www.simonsays.com/feedback_form.cfm to insist that "Panty Raider" not be
released this month. Or write Simon & Schuster Interactive, 1230 Avenue of
the Americas, New York, NY 10020 or call 212/632-3544.

Dads and Daughters is the national nonprofit membership group for fathers
with daughters. DADs helps fathers strengthen their relationships with
daughters and transform the pervasive messages that value girls more for
how they look than who they are. DADs acts against marketers who undermine
daughters to sell their products. S&S Interactive, a division of Viacom,
produces dozens of CD-ROM games in the entertainment and education
categories. For the full correspondence between Dads and Daughters and
Simon and Schuster Interactive, visit www.dadsanddaughters.org

Contact Joe Kelly: 888-824-3237 or Joe at dadsanddaughters.org