The sexualization of women in video games is a widely accepted fact. It is accepted enough to be taken for granted by a large number of people, both gamers and otherwise. Boob Jam is hoping to do something about that.
Boob Jam is a 48-hour marathon of video game coding this September where participants will attempt to create games focusing on boobs in un-sexy ways. Unlike many previous attempts to provoke discussion on the topic, however, Boob Jam seeks to appeal in a way gamers won’t get defensive about by being both fun and respectful at the same time. As stated by Jenn Frank, Boob Jam’s founder,
Boob Jam has one mission statement and it isn’t to “elevate” a conversation, but to have a new conversation entirely… I’m on the side of straight dudes who never want to see a controversy over boobs ever again.
So what’s this about?
The ultimate goal is to provoke people into considering breasts as something other than a “plaything” for gamers and in-game characters alike. Whether thinking of the more negative side-effects of them (possibly making a sizable bosom a debuff to a character’s running speed) or simply in different terms (a sac of fat and milk) the objective is open consideration without directly challenging gamers to prove they themselves are not sexist.
The argument about sexism in games has a fundamental flaw Jenn Frank sees, in that people automatically either shut out the discussion or get heated about it based on how zealous the argument has been made in the past. The quote above shows the example where anyone wanting to elevate the conversation is inherently talking down to whoever they mean the wording for, implying the conversation has been puerile up to that point. Whether it has or not is irrelevant if the person shuts off as a result.
Frank is not worried about Boob Jam failing.
The point of this tangent is, I really welcome any negative reactions people may have, because those are interesting to me, too, and they’ll be interesting to other people. I think, when people are turned off by the idea of breasts as anything but a sex toy, that says more than I could ever slip into some piddling “mission statement.”
Frank does have hope that gamers will get the message and run with it, and if even one gamer looks at boobs as something other than toys as a result, I feel safe in saying she’s accomplished something worthwhile.
