In case you haven't heard, there's a new membership website called "Miss Bimbo," where girls can earn points and cash them in for virtual plastic surgery and diet pills while they search for rich boyfriends so they don't have to work. Is this a joke? Or perhaps a ridiculous publicity stunt to get a flood of pageviews from outraged parents? According to the Guardian, the British version of the game already has nearly 200,000 players, most of whom are girls aged between 9 and 16. There are 1.2 million players in France. Now let's look at some other numbers:
More than 333,000 adolescents 18 years or younger underwent plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures in 2005, says the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
40% of 14-to-15-year-old girls in a recent U.K study admitted they don't eat breakfast and 25% of those girls also skip lunch. Over 50% of them listed their appearance as their number one concern in life.
Sadly, the line between the real world and this frightening virtual Bimbo world is getting increasingly blurred.
"Miss Bimbo" allows girls under 18 to register with parental permission, which they obtain by asking girls to input their parent's email address--a nudge, nudge, wink, wink process that can be easily circumvented by any girl with basic knowledge of email and the internet. "At MissBimbo.com we're committed to your child's online privacy," the site reads. Okay, so they might be sending her into a lifetime of disordered eating and body dysmorphia, but rest assured! Your kid's privacy is safe in their hands.
And for the parents who knowingly allow their daughters to be members? We're thinking Child Protective Services might be interested in learning more. But then again, we do live in the country that produced Rocky the wackadoodle stage mom. No one's coming after her. Except for VH1, that is.
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3 comments:
oh wow...this is the most horrifying thing i've seen in recent memory...
What I don't get is how these girls don't eat breakfast. If you want to be slim, you SHOULD be eating breakfast! I've been trying to tell my 30 lb overweight boyfriend that for years, but he won't listen. He ends up over-eating at lunch and dinner.
In the game's "clinic," girls can choose between a face lift, a breast augmentation or a visit to the psychologist. Fitting, and sad, that many women are driven to need therapy by the relentless messages that we're not good enough without surgery. In the game, however, it's further telling that the players' "profit" a.k.a. "bimbo attitude" a.k.a. "confidence" derived from cosmetic surgery is far higher than the benefit derived from therapy.
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