So after ebonymeme's great post about how far some people take this website, it got me thinking. I bet you could probably smell my hair burning from your respective countries. Anyway, once I started to think of all the ways that people 'push the boundaries', it's like the floodgates opened up. Parties, sleazy accounts, blogs, outfits. What's even more shocking, is that in most cases, it's being enabled by Stardoll. So here's my indepth review of Stardoll and it's members - is it all too over-sexualised?
I don't know about you, but I used to think Stardoll parties were a great untapped resource. The ability to plan and automatically send out invites, see everyone's outfits and have instant chat would be so helpful for the little soirees us folk are so fond of. The only problem is, they are, as ebonymeme touched on in her post, full of pre-teens looking for 'Hard Core S£x'. I'm pretty scientific in my studies, and when I visited the 'Public Parties' page, 10 out of 15 parties were something to do with sex or finding a 'gf/bf'. That's a 2/3.
We're told that Stardoll takes the safety and security of it's members seriously, but how can they fail to notice this? Remember, this is the same organisation that considered the Stardoll LGBT club 'against the rules' and shut it down. Young people showing pride in themselves? Disgusting. 14 year old girls joining ''l£zza $h@g party!'? Roll up, roll up! I know that in most of these cases, it's just some bored kids trying to be a little 'rebellious'. Remember the days you would giggle uncontrollably at the mention of the word 'willy'? Same thing, or at least I hope.
In the interests of journalism, I decided to go all Ross Kemp on this shit and actually enter one of the parties. Not say anything, not respond, just see what people are doing. It lasted all of two minutes. I joined the party as someone was asking about ages. The 'ringleader' - pictured above - was asked how old she is, to which she replied 24. Blatant lie, I know, but someone else told me she was 14. At this point, I peeled the virtual duct tape off my mouth and the conversation went a little like this:
Me - So you're attempting to sex up 14 year olds? That's a little illegal.
Ringleader - wha? how is it?
Me - Grooming, for a start. Being a pervert for another.
Ringleader - omg, whateva. just havin fun.
*You were asked to leave this party.*
And it was the same story everywhere. Everytime I pointed out how wrong it was, I got my ass kicked out the door. One particularly articulate guy approached a girl who said she was 13 and asked her to 'suk me
' as well as 'r u hard'. Oh my, girls, our knight in shining armour was here all this time. Form an orderly queue.
I mentioned earlier about Stardoll enabling all the sluttery - my main point about that is pretty well demonstrated by the picture above - selling chain-linked bras, panties and hooker heels (the Mortal Kiss ones, that I admit, my Doll is currently rocking). People have argued before that it just 'aint what kids are supposed to be wearing, and I agree to a point.
"moves hand over t!ts and liks"
If there was a Barbie that was released wearing nothing but a thong and lucite heels, there would be outrage - this is the Barbie Dreamhouse of the digital age, why should it be any different? On the other hand, how bored would we be with nothing but polo-necks and slacks for our Medolls?
So what's your opinion? Is it all over-sexualised? If it is, what do you think should be done to prevent it?
Maybe it's time we made a stand.
