My Take On: Femi-NOTHING: A human rights issue

I still remember one seemingly nonchalant comment made by a male high school friend one day after school when we were all sitting around playing Grand Theft Auto. He was fidgeting with the controller and someone asked what he was doing, to which he responded, "I can't find the rape button anywhere. Is it A or B?"

We all laughed, sighed, vomited in our mouths a little bit and swallowed it. Truth is, we didn't take him all too seriously and often took turns comparing him to various species of primate behind his back when the opportunity arose. "What a joke," we would say with our eyes rolling. "What a weird, abnormal individual." Psh, the rape button.

Fast forward, change locations: Tokyo, Japan. Rape button? Not quite: rape games. A series of video games known as "Hentai Games" feature female characters upon which the player may perform whatever violent sexual acts he or she can dream up; most of these games feature rape for revenge, stating objectives such as "finding and getting back at the woman who fired you from your job" (a game called "Chain Trap").

Many of them feature bondage and sexual torture upon women and young girls (often dressed in school uniforms designed for girls between the ages of 12 and 17). While depictions of genitals are blurred in an "effort" at censorship, the games do not censor the acts in which their players may participate. In terms of sexual violence, there are no limits.

The newest game, explicitly entitled "Rapelay," is the first to be taken off the shelves. It begins with a rape of a little girl alone on a subway platform and continues into the subway train, where extra points are given to the player for raping her mother and sister as well. A number of players corner the women and the rapes are drawn-out and painful; you choose how to go about it, where to put your hands and what objects to use. The women squeal with pain and fear, and you are encouraged to continue until the deed is done. (Note: This game is still being played online despite its removal from stores.)

What kills me about news reports on this issue is that they focus on what feminists think. The "Gender Equality Promotion Division said" this and "Equality Now said" that. Do people claim that the Holocaust was "a Jewish issue" or that slavery was "an African issue?" I don't think so. This is not simply "a feminist issue" and to write it off as such is to do the human population at large a major injustice.

Most people do not buy or engage in games like this — call it fantasy, call it experimental, call it what you will, it is sick and repulsive. It is a glaring spotlight on the very twisted parts of the human mind that we may recognize exist, but never encourage to grow.

What's next — a genocide game? A school shooting game? A game featuring bestiality or burning down rain-forests for fun? I mean really, how far can things go? Rapelay — what are we?

Perhaps it is the focus on feminist protesters when such issues arise that causes other people to slide away from complaints. Men and women alike claim: "It's just a game, we can't take it seriously! People just like to fantasize, it's escapism!"

Right, and so was the "rape button." Three rape convictions later, he still hasn't found it.