Apple: "Please remove the female characters that objectify women's body parts."

superbullet

Please remove the female characters that objectify women's body parts in your app icons and app content.
I got this email from apple along with my fifth binary rejection. Apple is really going hardcore puritan as of late. No matter, I guess its stick figure women from here on out for me. What say you gamesalad-ineers is this chicken/women too objectified?

superbullet

Oh and the game was to be called chicken babe, but looks like is gonna be renamed chicken stick figure person. Priceless.

jamie_c

I imagine if you put a full shirt on her you'd probably get away with it.

superbullet

What about this one. Im sure they would love it!

Chunkypixels

Well I think you can gain all the required information from the "objectify women's body parts" description that they give you.

Im assuming that you chose to use a scantily clad woman with an unrealistically small hourglass waist , and a top that doesn't quite fit, for a reason in the first place?

Also...you fail to give us full context. What is the gameplay/theme of the game? What age range are you trying to submit the game for?

ant_lad

Use the top image but put Tim Cook's head on it and maybe a dog collar

RP

For that? Unless there was something more scantly clad in your contents, there's not much here to get their feathers ruffled over. I bet you just got the wrong person to review it for approval.

floatingwoo

And who's going to stand up for the chickens, my god man! What were you thinking?

superbullet

Just a simple running game. Was rated at 12+ then rated it at 17+ still rejected. No worries though, I wont use any scantily clad woman in future games. Only gender neutrals. And now that I have you, lets both relive the birth of the d'oyly carte opera company. I also know a impecible story about a bridge.

KillerPenguinStudios

I think I am awkwardly in love. She's pretty hott if you ask my.

@RP said:
there's not much here to get their feathers ruffled over.

My feathers just got ruffled!!!

superbullet

I bet if I used a shirt-less chicken dude it would have been approved 2 months ago lol
The reviewer was female by the way.

ant_lad

@superbullet said:
I bet if I used a shirt-less chicken dude it would have been approved 2 months ago lol
The reviewer was female by the way.

No way!?! Half chicken too?

superbullet

Maybe all chicken who knows.

ant_lad

mutha clucka! you might be right

RP

@KillerPenguinStudios Get the right eggs and an incubator. Insta-hot chick hatchery (well...not so instant) ;P

Imagine how cheap it would be to take her out to eat. Heck, the 3 second rule does not even apply.

Everwild

Really? REALLY?

[insert grumbling here]

In GTA, which they've had several on there, not only can you objectify women in all sorts of rather graphic ways, but you can also run them over with your car when you're done.

Game of War uses promotional material/screenshots featuring scantily clad ladies with huge... tracts of land... who don't even appear in the game a single time. (yes, the same folks who brought you the non-existent babes of Evony).

There's a Kim Kardashian game. 'Nuff said there.

Fantastica TCG - far more voluptuous and exposed than Miss Chicken here.

Celebrity Girl you can dress like a floozy and flirt with 'hot guys'.

And this gem! NudeRunner - Girl Edition! Pretty self explanatory.

Without the 'underboob' you've got going on there, it might have snuck by. That's the only thing I can think of that might have actually snagged them up. Well, not the only thing... the other, more likely thing I think is that you ran into reviewers who found themselves having impure feelings toward a cartoon chicken lady, and wanted to make sure they could blame you for uncomfortable about that.

One of these days I'm going to make a main character in a game that's just a boob. One single, solitary boob. Then we'll see who's objectifying whom!

LMAO, get ready for Flappy Boob.

Lovejoy

It got rejected because of the underboob area is showing. Put on a slightly longer shirt on that fully covers the melons and perhaps cover up the camel a bit more.

tenrdrmer

I agree with @lovejoy make the shirt a little longer and it might go through. Though I'm slightly disturbed that the reviewer is looking that hard to kick something out. I had to actually zoom in to see it. Lol

Gnarly

Yup. Shirt is a bit too short.

I've seen worse in the App Store.

But adding a couple inches to the shirt isn't going to change the game in any way. A whole shirt would just make the game suck though.

tenrdrmer

Or.... This is just a thought.

Add a character that heavily objectifies a mans physical attributes too and say look It's all about equality. Lol

FallingBoxStudios

I don't understand why she needs to be dressed like that anyway seems unnecessary to me.

Indigochicken

Just pull her shirt down some. We don't need underboob in mobile games. Leave that stuff for the consoles.

SLOCM3Z

How about you try to keep it clean? They wouldn't have a problem if you didn't want to show that junk in a game.

SLOCM3Z

Good job Apple! Keep this junk out of games!

Summation

@superbullet
I don't think the character is the problem if the game has an appropriate rating.
Obviously, the reason why rating systems exist is to let potential customers make an informed decision about the content, themes, etc.

I personally have no idea about what criteria Apple uses to screen their reviewers, and whether or not said reviewers are paid staff or just volunteers who signed up on a web page somewhere.
The problem, at least in my opinion, is therefore not with the content, but with the reviewer, with the review process, and with the distribution platform (Apple).

Try submitting it to Android with a Mature rating.
I bet you'll get accepted no problem.

As for whether or not a chicken objectifies women's body parts, you have to know when legitimate feminist concerns spiral out of control into unreasonable criticism.

As a chicken, you could easily argue that the reason your character "objectifies" women's body parts is simply out of parody for the unreasonable expectations society has for women to achieve an ideal of physical of perfection that is unattainable for 99% of normal, healthy individuals.

Why is your character a chicken, then?
Because she is telling players that they need to stop being too chicken (afraid) to be themselves, and recognize unreasonable expectations as unhealthy and ridiculous.

Honestly though, this is what happens when someone in authority does not back up a comment like "objectifies women's body parts" with a proper explanation. They may just get showed up and beaten at their own game.

superbullet

@jdlcrater said:
Good job Apple! Keep this junk out of games!

Somewhere steve jobs is smiling, "freedom from porn....aka half shirts and hot pants"
Amen and hallelujah brother. I've learned a valuable lesson about submitting charlatan chicken girls in games that I won't soon forget.
I see why stick figure games are so popular sheesh.

Gnarly

@FallingBoxStudios said:
I don't understand why she needs to be dressed like that anyway seems unnecessary to me.

Its all opinion here and so many different social norms at play. Personally I agree. You are doing exactly what apple says your doing..... Im not saying your right or wrong in doing it.

superbullet

Conformity and Obedience, powerful agents to the uninitiated... but we are initiated, aren't we Bruce?
Old chicken:

New chicken:

Summation

@superbullet
See, now it makes even more sense for the character to more closely resemble a woman rather than a chicken.

If the object of the game is to save the eggs from the truck so they don't get squished, then the truck represents time, and the chicken-babe is trying to save her eggs against the ravages of time, i.e. her biological clock is ticking.

This is then a game that deals with the harsh realities of fertility, of trying to give birth at later stages of life making the actual-chicken character entirely inappropriate for this theme.

superbullet

@Summation said:
superbullet
See, now it makes even more sense for the character to more closely resemble a woman rather than a chicken.

If the object of the game is to save the eggs from the truck so they don't get squished, then the truck represents time, and the chicken-babe is trying to save her eggs against the ravages of time, i.e. her biological clock is ticking.

This is then a game that deals with the harsh realities of fertility, of trying to give birth at later stages of life making the actual-chicken character entirely inappropriate for this theme.

Your synopsis is notably enlightened. And here I was just thinking a chicken running from a truck would be so awesome lol.

Summation

@superbullet said:
Your synopsis is notably enlightened. And here I was just thinking a chicken running from a truck would be so awesome lol.

Hehe, thanks.

But really, it's about being able to see the art in something and validating that art through the mastery of our language and communication skills.

I take serious issue with people who condemn content just because they are unable to see any potential value, and dismiss it as "junk" without even so much as a reason why they consider it to be "junk."