Recently a friend accosted me about this post in which I expressed displeasure at an iPhone application called Wobble that enables people to manipulate images by pinpointing an area to be distorted in various directions in rapid succession when the phone is shaken, giving the illusion of that point in the photo wobbling. In this case, it was marketed as a way to get scantily clad women's boobies to jiggle. My friend asked me, "Are you anti sex?! Are you anti desire?!" To which I fervently reply, no! I am pro-desire, and I am certainly pro-sex (I am, however, anti-having sex with anyone who would have the Wobble application on their phone). I would not mind if these were just plain images on the phones, or even graphic pornographic pictures or videos—fine with me. What disturbs me about this application is its illustration of a desire, one that seems common among a good number of men, to physically manipulate women with disregard to their wants or responses. Even if the intention is humor, there's something slightly disturbing about the Wobble application.
But Wobble is nothing compared to this. At least with Wobble the suggestion is made that you could upload an image of a beefcake in a banana hammok to jiggle around "for the ladies." In throwing us that bone the designers have covered themselves from too much scrutiny (and also, in doing so, given a passive admission of guilt). iGirl, on the other hand, offers nothing for the lady. It does allow men to dress an animated woman in bikinis or "schoolgirl" outfits, change her ethnicity and hair color, and force her to dance on cue. She can speak in two languages, English or Russian. This choice, if it is a choice and not just a technical limitation, is especially disturbing given its connotations of Russian mail order brides, representing quick and easy sexual companionship for the man in the face of a woman's desperation.
