For some reason it’s currently in to make parody videos to the tune of Katy Perry’s ‘California Gurls’, which is so cringe worthy that one wonders why it would be necessary to use it as the basis of anything. Anyway, Team Unicorn, a collective of self-professed geeky actresses who love to play videogames – so Frag Dolls, but with more star power – have released their take on ‘California Gurls’. Dubbed ‘Geek and Gamer Girls’ (the title is officially in “leet”, but I’m not about to type in that stuff, because I was there when it exploded in popularity online and can’t stand it), it sees a lot of scantily clad shots of Team Unicorn members along with Seth Green filling in for Snoop Dog and an ecstatic Stan Lee.
The video can be found here. Apart from a-typical responses from the type of guys who spend too much time with games and a box of tissues near by, a lot of people have been responding negatively – mainly gamers who happen to be female and/or their partners. The responses over at Kotaku probably show this contrast best. And if you happen to go through the entire video it’s just possible that you may feel brain cells dying off.
Now it just so happens that The Star Wars blog interviewed Team Unicorn about the video. Of course Team Unicorn were completely oblivious to the fact that most girls and women who play games don’t want to be referred to as “gamer girls”, and that the video does nothing to help body image issues in the gaming members of the world’s populace who happen to be female, what with the average size of Team Unicorn appearing to be zero.
Seriously, women who happen to play a lot of videogames are doing fine without shots of them having lightsabers dancing around their breasts. We’re writers and editors of videogame sites too, make games, and we wouldn’t be able to do that with Care Bears strapped over our crotches… okay maybe we could, but quite frankly: I hate Care Bears.
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not to try and annoy you Ms King, but I have no issue with this. To be fair though, I am married so have to take my thrills where I can get em! lol
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Danny Moore (September 14th, 2010)
Well if you ever have a sort of “Freaky Friday” incident, you may understand my annoyance with the video.
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Emily King (September 14th, 2010)
I’m not that outraged by the video, but I did find it annoying, not to mention the whole “we’re named Team Unicorn because geek girls aren’t supposed to exist and neither are unicorns HURPDURP” thing. Also the term ‘girl gamers’.
A lot of girls play video games. Video games aren’t a ‘guy thing’ and videos like this only cement the idea that they’re SUPPOSED to be a ‘guy thing’. Making a huge deal out of the fact that you have breasts and like nerdy things is just kinda lame.
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Mollygos (September 14th, 2010)
“Making a huge deal out of the fact that you have breasts and like nerdy things is just kinda lame.”
Hence my response to the video.
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Emily King (September 14th, 2010)
1) Unicorns DID exist. It was a genetic abnormality that was gradually bred out of horses, but the genome is still there and, get this, they’ve been bred again.
2) Gender/Lifestyle stereotyping pisses me off something fierce. Female gamers shouldn’t have to be so blatantly sexualised. There are several gay gaming communities and websites out there, and I’m pretty sure if we saw a video full of screaming queens flailing at their gamepads, people would be up in arms over it.
3) I can’t think of a three. I’m male, I can’t multi-task.
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Luke Stratford (September 14th, 2010)
I meant deer. Bugger.
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Luke Stratford (September 14th, 2010)
Brilliant sir, just brilliant XD
Also, Point number 2) is on the mark.
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Emily King (September 14th, 2010)
http://unicorns.tribe.net/photos/834813a1-10a4-408a-b0c9-d8a4c77a75f4
Image of Lancelot, formerly of Barnum and Bailey fame, bred by Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart. Part of the Living Unicorn Project in which horses and goats (like Lancelot) were bred to have horns jutting from their heads. Strangely, they didn’t try it with deer.
To clarify, I’m not into unicorns, I just have volumes of useless information stored in my brain.
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Jack Fish (September 14th, 2010)
I made it to the second chorus…uggh…
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Benjie Hanson (September 15th, 2010)