After mud-wrestling, we didn't think it could get much worse. "Hunting for Bambi", the latest form of "adult entertainment" for some in the US, is a sadistic twist on the already sadistic sport skirmish (paintball).
"Hunting for Bambi" involves shooting paintballs at naked women within a hunting scenario. The punters, dressed in army fatigues, pay up to $30,000 for a game, which is taped so they can take it home and show it to their buddies.
The women aren't allowed to wear any form of clothing, only sneakers. According to founder Michael Burdick, "The main goal is to be as true to nature as possible . I don't go deer hunting and see a deer with a football helmet on, so I don't want to see one on my girl either."
The paintballs travel up to 320kph and, while shooting women in the chest is against the rules, some men, in Burdick's words, "don't always follow the rules".
Even more disconcerting are the advertising slogans used on the game's web site (which has since been changed due to complaints): "You can actually hunt one of our Bambi sluts and shoot her with paintballs while we film the whole thing and tape it for your home video."
Whilst the new sport has its fans, many have responded with disgust. However, much of this criticism has been focused on the women involved, who are blamed for "objectifying" themselves.
But there are a variety of reasons that women might choose to participate (the women are paid $1000, with another $1500 if they don't get hit).
The alarming spread of the sex industry in the US, which is based overwhelmingly on male customers and female workers, and also increasingly common obscenely sexist sexual images within mainstream media affect women, encouraging them to accept being objectified.
The appalling welfare system in the US also leaves many women financially desperate. This will get worse if US President George Bush succeeds in planned reforms to crack down on single mothers getting money to live on.
The US media constantly reaffirms that to be valid and part of the US community, one must be affluent. Yet wealth is available to very few. For example, 20% of the global population consumes 80% of the world's resources, the remaining 80% of people have to fight over the crumbs. This division is also evident in the US.
Those who have limited funds, and limited ability to earn more because of poor education, are forced to degrade themselves to live up to expectations.
By blaming women, furthermore, the misogynist instigators of games like "Hunting for Bambi" get away with it, and can continue to profit out of the objectification of women.
Commercialised misogyny has gradually slipped into our collective consciousness through, for example, video games that commonly display women in a degrading and objectified way. This reiterates women as being of second-class status in society.
We are living in a society where increasingly, alienation and impoverishment are forcing people to degrade themselves in unprecedented ways. The only way to combat such blatant capitalist misogyny is to change the oppressive societal relationships of class and gender.
To voice your disgust at the game, visit <http://www.huntingforbambi.com> and email Michael Burdick.
BY MEGAN CONNOR
[The author is a member of the Socialist Alliance and Bankstown Resistance and is the women's officer at the University of Western Sydney Bankstown campus.]
From Green Left Weekly, August 20, 2003.
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