Beyond Sexual Representation: Sexual Transgression and 'Orgasm Girl'

Where sexualized female avatars, voyeuristic fan culture, and fetishisized video game characters draw a line of propriety, 'Orgasm Girl' makes direct game play out of the seduction, and arguably rape, of a female character. Your objective, as listed in the game's Tutorial is to "giv[e] young girls intense orgasms while they're asleep." The tutorial then re-emphasizes the need for the targeted girl to remain sleep: "give the sexy girl an orgasm while she's asleep WITHOUT waking her up. If she wakes up, it's game over."

From this first introductory direction, a societal transgression seems to be taking place. They culture of "giving girls orgasms while their asleep," is immediately associated with the act of rape, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse. It is firstly non-consentual, as one individual (constituted by the player) acts upon another, without the latter's consent or agreement that would be notably suggested by consciousness. Secondly, 'Orgasm Girl' involves an invasion of privacy, legal and societal, that is visually suggested by the bed, and undergarments that the target girl will wear in the game. She appears to be somewhere private, at ease, while the player's character appears to be an intruder, someone trespassing upon private property, into a visual and sexual realm likewise regarded as private.

It is worth considering here, how these notions of transgression and trespass, that present the game as social uncouth, may be a product of what Michel Foucault has called "the Repressive Paradigm" in the his History of Sexuality. In this paradigm, sexual practice and discourse are made taboo by social factors connected to changes in the economic-political landscape of 18th century Europe. Today, Foucault argues, there is a the rhetoric of release, "liberation" from sex as a tabooed act, and thus 'Orgasm Girl' might be read as a direct challenge to the way privacy, rape, sexual abuse and advancement, are treated and controlled by paradigms born of repression. In short, 'Orgasm Girl' may be construed as a challenge of conventional sexual practice and glorification of the liberation of sexuality that Foucault details in his History.

But even if this is the case, 'Orgasm Girl' clearly disrupts 'appropriate' sexual practice, with a problematic alternative, and it is this act of sexual gaming that we must critically engage.

Aesthetic Overview

From the onset, 'Orgasm Girl' stresses the "adult" nature or its gameplay. "18+" warns the first title seen in the Flash game's intro, "contains scenes of strong sexual themes and nudity." The game then flashes to the game developer's animated banner: "Dark-Street.com Development," with a single star-like reflection edging along the first "D." "Dark-Street.com" is an ironic, if not ominous title for a company that would develop a game relating to heavy sexual themes, the suggestion of rape, and the depiction of non-standard sexual narratives. "Dark Street" would seem to be an appropriate location for such transgressive sexual acts.

Next, 'Orgasm Girl' presents the legs of a woman, covered with nylon tights, framed by a pink border with the camera panning suggestively up, following the legs of the woman to a short skirt, a bare midriff, a bosom barely covered by a thin scrap of white shirt, and a face heavily covered in make-up. Above this woman, a halo blinks strangely. The woman lets her hands rest on her wasp-thin waist, and stares at the user.

In the Tutorial, the user is instructed that this is his/her character, "Orgasm Girl the hottest lesbian angel around and she has only one objective: giving young girls intense orgasms while they are asleep." The halo then, oddly placed on the woman on the title screen connects this description with who the player controls. The player is this woman, and this woman is "Orgams Girl." The Halo also suggests an odd semi-divine quality, either referring to the "lesbian angel's" ability to gain access to the private space of the target girl, or engaging in the old cliche "you look like an angel," angel being a metaphor for beauty.

Clicking "start" one goes to a new "info" intertitle, providing a logistical data to the target girl. She is given just a first name, "Ashley," an age "18," eye and hair color, "green" and "blonde" respectively, and a "shaven" prompt with the word "yes" next to it. Each of these characteristics construct a highly sexualized object of desire. The age, "18," reminds first that she is legally of the age of consent, and second that she is of age to appear in pornographic material. Both of these qualities are problematicized by the fact that she is not awake. She may well be of the age of consent, but her conscious consent is still required. Appearing in pornographic material likewise requires a certain conscious agreement of the depicted subject. Eye color seems completely ironic, as you never see the eyes of a sleeping individual who must stay asleep. The "Shaven" category is left unexplained with the tacit assumption that it doesn't need to be; the type of character playing the game understands completely what this means. And in that regard, the "yes" answer, seems to be the desirable response.

Hands On Gameplay

Click Start again, the game begins. The player is suddenly afforded a near-totalizing view of a girl at sleep. The view is raised slightly as if to suggest that the player is poised over the target girl, not lying down beside her. The totalizing view, perhaps meant to suggest the floating perspective of an angel also allows for substantial access to the target girl. So in this way, the perspective becomes indicative of the power dynamic. The player is entirely in control of the target.

The player interacts with the body of the target girl. He/she is afforded a number of 'tools' to exchange out the default "idle" mouse point. There is "rub" marked visually with a small hand, "grab" signified by a snatching hand, "items" marked with an intersecting tool and wrench, and "shop" marked with a shopping cart.

Navigating the body, the user finds that the "rub" tool allows for the massaging/stimulating various regions of the girl while "grab" allows for the pulling down and removal of the girls cloths. Each stimulus/wardrobe adjustment causes a change in the interfaces "orgasm" meter and "state" bar graph. The orgasm meter is the game's objective: pushing the needle from rest into the orange and then red zones will not only score points for the player, but elicit "sexual" noises from the girl, and obviously, increase her state of consciousness. Perhaps the bouncing needle of the orgasm meter suggests an erect phallus, rotating with arousal into an upright position.

The game's only winning condition is orgasm. Its only losing condition is "Ashley's" waking up. Being too cavalier, perhaps too 'masculine' and direct, like removing her skirt and immediately massaging the vagina, will inevitably cause Ashley to wake up before she orgasms, and lose the game for the player. No, a rapid approach will not work. Instead, the player is forced to develop a strategy of patience and gradual escalation. Massage this, remove that, wait for the sleep state to return to normal, then make an attack.

Interestingly, satisfying Ashley is difficult, even frustrating. Simply stripping her, to reveal an anime-like sexualized cartoon, may satisfy the player's voyeuristic urges, but will not beat the game.

Ultimately unable to beat the game on my own, I sought help. A short how-to video on GameTrailers.com had all the answers, the procedural rhetorics I had either not realized or employed. But on top of the video, at moments of patience or repeated action, commentary condemned the would-be player of the game. "Use this time to reflect on how much of a pervert you are" stated on title, superimposed over the waiting for Ashley's full sleep state to return. Or "It may take a while (to massage Ashley's breasts into arousal) oh well, it's not like you've got a real womans boobs anyway." Each of these messages may explicit what players (particularly male, heterosexual players) are feeling at this time.

In any case, the way to win "Orgasm Girl" is to 1. remove the skirt 2. wait til sleep state normal 3. massage right nipple in circular pattern til orgasm meter leaps into orange. 4. massage pubic area of the vagina until into red orgasm meter zone. 5. purchase sleeping pills 6. apply sleeping pills. 7. massage pubic area until orgasm. This rhetoric will work every time, though the games "win screen" suggests that there 3 secrets to be unlocked, and that certain bonus will be awarded to the player based on getting the skirt off, the underwear off, the bra off, etc. After winning, the player is given 1500 points and put back into the game.

The most suggestive part of the winning procedure is the use of "sleeping pills," again recalling the transgressive, rape dynamic of the game's pretense, and also suggesting a creepy dynamic wherein an already sleeping girl is drugged. After the winning the game, and armed with 1500 points, the player is given the opportunity to buy even more sleeping pills and therefore dose Ashley even more. This will allow the player to achieve "the bonuses" buy stripping Ashley completely without her waking up. This also cements that game as a direct engagement with a form of rape/sexual transgress.

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