Yes to Freedom

Possibly for the wiki
I haven't really done a thorough read-through of the wiki that's been established, but I'll drop my 2 cents.  Ironically, I was putting together this argument during a Women's Studies lecture (I know, right?) and actually got the ideas from said lecture.  In any case, some of these arguments are pretty out there and abstract and contain potential drawbacks, either way I felt they were worthy of some consideration.
I've semi-gone over these arguments in the IRC chat and refined them a bit but overall these are just to facilitate additional possibilities to consider and have not truly been fine-tuned and extensively reviewed.  Overall, these arguments intend to make it clear that EN is blowing things out of proportion, the bishoujo game industry is nowhere NEAR as influential as some of the other industries out there.

First off, to call the rape game genre "sick" is objective.  Plenty of people enjoy scat and various other "sick" fetishes, I fail to see any concerns being raised about them.

The subject of rape is not trivialized in any way in a rape game, at least not the ones that I have seen.
-There is no humor in the matter and hence players are not "desensitized" to the rape being committed.
-The aftermath of the player's actions in-game is not watered-down in a rape game (at least to the best of my knowledge).
-In essence, all of this means that the scenarios in a rape game are serious from start to finish.

The in-game victim is not made an "object", the victim remains a responsive, living, breathing human
-There is little to no room for detachment on the player's part
-Players are made aware that said "victim" has some form of living existence (albeit abstract in this case), and hence are aware that they are not committing acts on a non-responsive dummy, which once again prevents desensitization and detachment.

Limited Audience/ Small Market
-First off adult/bishoujo games are only sold retail in Japan
-On top of that, they are ADULT games, which cuts the audience size down even further
-On top of BOTH of those points, is that the rape game genre is a niche market in itself, which cuts the audience size down yet again.
-Hence, we're looking at an extremely small population of MATURE gamers.
-Being MATURE means that you're cognitively developed and so the customers that do end up purchasing said games KNOW EXACTLY what they are getting themselves into, and should by standard be smart enough to discern reality from fantasy.
-Being a relatively small market with a limited clientele, I would assume that adult games are not a multi-billion dollar industry (can someone do some research and come up with an exact figure?)

Now compare ALL of this to Western Mainstream Marketing (figures and facts taken from Still Killing Us Softly)
First and foremost, advertising is a 130 billion dollar a year industry (it should be even more now, since that figure is outdated)

Advertising not only strongly emphasizes the idea that a woman's sole value is in sex and beauty but also treats them as objects, essentially they are not human and are free to be treated as we wish.  Additionally some ads even advocate harassment and physical violence against women.
-There are essentially ads where women's bodies are portrayed as beer bottles, scissors, etc.
-On top of this are ads for make-up where the make-up is specially applied to resemble the appearance of bruises, thus trivializing and parodying physical violence against women.  (If this doesn't advocate and desensitize violence against women, I don't know what does.  Rape games give off the idea that rape is OK? Bitch please, educate yourself)
-There are also ads that emphasize a woman's sexual allure while depicting shadowy figures stalking a female in various settings. (As I stated, rape games encourage rape? Bitch please)
-Some ads involve ambiguous and suggestive poses that can be interpreted as either sexual acts or physical violence (essentially rape and/or battering) and are often accompanied by suggestive innuendos.

Advertising targets EVERYONE be it young, old, blind, deaf, whatever.  Not only does it target, it practically forces itself upon viewers.  The average American is exposed to roughly 1,500 ads on a daily basis.
-This would mean that while older more cognitively developed people probably know better, because ads target everyone, young impressionable kids are also to be considered.
-Because ads are so mainstream and omnipresent, we are constantly bombarded with such depictions of women.

So with that said

Comparing bishoujo games to mainstream advertising, Japan's bishoujo industry seems rather insignificant and powerless in terms of influence.  Bishoujo games once again have a non-mainstream following, it is not a big budget mainstream industry, in-game criminal acts are not trivialized or parodied as things are presented as they are in a straightforward manner, there is no deception or subliminal messaging, they have a restricted audience by default (Adults only) and an even more niche audience on top of that (not every adult plays bishoujo games).

Advertising is everywhere, is at least a 130 billion dollar a year industry (hell of a lot bigger than the USA's porn industry which is already bigger than Japan's bishoujo game industry), portrays womens' bodies as inanimate objects, parodies and trivializes issues of violence against women (rape, battering, etc.), easily exposed to everyone including young impressionable children, is practically subliminal porn to some degree, exercises plenty of deception in putting forth persuasive messages, persuades females to treat their bodies like objects of sex and beauty rather than as living organisms.

Last edited by VerbalEssence (2010-01-27 00:27:32)