Teenage Girls Make New Video Game -- Throw Tampons Because Guns are Bad
"Tampon Run" seeks to bring menstruation awareness
9.13.2014 |
News
| Trey Sanchez |
New York City high school students Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser met at coding camp and recently completed their project Tampon Run -- a video game to point out that menstrual cycles are normal... and guns are bad.
The game is an 8-bit throwback where the lead female character grabs boxes of tampons and throws them at her enemies before they get taken. Oh yeah, the enemies all look like boys.
When the game begins, players are greeted with several introduction screens. They read:
“
Most women menstruate for a large portion of their lives. It is, by all means, normal.
Yet most people, women and men alike, feel uncomfortable talking about anything having to do with menstruation. The taboo that surrounds it teaches women that a normal and natural bodily function is embarrassing and crude.
Tampon Run is a way of discussing the taboo in an accessible way. Instead of holding a gun, the runner holds tampons, and instead of shooting enemies, the runner throws tampons at them.
Although the concept of the video game may be strange, it's stranger that our society has accepted and normalized guns and violence through video games, yet we still find tampons and menstruation unspeakable.
Hopefully one day menstruation will be as normal, if not more so, than guns and violence have become in our society; Normal enough to place in a video game without a second thought.
After all of that, an instruction screen pops up and the game begins. Play the incredibly simple game here.
The girls met at Girls Who Code and stand with the mantra of the camp: "close the gender gap in tech." The girls' first step in that worthy goal? Tampon Run.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/teenage-girls-make-new-video-game-throw-tampons-because-guns-are-bad
