the Bitch in the house

As most of you know, the ePrince is a big gamer. He plays football and skateboards, but really he loves to game. He’s not a World of Warcraft (formerly known as Dungeons and Dragons, I am sure) fan, but he does play kinda obsessively. He proudly told me that he ‘retired’ a game so that he could maintain his “King of the Hill” status in the online community of PS3. That seems quite nerdy to me, but he assures me it’s way cooler than the WOW crowd (who also seem like renaissance fair folks to me). So the ePrince generally helps me pick and choose games for the lilEinstein. He knows that my parameters are fairly strict. I have a stringent belief that ‘garbage in – garbage out’ which is to say that negative influences on a person is negativity coming out of a person. Therefore I have a policy of ‘letting kids be kids’ at my house and not impugning too much violence or nudity or drug use, or abuse at their little brains. Living in the real world, I cannot keep their lives all sticky and sweet like the chocolate factory Charlie now lives in. Nor do I want to deny to my kids the existence or the kind of lives that other people live, good or bad. I try to encourage them to see the best in all kinds of people and to have good boundaries for their own sense of self and security. So video games are fraught with all kinds of issues in our house. They are often violent and vapid means of entertainment wherein the only exercise most kids experience is in the eyes and thumbs. I like the wii for it’s attempts to be wholebodyfun, yet most of the games are boring or just plain stupid – even for my 5 year old.

So the ePrince directed me to purchase gamecube games for the wii that might be entertaining for the lilEinstein and low on the violence/nudity/drug/abuse scale. While I like the labelling of video games – similar to the labeling of movies, I am not naive in believing the “values” of the labellors match those of my own family. I try not to veer off into too permissive privileges and yet try to be realistic about the lamefactor of most “E” (rated for everyone) games. My children have also been raised in an open and dynamic environment. Our looooongtime sitter became the chosen one after I pulled into her drive to meet her and inspect – and saw on her carbumper two stickers: a rainbow flag and a leather pride. Not only is she a lesbian, she is a strong woman who knows discipline and I thought this was perfect for my boys! So my kids have been integrated into a transgendered cultural environement where even the lilEinstein knows that sometimes “women” are “men” and viceversa or somewhere in between and all of that is okay. But imagine my surprise and full on guffawing laughter at the following image in the game the ePrince directed us to purchase for lilEinstein.

This picture is on the inside of the Lego Star Wars II gamecube instruction booklet. I noticed the final equalizing montage on the back cover while standing in line at a very geeky gamer/computer retail outlet yesterday. I was overcome with laughter and a lot of cough syrup – so much so that I felt the need to explain my behavior to my comrades in the line with me. It seems like Princess Leih, Darth Vader, and Han Solo can be transformed into a Princess Darth Solo; otherwise known as the naughtybrainedperkyboobedpackageinthepants villian/hero!

my oh my…