WEBVTT

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♪ Intro Music ♪

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Bayonetta is a wildly popular video game

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that was released earlier this year in the US

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and late last year in Japan for

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the xbox 360 and playstation 3.

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It sold over a million units in just four months

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The game stars a character named

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Bayonetta. Its your basic story of a

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shapeshifting witch dressed in skin tight

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leather who can turn into giant cats

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and has a small arsenal of weapons

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including whips.

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Clip: Bayonetta says "Come On"

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♪ Music ♪

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And of course she's lost her memories

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and there's some evil demands horde

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and there's a magical gem of the world

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something, something and so forth but

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all of that is all besides the point when it

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comes to this game

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First the positive things about the game

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She's a single mother... and...

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ummm.... that's kind of it.

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So on to the negatives.

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She carries with her four pistols

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two of which are strapped to her high heeled

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boots which provide the perfect

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opportunity for her to contorts her body into

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pornographic poses including spreading

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her legs and doing a little flip in the air

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to kill the bad guys

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When she lands she does a little

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sexy pose for the player complete

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with the sound of a camera shutter snaping

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But it gets even better because one of her

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most powerful weapons involves her

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stripping all her clothes off and turning her

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hair into an evil demon weapon

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fighting machine

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Did you get that? The whole taking all

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her clothes off in order to use her hair

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as a weapon? Because clearly you

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can't use your hair to drag demons down to

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hell if you're fully clothed.

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Predictably, the internet is now infested

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with gamers screen captures with various

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ways they got Bayonetta naked

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As if this pornographic, overly sexualized

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animated representation isn't bad enough

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The way that Bayonetta restores her power

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is by sucking on a lollipop

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But I'm not really here to discuss the

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overly sexualized adolescent male fantasy

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that Bayonetta is but rather talk about

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part of the game's marketing strategy

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To advertise the release of the game

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it's marketing company placed two 6 foot

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long banners in Shinjuku Station in Tokyo

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This ad features the Bayonetta logo

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with a large rectangular space filled

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with small cards that enticed passersby

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to peal them off and take them home

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The cards had a lipstick kiss on the front

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and Bayonetta's gun strapped leg

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on the inside. Once a few of these

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cards were removed it was clear that

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Bayonetta was lying naked underneath

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She only had her hair wrapped around

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her body to cover up her naughty bits

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Yes, that's right not only is the game

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created to and encourages players to

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undress her during game play

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because it's basically a choose your own

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patriarchal adventure porno fantasy

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but now the advertisers are inviting

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passersby to physically strip her naked

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in the subway station

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Instead of being at least a little bit outraged

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by this bloggers all over the internet were

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celebrating this as an innovative

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and successful ad campaign

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Women's bodies are constantly used to

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to sell products including video games

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specifically targeted at young men

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but this interactive ad campaign takes

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objectifying women's bodies to a whole

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other level by asking people to actively

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participate in doing misogyny

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The ad encourages participation in

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physical harassment and this is especially

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alarming in context of how women are

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treated in Japanese subways

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In 2008 in Tokyo alone there were

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2000 reported cases of men groping women

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and that's only the amount that was reported

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In another survey 64% of women reported

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being groped on trains and subways

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The harassment of women is so bad

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that the subway system even introduced

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women only passenger cars as a way to

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curb this sexual harassment

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Women's only passenger cars have been

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introduced in many other places such as

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Egypt, Taiwan, Brazil and Mexico

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and frankly I'm surprised we don't have them

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in the U.S. because the levels of

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harassment that women face here as well

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Harassment is at such epidemic levels that

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they've even put up advertising campaigns

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and public service announcements in

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the Japanese subways. While there's action

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being taken to try to curb this behaviour

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such as women only passenger cars

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and the public service annoucements

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right next door is this Bayonetta ad that is

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encouraging this predatory behaviour