I have a new iphone & I've already become one of those annoying people who whips it out whenever I need directions, or to check my e-mail, or just to distract myself at any time.
Sometimes I'll poke around in the app store just for fun. So far I've only downloaded 1 paid application (the classic books!), but it's fun to look.
Well, today I found a real doozy.
Something called "Wobble Anything."
And in case you weren't sure what they wanted you to wobble..the provide this helpful graphic:
Look! You can take the pictures on your iphone and then add 'wobbly' or 'jiggly' bits to parts of the body.
Apparently women's breasts are the PERFECT part of the body to wiggle or jiggle..whether they want you to do this to their picture or not.
I was going to let this whole app go without a rant, until I read this gem of a review:
"This app is such a HUGE KICK at work (especially to all the waitresses lol). Never fails to show an employee her own picture come to life right before her eyes!
"Hey Lisa, look at this.."
"OMG! Heh, they do look good don't they..hehe"
(original emphasis)
So apparently this guy (and I'm sure it's a guy from his username, which will remain unposted because I'm nice) thinks it's super fun to take pictures of his coworkers, make their 'jiggly' bits obvious and then show her the 'improved' view of her body.
I hope it's pretty obvious..but this reeks of sexual harassment. And, as someone who has worked in the food business..chefs & managers are almost all men and women are the servers. So you already have a power/gender dynamic at play and then you throw in jerks who use their iphone apps to objectify the bodies of their co-workers.
Someone I doubt this guy would find it as funny if his female co-workers took pictures of his body and then used applications to give him a small genitalia, or look overtly homosexual (because in the world of hyper masculinity there's nothing worse than being gay or lacking in the nether regions).
I know iphone allows for people to upload any applications. But shame on all those people who bought this product & then posted such demeaning reviews.
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You know, it does sound like that guy is sexually harassing his coworkers, but that doesn't mean Apple is doing so. I agree its a silly application, but they didn't promote it for use against unwilling participants. That's like saying that because the iPhone has a camera, Apple is promoting up-skirt websites.
The guy in the review is guilty of sexual harassment, but Apple isn't necessarily. You could also use wobble to make balloons jiggle, or santa's belly shake, or confetti wobble around, or john mccain's jowls jiggle.
There are non-sexist applications of Wobble.