Angry Brides amp up woman power
Brick-red stilettos, flip-flops and rolling pins are the latest weapons in India’s fight against dowry. Facebook offers a ‘modern day’ solution to the social trauma — a video game called Angry Brides. The homepage of the game shows an eight-armed woman holding weapons from her household like a pressure cooker, a pan etc.
The three grooms — an engineer, a doctor and a pilot — dodge the attacks while demanding dowries. Each time a player hits a groom, he or she wins money towards a virtual anti-dowry fund.
Aishwarya Krishnamurthy, an ardent follower of the game says, “Many girls have started to take a fearless stance against dowry. It’s this very undercurrent of feminine power that is portrayed through this game.”
“Online games may provide an outlet for the pent up emotions, though it’s not one of the best means for the release. In fact it is maladaptive to quite an extent. The games are meant not only for the victims of dowry, but anyone who wishes to play the game may do it and that in itself defeats the purpose,” says psychiatrist Girish Banwari.
Not everyone agrees that an online game is the right way of tackling the delicate issue of dowry.
Piyush Khandelwal, software engineer and follower of the game says, “Such games trivialise an important issue. These games would not stop families from demanding and giving dowry. What about translating that into action at ground level?”
One of the top scorers of Angry Brides, Shubhangi Pandey adds, “It’s one thing to play a game and feel your nerves calm down but an entirely different thing to actually stand up against your in-laws and tar your husband’s image.”
The game launched by Indian matrimonial site shaadi.com has around 7,87,957 “likes” on Facebook. The players range from all economic and social strata of society, and all age groups.
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