Say What? Nintendo Junior Scrabble Allows "LESBO"
Tempest in a teacup or unacceptable language in a children's game? A father in Ireland called in the cavalry after playing a game of Junior Scrabble 2007 on the Nintendo DS with his 7yo daughter - and the game offered "LESBO" as the solution to a five-letter anagram. The father from Holywood, County Down in Northern Ireland stood up against what he perceived as a homophobic term. He said:
"I looked it up on the website dictionary.com just to make sure I wasn't over- reacting and it described the word as a noun, slang, disparaging and offensive."
Meanwhile, Ubisoft, who makes the kid-targeted game, has said that they base their game dictionaries on the Chambers Official Scrabble Dictionary, which contains over 277,000 words "used in the English language, but that may be considered unusual or offensive." The game includes a Junior Mode that removes offensive language, but the word "LESBO" wasn't labeled offensive - and so was kept in the game.
The Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association's PA MagLochlainn jumped to the cause with what sounds a bit like an unpleasant stereotype of its own:
"I am not in the least bit surprised it is included because the young men who design these games are not taught by schools that these words can be used as a form of homophobic bullying."
There's some truth on both sides of this question, it seems. We've all certainly tried to slip worse words past Scrabble at one time or another (at least I have), but don't we expect games made specifically for children to be passed through more than a cursory "it-wasn't-on-the-list" glance for inappropriate content? Is this offensive, merely ignorant, a non-issue, or what? Talk to me.
Games company defends homophobic Scrabble [PinkNews.co.uk]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 1 October 2007
· Comments (10)
Other stuff like this: homophobia, junior scrabble 2007, lesbo, nintendo, ubisoft
It probably has more to do with the island of Lesbo in greek mythology... Or I'm completely wrong and have my facts switched around.
Either way, that's a proper noun. Damn artards.
Nate: the Greek island is named Lesbos. :)
It seems like it just depends on the type of environment you are in. For me when I am talking to my friends we don't mean it badly but at the same time from homophobs it is used derogatory(in the same school). But I have to admit that a dad seeing that word in a game was worried that it was homophobic instead of trying to push the gay agenda was a nice change.
Meh, with a dictionary of over 277,000 words, it's easy to see how something borderline like 'lesbo' could get through.
It was a mistake... who cares...
I don't think its anywhere as clearly offensive as the word "fag" or "dyke". And, quite frankly, presented on its own, does it encourage homophobia in small children? I don't think so.
One could also argue that not including the word is possibly homophobic. Is lesbian included?
It seems a non-issue, all things considered.
I'd have to agree with Stephen on this one: It's basically a non-issue. You know the press would flip s**t if they had the words Fag or Dyke in there, but they didn't. They have Lesbo. Now, I don't find the word offensive (in the least) because I'm the type to call people Queeroids and describe a girl as Dykeadellic.
And besides, Lesbo is a fun word.
Oh god... I hate people. " The young men who make life-consuming miniature gateways to the pits of hell, and the North American education system is a piece of shit" is what that person was trying to say.
Please, its just the word lesbo, I use it on a regular basis.
People need to calm there asses DOWN. or GTFO/earth.
You know - I'm pretty proud of this guy for finding something that isn't appropriate for a kids game (homophobic or not, it's not appropriate for a 7 year old to go around calling anyone a 'lesbo') and actually standing up to do something about it.
At least he's interacting with his kid and teaching his kid that it's not okay to use words like this.
I don't find it offensive at all, content-wise. Perhaps not kid-appropriate. The only thing that really bothers me about this is that the word should not be permitted in the game! Either this is a misspelling of "Lesbos", which is a proper place-name and is not permitted, or else it's an abbreviation of "lesbian", and abbreviations are not permitted either!