misogyny and racism in one super handy app

Spendthrift Studios have developed a 'design your dream Asian girl' iPhone app. John at 8Asians purchased the app before commenting on it, but I've got no such claims to being unbiased (and also no iPhone): I'm happy to make my comments without checking it out.

With this app, you can cater to your Asian fetish! Your Asian lady fetish! Because those exotic Asian ladies are just waiting for your callsuper sexually available! As Asian ladies should be!

This is so gross, the only thing that surprises me is that there are actual choices of ethnicity. No wait, two things, because Japanese isn't an option (you can have a Chinese, Taiwanese or Korean lady), and that surprises me, too. But I'm surprised that it's not just generic Asian, because that's all we are, right? Ladies to be looked at, women to be constructed, a mish-mash of cultures that, in our Western zeitgeist, are there to service people, sexually or not.

From the app page:

Make your dream girl look like someone you know, like your secret lover or ex-girlfriend. This app produces beautiful faces that will blow your mind away.

And then you can share 'your girl' with your friends! Never mind the problem of Asian women being forcibly trafficked in order to be subject to someone else, never mind the history and reality of Asian women having to conform to unrealistic and/or Western beauty standards, oh no, create your own available young Asian lady just for you!

I would say that this is indicative of how misogynist a lot of tech culture is, but it's not that at all; because I'm pretty sure this is going to sell well to non-geeks, and it's indicative of how misogynist culture is. It's yuck.