Apple boots out sexist plastic surgery app for kids from App Store

For all the strict watches that Apple keeps over the apps available in its iOS stores, this one seems to have slipped under the radar. An app that allowed young children to perform plastic surgery on a Barbie-like character, to make her look conventionally beautiful, has now been pulled off the App Store.   Apple pulled the app which has the weird, wordy name, “Plastic Surgery & Plastic Doctor & Plastic Hospital Office for Barbie Version” off the App Store this week, following outrage on part of users on social networks. The main complaints have all been about the app’s sexist nature and what it might teach kids.   Interestingly, the app that mentions Barbie clearly in its title, was not released by Mattel toys, who holds the trademark for Barbie and all related merchandise. This one was submitted and presumably developed by a Corina Rodriguez. The cringe-worthy description of the app – retrieved from cache – was enough to outrage the Interwebz. “This unfortunate girl has so much extra weight that no diet can help her,” it reads. “In our clinic she can go through a surgery called liposuction that will make her slim and beautiful. We’ll need to make small cuts on problem areas and suck out the extra fat. Will you operate her, doctor?” In an appalling move, the app was made available for users aged nine years and up. The disclaimer for the app said it contained infrequent or mild realistic violence, but that’s clearly not the problem area. [caption id=“attachment_216409” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Not sure children would enjoy this bit[/caption]   The app essentially got you to perform liposuction on the “unfortunate girl” modelled after a Barbie doll. They were made to suck the fat out of her stomach and cheeks after injecting them with an anaesthetic, making incisions and then sticking a tube into her and sucking the fat out, transforming Barbie to a thinner and considerably more ‘beautiful’ version.   The Everyday Sexism Project drew attention to this app as well as a similar one on Google Play Store. The project urged users to tweet to the app stores in their country to get them to pull it out, forcing App Store and Google Play Store to remove the app.