`Sexist' Pinball Game Removed From Cabot House

"The Bride of Pinbot" was jilted last Tuesday for the second time when the Cabot House committee requested that the pinball game machine be removed.

The machine had been ousted from Mather House two weeks earlier following complaints, repeated by Cabot residents, that the game portrayed a sexist view of women.

House residents said "Bride of Pinbot" displayed a reclining female robot who encouraged players by moaning "Make me feel like a woman."

Lisa Marie Robinson '94, co-chair of the Cabot House Committee, said students, tutors and the masters complained.

"You would press her anatomy to score points," she said. "It was so tacky."

She challenged the decision to pass the machine on to Cabot after it had already been labeled offensive by Mather residents, saying, "How could you take it out of one house and move it to another?"

Rebecca Gould, an assistant senior tutor in Cabot, said the tutorial staff unanimously agreed to remove the pinball machine.

"We felt if one student had an objection, that was enough to support its removal," she said.

Doug Spitnaly, an employee of the game's distributor, Woburn Vending, said he could not understand what all the fuss was about.

"Doesn't anyone have a sense of humor there?" he asked.

Charlie Vessey, also with Woburn Vending, said these are the first complaints the game has received, even though it was located for months in the basement game room of the Harvard Freshman Union.

However, he said he could understand why some people might be offended.

"After I saw it, I could understand a little," he said, "Not that I agreed."

Vessey said that while removing the game he was confronted by three students who were not pleased to see the "Bride's" departure.

Two male students lay down in front of the machine to protest the removal, while a female student took their picture.

He said "The Bride of Pinbot" would not be returning to the Harvard campus.