Annotated Webliography

* Late due to flashdrive difficulties. I handed in the hard copy on time, but was informed it couldn't be marked without the virtual copy.

Guiding Question Three:

In order to properly answer the question; “Judy Waczman argues that Donna Haraway’s figure of the cyborg has taken on ‘a life of its own’ in popular culture, science fiction and academic writing. In what ways has it been taken up by feminists?” it must first be determined what the meaning of the term ‘cyborg’ is in this context. It can be defined as “a cybernetic organism, such as an animal with a human-made implant.” (Judy Waczman) In order to find sources suitable to answering this question, I searched journals on the library websites and also used Google Scholar. Throughout my perusal of online resources, it was important to take note of the date the sources were published and the credibility of the authors. More recent sources would provide information specific to the present day, but older sources would provide an insight into the evolution of the figure of the cyborg and its influence on feminism.

The first online source to be discussed is On the Matrix: Cyberfeminist Solutions [1], a book written by Sadie Plant which explores the acceptance of the cyborg by feminists and also how it has helped in equality of the genders. It indicates that the merging of human and machine, as seen with the internet, undermines “the world-view and the material reality of two thousand years of patriarchal control.” She goes on to indicate that women have been considered outsiders in society, foreigners in a male-dominated world. It is indicated that this is so because women lack the “equipment” that men possess, and masculinity attributes to identity. The introductions of the cyborg and such mediums as the internet were embraced as a way to shed the previous stereotypes regarding gender.

“Should Feminists Be Cyborgs?” [2] is a valuable source in exploring the feminist ideals depicted in science fiction television. The first television show discussed is The X-Files, in which the character of Dana Scully is a good example of a cyborg; she is both a woman and a scientist, which connects both the machine-like quality (science) with the female. The second television show analysed is Star Trek. Star Trek includes cyborg characters, perhaps the more traditional model that is thought of when thinking of science fiction, including Data. Sexual orientation is explored through these cyborg characters. Data is seen to exhibit emotions and actions more in line with the stereotypical way in which society views femininity; caring for children. Complimenting this, it is shown that the character of Seven challenges the stereotypical view of women due to her lack of sensitivity and emotionality.

In a more human and technology-based example, Wired magazine article “Women Power Web of Protests” [3] details how feminists in today’s digital age are able to express their opinions through new mediums of communication, such as the internet. The examples given (the donations made in George W. Bush’s name to Planned Parenthood, and apparent outrage at attorney general John Ashcroft’s connections with a conservative magazine) show that the success of such endeavours are in a large part thanks to the acceptance of the figure of the cyborg as a communicative tool today, ie. The internet and the melding of human and technology. As stated in the very opening sentence; “Instead of chaining themselves to a fence to protest the glass ceiling or vociferously picketing outside the studios of the Miss America pageant, today's feminists are taking a less visible route toward activism.” This quote clearly indicates that the internet has been enthusiastically adopted by feminists as a more widely accessible and influential tool in encouraging societal change and the exchange of opinions.

Similarly, Tracy L. M. Kennedy’s “The Personal is Political: Feminist Blogging and Virtual Consciousness-Raising” [4] delves into the internet as a medium of expressing opinions and forming “consciousness-raising groups.” In this scene, feminists are cyborgs in their own right, utilizing the power of the machine (the internet), which appears as an extension as the human body, an extra limb. The text attributes the oppression of women to societal ills, and the internet as an ever useful tool in ensuring the road to social change. It also brings up the valid point that the virtual world enables everyone, not just academics, to voice their opinions. However, it acknowledges that the blogosphere is primarily a male-dominated medium and raises four points as to the overcoming of this snag by female activists; self expression through diary-type blogs, sharing stories to gain a wider knowledge of women in different situations and interacting with fellow feminists. Overall, this source explores the difficulties faced by feminists online, but also the great effect the blogosphere can have on promoting and achieving social change by the voicing of opinions.

Another source from Blogging Feminism (Web)sites of Resistance, is “Blogging Was Just the Beginning: Women’s Voices are Louder Online” [5] by Chris Nolan, which indicates that the internet is a useful mechanism in spreading feminism. It discusses the theory of sexist distraction, and gives the example of Judy Dean and her husband Howard Dean as an example. The article states that Judy Dean “was criticized for not leaving her job and her two children—one in college and the other preparing to attend—to join her spouse on the campaign trail,” when Mr Dean ran for president in 2004. It indicates that it was of greater importance for the woman to support her spouse, than for her to support the family financially and have her own career. The article goes on to outline that blogging was predominantly a male-dominated means of communication and expression. However, this changed when it was realised that blogging and the internet were more accessible to a wider audience.

The sources proved to be useful in order to answer the question given. It is indicative that the cyborg has been a figure of empowerment for females in terms of sexist stereotypes and the sources I discovered, predominantly from different websites and authors, all supported this view through such analyses of science fiction shows and the internet. The introduction of the cyborg and such technology allows women more freedom and a more accessible way of expressing their opinions.

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[1] Sadie Plant, “On the Matrix: Cyberfeminist Solutions,” Social Research: Philosophy, Politics and Practice, 1992. http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=S9dCT23LSSEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA170&dq=sadie+plant&ots=BpqBMXjWVu&sig=lOuSde1sn9BMnn--dJVkfWttxrY

[2] Joan M. Blauwkamp and Nicole R. Krassas, “Should Feminists Be Cyborgs?”
http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/3/8/8/5/pages138854/p138854-1.php

[3] “Women Power Web of Protests” Wired Magazine
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2001/04/43063

[4] Tracy L. M. Kennedy, “The Personal is Political: Feminist Blogging and and Virtual Consciousness-Raising,” Blogging Feminism: (Web)sites of Resistance (Part I: Cyberactivism and Online Movement Making) 2007
http://www.barnard.edu/sfonline/blogs/kennedy_01.htm

[5] Chris Nolan, “Blogging Feminism: (Web)sites of Resistance,” Blogging Feminism: (Web)sites of Resistance (Part II: Women and Politics in the Blogosphere), 2007
http://www.barnard.edu/sfonline/blogs/nolan_01.htm

harooo?

I don't know if anyone still reads this, but picked up another thing on girls and the great pasttime that is video gaming.

Helpful for essays?

Kudos goes to Tama Leaver and his blog (http://www.tamaleaver.net/2008/10/29/interactive-australia-2009-report/)... here are latest stats on video gaming in australia... I'm quite happily surprised by the stats on female gamers!!

• 88% of homes have a device for playing computer or video games.
• 68% of Australians play computer or video games.
• 46% of gamers are female.
• The average age of an Australian gamer is 30 years.
• 84% of Australians aged 16-25 compared with those 50+ play computer and video games.
• The average adult gamer has been playing for 11 years.
• Half of all gamers play daily or every other day, a quarter play once a week.
• The average game play session is one hour.

So, in line with international trends, the majority of Australians play videogames, there is close to a gender balance, and far from being exclusively for children, the average age for a videogame player is well into legal adulthood at 30 years old. Moreover, most adults see videogame play as something that should be supervised:

• 70% of parents in game households play computer and video games, 80% of these parents play them with their children.
• 78% of parents say an adult is present when games are purchased for their children,
• 92% of parents say they are aware of the games played in their homes.
• 75% of all computer and video games classified in Australia are G or PG (Classification Board).

Also not necessarily surprising is that most adults in Australia presume that there is an R18+ rating for videogames (there isn’t):

• 63% of adults do not know that Australia has no R18+ for computer and video games.
• 91% of adults (including gamers and non-gamers) say Australia should have an R18+ classification for games.
• 17% of adults in game households admit to having pirated games in their collections with nearly 10% of all games in Australian homes being illegal copies.

final reflective post

so we have come to the end of this unit..my God, the semester went so fast..

okok..so what I have enjoyed about this unit...I really loved writing on the blog, althought I did forget at times...it made me feel cool and look 'knowledgeable'...

I also learnt about cyborgs, something which is completely new to me. I was really impressed by what I learnt in the unit and have been really informed. At times, I wonder, if I am a cyborg as well...then again, I ponder on the definition of a cyborg..and the conclusion is...yup, I am a cyborg in a certain way!!

lastly, I want to thank Alison for making this unit an informative and interesting one..and also my tute mates without whom the blog entries will be dry.

final reflective post

According to the blog instructions document, we're supposed to have made a final post this week reflecting on the unit and the blog. I thought it was next week, but it says week 12, so...

The blog: I enjoyed using the blog for tutorials. Having the conversation spread over a week or so gave us more time to think about and discuss the ideas that came up and pursue different lines of thought related to the readings and lectures. I liked having the time to think about what I wanted to say, carefully consider other people's points, look at the articles again and so on before I posted my comments.

A disadvantage, I suppose, is that without the immediacy of a live tutorial, people could forget to post or just not be bothered. Possibly some people were also intimidated by the technology. Most of the time there didn't seem to be many people actively posting - or they would make their one post for the week and that would be it. (I was guilty of this myself a few times.) Many weeks had very little that you could call a conversation. (On the other hand, I've been to plenty of face-to-face tutorials in various units that have been like this too...)

The unit: The tutorial blog was one of my favourite things about this unit. But I liked a lot of things about this unit: the workshops, the reader, the lecturers... and it was very well-organised, which is always helpful!

Am I a cyborg? To be honest, I'm still inclined to agree with what Liam said right at the start of the unit: it depends on how you define "cyborg". And since "cyborg" is a very politicised concept, just accepting one person's definition - Donna Haraway's, for instance - and running with it seems to miss the point.

But I love technology and I'm happy to consider myself a cyborg. I don't believe there's going to be a techno-utopia or anything radical like that. Whether technology's effects are good, bad or benign depends on the way we use that technology, and humans don't have a great track record there. But I'm excited about the possibilities that technology is opening up to us - new ways of communicating, new artworks we can create, new abilities to improve life for some members of society - and I want to be part of that. In any case, like Donna Haraway, I'd rather be a cyborg than a goddess.

reliability of Wikipedia

Relevant to yesterday's discussion: Wikipedia and the Meaning of Truth

Technorati: State of the Blogosphere

The website Technorati has released its annual report on the "blogosphere". I haven't read much of it yet, but I found the statistics on who is blogging interesting. I think there must be a certain amount of selection bias, as only bloggers registered with Technorati were surveyed. But it still shows how privileged an activity blogging is, despite the fact that we tend to think of it as a democratic practice. Two-thirds of the bloggers surveyed were male, and 70% had a college degree. Both education level and household income were higher than those of the average Internet user.

Woman jailed for 'killing' virtual hubby

Note: I've copy-pasted this article from ninemsn.com. Available at http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=652750

Woman jailed for 'killing' virtual hubby
11:03 AEST Fri Oct 24 2008
By Mari Yamaguchi

A 43-year-old player in a virtual game world became so angry about her sudden divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona, police say.
The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his ID and password to log onto the popular interactive game Maple Story to carry out the virtual murder in May, a police official in the northern city of Sapporo said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.

"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman, a piano teacher, had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.
She has not yet been formally charged. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison or a fine up to $US5,000 ($A7,427).

Players in Maple Story create and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting monsters and other obstacles.

In virtual worlds, players often abandon their inhibitions, engaging in activity online that they would never do in the real world. For instance, sex with strangers is a common activity.
The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married to kill the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his online avatar was dead.

The woman was arrested on Wednesday and taken 1,000km from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sapporo, where the man lives, the official said.

The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world.

Bad online behaviour is usually handled within the rules set up by online worlds, which can ban miscreants or take away their virtual possessions.

In recent years, virtual lives have had consequences in the real world.

When bad deeds lead to criminal charges, prosecutors have found a real-world activity to cite - as in this case, in which the woman was charged with inappropriate computer access.

In August, a woman was charged in the US state of Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through the virtual reality website Second Life.

In Tokyo, a 16-year-old boy was charged with stealing the ID and password from a fellow player of an online game in order to swindle virtual currency worth $US360,000 ($A534,760)

Virtual games are popular in Japan, and Second Life has drawn a fair number of Japanese participants. They rank third by nationality among users, after Americans and Brazilians.

Flash mobbing

Some examples from youtube:

From Japan

From America (mentioned in the lecture)

23rd

So... do we have a workshop this week? in outline it says "reflection: blog"... ?

due to popular demand...my tute discussion notes

For those of you who couldn't make it to the tute last Friday :)

Mia Consalvo’s article, ‘Hot Dates and Fairy-tale Romances’ takes a look at two popular games, Final Fantasy and The Sims, and discusses the construction of sexuality and gender within them. Discussion about Final Fantasy was mostly tied up around the idea that the game player automatically inhabits the male character Zidane, who engages in a romantic discourse with the princess Garnet, and who is ultimately responsible for ‘saving her’. Consalvo also discusses the interesting notion of the ‘erotic triangle’- which exists within FF and how it is weakened when the game player is female.
In discussion of The Sims, Consalvo focuses on the wording of the user manual which states things like ‘a same-sex relationship does not have the option of marriage’, but at other times goes to great lengths to use vague language in discussions about the characters- which is supposed to reduce pigeon holing.

Overall, I found the most interesting part of the article was when she spoke about how within the game ‘The Sims’, sexuality is considered an activity, rather than an unchangeable aspect of personality chosen when the character is created. Consalvo outlines that some gay activists have a problem with this- saying that by making sexuality ‘merely’ a choice, it gives weight to the argument that homosexuality is optional. On the other hand, some support the way the Sims game is structured in this aspect, because they believe that saying the body is ‘innately’ sexual is too essentialist.

The second article in this weeks reading ‘From Quake Grrls to Desperate Housewives: A Decade of Gender and Computer Games’ opened with (in my opinion) a very bold statement; “today, few worry about women’s access to cyberspace- the gap between the sexses in online participaton has largely closed… we scarcely think about [the web] as a male-dominated space”. As this is central to my research essay, I have done quite a bit of reading around this issue and the general consensus seems to be that the web still is considered a male-dominated space. Does anyone else find the above extract a bit unstable?
I won’t write any more on this article because my copy in the course reader is missing what looks like every second page and thus is very hard to get any sense out of!

Third article: ‘as we become machines’: talks about body as cyborg. Old Haraway argument.
Thinking like a computer
2D to first person perspective- making the body ‘grunt’ in pain etc... screen shudder, fade to red etc...
Occupy role of camera operator as well- shifiting postion.
Arcade games- actually sit on a replica motorbike.
Wii- extention of this idea. Using body as the apparatus, not a joystick.
While you can change skin colour in a game, your character and the world around still behaves in the same way.

What?? No discussion???

Just a quick note to remind everyone that this week we are back in the classroom for the tute (friday)- incase everyone was wondering why I haven't posted yet, as this is my week for presentation.

I had a beautiful blog all written out too, but now I have to come face to face with your ugly muggs instead! :)

I hope everyone has got something out of this blog- I think that althought it can be harder to remember to log-on every week, it promots much more considered and interesting discussion than you get in a classroom when everyone is just watching the clock and throwing the odd comment into the room :P. Depends upon the tute of course.

Anna xxx

facebook

hahaha..i remember last semester i was not a 'member' of facebook. it was like facebook added the wow factor to a person's life...so well, i joined facebook and ya was impressed for a while...why for a while..simply because i'm not a facebook person and wasnt able to fit it into my life...unfortunately for my friends and for me too!!

Response to Culture Jamming

Technology has played a huge role where it comes to the influence of culture jammers…well at least in my opinion! With the advancement of technology, information is not at one’s fingertips. Gone are the days where one has to meticulously look up the encyclopedia or dictionary. At the age of the internet era, the internet now allows one to put up one’s beliefs and activities so that others can read or experience. The world has become particularly small and literally all can be done, at the movement of the fingers. Gone are the days where one wrote journals (of course there are many who still do)….but when I was ‘trying’ to encourage my 9-year-old daughter to start journal writing, she suggested creating a blog instead…so that she can be seen and heard ‘all the time’. What advancement in technology

Of relevence

'Interview with pro girl gamer Ashley Jenkins'

'Over a third of Australian gamers are female'

an interesting feminist blog

I recently bought 'The Great Feminist Denial' (great read, I highly recommend it) and they do a chapter on feminist blogs that are available. 

I have had a quick look at a couple and so far this Australian one has been very interesting. 

 

Hoyden About Town

check it out!

Anna

Virtual Gender Bending

Following what was mentioned in the last lecture, I found the issue of gender bending quite interesting.

Out of curiosity has anyone ever pretended to be the opposite sex online? In my experience I've been mistaken as a guy a number of times, and a few times I have quietly let that assumption do what it liked without saying anything. The main difference is that people are far more forecoming with you if they don't think you're female.

Which leads to another question: what allures men to be girls online? (apart from the obvious sexual fantasies of some)

Has anyone found the claimed sex of someone's online persona unconvincing?

Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life

danah boyd's 2007 article “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life” takes a look at the reasons why so many teenagers use social networking sites, in what ways are they using these sites, and what implications this has for youth identities. boyd specifically focusses on MySpace use amongst teenagers, with the majority of individuals she interviews for her research being between the ages of 14 and 18. The teenagers interviewed gave a general answer as the reason for using MySpace as “'cuz that's where my friends are” (pg 7) and boyd attributes MySpace's popularity to its support of “sociality amongst pre-existing friend groups” (pg 8).

Apart from “that's where my friends are”, or as in Liam's example of his friend, not being kept up to date with social events otherwise, what reasons do you think teenagers have to join these social networking sites? And what reasons do the conscientious objectors have – is their objection as much a part of their identity as those who do sign up to these sites?

boyd talks about the construction of a MySpace profile as an expression of identity and of making appropriate impressions on their peers. Teenagers can see what is socially appropriate and what details they should put on their profiles by viewing their friends' profiles. One can not only add details about themselves, their hobbies, favourite music, books, or movies, who they'd like to meet, and personal details, but can also change how their overall profile layout looks. All these changes allow teenagers to personalize their profiles to best suit their identity.

It also allows teenagers to learn how to manage impressions – how to “define social situations by using contextual cues from the environment around them.” (pg 12).

Teens want to present the side of themselves that they think their peers will look most favourably upon, and thus create their profile accordingly. They are acting for a perceived audience – who they think will be looking at their profile and thus judging it influences what they display on their profiles.

If you have MySpace/Facebook/etc, do you feel like you've consciously edited your profile in order to seem as, say, cool as you can? Do you feel that because of this aspect – users wanting to be seen in the best light & thus creating their profiles accordingly – these social networking sites are more limiting, rather than the liberating spaces they could be seen as (allowing people to open up to people all throughout cyberspace)?

boyd also discusses teenagers' privacies and publics, and stresses throughout the article the concept of multiple publics, rather than one single public. She concentrates on privacy issues between parents and their children, rather than the importance for privacy for teenagers in order to protect them from online predators, as is a big issue regarding the internet in today's society. However, if you consider the fact that boyd's article focusses mainly on the reasons why teenagers use MySpace and their development of their identity through it, this focus on parent-children privacy can be seen as reasonable as it's no doubt one of the main concerns for teenagers on MySpace, rather than online predators, which seems more of an issue that would concern parents instead.

In boyd's discussions of privacy, she also comments on the fact that what is on the internet is going to be publically accessible and easily searchable, and how this can arise as a problem, such as for university applications, as per her example.

Do you think it's fair, or appropriate, for potential universities or employers to check up people by googling them, or searching for their Facebook or MySpace? Like in boyd's example, their online persona could be entirely different to their professional persona, so is it fair to potentially write an applicant off based on this? Do you think anything you have on the internet could be used against you in such a way? Should it be your own responsibility to ensure there is nothing online that could be used against you, or do you feel that its not right for employers to judge staff on their online interactions and thus one shouldn't have to censor themselves?

Objection!

In relation to the 3rd reading and the issue of conscientious objectors, I have a little story to relate.

A friend of mine had refused to join any of the social networking sites. "lame, stupid, why bother?" etc etc. Until recently that is. A few months ago he joined facebook. Why? He wasn't getting invited to parties, as people were only sending invites out through facebook.

Oh how the mighty have fallen...

tutorial presentation - A Rape in Cyberspace

Julian Dibbell’s article “A Rape in Cyberspace” discusses a sexual attack, the Bungle Affair, that occurred in an online world called LambdaMOO, and what this attack implies about online ethics and identity. This attack, Dibbell says, “raises questions that ... demand a clear-eyed, sober, and unmystified consideration. It asks us to ... look without illusion upon the present possibilities for building, in the on-line spaces of this world, societies more decent and free than those mapped onto dirt and concrete and capital. It asks us to behold the new bodies awaiting us in virtual space undazzled by their phantom powers, and to get to the crucial work of sorting out the socially meaningful differences between those bodies and our physical ones. And ... it asks us to wrap our late-modern ontologies, epistemologies, sexual ethics, and common sense around the curious notion of rape by voodoo doll – and to try not to warp them beyond recognition in the process.” (p. 200)

The most obvious question to come out of “A Rape in Cyberspace” is: was it rape? What would qualify it as rape? Is rape even possible in cyberspace? The title Dibbell chose for his article is provocative. I remember reading (although it’s a long time ago, and I don’t have references, sorry) criticisms of “A Rape in Cyberspace” as sensationalist and perhaps even scaremongering. Common sense tells us that rape is physical, and MUD and MOO worlds are constructed entirely of text, so clearly Mr. Bungle’s attack wasn’t rape, right? But if LambdaMOO’s reality is textual, then isn’t textual rape as real as anything else that might happen there? The Bungle Affair brings into question the reality of all of LambdaMOO.

Perhaps the best way to think about Mr. Bungle’s attack is as a kind of crime that doesn’t quite exist in “real life”, not exactly rape but more than “just” sexual harassment. The LambdaMOO residents seem to have mostly felt this; Dibbell says that Mr. Bungle “had committed a MOO crime, and his punishment, if any, would be meted out via the MOO.” (p. 208) This touches on the ethics topics we looked at a couple of weeks ago. If Mr. Bungle’s attack was a MOO crime, rather than a “real life” crime, does that mean that ethics and/or morals are different in cyberspace? Does the medium change the ethical and/or moral aspects of an action? Could there be crimes such as rapes in cyberspace which have no “real life” equivalent?

Identity is a a theme which comes through strongly. To a certain extent, LambdaMOO formed a space for identity experimentation; but at the same time, it was not entirely fluid. The mapping of character to user was not one-to-one. Dibbell mentions that he sometimes took on different characters in LambdaMOO, and Mr. Bungle was reborn after his “toading” as Dr. Jest, but having more than one character per person was discouraged. Sometimes a character might also be controlled by more than one person. The version of “A Rape in Cyberspace” which is in the course reader doesn’t mention this (see p. 29 of My Tiny Life), but “Mr. Bungle” was in fact a group of university students, and the attack was a communal affair. At the same time, however, LambdaMOO was more than just a “vast playpen in which [users] might act out their wildest fantasies”. Dibbell describes a user’s “concern for their character’s reputation” as “mark[ing] the attainment of virtual adulthood” (p. 209).

Gender is also a factor in the attack. The software of LambdaMOO allowed for fluidity in gender – typing “@gender female” or whatever you wanted to be was all it took to change your sex – and there were many gender options that were neither male nor female. However, the users brought their offline gender biases into LambdaMOO with them. Dibbell notes that Mr. Bungle’s attacks were aimed at female-presenting and gender-neutral characters, and that many female-presenting characters had suffered sexual harassment on LambdaMOO at some time or another. He also quotes (in My Tiny Life, p. 126) the creator of LambdaMOO, Pavel Curtis, who pointed out that female-presenting characters were often challenged to “prove” that they were really women, although male-presenting characters were rarely asked to prove themselves men.

(If anyone is interested in following up on this article, Dibbell's book about LambdaMOO, My Tiny Life, is available online. I've read it - you could probably tell from my references to it - and it's a fascinating study. Well worth the read, if you're interested in the issues he raises.)

Culture Jamming...

I thought of a couple more possible examples of culture jamming… One is UK graffiti artist Banksy, who plays around with a lot of images from art and popular culture and mainly critiques capitalism, government and basically the establishment in general. He also pulled off a prank a couple of years ago where he replaced hundreds of Paris Hilton singles in music stores with fake cds that parodied her image. His artworks do raise some pretty valid points, but I’m a bit skeptical about how effective culture jamming can really be at eliciting change or getting people to take a look at themselves and their lives. For example, I doubt that the manipulated ipod advertisements shown in Thursday’s workshop made anyone think twice about having one (I still really want one). I kind of agree with the idea that, because culture jamming in the form of parody is a reaction and reworks existing imagery, it does not offer anything new and possibly even reinforces the status quo.

Another example I thought of was from a documentary I saw a couple of years ago called The Yes Men. Has anyone else seen it? It was about a couple of guys who make fake websites for government organisations and corporations, satirising them and highlighting social injustices they perpetrate. It was a really interesting and funny film, but I think that the kinds of people who would watch the film or be amused by their pranks already agree with their arguments anyway, ie they're sort of preaching to the converted...

Ad Parodies

Images taken from punknews.org

The topic Culture Jamming reminded me of Nike's stint in using Minor Threat's album cover for a skateboarding advertising promotion (Nike's Major Threat Skate Tour) back in 2005. Does anyone know/remember this? Minor Threat was a hardcore punk band from the United States who projected the DIY subculture in their music. Based on my knowledge, the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture began as a punk and political movement decades ago which includes being anti multi-national corporations and mass productions etc. The band had been well-known for resisting against huge corporations such as Nike. Anyway, Nike used the band's iconic album cover without the band's permission which created a furore by band member Ian MacKaye. Nike apologized later on publicly saying that it was a 'poor judgement call'. You can read about it here.

Nike claimed that the band is iconic and used the album cover to attract skateboaders to the marketing campaign. Minor Threat may have been legendary amongst the punk community but how well do skateboarders nowdays actually know about the band in the first place? While some may argue that the main problem lies in Nike stealing the artwork without permission, the multi-billion dollar corporation had ultimately used it as a parody against the band. So the 'pop-culture marketers' had used the same strategy towards their own critics and made them taste their own medicine. Based on your previous judgements on culture jamming and ad parodies, is it now acceptable for the tables to be turned?

I thought it'd be interesting to bring this up for the tutorial discussion. Hope it's relevant enough. Have a good week!

Women's digital activism through gaming; The good, the bad, and the virtual

Hi there, I'm sorry for posting late...just realised last night that it was this week that I was supposed to carry out the discussion..below are some questions that I thought of as I read the 1st article in the readings for the week..

Question no 1

Are the ethical values and standards universally applicable in media, irrespective of time and place?
Every profession has its ethical guidelines and a profession without ethics cannot survive in a civilized society. Hence all the respected professions are guided by professional ethics. The professional ethics are guiding principles and a kind of self regulatory mechanism for keeping the profession updated bonded by ethical guidelines. Media is a profession guided by its own ethical guidelines. In most of the developed world press councils develop the guidelines of ethics and keep vigil eye on the professional conduct.

Media have a complex relation with ethical practice. Many of the critics have raised doubts over the electronic media and the doubts are not baseless. By the advent of electronic media the readers of print media raised their eyebrows and hoped a deterioration of ethical values. The good, the bad and the ugly opines the binary good bad a third term, ugly which destabilizes the opposition into a non-logical list. The meaning of these words in binary fashion represents different meanings. The author of the “The Good, the Bad and the virtual” Mr. Mark Poster suggest that the virtual meaning of these words may not fit into existing definitions of the good and bad, This means a situation where the issue of ethical standard or definition may be appropriate but may not be appropriate in the same degree in another situation or time.

Since the new trend of change of media has brought out virtual values by mediation the use of ethical norms may not universally apply at all places and time. The acts that are distanced information machines cannot be judged by the same one which is used for evaluating the face-to-face speeches. Do the standards deployed in real life serve us well in the virtual domains of cyberspace, film, radio, television, telephone and print in short, in the media? According to Mr. Poster there is specificity to ethics that limits its range of applicability to what is now, after the vast dissemination of media, called real life. Perhaps the virtual imposes a species of cultural life that is to use Friedrich Nietzsche’s phrase, beyond good and evil. The problem then is not to introduce and determine a means to apply ethics to a recalcitrant sand strange domain of the virtual, but to invent new systems of valuation that adhere effectively to mediated life.

Another question arises just as the first is posed; if new ethical rules are required for mediated culture, perhaps the earlier system of ethics was itself flawed. Perhaps ethics as we have known it is put into question when the virtual complicates the real. Perhaps certain problems with the ethical emerge when one attempts to extend its reach to mediated acts. As long as media were contained top particular times and spaces, ethics was arguable not in question. To read a printed novel, newspaper, or treatie4s is a special act, easily delimited from real life and face0-to face relation by the very materiality of the printed page. It is simple to distinguish between talking to a person and reading a novel, even if the novel is more arresting that the conversant. The medium of the film is similarly bounded by its reception and its form: films are shown in specific places at specific times. They are determined in time and place. After the credits have rolled the audience leaves the theatre and encounters other people perhaps to discuss the film.

These familiar boundaries between relations among people and the media are now beginning to crumble. Walkman and radios permit a person to listen to music regardless of location.

Thus we can say that certain standards and norms of ethic for media cannot be universal. They might become obsolete in different times and places but certain ethical values remain unchanged regardless of time and place.

Question No 2

Is there a likelihood of getting ethical values diluted in advancement and popularization of electronic media?

According to Mr Poster religion, the cultural dominant of the pre-modern era does not give ethics the pride of place it has in modern society. The present age understands the challenge the media presents for ethics and for spiritual life in general (Dreyfus 1999) He regards the pres as a danger to humanity because of the anonymity it introduces. For him, “the power of impersonality of the press is nothing less than a dreadful calamity”.

Mr Poster further mentions his fears by outlining some directions for the genealogy of morals in an age populated not only by humans but also by information machines, particularly Internet machines. People have begun to flock around Internet machines.

The incursion of information machines into daily life elicited considerable worry about ethics. On the internet itself there are many discussion groups working on the topic. Until the Web was created in 1993 the culture of computer scientists and the ethos of the university community dominated the morale tone of communication on the Internet. A vague ethic of the sharing of information characterized exchanges on the Net. In fact the architecture of networked computing promotes just such rapid decentralized information flows.

Civility was presumed and largely prevailed on the Net from 1969 to 1993. Users were for the most part convinced that a utopian communication device had been set in place that surpassed the moral tone of real life meetings as well as encounters in other media. Gradually the Net users increased. The population of Net users grew quickly from 20 million to 200 million by the end of the decade overwhelming the Net culture of the earlier period. In the new conditions of mass usage the netiquette could not keep up.

The problem of Net ethics attracted the attention of other media like print, news paper and magazines. In Net spamming and flaming became very common problems. The use of Net became a market driven medium. When the topic of ethics on the Net turns to its presentation in the broadcasting media the medium is so coarse that the message in this case ethics is difficult to discern.

By grabbing the Net use by private and global market the ethical issues have got a back seat and hence it is a high time to think that the ethical values have got dilution in the era of Net.

Question No 3

Is it feasible to maintain the transcendental ethical principles in media in contemporary society?

Given the complexity of the challenges and situation the author of “The Good, the Bad and the Virtual”, Mr. Mark Poster suggest that a transcendental ethical principle is not possible to maintain in the current conjuncture of mediated information society, its elaboration does not adequately constitute the conditions of ethics, does not illuminate the dynamics of good and bad in the various cultural contexts of cyberspace and broadcast and print media. Instead according to Nietzsche’s perspective where he has explored the good and the bad in the culture of virtual. The moral positions of the master and the slave, which Nietzsche analyzed so trenchantly, take as their communication context oral and print cultures. Moralities of good /bad and good/evil growing out of these contexts apply at best partially to information society.
Nietzsche advocated, paradoxically, an aesthetic process of moral creation. His “free spirit” of superman resembles nothing so much as an artist, a spiritual warrior, one who wrestles with her own limitations to move beyond them, to get to a place where new values are possible. The moral elite explores its own values, dissects them, reject them devalues them and purposefully seeks the pain of being lost, uncertain, without direction. She suggests an introspection of oneself wherein she struggles with herself, the free spirit experiments with “living dangerously”, risking her beliefs, deliberately placing herself amid the unfamiliar and the strange. This internal struggle of her own experiment is a formula for cultural innovation.

According to Nietzsche only after such a self reflective struggle an individual may arrive at a position to find new values, new ways of valuing that he/she thinks are less self-destr5uctive than both the noble and the democratic moral mechanisms.

Having undergone a rigorous process of self transformation, the free spirit is capable of expressing beautiful values, values that will attract others to join in their celebration of them.

Many philosophers and critics reject the Nietzsche’s theory in modern age. According to many of the critics Nietzsche’s utopia beyond good and evil may be impossible or wrongheaded or undesirable.
Many argue that Nietzsche’s theory of transformation does not really resemble with the theory and process of moral transformation; superman and the condition of moral judgment in the age of mediated information.

The internet enacts a massive deterritorialization of cultural values and by doing so doing links or reterritorializes the ethical and political issues. One innovation, then, of the Internet is a call for a new theory of the political as a collective determination of the good in a context in which the ethical, the individual determination of the good, receives somewhat less prominence than in the modern or print age.

Due to the possibility of exchange of information online availability of communication there is possibility of very constructive and positive communication but there is an equal possibility of disruption of ethics, norms and standards. The establishment of ethical norms, for instance those of netiquette in cyberspace occurs in the process of forming new relations of force, giving shape to the emergent zone of cyberspace. Ethics and politics appear mutually imbricated in networked computing. Whereas ethical concerns in information age include topics of censorship and overload, as these challenge existing norms and attitudes, the more serious issues point to the possibility of a transvaluation of values and the political aspects of forming subjects in the domain of the virtual. Thus the possibility of getting ethical concerns, norms and standard deteriorated from one situation to another is very likely to get deteriorated and socially obsolete. Hence we can say that it is not feasible to maintain the transcendental ethical principles in media in contemporary society for reasons beyond our control.

A response to 'The Ethics of Porn on the Net'

I also change my mind all the time on whether or not I’m ‘okay’ with porn. I don’t think Kath Albury explored the problematics of porn in enough depth in her article. On one hand I think it’s important for female (and male) sexuality to be depicted in diverse ways, and if people want to choose to participate in or watch pornography they should be able to. However, a small part of me does agree with Andrea Dworkin’s argument that women who participate in porn are practising a form of prostitution.

Kath Albury talked about how internet porn has an ‘ethical sensibility’ because it allows people with more diverse or kinky sexual tastes to be represented and catered for. She mentions that some websites do have guidelines and rules, but the internet is so unregulated, obviously there would be a lot of unethical stuff going on. I remember a documentary I watched a while ago about men with fat fetishes overfeeding their partners in order to have more control over them In my opinion, I don’t see how a porn site with images of amputees or really hairy women is necessarily any more ethical than one with fake-breasted conventional porn women. Porn can be hilarious and harmless, but it also tends to promote and perpetuate some pretty distorted and unrealistic ideas about sex and the potential for exploitation is too great for me to be completely comfortable with it.

workshop4

Okay so a tad late, better late than never I guess.

I don't rmemeber if anyone else noted this, but in the Second Life sign up page, in the 'country' slide, it has 5 or so countries that are isolated from the rest - clearly 2nd life either has a lot of users in these countries, or is aiming at these people (USA, UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea). Yahoo in signing up already had Australia down as my country, though I wasn't using the Australian version. I guess they're already picking up my location through my IP address or something. Lavalife assumed that I was a female looking for casual dating between 25-34 or something.

I'm trying to think whether I'd call any of this racist/sexist. Was anyone in our tute offended by the assumptions any of the sign up pages made? I'm trying to think if I'd say any of the pages I saw were inherently racist.. I'd probably agree with what other people in the tute have been saying about the assumption being the user is white/middle class or above, etc etc. Has anyone thought about things the other way - there's millions of websites out there directed at specific groups that are not the norm? For example, VampireFreaks. On one hand, the obvious assumption is that to be using this website, you'll be into the goth/emo/alternative etc etc community/fashion/culture. That said, on the signup page, you're basically asked for age, name, gender (m/f). At least at that stage of the signup, there isn't anything about country etc.

Does this say the website is making more or less assumptions than say yahoo, and therefore is less racist/sexist? I don't really know. Where I was trying to go with this is that, given the openess of the internet, even if the premier websites (eg massive corporation stuff like microsoft passport, yahoo, etc) don't cater to everyone, I think there's probably a website out there serving that groups needs. Should they face scrutiny because they're assuming the user isn't part of the norm? I don't know. I kinda feel its good to have variety? But really i'm saying this to try put something fresh on this blog.

If this has been especially rambly, I have gotten the 'proper'/full cold thats doing the rounds, and is currently making me feel pretty average. Do i end every post talking about how crap i feel? i have a sneaking suspicion i might.. haha. oh well.

Racial Identity Online

In response to Therese's post, I think that race is less fixed in cyberspace. As can be seen in the critique of the website ICERED, people are a lot more confident and outspoken in cyberspace . The anonymity that can be found online means that people are less likely to fear retribution for their opinions, and they can also shield and reveal whatever parts of their identity they wish to (age, gender, race, etc) because most communication is done with text.

I believe that abolition of race in cyberspace would have negative affects in regards to “real life” interaction between different races. Prejudices would still exist in face to face interaction, because the initial issue of racial assumptions would not have been dealt with. Of course, abolition would assist in the lessening of prejudice online on the surface but not the assumptions that individuals attach to the idea of race. This applies to issues such as sexism and homophobia as well (as can be seen in the discriminatory thread posted on ICERED entitled "Homosexual on ICERED"; which, as well as being homophobic, depicts the incorrect assumption that homosexuality is a "feature" of western countries and no where else) .

Stereotypes regarding women, men, homosexuals and different races have been present in media forms in the past, such as movies and television but can also be generated by cultural and religious beliefs. It’d be foolish to assume that there’s a “quick fix” for the problem of prejudice, but abolition would appear to be more problematic with regards to real life. If race were to be obscured, no presumably warped views would be changed. People would bring their own values to cyberspace and (as indicated in “Menu-Driven Identities: Making Race Happen Online”) it is often presumed that white is the “default race” of the internet.

Integration would also have its set backs; what about those people who are unwilling to interact with people of different races, sexualities, etc? This unwillingness could provide a barrier, stopping potential interactions between races. However, it does appear more favourable than abolition as it attempts to eradicate the problem rather than just ignore it. Eventual integration appears to be the best option in challenging and eradicating prejudice. If people are able to remove initial assumptions, they will be able to accept different races, sexualities, etc.

A (very) belated workshop 4 response

Like many of you, I have had a Hotmail account for some years, but I went back to the Windows Live sign-up page to refresh my memory of the process. Most of the things I noticed were already brought up by Emily in her post - assumption of a Western middle-class background, for example, but I did notice that the default "Country/Region" box was set to United States, and the section for "account information" included State, Zip code and Time Zone - the states were American states, and the time zones were American time zones, as well as the fact that the "zip code" is a USA method. So, the site assumes that, as an Internet user and a subscriber to Windows Live, you are probably American with a middle-class and probably Western background. Also that you are either male or female, or identify as such. The site claims that these details can be used to reactivate your account should you forget your password...to me it seems slightly more intrusive than necessary, but I'm guessing most new users will fill out the required sections on the form without a second thought.

Yahoo! was slightly different, in that it detected that I was accessing the sign-up page from Australia and offered me the option to switch to the Australian version of Yahoo! to set up my account - the email address of which would end differently to one set up on the default US version. This could conceivably be an incentive for some Australian users to stick with the US version to avoid problems when giving others their new email address.
I switched to the Australian version, where the secret questions assumed that you were: in a stable relationship, grew up knowing your father, had been privileged enough to own a car, bike or pet, went to at least two schools, and that your high school had had a "mascot" - more of an American tradition, but still included in the Australian version...
The Marketing Preferences box was automatically ticked to be sent ads for special offers and the like, but this I think was more of a marketing ploy.

On to Second Life, where, yes, your gender was male or female, and you were also by default a young person with a slim physique. Possibly customisation options are available later in the game? Though both Caucasian and dark-skinned races were represented, it was difficult to tell whether avatars with Asian characteristics were represented in Second Life or not. There were options for avatars with dark hair and slightly darker skin tone, but their facial characteristics didn't seem any different to those of the Caucasian avatars. There was also nothing for Arabic, Indian, Polynesian, American Indian, Australian Aboriginal, Hispanic, or a myriad of other "races" - though this could be excused by the fact that it is the sign-up page, and giving the user a limited set of options to start with encourages them to customise more once they enter the game.
Your first name was your choice, but your last name had to be selected from a list of available last names - probably to prevent avatars with the same first and last names, as well as reducing the incidence of "joke" names. The names ran the gamut of foreign backgrounds, but strangely there were very few Asian-sounding last names. Whether this was due to them all being used or because of a bias against identifiably Asian avatars is unclear.
Like the last two sites, Second Life also assumes a privileged background, with questions such as "What city were you born in?", "What street did you grow up on?" and "What is your favourite vacation spot?" Since users will be spending money on the site this is quite possibly a fair assumption - someone with enough spare cash to spend it on Second Life has a high probability of being at least middle-class.

Lastly, Lavalife. As suggested on the workshop sheet, the default search assumes you are a single, straight female, seeking a 25-34 year old male for casual dating - a reflection of the most common type of Lavalife user. It is interesting that, even on a dating site for people unable to otherwise find romantic relationships, the only genders available for selection are male and female - the site does not appear to cater for transgender, polygender, transvestites or others, though you do have the option of searching for the same gender as yourself.

In conclusion, most of the sites seemed as if they were catering to what they perceived to be the demographic most likely to use their services. It seemed to me to be more of a tool to maximise efficiency and make the site more user-friendly to the majority of users, thus attracting more traffic. The "menu-driven identities" seen in these high-traffic sites are thus less a product of Western society's ingrained expectations of the "normal" Internet user, and more a result of marketing strategy - making the sites easier to use for the type of user most likely to access them, increasing traffic and therefore increasing profit for the site's owners.

Tutorial Presentation: The Ethics of Porn on the Net

I'm getting in early with my tutorial presentation. I've tacked on a few discussion questions at the end- more to come when I think of them.

The Ethics of Porn on the Net

It's a Woman's Prerogative to Change Her Mind, and I have changed my mind so many times when it comes to my stance on pornography; I’ve loathed it, loved it, and been everywhere in between. However, I was distinctly uncomfortable with some of Kath Albury’s arguments.

She structured her essay by first giving a poor summery of the Judeo-Christian view of the problematic aspects of pornography, then presented a slightly better take on the problems of pornography, from a Marxists view. Albury then puts forward the following question: “if pornography is immoral, does that make it unethical?” Her answer was at first a definite NO, however, she later qualifies this by saying ‘the answer depends on what definition of ‘ethics’ on chooses’.

Albury spends a large portion of her essay discussing amateur porn (I couldn’t help but think of Paris Hilton). But it got me thinking, there is such a big difference between making home videos (which I think is perfectly fine, and fun!) and putting those home videos up on the web. Albury cited that perhaps up to 70% of online porn is produced or modelled by non-professionals. I wonder how much of this percentage has been leaked/put on the net without the consent of all contributing parties.

Overall, Kath Albury gave me a lot to think about. I agree that amateur are a completely different kettle of fish when compared to commercial porn, but the issue confuses me. I find the idea that regular people want to pretend to be strippers/porn starts, i.e. people who are paid to imitate sexual arousal (I’d bet everything I own that at least 80% of the ‘supposed female orgasms you see in commercial porn are faked) problematic. Albury, on the other hand, views it as ‘’an ‘everyday experiment’, a form of new sexuality that is both a part of, and separate from, mundane domesticity”. Albury’s work, published in 2002, has become a little outdated, as she claimed that people viewed the attraction to women over 40 as ‘unusual’ and ‘kinky’, however, in this day and age, with a little help from popular culture (think American Pie), MILF has become normalised and mainstream.

Albury claims that “this proliferation of [unusual, deviant and kinky] sexual imagery is a perfect example of Internet porn’s ethical sensibility”. This is where I seriously differ from Albury. From my limited experience of internet porn, it seems to be full of (mostly) strangers having sex. Sure, some of them are from different ethnicities, some are larger/taller/hairier/more dwarf like than others, but the formula is the same; they all love rooting strangers (ok, and sometimes their teacher or boss). I find this the most problematic part of pornography. It rarely explores any of the mental, emotional, spiritual or psychological aspects of sex and instead presents a very simplistic, purely physical view of sexual desire.

Other questions to consider:

· Do you agree with Andrea Dworkin, that women who participate in porn are practicing prostitution?

· If porn is immoral, does that mean its unethical?

· Are ethical systems medium-specific? Should they be?

· If one of your close friends/ family members told you they had decided to become a porn star, would you be supportive of them? Would it make a difference to you if they were entering the commercial or amateur industry?

· Given that a digital culture is interconnecting via a global World Wide Web, is a global system of ethics required? How do the existing legal boundaries of nations complicate such a goal?

· Does digitisation challenge the ethical underpinnings of a capitalist culture? Do we need a new ethics of consumption in the era of mass and ‘illegal’ peer-to-peer movie downloading?

· Check out these statistics on pornography. Do they concern you? Shock you? Or are they exactly as you expected?