Nakamura begins this reading by pointing out that many people perusing the internet have decided that it is colorblind, and not gender bias because all internet users have the same amount of ease of accessibility to access to creating a web space or that these internet users identity are only viewed through an ambiguous and androgynous computer monitor of sorts.
Even conceiving this notion of race and gender not existing in any way on internet web pages is ridiculous. As long as humans have personal preferences and the ability to customize a web page in anyway there will be visible racial preference occurring on any website.
Nakamura also believes gender and race is witnessed when viewing internet pages.
Race: The Power of Illusion is a website interactive interface on PBS.org. The website attemps to teach its users about the world of race and the ludicracy of our civilazation looking at other races as if they were different people. Unfortunately this website shows that it is racist its self when scrutinized by Nakamura concepts and her idea of Menu-drivin webpages.
Race: The Power of Illusion offeres fun facts about race through history and information on how to better ones self when identifying racial issues. The website also is incorporated with a game where the user is able to arrange a bunch of people that look like different races into categories that the user may see fit for them to be associated with. This game however does not offer many different choices of races or give any choices for whether these people with in the game that your cyber-typing have any mixed haritage nor does the game offer any categories to organize mixed races. this website thus implies that only the races acknowledged on the webpage are important enough to be acknowledged and all other races are seen as they don't exist or that they are some sort of non-important sub category.
work cited
Nakamura, L. (2002). Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge.
“RACE – The Power of an Illusion | PBS.” PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 28 Oct. 2010.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
cybertyping and identity tourism
The term identity tourism coined by Nakamura is described as experiencing attributes of a race different than ones own for a short amount of time without fully immerging ones self in that races culture. Reasons for doing this are often purely for recreation and exploring ones own identity. Identity tourism is much like locative/vocational tourism in that when one visits a destination they often merely tap the surface of the environment of that location due to the short amount of time with in the location thus they are un able to completely submerge themselves in the culture of the particular society that most likely takes years to develop a proper living experience. This is parallel to identity tourism.
cybertyping deals wit the portrayal of Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. Cybertyping occurs when attributes from a culture are portrayed as stereotypical actions often associated with western culture notions.
The video game Streetfighter 2 allows a user to experience both of these cultural mediums.
When playing streetfighter the user is able to choose between a wide variety of characters portrayed as being from people from around the world. The user/gamer is able to play a quick game level as sort of a character drawing of the nations true culture. These character drawings of the characters in the game are completely cybertyped and based on western stereotypes. Characters characteristics are solely based on their appearance, Asians are nija sumo wrestlers, black people are athletic sports fighters, and so forth…
work cited
Nakamura, L. (2002). Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge.
Nakamura, L. (2007). Race in/for Cyberspace: Identity tourism ad racial passing on the Internet. In D. Bell and B. M. Kennedy (Ed.),The Cybercultures Reader (2nd Ed.) (pp. 297-304). London and New York: Routeledge.
cybertyping deals wit the portrayal of Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. Cybertyping occurs when attributes from a culture are portrayed as stereotypical actions often associated with western culture notions.
The video game Streetfighter 2 allows a user to experience both of these cultural mediums.
When playing streetfighter the user is able to choose between a wide variety of characters portrayed as being from people from around the world. The user/gamer is able to play a quick game level as sort of a character drawing of the nations true culture. These character drawings of the characters in the game are completely cybertyped and based on western stereotypes. Characters characteristics are solely based on their appearance, Asians are nija sumo wrestlers, black people are athletic sports fighters, and so forth…
work cited
Nakamura, L. (2002). Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge.
Nakamura, L. (2007). Race in/for Cyberspace: Identity tourism ad racial passing on the Internet. In D. Bell and B. M. Kennedy (Ed.),The Cybercultures Reader (2nd Ed.) (pp. 297-304). London and New York: Routeledge.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Super Mario Gender Gamer
Super Mario Bros. 2 complicates gender stereotypes by allowing the gamer the ability to choose to play the game as either a male character or a female character while still maintaining equal skills in the character’s game play abilities. Having the ability to play the game as the female character Princes Peach and go through the game fighting, throwing, climbing, and jumping over bottomless pits is often seen in our society as beyond a woman’s gender roles and more heavily tied with a males actions. The equal abilities of the male and female characters blur the notions of a difference between genders.
But each character does have a subtle difference in game play abilities. Each character has a different special skill, these different skills could be argued as completely random abilities that could go unquestioned if they were swapped between characters or these special skills could be seen as a social commentary on the appearance of each character. When my older brother and I were children in the early 90’s we loved playing this game. We often played as the Princess because her special ability that differed from the other characters was the ability to have longer hang-time in the air after a jump compared to her male counterparts. Even as a child I rationalized this different ability and contributed it to her wearing a dress that acted like a parachute. Little did I know that by choosing the Princess character I was actually experimenting with (as Schleiner would put it) Gender crossing at an early age by ““wearing” a feminine identity”.
Some Differences between the male characters, Mario, Luigi and Toad can still be recognized in contrast to Princess Peach but mostly at the visual graphics level. The princess’s costume design shoves the fact that she is a woman down the gamers throat. Her wardrobe consists of attributes often associated with the male-gaze ideal of what women should look like with a thin body type, long flowing locks of hair, bright pink dresses, and accented with luxurious accessories, in this case a crown. The male characters have rather average clothing consisting of pants, shirts and hats often seen as a male’s ideal choice of clothes to spend a day in.
A photograph of me documenting alternate and unrelated research on the prequel of Super Mario Bros. 2
Work Cited
Schleiner, Ann-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." MIT Press 34.3 (2001): 221-26. Web. 7 Oct 2010. .
Super Mario Bros. 2. Nintendo, 1988.
But each character does have a subtle difference in game play abilities. Each character has a different special skill, these different skills could be argued as completely random abilities that could go unquestioned if they were swapped between characters or these special skills could be seen as a social commentary on the appearance of each character. When my older brother and I were children in the early 90’s we loved playing this game. We often played as the Princess because her special ability that differed from the other characters was the ability to have longer hang-time in the air after a jump compared to her male counterparts. Even as a child I rationalized this different ability and contributed it to her wearing a dress that acted like a parachute. Little did I know that by choosing the Princess character I was actually experimenting with (as Schleiner would put it) Gender crossing at an early age by ““wearing” a feminine identity”.
Some Differences between the male characters, Mario, Luigi and Toad can still be recognized in contrast to Princess Peach but mostly at the visual graphics level. The princess’s costume design shoves the fact that she is a woman down the gamers throat. Her wardrobe consists of attributes often associated with the male-gaze ideal of what women should look like with a thin body type, long flowing locks of hair, bright pink dresses, and accented with luxurious accessories, in this case a crown. The male characters have rather average clothing consisting of pants, shirts and hats often seen as a male’s ideal choice of clothes to spend a day in.
A photograph of me documenting alternate and unrelated research on the prequel of Super Mario Bros. 2
Work Cited
Schleiner, Ann-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." MIT Press 34.3 (2001): 221-26. Web. 7 Oct 2010. .
Super Mario Bros. 2. Nintendo, 1988.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Avagendar
James Cameron's Avatar strives to create a world that is from our wildest imagination but he believes our imagination can only portray male and female characters plane as black and white. All Males in the film play strong, aggressive roles while female characters are casted with sexy, sassy, spiritual parts. These masculine and feminine gender roles are seen in our modern day society as stereotypical and as an outdated ideal.
So why did Cameron make his male and female characters so one dimensional and gender stereotyped?
He did this because he needed to spend as little time as possible developing the characters as he could. Cameron knew his audiences already had preconceived stereotypes about gender in their minds, so he made all the males in his film play typical masculine parts and all the females play typical feminine parts. This allowed the audience could get the big picture simple and quick. The big picture being "women are smart and attractive thus worth fighting for and men are strong, aggressive and ready to fight for their cause." Having those character traits programed quickly into the minds of the audience allowed Cameron to create and insert plot and setting information whenever necessary without having to worry about a lack of character development.
I am locutus of Navi
.jpg)
Jake Sully in Avatar exists in two completely different worlds after being introduced to the Avatar interface. When logging into his Navi form Jake leaves everything he is as a human in an alternate space, that body no longer seems to exist to him when he is a Navi. It is easy to imagine how he could become so enveloped by his Navi persona that he forgets about his human form. The two bodies are so different, he's human body is handicapped, lonely, meek, and can't breath alien air in contrast his Navi body is strong, fast, popular, and blue! This forgetting of ones original persona is unheard of when compared to logging onto a digital medium of today's technologies. When a person enters the realm of cyberspace today they are merely doing it through a digital interface that is only controlled by the output of the users original mind and body. Jake only appears to use his mind when controlling a Navi.
When comparing the Avatar's in the film to a web page it is easy to compare some aspects. Logging into a Navi from the human body through a series of electro connections is very similar when comparing information being carried though the Word Wide Web. Also when comparing the ability for Jake to be able to customize his personal Navi with earth clothes, Navi tribal atire, or war paint to best suit his personality or mood it is very similar to the different customizable options often found on popular social sites. But the comparisons of web pages to the Avatar would have to differ when comparing the use of the Avatar in live mode. When existing as a Navi you do not exist in any form of real life, nothing the world can throw at you can affect you in any way. This is because this Navi Avatar is a second life, if it dies it does not effect your true body in any way. On a web page Online networking is an extension of the user. Anything that happens online directly affects the user sitting in front of the interface. The Navi Avatar works more like a video game at an arcade, if you die just put in another fifty cents and play again.
Avatar. Dir. James Cameron." Perf. Sigourney Weaver,
20th Century Fox: 2009, Film.
James Cameron's Avatar strives to create a world that is from our wildest imagination but he believes our imagination can only portray male and female characters plane as black and white. All Males in the film play strong, aggressive roles while female characters are casted with sexy, sassy, spiritual parts. These masculine and feminine gender roles are seen in our modern day society as stereotypical and as an outdated ideal.
So why did Cameron make his male and female characters so one dimensional and gender stereotyped?
He did this because he needed to spend as little time as possible developing the characters as he could. Cameron knew his audiences already had preconceived stereotypes about gender in their minds, so he made all the males in his film play typical masculine parts and all the females play typical feminine parts. This allowed the audience could get the big picture simple and quick. The big picture being "women are smart and attractive thus worth fighting for and men are strong, aggressive and ready to fight for their cause." Having those character traits programed quickly into the minds of the audience allowed Cameron to create and insert plot and setting information whenever necessary without having to worry about a lack of character development.
I am locutus of Navi
.jpg)
Jake Sully in Avatar exists in two completely different worlds after being introduced to the Avatar interface. When logging into his Navi form Jake leaves everything he is as a human in an alternate space, that body no longer seems to exist to him when he is a Navi. It is easy to imagine how he could become so enveloped by his Navi persona that he forgets about his human form. The two bodies are so different, he's human body is handicapped, lonely, meek, and can't breath alien air in contrast his Navi body is strong, fast, popular, and blue! This forgetting of ones original persona is unheard of when compared to logging onto a digital medium of today's technologies. When a person enters the realm of cyberspace today they are merely doing it through a digital interface that is only controlled by the output of the users original mind and body. Jake only appears to use his mind when controlling a Navi.
When comparing the Avatar's in the film to a web page it is easy to compare some aspects. Logging into a Navi from the human body through a series of electro connections is very similar when comparing information being carried though the Word Wide Web. Also when comparing the ability for Jake to be able to customize his personal Navi with earth clothes, Navi tribal atire, or war paint to best suit his personality or mood it is very similar to the different customizable options often found on popular social sites. But the comparisons of web pages to the Avatar would have to differ when comparing the use of the Avatar in live mode. When existing as a Navi you do not exist in any form of real life, nothing the world can throw at you can affect you in any way. This is because this Navi Avatar is a second life, if it dies it does not effect your true body in any way. On a web page Online networking is an extension of the user. Anything that happens online directly affects the user sitting in front of the interface. The Navi Avatar works more like a video game at an arcade, if you die just put in another fifty cents and play again.
Avatar. Dir. James Cameron." Perf. Sigourney Weaver,
20th Century Fox: 2009, Film.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The Disembodied Computer User
In the early 2000’s Sony released a commercial to promote their new line of game consoles, The PS2. The commercial is set in the flying car, white chromed future of 2078 and shows a young man and his adventures he endures while playing video games that have computer graphics so real it looks like it is impossible to decipher what is real-life and what is virtual-reality. The gaming system of the PS9 is shown as being ingested by the user and directly attaching itself to the central nervous system thus creating a cyborg human (as described by Lupton) that appears to interpret the world as a hybrid of virtual gaming and real-life. During this hybrid state the body becomes separated from its usual state of mortality and allows the gaming system to take over the vital systems to allow the user to become super human. This suggests that in the future instead of playing a video game through an avatar of sorts, you alone become the true gamer.
The point of all this in the commercial is to imply the relationship of the overly real graphics of the fictional PS9 of 2078 to the current day PS2. By showing this incredibly advanced game of the future the commercial creates the notion that Sony entertainment is the leading creator of gaming technology and will bring forth the next generation of gaming into your own living room today!
Part 2
The discussions we have had in class on the topics Marshall and Rosemblum’s writings about recognizing preconceived notions of ideologies within advertisements, images, layouts, and programs is one of the most significant things I have learned . Noticing these social aesthetics of ideology that would usually go unnoticed could be a very important thing to remember when creating my own advertisements, or web layouts that speak to a certain demographic or have a possible offensive tone.
Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy. eds. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd Ed.
London: Routledge. 422-432. Print.
"Playstation 9 ( HD VIDEO ) & STEREO SOUND ." Youtube.com. Web.
23 Sep 2010.
blog 4
Part 1: Using the virtual and RL communities you are a part of for evidence, describe how you agree and/or disagree with Bell and Bauman's notions of virtual communities as peg communities.
As a user of many forms of online communities I feel I adopt a slightly different persona for which ever social site I may be apart of. Bell refers to this occurrence as "peg communities". This term is a reference to online communities being compared to pegs on a coat hanger, infering that a person wears a different coat for different occasions. This is the comparison for the notion of one adopting different (appropriate) identities for online communities.
This occurrence of my split personas across the internet is for two main reasons. One being that the particular online community might be very topic oriented , for example, an online photography community based on sharing a critiquing photos will mainly only portray me as a photographer with an artistic eye and opinion. The subjects of my photos may create subtle aspects of my life and identities, but most all of my personal life will be kept untold in this space merely because most of the happenings in my day are irrelevant for my audience. The second reason for creating a sort of façade of an identity is to hide characteristic about myself from certain public eye. On websites like Facebook and twitter I am watched by a diverse array of acquaintances, ranging form family members, business associates, teachers, and close friends. To ensure I don’t embarrass myself or offend any of these diverse categories of acquaintances in any way that could result in unwanted actions RL and RL aspects of the VR world I must filter myself to this audience. I choose what to say in order to portray myself in my best interests. This leads to another topic brought up in the reading. The points about "bonds without consequence"(258) as stated by Bauman in the year 2001 I find to be an outdated statement. Much has changed about the online world since then. Society has gone from a world where full names would ensure identity-theft to a world of searchable home addresses/phone numbers via Google, high school reunion communities, and full name screen names of Facebook and Myspace. So the idea of “bonds without consequences” is easily untrue due to the ability of all VR communities being intertwined with RL interactions.
Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy. eds. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd Ed. London: Routledge. 254-264. Print.
Part 2
http://www.deviantart.com
http://www.Flickr.com
http://www.photobucket.com
I chose these three websites because they are based around the same idea of uploading images to a users personal account but are vastly different in aspects of photo sharing, community interactions, and image content. When viewing other user profiles on these sites a person can take an interesting look into the daily life of that profile users image store and could create assumptions about that user and their life, hobbies, interests, or agenda.
As a user of many forms of online communities I feel I adopt a slightly different persona for which ever social site I may be apart of. Bell refers to this occurrence as "peg communities". This term is a reference to online communities being compared to pegs on a coat hanger, infering that a person wears a different coat for different occasions. This is the comparison for the notion of one adopting different (appropriate) identities for online communities.
This occurrence of my split personas across the internet is for two main reasons. One being that the particular online community might be very topic oriented , for example, an online photography community based on sharing a critiquing photos will mainly only portray me as a photographer with an artistic eye and opinion. The subjects of my photos may create subtle aspects of my life and identities, but most all of my personal life will be kept untold in this space merely because most of the happenings in my day are irrelevant for my audience. The second reason for creating a sort of façade of an identity is to hide characteristic about myself from certain public eye. On websites like Facebook and twitter I am watched by a diverse array of acquaintances, ranging form family members, business associates, teachers, and close friends. To ensure I don’t embarrass myself or offend any of these diverse categories of acquaintances in any way that could result in unwanted actions RL and RL aspects of the VR world I must filter myself to this audience. I choose what to say in order to portray myself in my best interests. This leads to another topic brought up in the reading. The points about "bonds without consequence"(258) as stated by Bauman in the year 2001 I find to be an outdated statement. Much has changed about the online world since then. Society has gone from a world where full names would ensure identity-theft to a world of searchable home addresses/phone numbers via Google, high school reunion communities, and full name screen names of Facebook and Myspace. So the idea of “bonds without consequences” is easily untrue due to the ability of all VR communities being intertwined with RL interactions.
Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy. eds. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd Ed. London: Routledge. 254-264. Print.
Part 2
http://www.deviantart.com
http://www.Flickr.com
http://www.photobucket.com
I chose these three websites because they are based around the same idea of uploading images to a users personal account but are vastly different in aspects of photo sharing, community interactions, and image content. When viewing other user profiles on these sites a person can take an interesting look into the daily life of that profile users image store and could create assumptions about that user and their life, hobbies, interests, or agenda.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Yahoo users
The current day homepage of Yahoo is the evolved successor of the basic html coded yahoo page that rose from the primordial ooze of dial-up internet.
In contrast to the old Yahoo page of the late 1990's, today's modern Yahoo page is loaded with information through images, hypertext, advertisements, and videos, all of which are scattered across the page in a seemingly disorganized fashion compared to it's predecessor which was just a page made up of an alphabetized list of categories. But when looking at today's yahoo homepage instead of being overwhelmed and lost in the amount of text and imagery, the user is able to navigate their way through the information, scroll through the numerous lists, desifer the images thrown infront of them, and find exactly what they are looking for.
How is this possible?
As discussed by Burnett, Robert, and Marshall in their book Web Theory: An Introduction we learn that all modern day media aesthetics are derived from previous forms of media. When looking at the Yahoo home page it is easy to see its resemblance to a Sunday morning newspaper's front page. Our society has been trained for more than a century on how to decipher the information in a newspaper so the switch to similar displayed information via cyberspace could be seen as an easy transition.
When looking at the yahoo hompage one may even ask themselves why didin't it start out this way? why did it look the way it did?
This is due to the technology that was available at the time. Burnett, Robert, and Marshall also discussed the evolution of the interface and how innovative mechanisms through the computer such as the mouse brought on the easy to use desktop associated with modern day computers. Internet at the start of yahoo was much more basic of a connection than what it is today. Graphics were not transmitted well and dial up was slow, but through the innovations of technology we are able to digest the maximum amount of information as needed.
with modern day computer components that make the using of a computer easier comes more challenging interfaces to navigate.
Work Cited
Burnett, Robert, and Marshall P. David. Web Theory: An Introduction. 1st ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003. 81-104. eBook.
Images provided by onlyjames.com
In contrast to the old Yahoo page of the late 1990's, today's modern Yahoo page is loaded with information through images, hypertext, advertisements, and videos, all of which are scattered across the page in a seemingly disorganized fashion compared to it's predecessor which was just a page made up of an alphabetized list of categories. But when looking at today's yahoo homepage instead of being overwhelmed and lost in the amount of text and imagery, the user is able to navigate their way through the information, scroll through the numerous lists, desifer the images thrown infront of them, and find exactly what they are looking for.
How is this possible?
As discussed by Burnett, Robert, and Marshall in their book Web Theory: An Introduction we learn that all modern day media aesthetics are derived from previous forms of media. When looking at the Yahoo home page it is easy to see its resemblance to a Sunday morning newspaper's front page. Our society has been trained for more than a century on how to decipher the information in a newspaper so the switch to similar displayed information via cyberspace could be seen as an easy transition.
When looking at the yahoo hompage one may even ask themselves why didin't it start out this way? why did it look the way it did?
This is due to the technology that was available at the time. Burnett, Robert, and Marshall also discussed the evolution of the interface and how innovative mechanisms through the computer such as the mouse brought on the easy to use desktop associated with modern day computers. Internet at the start of yahoo was much more basic of a connection than what it is today. Graphics were not transmitted well and dial up was slow, but through the innovations of technology we are able to digest the maximum amount of information as needed.
with modern day computer components that make the using of a computer easier comes more challenging interfaces to navigate.
Work Cited
Burnett, Robert, and Marshall P. David. Web Theory: An Introduction. 1st ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003. 81-104. eBook.
Images provided by onlyjames.com
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