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.