Blog #10: Villanueva

One term that really stuck out to me was the "cultural hybrid". In this case, Villanueva is talking about someone who is of a mixed cultural and racial background. It seems that often times this can inhibit someone’s ability to fit in with any of the cultures they represent. In the example in the reading, Villanueva is talking about how a Puerto Rican may not fit in with the white culture because he is not white (and some may just ignorantly assume that he is a Mexican), yet he doesn’t fit in with the Mexicans because while he is what some may call “Hispanic” his culture is completely different than that of Mexicans. What I find interesting about this is that it seems to affect some races and cultures more than others. For example, I hear about this more with say a Mexican American or an Asian American than with people of mixed European descent. It seems that “white” cultures don’t have as much trouble with this, for example someone who is an American of German and French background may not have to deal with this kind of thing. On the other hand, I could just be unaware of it because of my basically “white” descent and my largely “white” surroundings.

For my questions I chose the reading “Fake Polygons” by Anne-Marie Schleiner for a couple of reasons. For starters, I feel like it could be one of those sections that we read long enough ago it might have been forgotten about and I doubt that anyone else will use it. Also, I think it is an important subject because video games seem to be the outlet for many downfalls of society like sexism, racism, etc. and is still a largely male dominated field.

So my multiple choice question:

Schleiner (Fake Polygons) would say Lara Croft is a(n)

a. Demeaning, negative image of the female form idealized by the male gaze.
b. Positive role model for girls allowing them an entrance into gaming and game design.
c. Outlet for repressed male homoeroticism, allowing them to ‘try on' the opposite sex in a safe environment.
d. All of the above

And my True or False question:

According to Schleiner, video games are an important tool which young boys use to learn computer skills, collaboration, strategizing, and puzzle solving, and this tool should be expanded to more actively include girls.

True

Works Cited

Villanueva, Victor. Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color. IL: Urbana, 34-50. eBook.

Schleiner, Anne-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." MIT Press 221-226. Web. 3 Nov 2010. .

Blog 9: Nakamura again

I don’t think this website really went beyond the “menu driven” concept of race. Yes, the idea of getting rid of racial prioritization is clearly the intent, but I don’t feel like they are even following their own advice in their content.

For starters, look at the slide shows in the Me, My Race, and I section. They show lots of pictures of black kids in the ghetto, yet all the pictures of the white families show them relaxing in the yard in some nice, suburban neighborhood. I say WTF! I know of plenty of “minority” families who live in a hell of a lot nicer neighborhoods than I do, and I would say I live in a typical middle class house in a neighborhood that is as a whole probably considered upper middle class. On the other hand, what about all the white people who live in leaky roofed mobile homes in backwoods trailer parks?

Another section I disagree with is the Where Race Lives section, specifically the Tale of Two Families slide show. It compares a white family and a black family and how they have earned and spent money during their lives. The black family buys a small duplex, financing a good part of it. The white family does the same but they use money from their parents and from a GI Bill to get a larger house in a nicer neighborhood. As the story progresses, the them remains the same; the black family struggles while the white family passes money down to their kids in order to give them a better start in life. Yes, I will agree that the black family had a harder time, and yes, especially back then there was more discrimination against housing and work and everything else that probably didn’t help; but at the same time, the story gives you the feeling that it is bad to pass down family wealth to your kids to give them better opportunities. It said nowhere that the white family was racist, or that they stole from “minorities”, they were just a normal family who happened to have it pretty good; why is it so bad that they use their wealth to better their family?

If you haven’t noticed, I have been using the word minorities in quotations; this is for a reason. Take the tri cities for example; I wouldn’t consider Mexicans a minority, or Asians, etc. But take a look at the scholarship offerings. There are pages upon pages of scholarships for specific minorities, none of which I am applicable for because I’m “white”, even though I am a ridiculously large mix of nationalities, I am more of a mutt. But what if someone were to set up a “white” scholarship? OH HEAVENS NO!!!!!! THAT’S RACIST!!!!! Well…Why? There are all these scholarships for minorities giving them tons of opportunities to go to school and have a better life, but what about me? What about me, the middle class kid who’s parents make just too much for me to get financial aid but not nearly enough to be able to afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on college tuition. Me who works full time to send myself to school, while others get their tuition, books, cost of living, etc. paid for just because they are a “minority”. Sorry for the rant, I would like to say I am not racist, I don’t think people should be discriminated against because of their skin color, background, beliefs, etc. But I do think this should include everyone; it shouldn’t be a “take it away from the whites and give it to the ‘minorities’” society. I feel like this is the message the website was giving, so no, I don’t think it went beyond the “Menu Driven” concept.

Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, ethnicity, and identity on the internet. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002. 102-135. eBook.

"Race - The Power of an Illusion." PBS.org. PBS, n.d. Web. 28 Oct 2010. .

Blog 8: Nakamura

From what I can get out of the reading, cybertypes are the online or digital representation of racial stereotypes. Well, I suppose they aren’t necessarily racial, they could be sexual, religious, etc. but that’s the basic idea. Nakamura talks about how the digital world has the ability to fight these stereotypes because peoples’ physical bodies are not actually seen in many cases so they can’t be judged based on them. Instead, often times stereotypes are reinforced and exaggerated online and in games.

People often use avatars of other races online and instead of doing this to try to break down stereotypes, they act according to those stereotypes. Nakamura says “Rather than honoring diversity, their performances online used race and gender as amusing prosthesis to be donned and shed without “real life” consequences.” (15) Nakamura calls this identity tourism.

I have noticed this in various games I have played; the one that comes to mind at the moment is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In this game your avatar is a black man and there is a scene where you and your black friends go to the drive through at Cluckin’ Bell, which is basically KFC. From the start this represents the stereotype that black people like fried chicken. Once at the drive through, one of your friends orders enough food to feed an army, further reinforcing the stereotype that black people like A LOT of fried chicken.

In Street Fighter II, the idea of identity tourism was pretty obvious. The first fight is in china and in the background there are Chinese people riding bikes, selling chickens in the street, all typical things you might think of when someone mentions China. At that point it wasn’t too bad, at least in my opinion. The next fight, however, is in the USSR and the stereotypes became a little more blatant. The game basically reinforces the idea that all Russian men are huge, burley, meat heads with muscles so big the veins on them are about to pop. After the USSR came India; your opponent here is a small scrawny man with no shirt on and his ribs showing. Again typical stereotype of Indians, but it took it a step further; the man also has a skull necklace around his neck, representing the voodoo, black magic type stereotype we have for Indians. When you actually get to fight him, he is able to stretch out his arms and legs almost all the way across the screen, taking the witch doctor thing even a step farther. The trend continued like this throughout the game, basically allowing players to be and interact with different races from around the world. The problem is, you don’t really get to interact with different races, you only get to interact with the extreme stereotype of that race.


Works Cited

Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet.
New York Routledge. 2002

"Racializing Cyberspaces." Cultural Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct 2010. .

Blog #7: Schleiner

The most obvious gender-subject configuration I saw was with princess. All the rest of the characters pretty much just jumped up and then fell back down when you press the jump button. With princess she jumps up and basically floats/flies for a while before she comes back down. I’m guessing this is because they expect girls playing the game to use princess and they assume that females won’t be as good at games as males so they make it easier to play as her than as the others. Another thing about her is that she is much fluffier than the rest of them. Mario, Luigi, and Toad are more rugged or dirty looking and look like they belong in that surrounding; princess is more polished looking and seems out of place in the countryside jumping down pipes.

Other than that I didn’t really see any obvious, glaring gender-subject configurations. I did notice that Luigi was also slightly easier to use because he seemed to jump higher and stay in the air slightly longer than Mario. He is also kind of more nerdy looking which leads me to believe that maybe they expect people who aren’t as good at the game to use him. This isn’t really a gender thing though, just more of a stereotype. I really don’t know what the deal is with Mario; I mean, he is a very short, chubby guy yet somehow he is always the one that ends up saving Princess and running off with her. This seems to go against the norms in my opinion; usually it’s the taller, good looking guy that saves the day.

Schleiner, Anne-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion In Computer Games." MIT Press 34.3 (2001): 221-26. Web. 7 Oct 2010. .

Blog #6: Cheung/Avatar

I honestly don’t think Avatar is a great example for a gender dichotomy. In some ways I suppose you could say that it does because it portrays all, or nearly all the men as being rough, stone cold soldiers who are all about their main goal which is money. In contrast, the women seem to care more for the indigenous people and their planet, but they are not by any means delicate little flowers; they are just as aggressive as the men. Of course this is just a comparison of the human characters. When it comes to the male and female navi (sp?) they seem to have a much closer goal in life and perception of the world around them; I don’t see much of a difference here.

Jake’s original identity is the tough marine who is completely self confident, willing to do anything to prove himself, doesn’t care much about science or anything, he just wants to go in and kick ass and prove he is not any less of a man than anyone else. Once he spends some time in the new world in his avatar body he starts to understand their beliefs and values. He realizes that what the humans are doing is wrong and slowly starts to side with the navi. Of course he doesn’t show this when he is with the humans, especially with the military leaders, because as Cheung says “…if we present these identities in inappropriate social settings, we experience embarrassment, rejection, or harassment” (275). This is much like the personal web pages Cheung talks about. Jake would probably like to show his real ‘identity’ but isn’t safe doing so in front of most of the humans. When he is in his avatar body it is safe to do so because he is with an audience that obviously agrees with his new identity.

Bell, David, Barbara Kennedy, and Charles Cheung. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. 273-85. Print.

Blog #5: Lupton

Lupton describes various types of relationships we have with our computers. One such relationship is “The humanized computer” in which we give our computers very human-like characteristics. An example of this is the advertisement for the Apple iMac G4 a few years ago. Here is the url for the video since I don't see an option to embed it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYutehhGknI. In the commercial, Apple points out that their computer not only has more physical ability than the others as far as positioning goes, but they also give us the impression that it has personality. They want it to look fun and friendly, almost to the point where they want it to be our “friend”. This also reminds me of the first week or so of class when we listened to the different voice options for Snow Leopard. We talked about how it seems that some people (most likely lonely people) want to connect with their computer on a deeper level; they want it to be a companion. Lupton recognizes this saying, “Just as humans fear alienation and loneliness, so too do their PCs” (427). While I am not necessarily a Mac fan, I have to admit they have done a superb job over the years of marketing their products as having more flare and personality than others in the industry. We still see this today with the Mac vs. PC ads where the PC is represented by a very bland, chubby, middle aged man, while the Mac is represented by a young, energetic guy. While not everyone necessarily wants an exuberant computing experience, Apple is definitely catering to those who value the liveliness of their products.

I think the most significant thing I have learned so far this year is how different ways of presenting information can make us feel differently about that information. Burbules tropes are what come to mind here. I hadn’t really thought of things like this before, but now I find myself more aware of not just the content of what I’m reading, but of what the author was trying to sway me to believe. I have started noticing when and what they reference and link in with their work and realize that everybody has an agenda. Nobody is just giving you pure information these days; they all want something out of it. Really, this is a large part of what the DTC major is about, learning to subconsciously persuade people. Being aware of this not only makes us smarter consumers, but also better at using these techniques ourselves.

Bell, David, Barbara Kennedy, and Deborah Lupton. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. 422-32. Print.

Snyder, Ilana. "Page to Screen." Routledge, n.d. Web. 21 Sep 2010. http://www.paulmuhlhauser.org/475/Readings/Burbules.pdf

Blog #4: Bell & Bauman

I think that the idea of virtual communities as "peg communities" is actually a pretty good way to describe them. I also don’t think these types of communities are a bad thing; they are just another way for people to express the different sides of themselves with people who share interests that they normally wouldn’t be able to because of differences in location. The main thing that came to mind while reading this was the online Subaru forum that I am a member of. As I have alluded to in previous posts, I am an avid car lover, as are many of my friends (real life ones that is). I enjoy working on project cars with friends, talking about ideas, etc. but when it comes to specifics about my own car I tend to communicate more with the people on the forum. Why? Because while my real life friends may share my love for automobiles, most of us have not only different brands of cars, but completely different classes of cars that aren’t really related. So when it comes down to talking about specific ideas, problems, possibilities, etc. or just wanting to talk to people who share my exact interest with, not just my general interest, I have a whole giant community to go to made up of people who are in the exact same boat as me so to speak.

On the other hand, I don’t think all online communities necessarily fit into the peg community description. For example, I also have a Facebook profile. The reason I have this is because growing up we moved around a lot, so Facebook allows me to keep in touch with people who I know and originally met in person but now live too far away from to keep in touch with face to face. I’m not friends with people on Facebook who I’ve never met, just actual, real life friends, so in my case this community is not a “peg community” in which I share a particular interest with but have no real responsibility to. Instead these are people who I actually have real life relationships with but don’t get to see face to face often enough to sustain these relationships without the use of technology.

As for the communities I would like to use for Assignment #2, I think I would like to use Facebook because I find it interesting how different people use it in very different ways. I would also like to use the Subaru forum as an example, which is www.nasioc.com. I’m not sure of a third, I’ll have to get back to you on that.

Bell, David. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd. 1. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000. 254-63. Print.