Prof. Fox Harrell: Identity Experiments in Fantasy

Professor Fox Harrell is a computer scientist and literary artist who recently showed up in an article on Boingboing.net. He talks specifically about fantasy worlds in computer and video games, wherein one builds an avatar or character in order to move around in this alternate reality. As he played around with different computer games, in trying to create avatars that he could actually identify with, there were dilemmas — social construction of races outside of the video game world are infiltrating and heavily influencing the structure of virtual character creation.

“In Elder Scrolls III and IV: I wanted to create a character I could identify as African-inspired (the ‘Redguard race’) but then was automatically made less intelligent,” Harrell says. Similar problems come up in instances like not being offered a clean-lined, sleek male character, as they were all bulky and overly-muscled, being forced into a female character, wherein your strength might decrease. In these video games, all of the abilities you accrue with your character, your weaknesses and power, along with your interactions with other players, and your value as performer in a game, stem directly from the race, socioeconomic class or profession, and gender of your character.

I find this extremely interesting. I know that most of the people who will be reading this blog might not be too interested in video games, but I think this is an important connection to a wide range of issues we’ve spoken about in class together. I’ve realized, that in reading about Harrell’s experiences, that I never payed close-enough attention to my own experiences within the virtual world, which applies to any alternate reality (including the internet in general, people), and how this stigmatization might affect one’s self-image.

In our recent discussion of media, visual pleasure, and also visual stress in terms of identifying with a person as oneself on the screen, and then also realizing that they are NOT you, I think this idea of virtual reality and identification within these realities becomes critical to our interpretation of identity politics. Omitting, or editing out, racialized, gendered, or sexualized options in games is a direct correlation to our omitting of “other” in the physical world we live in. I think Harrell sums it up nicely:

“Much more is at stake than just fun and games. Prejudice, bias, stereotyping, and stigma are built not only into many games, but other forms of identity representations in social networks, virtual worlds, and more.

These have real world effects on how we see ourselves and each other… one realizes that identity is social matter, because even if one can create the perfect avatar, it does not mean that others will respond to it in the desired way that the person sees himself or herself. This means that even in social networking software, we create profiles that ostensibly represent our real selves, but they are limited by many of the same constraints as characters in games.”

source: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/19/chimerical-avatars-a.html

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[homosexuality] as way of life

from “Friendship as a way of life”

Foucault suggests that “becoming gay” involves the creation of new ways of relating to one another.  As the title implies, friendships/relationships are what disturbs heteronormative culture.  Homosexuality as a mode of life is the element that outrages folks more than the homosexual act itself.  These “[gay] individuals are beginning to love one another-there’s the problem,” says Foucault. The problem that I see here is that people are not beginning to love one another, but are expressing that they do so, since homosexuality is such a repressed identity.  Relational systems are not merely reached through sexual relations, but through communication, trust, respect, hence friendship.  Developing a relationship with someone [of the same sex] does not simply come through sexual practices but involvement and interest between one another.  Foucault touches on developing relationships and a way of life through “liberating yourself from the hideous constraints that weigh upon you.”  In other words, we don’t have to identify with the visible traits of (in my case) being gay, but defining this lifestyle and developing a way of life within it is the matter at hand.  We are all susceptible to pleasure and desire, and yes some institutions do provoke love between men or women, such as the army, but I believe that these feelings are already inherent. Not every man in the army comes out gay or has a gay tale to tell.  These feelings and desires are all dependent; dependent upon how you grew up, your passions and desires of sexuality, and then there is your personal inclination to being pleased through bodily sensations and visual attraction.  To sum it up, Foucault suggests that we use our sexuality to arrive at a collection of relationships; for homosexuality should be something desirable and we have to work toward becoming homosexuals through these friendships.

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Bisexuals: real or just indecisive?

http://www.dbtechno.com/images/Tila_Tequila_DVD.jpg

As with much of our theory work, we must define terms first.

David Halperin has thirteen definitions I would like to share: he defines bisexuals as people who ” are sexually attracted to males and females; are not prevented from being sexually attracted to anyone because that person is male or female; are sexually attracted to the individuals they are attracted to, whether those individuals are male or female; are sexually attracted to their own sex but have a sexual history that includes sex with persons of the other sex; are sexually attracted to the other sex but have a sexual history that includes sex with persons of their own sex; are in a stable, long-term, sexual and erotic relationship with some of their own sex but are also sexually attracted to persons of the other sex; are in a stable, long-term sexual and erotic relationship with someone of their own sex but are also sexually attracted to persons of their own sex; have sex only with persons of their own sex who are gay and persons of the other sex who are heterosexual; have sex only with other bisexuals (men or women); have sex only with persons of their own sex but identify as bisexual; have sex only with persons of the other sex but identify as bisexual; have sex with males and females but identify as gay or lesbian; and have sex with males and females but identify as heterosexual.”

As you can see, many people identify as bisexual when forced to choose because of course society can’t just let you be whatever you want or can’t admit that sexuality is fluid. The bisexual identity does serve to undermine the binary of heterosexual or homosexual in a way that it helps others define you. Of course, as a bisexual, you will be defined and treated as heterosexual or homosexual according to your current relationship no matter what your prior sexual history.  The binary is not totally destroyed, and bisexuals can feel unwanted and unrecognized by both heterosexuals and homosexuals as well as being portrayed as merely indecisive. I am here to say that yes, bisexuals exist.

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Mark Your Calendars!

Link to source: http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/46091896.html

I came across this article a few days ago while browsing the celebrity gossip goldmine that is ONTD (so much better than Perez Hilton) and I was equal parts intrigued, shocked, and a little disgusted. Apparently, someone really famous is coming out on May 5^th, so get excited? But really, why does our society need to schedule the coming out of a celebrity with a magazine cover and a trip to The View? Why is there a man, Howard Bragman, the “coming out kind of Hollywood”, who has made a career out of outing gay celebrities? And why do I care so much?

I will admit, I am intrigued. I read all of the comments and weighed whether or not I believed that the suggested subject was gay or would come on a magazine cover; Oprah, Tom Cruise, Judge Judy, Pat Robertson, all suggested on the first page! I agreed even with the commenters who hoped it wasn’t some lame like Tila Tequila, but actually a surprise. And then I felt kind of disgusted with myself. With the exception of maybe Pat Robertson, I shouldn’t be intrigued by this. I suppose I shouldn’t be wasting time reading celebrity gossip as a whole, but I definitely shouldn’t be devoting my time to predicting which celebrity will come out on a magazine cover on May 5^th.

But why is this mystery celebrity orchestrating a coming out tour? Is making this a media spectacle doing anything for this person or the gay community as a whole, other than producing a lot of undue attention that will die down in a few weeks? I get that celebrities have lives and probably want to live them like everyone else, so I am in no way against a celebrity coming out and living their lives, but is making sexuality a spectacle like this really accomplishing that goal any more effectively than just living their lives in the way that they want to? Or is it fostering the sick curiosity of people, like myself in a weak moment, to dissect the sexuality of people whom I have never met? Still, I hope that it isn’t someone lame like Tila Tequila.

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Thoughts on Marriage

I wrote this blog post before I saw Holly’s entry on cheating, but this is a nice companion in the discussion of marriage.

In quite a few of my classes this semester, the concepts of marriage and monogamy have come up quite frequently. I was greatly intrigued by John D’Emilo’s article “Capitalism and Gay Identity”, which is primarily about the ways in which the rise of capitalism facilitated the emergence of a gay identity and community, but the article also makes interesting arguments about the place of marriage and the family within capitalism. Basically, D’Emilo argues that capitalism has weakened the tangible necessity of the family as work and livelihood is made available outside of the family context, but capitalism has at the same time made the family into a place of emotional and ideological necessity, thereby reproducing children and reproducing heterosexism and other reinforcing morals within these children. Of course, there is a plethora of other arguments about the ways in which marriage and the family create and continue oppression, but D’Emilio has stuck with me.

I have found myself conflicted between understanding and agreeing with, in many ways, the arguments of this work that I have been reading about marriage specifically but sexuality and monogamy more generally, and my beliefs and my experiences. I have definite changed my opinions about marriage as a legal institution, and I feel myself questioning things like the implied sexual intimacy in a legal marriage or the financial benefits of legal marriage, leading to an interesting discussion with my mother over spring break about my feelings on marriage that I am pretty sure left her very nervous for my future. Fret not, mother, because there remains something so compelling to me about the stability and the trust inherent, or supposedly inherent, in a successful marriage or long term relationship. Of course, some of this is my youthful naivety, but I hate the idea that monogamy is somehow wrong or outdated. I suppose I am simply having a difficult time reconciling my problems with the legal institution of marriage and my recognition of my personal desire to one day find someone who I could spend the rest of my life with, as disgustingly sappy and ridiculous as that sounds.

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Cheaters

Guilty Pleasure #35

As usual the media is in a frenzy over men cheating on their wives; they have plenty of choices on who to grill this week: Tiger Woods, Larry King, or

John Edwards. These bouts of lying have the potential to ruin careers because who can trust a politician who lies to his own family, but what about Tiger Woods who we only know because he is a successful golfer and Larry King who just talks a lot? Shows like “Cheaters” or “Jerry Springer Live” only serve to make cheating comical and often make those who have been cheated on seem oblivious. What is the reasoning behind cheating?

Often, some people try to say that it is a reflection of the biological urge to “spread the seed” and to increase probability of bearing a child and continuing your genetic legacy, but does this argument hold true? Here, we must also consider same-sex relationships in which union is clearly not resulting in childbirth, yet same-sex cheating

occurs in heterosexual relationships and homosexual relationships.

Others argue that cheating is a result of needing to reaffirm one’s masculinity or power. Maybe it’s the result of a person merely the exercising his/her right to sexual pleasure. Or maybe it’s a result  of competition between parties involved to win the affections of that man or woman over their current

partner. We usually hear from the media about heterosexual men who have been caught enjoying relationships outside of their marriage, but what about everyone else? Is it purely a heterosexual male phenomenon? I think not.

Perhaps in the wake of all these exposures, marriage and monogamy slowly expose themselves as outdated. At least we can rest assured that those wives are getting a heck of a divorce settlement when their husbands stray.

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Can we mainstream transgender awareness?

Okay, well I already know the answer to this. Transgender issues are not going to become mainstream anytime soon, due to our society’s severe stigmatization of anyone we deem “different”. However, I have recently seen some mainstream references to trans awareness that I want to share.
• The Tyra Banks Show (groannnn, please don’t judge my television watching tastes) recently had a transgendered guest. While I found Tyra’s questioning trivial and at times condescending (“so you have, like, a miniature penis?” she exclaimed at one point) the mere fact that she brought attention to the issue by interviewing someone on a nationally watched television show seems admirable;
• Glamour magazine ran an article in their May 2010 issue entitled “Real-Life Drama: Just girl . . . who used to be a boy”. The article tells the story of Amy, born Brendan. In the article, interviews with Amy, and some of her friends, tell the story of her initial feelings of difference, to her decision to come out as transgender. The article also quotes from a doctor who specializes in transgender plastic surgery and discusses the growing awareness of the issue. Why the seeming recent awareness? According to the magazine, “blossoming cultural acceptance, particularly among young people” is responsible for transgendered persons to identify publicly.
I recognize these occurrences are nowhere near where our society needs to be in terms of acceptance of differing sexuality and genders. However, it’s a step in the right direction. When my roommate first opened Glamour and saw the article she was immediately drawn to it, pointed it out to me and asked what I had learned in my Gender and Sexuality class about trans issues. I found her curiosity refreshing. It spoke to what the magazine calls growing acceptance amongst young people; education and awareness is the first step, after all.

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My overweight mom dresses too sexy!

That was the title of the Maury episode I watched last week.  Now I’ll be upfront.  I have always been a huge fan of Maury.  I genuinely believed his show did try to help people (while simultaneously exploiting them).  It was my favorite of the bizzaro world of daytime television.  He did paternity tests, cured wild teens, and featured outrageous fifteen year olds who slept with over 300 men in their mother’s beds so they could have a baby.  He doled out advice and riled the crowd while still maintaining a certain grandfatherly innocence.  Plus he is married to Connie Chung!  What’s not to love?

It has been several years since my last Maury episode and I forgot what a circus it could be.  The premise of this episode was heavy women who wore very little clothing to the dismay or their children and friends.  Now that I see things through the lens of gender and sexuality studies, I could not enjoy the debasement of these women in a way I once could.  Maury’s audience would laugh and boo the women who came out in skimpy belly shirts and mini skirts and all I could see was an exaggerated repudiation ritual and extreme marginalization of these women who wanted to express their sexuality in their gender display.

It gets worse.  This episode also featured a flashback to a previous makeover episode during which a drag queen was redone in man’s clothing.  Maury wondered aloud if this person had kept up their new look.  When it was revealed he had, the audience cheered happily as he strutted on stage.  The sentiment of, “yay he’s a real man again” was appalling.  His makeover reminded me of the gay conversions.  Furthermore, this man was spreading the Maury gospel and brought his drag queen friend onto the show to be madeover.  When his friend was presented in front of the audience in drag ze was booed; post outfit change, cheered.  Maury’s goading of his audience was disgusting.

I think it is really disappointing that representations of drag culture in daytime television are used as a modern day freak show.  And the DNA results are in…tsk tsk Maury—you ARE the culprit.

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Gaga and Her Telephone

Man, that Lady Gaga and her booty calls — they’re so getting in the way of her clubbing time. (Lady Gaga’s new hit single, “Telephone,” has a new wonderfully crazy music video to accompany it, seen here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ95z6ywcBY)

I can’t believe I’m actually writing about Lady Gaga, because a small part of me (read: a big part of me) hates being so fascinated by her. I think it might be because she reminds me a bit of David Bowie, and that is a man I’d marry in a heartbeat. She is simultaneously doing what everyone is and isn’t — she’s selling images of the thin, white, sexualized female body through her work, but she’s also involved in some intense performance art that invokes some interesting thoughts and images involved in gender and sexuality.

The reason why I’m writing about her is really more about Heather Cassils (Cassils’s blog at wordpress is here: http://cassils.wordpress.com/), the person she is seen kissing in the jail-yard scene at the beginning of her music video. I recently read an interview with Cassils about being in the video, and what it meant to have a genderqueer individual involved in such a popular and public piece of media. Ze talks about the benefits and awareness it could bring, having hir be so front-and-center, where people might not necessarily be able to stick hir in a gender category. Apparently Lady Gaga went out of her way to pick Cassils personally to play the person she kisses in the shot.

Cassils is a visual performance artist and body builder/trainer. Ze talks about the body being a way to present a very physical representation of “other” to people who aren’t aware or don’t understand, which is an extremely powerful tool. I think this power can be shown through video, or more specifically in this case, music video. Someone who may have never before been stirred to think about gender presentation might take a look at that music video and really be affected, and that truly is amazing, that people like hir and Gaga get an opportunity to provide that possibility to more main-stream public.

So, as much as I hate to admit it, while she certainly has some issues I don’t particularly jive with, I do love Lady Gaga and what she’s doing for queering media space right now. And as long as she continues to be completely ridiculous and weird, I will continue to love her.

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