technoculture314-09

Looking at the profile pictures of my friends on Facebook, I noticed another trend that was not pointed out during the lecture. That is, females are far more likely than males to post a “couple” photo, featuring themselves and their boyfriend. In total, I counted 17 females with a “couple” profile photo compared with just 2 males. Is this trend therefore strictly a gendered difference? Or could age also come into play a bit… Most of my Facebook friends are around my age (20-22) - but it’s worth noting that the two males who had “couple” profile pictures” are in their late twenties/early thirties. So perhaps males are less likely to announce their status as “one-half” of a couple until they are engaged/married? Or is this trend simply down to the fact the females are generally more “lovey-dovey”? What do others think?

Also – relating back to the whole idea of male vs female texting styles…I have a little anecdote to share. One of my friends had started seeing a new guy and was unsure of their status as a couple. She was saying how when they were together, everything seemed great, but that when they weren’t (for instance, when they were texting each other or when talking on msn), he seemed rather cold/aloof. She was complaining that she would always sign off her texts with “xoxo” but he would reply with a simple “Nite”. Finally, a few weeks later she told me (triumphantly) how he had started ending his texts with “xoxo” as well. It seems this guy took awhile to catch on to the whole “feminize your texts when texting a female” idea! Pretty interesting how texting styles can mean so much at the start of a new relationship…

Hi Everyone,

Just to let you all know that tonight at Artspace on K'Rd there is going to be a performance piece by Cellulite Rose which should be quite interesting and relevent to what we're looking at. Here's the blurb for the show:

"In this performance Cellulite Rose focuses on the proposition that the technological advancement Skype offers is not the enhancement of aural communication, but rather she potential for bodily forms of communication. She will connect to her collaborators via web cam; Alexa Wilson (Vienna) and Kentaro Yamada (London). ARTSPACE has commissioned Cellulite Rose to develop this performance in parallel with Cao Fei's exhibition, Utopia, which looks, in part, at the use of the internet as the new public sphere."

Here is a bit more about the other exhibition, Utopia, which is currently on at Artspace:

"Old enough to retain some vestigial memory of earlier times and of the clashes between traditional and capitalist materialism, yet also young enough to naturally gravitate towards new technologies and means of communication, [Cao Fei] is concerned with transitional ideologies and media. Her work responds to China’s rapid urbanization and the giddying pace of social and economic development. She depicts states of transformation within a youth culture heavily influenced by Japanese manga and anime and played out against an ever-expanding cityscape.

Cao Fei's key theme is utopia—escape. She became initially well known for her video Cosplayers, documenting a subculture where people dress as manga and movie characters and play out fantasy lives... Most recently Cao Fei has staged works on the Internet in Second Life, most notably RMB City (RMB being Chinese currency). RMB City is a spectacular utopian/dystopian island-metropolis, where candy-striped smoke stacks suggest continuous industrial production, missiles make unremitting preemptive strikes, and ships move goods swiftly in and out of port. A giant shopping cart, filled with skyscrapers and religious monuments, floats nearby."

The performance piece is on tonight (Monday 3rd August) from 6pm - 9pm at ARTSPACE, Level 1, 300 K'Rd. The show Utopia is running currently until the 22nd August.

To The Management:

Just a bit of irony, of course not every male is misogynistic, it's just a bit hard to show sarcasm through text sometimes :)

Apologies if I wasn't clear.

Here's a piece from the UK's Sunday Telegraph about the concerns over Facebook (etc.) raised by the head of the Roman Catholics in England and Wales. I don't know what evidence (if any) he is basing his concerns about suicide on (other than the one case cited in the article), or even the claim that Facebook favours 'transient' friendships. I also have problems with the declaration that: "We're losing social skills, the human interaction skills, how to read a person's mood, to read their body language, how to be patient until the moment is right to make or press a point. Too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanises what is a very, very important part of community life and living together." But, rather uncomfortably, I do find myself sharing some of his apprehensions about the commodification of friendship... hmm, that's for another day, though.

The 2nd lecture pointed out how even in the Digital Age, a gender hierarchy exists. Elana Bertozzi expresses the difference in treatment to females gamers and also the difference in level of expectation towards male and female players.

Bertozzi points out the cultural history of males having to be "protective of women and seek to help them", this idea came from males' being considered the dominant sex. The society today has evolved where male and female are considered equals, but the cultural history interferes with the way males act towards female game players.

The level of expectation between males also make males reluctant to engage in competition with females. Bertozzi points out "when a male is competing against a female, he is in a lose/lose situation". The society has an underlying expectation that males should beat females in one on one competition, but if a male is beaten by a female he loses social status between his male friends. The difference in expectation level may not be just due to cultural history, but the fact that females have been objectified by males. They have been objectified to look 'beautiful' and only for male desires which undermines the value of female players in the gmaing world.

Female gammers do not help themselves as they criticize the skills of other female players and alienates personal excellence. De Boer pointed out "social leveling and social harmony are higher values in female groups than encouraging individuals to attain and express personal peak performance". While males rank themselves according to individual success and skill within a group, females hold a different criteria in social status according to Bertozzi. Bertozzi states "female rank is often determined by beauty, thiness, blondness and attractiveness to males" which can only encourage males to objectify women.

Elena Bertozzi's reading highlighted a few things about gender and digital game play that makes a lot of sense. Girls are starting to cross into this male dominated online world so it is worth a look at, because the girls didn't forget their 'social rights' and feminist ideologies, fellas!

Bertozzi had a particular point that really hit home with me. Bertozzi explains how females are seen as the 'weaker sex' irl (in real life, for all you non-nerds), and how this acceptance of females needing to be protected by males, and more importantly, for males never to be aggressive towards woman, leaps over into the online world from the real world. My question is, does this bring the good with the bad?

I play online games myself but casually. However, there are people that invest most of their day 'earning gold' or 'grinding' or 'pvping' (player versus player combat, in online role playing games). These people take gaming to the extreme and consider personal hygiene a joke. These gamers tend to be males from my experience, have a feeling of ownership, or a stronger sense of citizenship, to the online gaming world. So when we have a *gasp* female come and challenge them, in the form of the attention they get from other players, and their social status within a particular group, misogyny can rear it's ugly head.

An example from World of Warcraft:

"What the f**k, why did she get those boots, is it 'cause she's a girl?"
"Haha, look at that stupid newbie b*tch, she had no idea what to do and got owned".

We all like to believe we live in an egalitarian world, but in this sense, digital gaming makes it easy for the misogynist in every male to rear its ugly head. And the main reason? Anonymity. You can call a girl whatever you like online and there's no fear of retribution, the worst she can do is call you names back. I don't know about the girls out there, but that to me isn't very inviting.

I too have made similar observations to Susie1989 with regard to texting styles of boyfriends. Just something to add: My boyfriend has a lot of girl mates as well as guy mates. Taking a sneaky peek at his past messages (as you do...), I noticed that it was not just me, his girlfriend, that he had sent feminised texts (longer in length, smiley faces etc) to, but rather all female recipients, including his mother and sister. His messages to his guy mates, in comparison, were considerably shorter (often consisting of one word) and strictly to the point, as Susie1989 has also observed.