This is what success looks like-my teacher orientation bag, was a condom bag and yes, that is a condom with my name on it.
Yesterday was the first day of my summer class at the National Sexuality Resource Center's Summer Institute and it was awesome. If you don't know what NSRC is or what they do, check them out here, there work is truly amazing. My class is full of superstars, activists, organizers, academics, direct service professionals, writers and hip-hop heads. It is a dynamic group and I am so excited to teach the class. I will post updates on the things we discuss and hopefully get some of the students blogging on the community site as well.
The name of the course I am teaching is called, "I Am Not Who You Think I Am: Identity Politics, Activism and the Internet." I have put together a series of readings on feminism and the internet, technology and identity, racial identifications online and a lot of studies about who is actually online. It is rare I get to totally geek out on internet theory so I am pretty psyched about that.
Some key questions I am asking that I feel you as readers of mine might find interesting include:
- What is the difference between using your own identity online verses being anonymous?
- Do race, class, gender and sexuality differences reproduce themselves online or is the internet a free-space?
- What does privacy mean on the internet?
People have divergent and detailed answers about all those questions, but I think for me the one that always resonates is how do race, class, gender and sexuality difference reproduce online? Many internet theorist talk extensively about how the internet is a free and democratic space, but as feminist bloggers we realize that it is a highly mediated space of privilege that is deeply influenced by market forces. The question is how does that affect what we write about and is it even possible to create social change using tools that are so complicated?
Anywhoo, I am really excited about the class and hopefully all my live-blogging won't bore you!
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I want a condom bag. Awesome.
-Of course, this is coming from a girl who used condoms to make a collage for her best friend in high school.
"The question is how does that affect what we write about and is it even possible to create social change using tools that are so complicated?"
Good questions that I hadn't really thought about before. The internet sure has helped in getting people connected so that groups and people with similar ideas can discover each other and trade information with ease. On the other hand, you're only going to get people who are already like-minded or interested in your topics to your site because they have to search for it first. Getting new people would require various forms of advertising, and if you want good advertising or money for ads, you have to compromise so you can be "accessible" because most people don't bet on long odds. Of course, you probably already know this...I'm just thinking outloud.
But I do notice that I sort of censor my personal blogs when talking about feminist issues because I have male friends that I don't want to offend (because it's hard getting a ride from one of them and then sitting in silence with he doesn't want to continue a discussion that makes him "uncomfortable"). Similarly, because almost all my friends are white, I often forgo topics concerning race issues because I realize nobody reading is going to care. Or they'll just be, like, "that's so bad for them. Oh, let's go to Taco Bell tonight!"
Hell, even when I get to the really public places like Facebook, I end up getting ignored over posts like, "Listen to voices of Iran" whereas five people will comment when I set my status to "is overly caffienated! jkfsjalfa!"
Now, I realize I actually don't have a lot of friends who are into causes or get passionate about justice like I do, but at the same time, if I did, I'd just be preaching to the choir. I feel like the people who are my friends are the people who make up a large portion of America, and it bothers me that I can't get through to them even with simple stuff.
Wow sounds really interesting and much like Jessica's class at Rutgers ( me = student). The identity part of internet usage is really interesting because I know a few self-culture-hating people of color ( typically half white/ half of color but hate their of color side) and when they sign up for sites online they play their race down and disregard people who bring it up when talking to them. Also when information or text is presented, it can come off as "white" or "black"- usually as a result of grammar or word choice i.e. education. It shows how the socialized racism outside of the internet still carries over into the digital world.
Good luck with your class and what are some of the major readings that you are using?
I want to be in this class!
In the Netherlands, there has been an artist who received a lot of hate mail )(including dead threats)at one point. They decided to find out who the people are that send these mails and they published about those people in a book (including pics from there facebook etc)- ... brings up quite some interesting questions on privacy.
this is the artists website: http://www.tinkebell.com/
might be a nice example to discuss in class?
I play World of Warcraft, and that's one place where the preconceptions REALLY show a lot of the time. Without proof otherwise, everyone is assumed to be white, male, straight and in their late teens. Everything that points in another direction is considered surprising at best, but in a lot of cases, seen as cause for harassment. Let out that you're a female player to the public at large and you can count on being hit on. A lot. When you're not being told you must be fat and gay, because goodlooking women don't play WoW. It's ridiculous.
Racialicious did a piece on race in WoW a while ago as well.
On the internet I never use my own name and rarely refer to my gender or, often, things that might tip people off to that such as the fact that I have a husband. I also am not typical in my tastes as a woman, so what often has happened to me in the past is that people assume I'm male. Make of that what you will. :)