Key points of the article ‘Be [Net] Alert, But Not Alarmed’? Regulating the Parents of Generation MSN – Jane Long

Hey everyone! Here are some of the key points I've gleaned from this week's reading on online parental control, interspersed with a few of the questions I'll be asking in today's tute.

• The article establishes the similarities between the Australian government’s campaigns for national security and the safety of young people online.
  
  • Sets up an externalised threat.
    
  • Defines a “homogenising collectivity of a national ‘family’”.
    
  • Implies that government intervention is necessary.
    
  • However still emphasises the need for citizens to actively participate in their security.
    
    • In terms of Internet safety, this produces new ideals of parental policing – “Monitoring Mums.”
      

• Tactical advice for Internet safety:
  
  • Educate.
    
  • Monitor.
    
  • Limit time and location of use.
    

• Tense line between a parent’s desire to protect their kids from the “externalised ‘axis of evil’”, and their kids’ “demand for respect, privacy and trust from parents increasing as teenagers get older.”
  
• Many feel the need to implement measures to monitor and/or restrict children’s activity online.
  
  • “Teenage technical ability and inclination to rebellion outstrips their capacity for responsible judgement, so policing is needed to prevent disaster and to enhance teenage users’ moral education.”
    

Question 1: As assumed Internet-savvy young people who have only just left – or are still in – your teenage years, thinking in terms of Internet content, do you feel that the mistrust aimed at young people is justified?

• In a switch from usual power relations within most families, and though the gap is narrowing, children and teenagers are becoming more knowledgeable about the Internet and more tech-savvy than their parents.
  
  • Causing parents to feel ‘powerless’ when it comes to their children’s Internet use.
    
  • Children becoming the educators.

• Fathers are more likely to identify themselves as more knowledgeable than their kids, however this does not translate into assuming an educative role.
  
• Indeed, the amount of time that ‘wired mums’ spend online is proportional to the number and ages of their children.
  
  • This shows a perceptible difference that gender plays in terms of parenting with the Internet.

Question 2: Judging from the evidence from these surveys and the differences in yesterday’s workshop between the Mums and Dads side of the filter debate, can you think of why fathers appear to take a more relaxed approach to Internet safety than mothers?

• As young people are increasingly able to get around filtering software and, as NetAlert’s executive director says, “[know] more about technology than [parents] ever would,” external regulation is becoming an attractive option.
  
  • Despite parents taking some of the ‘right’ steps, children are becoming victims. The media latches on to these unfortunate incidents, creating a “dichotomy of good mothers and bad mothers.”
    
    • Note that it is more often the mother who is blamed.
  • These ‘bad mothers’ are also criticized if they spend too much time or money, or have too much fun online.
    
  • Provokes the question of, “just who, in the end, is being policed?”

• The Postscript provides a more optimistic stance, that teens are aware of the risks associated with chatrooms etc, and so when using them, prepare themselves accordingly.

Question 3: Do you think that teenagers and young people have enough education to protect themselves from predators online?

Question 4 (if there’s time): Because it's relevant and topical issue on which everyone seems to have an opinion, what are your thoughts on the Labor government’s proposed Internet Filter?

Blogging and Gender

Hello everyone,

I thought Id share my rambling thoughts about the reading I presented on a few weeks ago on blogging and gender. The reading was written by Melissa Gregg and was called Posting with Passion: Blogs and the Politics of Gender.

A few ideas the Gregg throws around throughout the article are

• it is perceived that the most influential bloggers are men
• the female perspective is domestic and have a personal sphere of reference
• feminist bloggers take on the role of promoting and highlighting womens issues
• there are also specific 'web-rings' that are produced by and for women - "where men can link but not touch"
• women bloggers hold the suspicion that men are only interested when sexual fantasies and encounters are involved
• blogging for women helps break the isolation they feel from societal expectations
• the unequal distribution of labour between genders
• when a technology is used mostly by women its value in society tends to lessen
• "blogs are for boys, journals are for girls"
• the stereotype of blogs are online journals written by young women about their personal lives
• women on a whole are less interested in politics therefore less women create blogs
• time influences womens participation in political punditry blogs

One quote that I wanted to discuss in the tute...

"internet's Utopian possibilities put such emphasis on the liberating and playful opportunities it offers those looking to escape the confines of gender identity"

Other questions or ideas I put forward for discussion was the stereotype that 'blogging' is an outlet for men to express themselves in a way that wasn't a journal or diary which is seen as more feminine.

Also how the article mentions that women done have time to blog due to the time consuming nature of child-rearing and housework. My thoughts were that men are also at work all day also and therefore dont have copious amounts of time to blog either. Do you think this is a fair distribution of 'labour' or 'work'? Do men and women have the same amount of time to blog?

I also found that there was a feminist lean throughout the article and the author is a woman. I felt there was more of a discussion about women blogging which is compared to men but not much insight into male bloggers. Do you think this has anything to do with the female perspective of the article? Would you respond differently if the article was written by a male?

Another thing that was on my mind when reading the article was my perception that men are more IT/computer orientated and understand technology better. Does this influence blogging and who is more likely to blog?

These are all questions we touched on in the tutorial a few weeks ago. I think that there are an equal number of male and female bloggers but I also think it is the younger generation that are blogging, although it is definitely expanding as the social networking sites expand to all ages.
I posted a few weeks ago that only the men in my office seemed to blog. which was my general perception before starting this unit. Now actually exploring the blogging world online I've realised thats not the case. it is although quite interesting the read the content in both male and female blogs...

See you all on tuesday

Cyber-Race and the Furries

Historically, much justification for racism is purportedly based on some faux science proving one race's genetic superiority over another's. The notion of racial discrimination in cyber space where race can be comprised of only zeros and ones then, opens a whole new realm for thought about why people tend to discriminate and persecute.

I once met a fox-man and his skunk-man friend on Second Life (an online virtual reality complete with its own time, landscape and currency which the user interacts with through a personalised avatar), who told me he was a 'furry'. A furry, he said, was a sub-group of avatars on Second Life who modeled themselves on human-animal hybrids (you can check out some images here) and who were hated intensely by groups of other human avatars.

He told me that when furries had appeared incidentally on promotional footage for Second Life, human avatars had successfully campaigned to have them edited out. Even the club the fox-man owned on Second Life (an industrious feat, by any avatar's standards) had been 'vandalized' on several occassions as a result of his identity as a furry.

The fox man showed me (showed my avatar rather) archived images of the vandalism on a screen in his bar where we were standing (the bar was empty, being the middle of the virtual day). Virtual boards had been erected by the vandals all over the club with various non-sensical abuse, but the most prominent scrawling around the place was the hammer and sickle in red and yellow, and I would hazard a guess that the perpetrators were not making reference to modern communist movements that may use that image.

I asked him if people who used furry avatars had any real-life characteristics in common and he said no. He also had no idea why the furried were so hated. This raises a myriad of questions about race, identity and the internet.

Why would people choose to persecute a minority on the basis of what is essentially a bit of binary? or is that question no different to asking why people choose to persecute others on skin colour or religion? Is discrimination and group-mentality conflict intrinsic to the nature of organised societies? And is the internet a means by which people will neutralize their identities? or express their differences more prominently?

These are a few of the questions this episode, and the week’s reading by Kang raised for me. And please excuse any discussion doubling up - I didn't attend the workshop or tutorial this week because my real-life self was in Brisbane.

Intro post

Hey everyone. I am shockingly late to the party!

My name's Sally and I'm doing Communications/French as my BArts majors. In my spare time I am part of the UWA Pantomime Society, so I hope you'll all come and see our latest production: Macbeth in Space: A Romantic Comedy, at UWA's Dolphin Theatre this September 23rd - 25th (for those of you who are unaware, Panto is not mime, but a form of theatre traditionally based on fairytales and other well-known stories - with some innuendo thrown in - which encourages audience participation. Here's a link to some of our past shows). The show's rated M15+ and tickets will be $10 if you're a Guild member, and $12 non-Guild. Excuse my using this medium to do a little advertising, but I am this semester's President of Vice! :P


Anyway, as for something actually pertaining to the course, I found something relevant to some of the comments from week 5 that Tarsh recently posted, particularly, "it annoys me how we say 'race'. isnt there only one race? the human race? anthropology in first year grilled that into me."

Here's a link to part of the address to the United Nations made by Battlestar Galactica's Edward James Olmos. BSG is a sci-fi series which explores themes of race and religion, among others. I find that Olmos's speech quite nicely provides at least one reason for how/why the concept of 'race' has been created.

I'll be posting for this week's tutorial on Parental Control this week, so stay tuned :)

-Sally.

Designer Babies and 3 -Parent Embryos

On Monday in the workshop and on Tuesday at tute we were hinting at the idea of Eugenics, which to me is terrifying and I always thought that even if we do have the technology to do this why would you want to? Almost everything we do is about survival and I'm sure there is an element of this in Eugenics but there are so many other ethical issues involved. I found this article on designer babies which is quite interesting of someone who is really in favour of it but it also highlights some of the ethical issues:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/designerdebate/

Also check out some of the links at the bottom of the article about three parent embryos. It is becoming a huge worry to me and a threat to the concept of a family as we know it.

your departing comments Week 5

• i think there was some interesting discussion in the lecture where previously the main distinction between people was largely based on race and class and with the introduction of the internet, this is changing to the notion of the 'mind' as our distinction for individuality. Whilst GATTACA goes beyond that and conceptualises this difference with cells. It highlights both the potential for the destruction of individuality and the homogenisation of society
• race & class are becoming re-defined as technology advances. If these are removed or changed that what we identify with must be altered too
• gender isnt just of the body - but develops through social discourse. women & technology, humour/discomfort - controlling the outcome of humans - achieving 'perfection' is impossible - there will always be fault in tech (through ads - women should combine reproductive duties with public mechanisms - using laptops etc)
• ideas of internet: no race, no gender, no age, no infirmities - only minds
• re GATTACA: its interesting how, when we create this 'perfect race' we still would need to rank each other, finding faults regardless of our 'perfection'. The pressure would be intense and the expectations hard to live up to
  
• intriguing
• it annoys me how we say 'race'. isnt there only one race? the human race? anthropology in first year grilled that into me
• the idea that other forms of technology (phones) already have the capacity to make race anonymous (in his [Kang] story about his roommate)
• watching GATTACA was interesting - creepy idea of 'choosing' personality, qualities etc
• race is definitely an issue offline & online
• race is a way for people to band together & form an identity. for people to unite as a species, the concept of race has to be abolished
• Re Jerry Kang article: i dont think one can disregard race even in cyberspace. socioeconomic issues greatly affects our 'persona' in cyberspace.
  

Hello fellow Women's Studies students!

I apologise for the late introductory blog. I joined the unit late and it took me a while to get my head around 'blogging' as I hadn't done it before.

But anyway! My name's Carla Crago, I also go by 'Carlz' which is my name on here I believe..I'm in my third year studying Arts/Communications majoring in English. I've done a few Women's Studies units before like Sex, Bodies, Space which I really enjoyed. Early this year I was accepted into a Communications unit in Singapore (12 credit points=awesome!). We had 3 weeks of intense work and partying :P One of the assignments was to re-create a scene from a film or TV show of our choice. My group did the scene from the movie 'Taken' when the girl gets...well...'taken' from the under the bed. Some of you may have seen it. I played the girl so it was a good learning experience working on and off camera. I would definately recomend this unit to anyone doing Communications!

Next year I'm thinking of going to ECU to do a post-grad course in TV/ radio presenting. Another tempting option is working full time to save for a trip to America when I turn 21. At the moment I'm working at Gold bar in Subi. I'm trying to keep my head in the books but it's a little hard with summer slowly (but surely) approaching and the Southbound lineup being released. I'm wishing I had more time between uni and work to watch some classic films. If anyone knows a good list of 'top must-see movies' please let me know. I saw Sunshine of the Spotless Mind recently and was very moved by it.

Ah yes and onto the unit- something which stood out for me last week was what Allison was saying about technology becoming integrated into everyday discourse and language. I didn't even think about how the words 'network' and 'interface' have been added to my speech in the last few years. Even the term 'tag/ tagging' (referring to putting a face to a name in Facebook photos) has a new meaning on top of its original reference to the game 'tag' we played when we were younger.

So anyway, I'm sorry again for my lack of organisation with this blog- I promise I will be on time next week :) Looking forward to seeing everyone in our tute tomorrow.

"This is a site about real life." Ringley 1998

Week 5 Presentation

A camera with a view

JenniCAM, visual representation and cyborg subjectivity

Hi this week I am doing my presentation on Krissi M. Jimroglou 's reading, A camera with a view.

Summary of the reading:

Jennifer Ringley started her website JenniCAM in 1996, the website allowed people to view her daily life, including her working, sleeping or even having sex. (Which is said to be the first reality show.) The website became a big hit, there were about 3 to 4 million of people visiting her site daily, some even willing to pay US$ 15 per year to subscribe her site. So, what's the point for people to see the daily life of an ordinary people? And, why JenniCAM has became so popular?

My opinion on the popularity of JenniCAM:

* First of all, Jennifer is the first person to start this kind of website in 1996, when, there were no twitter, no facebook and blogging was seen unusual . People tend to be more curious about this new technology which allow them to view a person 's daily life continuously.

* Second, and which I found it very significant is the way the jenniCAM crossed the boundaries between : "Body and Machine, Private and Public, Real and Fiction."

* Third, viewers of jenniCAM seemed to connect with her at some level, the way she allowed the audiences to read her body in different part and they can even shared her feelings by reading her poetry.

* Last but not least, is the great pleasure that bought to viewers from her loss and return, JenniCAM then operates Freud's "fort-da", the back and forth, the loss and return of objects.

Questions:

There are 2 major questions that I wanted to think about:

1). Donna Haraway defines a cyborg as "a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as creature of fiction." If JenniCAM is considered as a cyborg because of the way it due with technology, then should those people who use twitter or facebook everyday to upload their status and photos to show other people about their daily life, considered cyborg as well?

2). What if JenniCAM is transformed to PeterCAM with the gender change from female to male, Will the change of gender affect the way that JenniCAM being perceive? For instances, the nudity in JenniCAM is said to be the reason for its popularity, if it happened that it happened on a male body, will the scenario change?

if you want to know more about JenniCAM, check this youtube video :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ii0gLK3meM

Thanks for your time, and see you in the tute :)

Hey everyone.

Hey everyone!

I have always enjoyed reading blogs, but I have never written one, so this is my first! I hope I do a good job!

I am going to start off by introducing myself. My name is Ayesha. I am an Arts student who is planning to major in English and Asian Studies. I have no idea what I am going to do with my degree, but I will eventually figure out something. I was born in Pakistan but have lived in Hong Kong all my life, so Hong Kong is home. I enjoy reading novels, watching tv, reading fashion-related magazines, going out with friends and spending time with my family. Some people might find this wierd but I love rainy days! I love it when it rains, you can smell the wet soil, feel the waterdroplets on your skin and breath in the fresh air!!

I decided to take this unit because I took a women studies unit in my first semester and I absolutely loved it, so I decided to take another unit in this field!

The website that I would like to share with all of you is Fabsugar. It is a fashion website that is updated every day to let all the fashionistas know what is in fashion. I am not a fashion victim but I occasionally like to visit it to know what the latest trends are of the season.

I hope I can learn interesting things in this unit and make some good friends!

Take care

Ayesha

PS. sorry I am so late at posting my introductory post, I have been very busy.

Hey guys,

Sorry about the late introductory post!! Hopefully it still makes the cut. So I’m Laura, but my friends call me Lawz. I’m in my final semester of my Comm Studies degree, also majoring in English. I have absolutely no idea what I want to do next year in terms of work/extra study. But alas, I will make the most of the opportunities I’m given and do what I enjoy the most (well that’s the plan anyway!)

I’m not exactly sure what we’re meant to write so I’m just going to tell you guys a little bit about myself. I guess the most relevant thing right now would be that last semester I was on uni exchange in Canada. The university I went to was bilingual (English and French) which made the whole semester that much MORE interesting! I had the opportunity to not only experience another country/culture/lifestyle for an extended period of time, but also get an education there. Its such a different system to ours, but still so valid. Basically there’s no tutorials/seminars/workshops, and NO webct/lectopia, and 5units instead of 4!! Oh the pain I know! But none the less, I did, for the most part, really enjoy the units I did over there and it definitely gave me a different perspective on education and various concepts that have come up throughout my studies.

On a random note, I have made a blog before! I said no in the tute last week, completely forgetting that for one of my Communication Studies units in Canada, one of our assessments was to make a blog in groups of 4 and explore the various concepts/topics we discussed in lectures each week, much like the purpose of this blog really. So I thought I would use my previous blog as one of the links to contribute for the week. A lot of what was discussed over my groups' blog throughout the semester revolved around the power play between the mass media corporations and individual consumers for ownership of content and participation to the media. This brings us back to what we were discussing in our tute last Tuesday about whether what bloggers have to say, and their overall contributions to the mass media are valid. Personally, I think the validity of bloggers is ever increasing, given their potential to explore various topics without the often strict limitations of the mass media to both produce what ‘sells’ whilst also complying with various ethical/moral guidelines (though this can have negative implications also). Feel free to check out the various blog posts we made on there; I’m sure a lot of what we discussed can be related to this unit and the topics we are going to explore!

http://theglobalvirus.wordpress.com/

Lastly, I would like to share with you all one of my favourite ‘latest artists’. I’m quite the movie and music buff and love watching movie trailers/new songs before they’re released (it’s a little sad, I know haha). I’m sure at least some of you have heard of Mike Posner (the guy who sings ‘cooler than me’), but just incase you haven’t, I really recommend you should check him out on youtube. He basically got signed when he was only in 3^rd year uni because he made a bunch of mixtapes and put them on Youtube. Now that he’s graduated, he’s focusing on his music career, and doing fabulously I might add. It really shows you the power of the internet, hey? Think about all the people who have become famous because of it (Drake, Justin Bieber and Jessica Rose, aka LonelyGirl15, just to name a few!). These people, went from ordinary citizens (much like the average blogger) to global superstars!

Here’s Mike Posner’s ‘Cooler than me’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqKymawhNdg&feature=related

Make sure to check out his other songs too if you get a chance J

See you all in the tute!

Lawz

Hi all, I'm Emily C.

There has been alot of discussion this week about all of us ('natural') people becoming integrated with ('unnatural') digital technology, so I thought I'd have a rant about how digital we already were, biologically speaking.

I think there is a pretty widely accepted perception that we are analogue beings and the technology we engage with (ipods, phones) is digital. I would argue that any such distinction is pretty blurred.

For a start, the instructions we grow from (DNA) are digital in nature (a series of four elements in a certain order), much like binary code. But we are also shaped by our environment, you may say? Well, I say, the ways in which we absorb our environment are also digital. Nerve impulses from our skin to (eventually) our brain go something like electrical impulses - on, off - 0110101 etc. Digital. Same with optical impulses that carry images to the brain.

So in theory, the digital images our eyes send to our brains could be recorded, stored and 'injected' into someone else's optical neurons and they would have experienced exactly the same scene.

Technology is already part way there. Check out this bionic arm. It 'reads' the digital impulses coming from the nerves where the original arm was. So the wearer thinks about moving her arm and the bionic arm moves accordingly:

Bionic Arm Vid

So maybe the digital extensions we give ourselves aren't really so different from the ones we were born with?

Introduction

Hi everyone,



Hello. My name is Guia Reyna and I'm an international student from the Philippines. This is the first time ever that I've written a blog. I've read blogs before but never really paid much attention to them. There are too many blogs out there that are really dumb or just plain weird. Reading them all takes a lot of patience and open-mindedness, I suppose. Some bloggers (?) are just mean and pretty much don't have anything nice (or of value) to say.



On this week's reading on gender and blogging, if I remember correctly, it was mentioned that there are equal numbers of men and women blogging. This may be true but I think there is a huge difference in the amount of time men and women devote to blogging online. It is unfair, I know, but men are expected to work and provide for their families. After that, their job is done (I'm not saying all men though). Women nowadays are not only working, they are also expected to care for the children, manage the household, etc. There is an unequal distribution of labor. So I guess men can afford to update their blogs many times a day. Women just don't have the time.



Anyway, I'm glad I enrolled in this unit. I learned something new. I never would have "blog" on my own. I'm wary of posting or making my thoughts known online. But there is always a first, right?

Free to Blog

Throughout my arts degree and my Women's Studies major I have always found myself on blogs when I'm looking for academic material. I have found that blogs can tell me more about contemporary opinions then any academic article.

When researching essays I tend to end up on anti-feminist blogs, get really angry, then realise that the essay in due in 12 hours and I should really focus on what I was doing. But I stay angry, and frustrated and I want to comment on every post telling them exactly why I think they are wrong. But then I feel overwhelmed and I remember that people who post on the internet don't have to own what they have written or defend it.

Which ultimately is a good thing. I support the Blue Ribbon Campaign for free speech on the internet, which also means I need to accept that people will always say hurtful and sometimes misogynist things.

In the tute this week we started to talk about the ethics of blogging and though I still believe that people should feel accountable for what they publish on the internet just as much as when they are saying something in person, I don't think that this can be controlled, or should be controlled.

All I feel I can do is watch the This is What a Feminist Looks Like video and try not to read the comments on youtube!

My questions from my tute presentation are...

1. My perceptions of people who blog was very stereotypical and a little unfair. I did not know that to be a Blogger was an actual profession and that they had such an influence and following in society. What were your ideas about blogging before and after reading the article?

2. The nature of blogs and being an active member of the internet community in general means that people can act anonymously. This can be a good thing and a terrible thing as I have found on youtube comments and on the blogs I have now read. People can be cruel when hiding behind a profile name. Do you think that it is important for the integrity of the internet and blogs that what people write remain anonymous?

the fifth decade of the internet

Some of you may be interested in attending this lecture at Murdoch by Gerard Goggin...

Hi guys,

So Im currently sitting at my desk at work (I'm the one thats always late) and I managed to find a minute so thought Id let you know how my day was going (I'm not journaling...) and what intrigued me earlier today. I did the presentation yesterday on blogging and gender and was talking to some collegues about it at work this morning. They asked me how it went, I told them what the topic was about which sparked a long conversation in the studio.
Our director is away on business for the next few days so everyone in the office is a bit more relaxed (you know how it is).
Anyway I was really interested to find out that the two designers - I work at a marketing company - did blog and they are both men, while the girls in the office had never blogged before. It got me thinking do the men in my office blog because they are more in touch with technology as they use computers and all sorts of programs every day or just because they enjoy and its a good outlet to express themselves? I still cant seem to wrap my head around the whole gender issue with blogging because I keep assuming that if you blog you understand technology and are more comfortable with it than others. And I also assume that younger people blog as they have been brought up with it and its more natural to them than say using a book to express yourself. But then I go on to to think well blogging isnt journaling.
I don't know if anyone is every following my train of thought right now but I just constantly seem to battle with this gender/technology/age concept of blogging in my head. When I look at it logically I spose its an equal distribution of men and women of all ages.
What do you guys think? If it is an equal distribution then why in my office of around 8 people do only the men seem to be blogging? People in marketing are quite outgoing and love to communicate as its part of their job, you would assume that people with this backgroud would be more likely to blog?
I found this little test someone did on ProBlogger. Dont even know if its legit but still interesting!
Thoughts??

See you next week...If I make it on time!!

First blog

Hi everyone

My name is Coralie and I'm in my fifth year of Law/Arts (majoring in women's studies). This is also my first time reading or contributing to a blog so I'm quite excited to see how it goes.

The website I'm going to share is Lamebook. While I realise this is clearly a ridiculous website created mostly for amusement I also think it's interesting in that a lot of the time it is making fun of people who 'overshare' on facebook or choose to discuss private issues in such a public forum. This issue of the private/public divide relates to women's studies generally and this unit. Lamebook can also include comments that are very nasty and intended to put other people down which relates to what we were saying today about how, while blogs and the internet can provide support networks for many, it can also be a site for far more criticism that anyone would say to a person's face.

Also, I just wanted to quickly comment on the question about why the course is called 'women's studies' and not 'gender studies.' In my first year we discussed this issue a bit and from what I can gather it is called women's studies because, while we do discuss masculinities and gender generally, the course is without a doubt more focused on women and calling it gender studies would mean the course would have to change to be more equal in its discussion of men and women. Also, I personally think it should be acceptable to have a women's studies course :)

CoUNTesses blog

Here is my artefactual contribution for the week... (thanks Benjamin)

http://countesses.blogspot.com/

Hello everyone,

My name is Isabelle, I'm currently in second year studying a Bach. of Arts majoring in Psyc. Up until June I lived in Mandurah..which is a nice place...during the day...when it's summer...and the bogans are hiding...



I am a fantasy novel lover, gluten free eater, facebook addictee, and enjoyer of random things like these pictures of stuff made from lego. I've been working as a secretary for the last 2 and a half years so naturally I keep fairly updated on the Cheezburger Network, most notably Fail Blog and Picture is Unrelated. A friend of mine and I sometimes swap pictures of odd cute animals we come across, most recently this fluff ball to the right.



I've never really been big on the blogging community (except for reading my travelling friends blogs) purely because I never believe I have much to add that people havn't already ranted on about before and whenever I think of brilliant ideas or have crazy realisations I can never recall them when i get an opportunity to write it down. I blame this on alcoholic binge drinking from far too young of an age (Mandurah is a boring, boring place). So that's my goal with this unit, if I remember something, i'll make sure to rabble on about it straight away.



I enjoy new technologies very much, except for when it comes to explaining to my parents how to use them (seriously, you want to print this? Click the button that LOOKS LIKE A PRINTER!! uuggghh), although I'm still a little bit in the past with keeping up with it all (still playing the N64 on the non digital TV....with a broken remote). I realised from the lecture today that I've writen random thoughts about the day and all that, quite a bit in the past just on random pages of paper (journals are lame). I never thought about sharing it though. I never thought anyone would be all that interested really!



Anyway, something I was thinking last week sometime was that I believe that the more we establish more sophisticated technologies the more we will fuzz the line between robots and humans and people will care less and less. Just like how it never even occur to me that orthodontic braces are a form of trying to perfect yourself, much like plastic surgery. It's so common these days that I always thought when I was younger that if you had munt teeth, and could afford it, you got braces. It's just the way things are. We've become so accepting of this perfectionist culture, and if robotics become more of a part of this, I doubt (after the initial outcry), people will raise much of a fuss.



So yes, thats a bit about me and things.

EMILY.....P

Hi Everyone

I hate introducing myself because I can never think of anything intersting to say. So I will start with the basics... My name is Emily, I'm English, moved here 4 years ago with my family and am now studying an arts degree, majoring in English and History and will eventually get into teaching.

To be honest, I pretty much hate uni, and I can think of a countless number of things which I would rather be doing. But I'm a trouper and making the best of it haha.

I have never even read a blog before and I think it was kind of an unspoken rule of mine never to write on one either...Well I guess that rule is broken.

The website I am going to recommend is Girls's Night In, as I am helping to organise a large Girl's Night In event at Hillary's and are hoping to raise $10,000 for WA Cancer Council. So if you would like to purchase a ticket let me know or visit the website and search for Girls Night In at Hillary's :)

First Blog

Hello Everyone,

This is an entirely novel moment in my life. It is the first time I have ever blogged. My Name is Jo-Anne Hodges and I am an international student from Johannesburg, South Africa. After I have posted this message I will change my name to "Peacockchick."

I hope you find that kind of funny because the story behind it is funny and I am almost certain that if you were a witness to the situation from which the story arises, you would have laughed, almost as much as the people passing by were trying not to.

I am so fascinated by the family of peacocks that live on campus in the arts department. When ever I walk past them on my way to class, the thought of how interesting and random it is that these birds live in our university never fails to enter my mind. I think its cool but as long as they keep to themselves.

Anyway, while I was waiting for our first tute in week two, I was sitting quite casually and rather relaxed when one of the peacocks gradually explored its way around towards me. Whoa! It keep coming closer and closer and closer and closer and then stopped. I think the peacock sensed that it was making me nervous. And then I think it consciously decided, if peacocks make decisions, that it was going to challenge my fear of big birds. There were a few other people sitting around watching this random bird exploring the area and a few other people passing by. I'm convinced even that the peacock waited for the perfect moment, because just as there were enough people around for me to feel embarrassed, the peacock pecked its head at an incredible pace and make tracks right up to me, so close that in an instant I found my self hugging my knees. I just kept thinking; "Please don't bite me, please don't bite me!" When I realized that the big bird was not going to see what I might taste like, I looked around (still hugging my knees) and noticed the people sitting around and the people passing by smiling and smiling, and smiling and smiling, and trying not to laugh. Imagine! Would you laugh if you saw a student get bitten by one of the peacocks? Really try to picture it. Honestly, if saw someone being bitten by a peacock, I would probably laugh because its the last thing you would expect to encounter in your day right? I ended up laughing it off and smiling to myself as I drew the conclusion that Australian peacocks are not afraid of South African people.

As Peacockchick, I would like to share with you that I love quotes and little sayings that give me something to consider during my day. I have a little pocket book called Now Is the Time by Patrick Lindsay and every so often I like to lucky dip in it. I just open the book and see what it is I have for consideration for the day. Before I started this blog, I did just that and this is what I opened up to and would now like to share with you all:

" BE CURIOUS; Knowledge won't find us, we must find it. Every day is a chance to learn something new. Cast your net wide, open your mind to the excitement of learning. Curiosity keeps us young at heart and mind. When we stop learning, we stop living."

After all, I think the digital age itself is around because people were curious and they explored. Maybe that is extremely obvious? Even so, I hope you find those words as inspiring and relevant as I find them and I exit my first blogging experience here feeling very excited and very curious.

See you in class for some more interesting discussions,
:)

Hi everyone!

My name is Renu and i am an English speaking Singaporean Indian Aussie- its really not that hard to get your head around:)

I must say i am quite excited to embark on this journey of blogging, i cannot believe i have not gotten into it earlier. I think i should re-allocate some facebook time and start up my own blog page instead! After doing the readings for this week, i was inspired by all the different things blogs can achieve!

This is my final semester of my Communications degree- i am extremely excited, but also nervous at the same time. However, i am not at all worried about what the start of next year holds for me. I quite like the idea of unpredictability.

I read this quote a while ago and i would like to share it with you:

"If they give you lined paper, write the other way, but in a language they know"- In essence, i perceive this quote to be about individuality and your own interpretation of ideas, issues or anything that life just might throw at you. It made me think "are we a product of society?"Or is "society a product of us"?

As for sharing a link with you, i watched a clip on YouTube about two weeks ago called technoculture: human and technology. It was a very simple video about what are the various aspects of technology were and how it relates to human life. Some of the things they mentioned i never really thought about.

Here is the link, check it out if you can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyFpFQNk_-c

Looking forward to seeing you guys tomorrow afternoon.

Renu x

I found an interesting clip, its from an advert called DOVE EVOLUTION. It just summed up what we were discussing last week - the idea that this completely 'blemish free' and airbrushed look that we are confronted with on a daily basis is an unrealistic and dangerous image to portray...as it is almost 'unhuman'..

First Blog

Hi All,

So I finally found the New Post button, horrar!

Not to sure what we're meant to post, but going from what I'v read I'll say that a blog/site I use regularly are the 'virtual classrooms' at the school I work at, because its my job I guess. I am in my final semester of Arts Communications majoring in English, and I have very much enjoyed all the women studies units I have done.

Emily P handed out some stills in her presentation last week, one of which was from a Björk film clip All Is Full of Love (click here to watch). The clip was one of the features at a short film evening I went to in Melbourne recently that showcased a number of incredible music videos. It shows two quite attractive, asian looking fembots making out, so of course it is incredibly relevant to our studies thus far.

The clip in a sense is a visual celebration of technology and "ladybots". Speaking of which I thought I would share a paragraph from a women's studies essay I wrote last year on the celebration of techno science via visual techniques in reality make over programs.

Similar to the post-feminist celebratory logic of the feminine body, a celebration of cosmetic technology also works towards cultural standardization of cosmetic surgery. Within a highly visual based contemporary society, reality television makeover shows are undoubtedly successful in constructing a visual representation of cosmetic surgery procedures, which within the commercial (often cable) televisual domain, appears aesthetically appealing, crediting logic of social acceptability. With reference to the popular American reality makeover program The Swan, Banet-Weiser and Portwood-Stacer (2006) determine that the structured process of turning a "patient" into a "swan", is eminently 'technologised using simple and culturally recognizable pseudo-scientific visual techniques'(p. 267). The visual composition used on The Swan to display the patients "before body", prior to their makeover, resembles the screen of a highly advanced computer program, or a superhuman technological database from a sci-fi movie. The patient's plasticised bodies appear visually entrapped within a systemic grid of rotating and scrolling measurements, expected cosmetic procedures are listed like missions down the side of the screen while sets of digits and symbols run endlessly, the entire visual design is complete with digital sound effects and running commentary from the "team of world experts".

A few other similar film clips that came to mind were that you might like to check out were, Silver Chair- Year 2000, and Regurgitator's Polyester girl which I couldn't find the video to unfortunately, but take a look at the lyrics, quite hilarious.

See ya'll tomorrow!

Hi Everyone :)

This is my first blog. I am Stephanie from Macau, probably not many of you have heard of this place. It is a small city next to Hong Kong and it is famous for its casinos. I grow up in this little place and has only came to Perth 2 years ago to start my university life here in UWA.

I am currently doing my second year in Communication Studies majoring in Fine Arts. I enrolled in this unit because I have took a women studies unit l

ast year and I found it very interesting, as in how gender and identities exist nowadays and in cyberspace. I wish I could learn more in this unit :D

Lastly, I would like to share this interesting article to all of you guys:

Embarrassed Of Your Partner? Or Are They Embarrassed Of You? Serious Problem.

http://www.mancouch.com/731502307/embarrassed-of-your-partner-or-are-they-embarrassed-of-you-serious-problem/

Hope to see you all on Tuesday

Hey Guys!

I'm Jess, im enrolled in my second year of an Arts degree majoring in Psyc, hopefully will continue into Honours, Masters etc If I decide I can face an extra few years at uni!!

I found this YouTube clip of what future technology may develop into, it reminded me of what we were talking about in last weeks tute & it made me giggle a little to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfG3HyU73kw

Look forward to seeing you all on tuesday!

xxx

P.s I chose a picture of my dog to represent me on this blog, i hope you all think he's as cute as i do! He is the love of my life :) ahahaha

Hi all

Hey everyone, I'm Jonathan, making my first post here. I'm currently doing my second year of Communication Studies with English as my 2nd major. To be honest, this is my first Women's Studies unit and I'm looking forward to it. I decided to take this unit as I'm quite interested in how different our identities are in this "digital age" from that of the past. I'm especially interested in the aspect of how people interact online, particularly in online gaming communities (which I unfortunately couldn't get to present on >.>) as I've been playing online games on and off for a few years. Through it, I noticed a very big difference between how people interact in real life and online. For example, aspects of gender are magnified online, something my female friends online can attest to. But anyway.

I'm from Singapore and came only to Perth for my university studies, so most of my interactions with my friends back in Singapore are suddenly restricted to online mediums only. Singapore's a nice place (for tourists) but focus on gender studies is very limited there - most of my friends back in Singapore have never been anywhere near a Women's Studies unit! Not to say that Singaporeans have strong gender biases or anything, just that it's not something people often think/talk about there. Therefore, I'm very interested in learning more in this unit. The topics discussed so far has been really fascinating, in fact!

I thought I'll provide a link somewhat related to the unit:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-plausible-ways-humans-could-become-obsolete/

Sure, it's a humour website and all, but there are few points raised in the article I find relevant to the unit, like the Uncanny Valley and the runner breaking world records because of his prosthetic legs. Also, I find many articles in this website rather humorous too.

Hope to learn about (and hear from) everyone else in this unit!

PLEASE READ Presentations/Facilitated Discussions

Hi all

have been thinking a bit about your reading discussions. Try not to do a summary of the reading. One of the things we do as academics/researchers is "critical reflection" ie we read something and then ask questions about the ideas presented...(study smarter critical thinking). There are all sorts of questions you can ask and these vary depending on disciplines etc.

What i would like you to do is start to think critically about the reading that you are doing and particularly the reading you are presenting on. So assume that we have read the article and can summarise for ourselves. For your presentation I would like you to choose one idea you think the author is presenting and question it. Some questions you could ask are:

• do you agree with the idea? why? do you disagree with it? why?
• how are gender/race/sexuality/age represented? does the author assume a gender/race/sexuality/age of the reader? are there other identities which are assumed/excluded? who is not referred to?
• how does the author describe our relationships with technology? does the author assume/describe technology as exploitative and oppressive or as liberatory and subversive or as something else? how does the author examine power dynamics inherent in access to technologies, in technology/knowledge production?
• Who is the author? what is their gender/race/sexuality/age and does this influence their assumptions/argument? When/where was the article written and does this influence the authors assumptions/argument?
• be self-reflexive...what is your response to the idea? What assumptions are you making that influence your reading?
  

These are just suggestions and there are heaps more you could ask. You dont have to ask all of them and I am happy for you to ask others of the reading and of us.

For example: Shalmalee suggested that in "M. Butterfly" Renee did not know that Song was "male-bodied" despite having a 20 year sexual relationship. How was this possible? what assumptions about race, gender and/or race-gender did Renee make that made this possible? what physical/sexual behaviours did they engage in that made this possible? how did these behaviours intersect with the race-gender assumptions that Renee made? What assumptions do we make about physical/sexual encounters between men & women, between men & men and between women & women that make it difficult for us to understand how Renee did not know that Song was "male-bodied"?

Looking forward to your discussions - also have fun!

Hi!

Hi everyone!
So this is my first official blog post for the unit...
My name is Charlotte and I'm in my third year doing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and German. I recently returned from a year's exchange overseas in Germany. I lived in this cute little down right in the south of Germany called Freiburg. It was a great place to live; literally only half an hour away from French and Swiss borders! But enough about that...

I guess I enrolled in this unit because I'm very fascinated about expressions of identity as well as the mechanics of cyberspace, probably because I've been in a long distance relationship for almost two years now and the online world is paramount in my relationship! But then cyberspace has always been an exciting world that I can occasionally escape to whenever I need a break from 'reality', and this concept interests me too.

I look forward to getting to know you all and learning more through this unit :)

PS, here's my link to a website that I visit daily called lovingyou.com - I discovered this website a few months ago when I first returned to Germany after 2.5 months in the US with my boyfriend... and was desperate to find an online community that I could basically vent to... sometimes it's nice to speak with others who know exactly what you're going through ;) There's a forum on there specifically for people in long distance relationships, which is perfect for me!

First Blog!

Hi everyone,

Just signed up to the blog and testing it out. Hope you're all having a good weekend!

My favourite website.... well I do a lot of online shopping so I spose it's mycatwalk. It's sad I know but they clothes are gorgeous. Ill come up with something a little more intelligent that may lead a discussion later in the week!

See you Tuesday

Hey everyone,
I'm Rachel - currently studying a Bachelor of Arts/Communications degree, majoring in English. I found this youtube clip that was really interesting - it's worth watching the whole thing. It is about the "ever changing world" in which we live, and the rapid advancement of technology. What I found interesting was the notion that it put forward: 'in order to survive, we must adapt' to the ever changing technology, or ultimatley we will get left behind.

YOUTUBE CLIP: AN EVER CHANGING WORLD

The clip reminded me of the discussion we were having in the tute last week...that we have become so reliant on our technology - mobile, facebook to name a couple...that we may suffer withdrawals without having these 'technologies' with us all the time.

Here are a couple of responses to a short article titled: "Technology Withdrawal... Feeling Lost Without Your Tech"

"My dad is concerned about how much time we spend on the computer but he openly admits that he would have a terrible time spending one day away from it "

"Young people feel it is bad to rely on machines for everyday activities. As they get older, and they need their electric wheelchairs, elevators, and dentures, they will stop feeling that people have some sort of moral obligation to live without machines."

Week 3 Comments

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

More Questions about Waldby's article

• What does Waldby mean by the "technics of vitality"
• How does she discuss ethics in relation to Shelley's Frankenstein and Haraway's cyborg?
• How does Shelley's Frankenstein mark human-ness? How do we recognise the 'monstrous'?
  

Presentations/Facilitated Discussions

Great job Jane and Emily P! Generated some fantastic discussions which we can continue over the next few weeks

Week	Reading			Presenter
3	Waldby			Jane
	Campbell			Emily P
4	Blood			Emily M
	Gregg			Emma
5	Jimroglou			Stephanie
	Kang			Hannah
6	Boyd			Ayesha
	Long			Sally
7	Reading week
8	Adam			Jonathon
	Albury			Renu
9	Harold			Guia
	Adbusters			Charlotte
10	Dibbell			Izzy
	Rheingold			Jess
11	Jenkins			Rachel
	Gregg			Coralie
12	Hayles			Jo-Anne
	Haraway			Emily C

Your expectations

Here are some of your hopes for the unit

new friends		controversy & debate
to realise that being a woman and not at all feminist is perfectly ok		a better understanding of internet politics
debate and differences in opinion during discussion		learn of different opinions
i would like to gain knowledge not only from the readings, the lectures, and the tutorials but also from other people		an understanding of blogging and who/what types of people are drawn to it - i've never blogged before
interesting insights into women's studies		to meet cool people and learn new things
an understanding of how science can interact with culture (emphasis being on learning something about science, distinct from other Arts units, which theorise on misinterpretations of science - or lack thereof		learn something new learn new ideas about women's studies
fun & friends		an enthusiasm for the unit & a better understanding of its concepts

Welcome!

So great to meet you all and am looking forward to some fascinating and stimulating discussions

Tute Guidelines

As discussed here are our tute guidelines in no particular order:

• punctuality
• offer opinions
• get to know other opinions
• try not to use jargon/technical terms without breaking them down/explaining
• ask questions
• no long awkward silences
• discuss readings
• dont laugh if someone says something wrong
• one person talking at a time
• offer different opinions
• other/everyday sources/use real life examples
• lollies
• try not to be too PC
• chat before tutorials
• small group discussions about different readings

welcome

hi everyone,
hope you have enjoy blogging in this unit,
alison