[Week 8] Self.gov: Resistance

Culture Jamming (CJ, same below) is used for criticising consumer culture, an approach to subvert mainstream organisations. It is often seen in a form of subvertisments (= subvert + advertisements), which sabotage corporate advertisements or criticise political messages. Common ways include re-figuring logos and marketing campaigns as a means to produce irony or humorous commentary. CJ challenges the idea of "what is cool?" and other disputed problems in the consumer culture.

Examples: 1) LV = Less Valuable 2) HK example of political subvertisment

Another form of CJ is Pranking. Prankster creates a comedic effect rather than make ironic subvertisment. Instead of confronting consumerism with the activism, they make use of the corporate images. The appropriation provokes the public to think the ‘untold side’.

Examples: 1) Food Liberation Army kidnapped Ronald McDonald!!!


2) HK example of Pranking on newspaper Metro Daily

However, the example(s) of pranking in HK are found to be debatable, in a sense that the creators/organisers have no intention to involve in a media activism or any social movement. Their aims are only to make joke/have fun. (If anyone can find a good-fit pranking example in HK, please do post&share!!)

So, here comes the discussion!

Discussion question 1: The writer of this week's reading regards Adbusters, the culture jammer, as reactionary. She argues that it only tells everyone to say no to brands, but never gives any suggestion. On the contrary, pranking is more proactive, since it doesn't just ask people to say no, but provokes us to think about the activism. So, in reality...
a) how reactionary subvestisment actually is? Can it also be proactive, to trigger our thoughts?

b) Vice versa, how proactive pranking is? Does it also react, to respond the resistance?

Discussion question 2: To assess how successful/effective subvertisment and pranking is, we think of a 4-level criteria for evaluation. The following show the success/effectiveness from low to high...
a) understand the activism
b) agree with it
c) participate online
d) protest also in real life
Regarding to this criteria, which is more successful/effective, subvertisment or pranking?
If one is chosen, how/to what extent it is successful/effective?
(*Plz don't use the HK example(s) of pranking mentioned, as they are arguable.)

Plz do join the discussion! Waiting for u guys to leave comments!

Samantha Chan's Webliography

Question 3

1) Rocío Carrasco Carrasco . "Gender Representation in U.S. Contemporary Science Fiction Films: The Cyborg Hero.' British Association For American Studies (2008).

http://www.baas.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=170%3Aissue-13-autumn-2008-article-1&catid=15&Itemid=11 (accessed 15 March 2011)

This writer cites research on how gender and race have been presented in the science fiction movies during the last three decades. She greatly emphasizes on the gender representation via mentioning various significant cyborg heroes. Her research adopts assorted examples to ensure readers could have comprehensive perspective on male cyborg from 80s to millennium. She suggests the definition of cyborg alters corresponding to current social, political situation and technological advancements. The example of The Terminator(1984) has demonstrated why masculinity is being highlighted and reinforced according to the contemporary successive elected president - Ronald Reagan. Emphasis on the Terminator's appearance has strengthen the dominant perspective about masculinity and heroism. Tron (1982) has been introduced later as a counter example for dehumanizing the male body which is totally contrasted with the hypermasculine and idealised body- The Terminator. The author then mentions about the audience 'voyeuristic gaze' has changed from women erotic figure to male's omnipotence which reconfirmed the norm of patriarchal society. In contrast, the feminization on male body has been acquainted - The Matrix (1999) . Although the androgynous appearance has fulfilled the dictation of traditional male gaze, it has blurred the binary of sexuality. Characteristics of hero includes the stereotypical elements of race: White and middle class. She concludes the definition of cyborg will alter with time, but refutes the gender duality and representation remained unchange these years.

2) http://www.dsq-sds.org/index.php/juros/article/viewFile/1256/1267
The author believes the science fictions in nowadays are able to reidentify the status of women.She adopts a TV show - Battlestar Galactica to illustrate the new perspective that female spectators could have. Firstly, she examines and explains the world famous quoting from Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto. Next, she introduces reasons on choosing the show as the different circumstance and behaviours from the characters provides them a reflection on repressing ideology of patriarchy. She proposes they could either drill into the play or examine it as an outsider. The characters in the play usually added with traditional "women" elements and appearance. However the character Startbuck, her characteristics, has depleting the traditional notion of women. She loves to speak aloud, smoke and play card games, etc.. All she possess are the qualities originally merely given to men. Moreover, the identity of cylon that Battlestar Galactica had can fully illustrate the concept that Haraways mentioned. The presented identity has made the gendered dichotomies and binary of human/ machine to be uncleared. Accompany with the obscure binaries, race has been neutralised. She concludes that the Science Fiction space can enable female spectator to reinforce and reidentify its role in the same time while watching it.

3)Kati McGinnis. "Gender Performance, Transgression and the Cyborg in Battlestar Galactica." Disability Studies Quarterly (2010). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jul/19/gender.uk ( accessed 15 March 2011)
The editor selects the plot from Stepford Wives ( 2004 & 1975) in order to demonstrate the previous and current situation about both sex. According to the description from the plot (1975), women are responsible on merely participating domestic sphere. The duty of the two sex are clearly divided which men should work outside and women should stay inside of the house. The binaries do not cross each other line. However the situation reversed when the second shooting (2004) appears. The main character Joanna starts with a promised feminism life who has a family with a successful career. The turning point, which she lost her job, has excluded her from the "nature-intended back-seat role". She losses not only her job but also her family. Comparing the starting of the society, women in 50s and nowadays face different kind of orientation. The author mentions that women in nowadays are facing the post-feminist era. The binary among both sex is being blurred. And a sense of nostalgic where binary were clearly opposite is mentioned.

4)Lakshmi Chaudhry. "Stepford Wife: You've Come the Wrong Way, Baby." AlterNet (2004). http://www.alternet.org/media/18980?page=1 (accessed 16 March 2011)

The writer makes a reflection about the definition of true happiness and the emergence of a special perspective: anti-feminism. He mentions the movie, Stepford Wives (2004), does not spotlight on the matter of love but the nostalgic on when women are so obedience. The nostalgic that mentioned has been reinforced from the actions of the female characters. Like Joanna bakes 5000 cup cakes, other female characters learn how to clean up and possess with identical smile. All the stereotypical characteristics has comforted the male audience's anxiety towards of how women bahave in reality. On the other hand, this kind of nostalgic projections have reinforce the position on one, female, should do. According to the author's quotes, even though Nicole Kidman who are the famous and powerful Hollywood star would also be willing to give up her career if she find one willing to take a bullet for her. The author relieves although women do have quality of life, various choices and freedom comparing to the history, they still could not find the way to make themselves truly happy. He concludes that it is good for women to have right to choose on whether working or staying at home freely. Possess choice are better than none.

5) Arren Humphries. "The relevance of gender in the cyborg body in science fiction." Heliumn (2007) http://www.helium.com/items/513123-the-relevance-of-gender-in-the-cyborg-body-in-science-fiction (accessed 16 March 2011)

The author lists out loads of cyborg science fiction examples to illustrate previous history of cyborg. The cyborg that he want to discuss is about the characteristics of each common types of cyborg. For example, the neutrality of them : Are they good or bad? Strong or weak? Moreover, he states the characteristics of male cyborg portray : uncontrollable, violence and strong. These characteristic have continued from the era of Frankenstein to Terminator. The ability of Terminator has been increasing comparing to previous cyborg. He suggests the portrayed features could assist and establish the men's status. Therefore, the appearance and ability of male cyborg has been increasing from one to another. On the other hand, female cyborg has displayed as sexy and erotic image. No matter how time goes by, its representation keeps on repeating and repeating. Their main functions are to please men and be perfect woman. To conclude, male cyborg has been transforming to be stronger and stronger. However, female cyborg remains unchanged.

Week 7 presenation summary -- virtual ethics

Hey everyone! This is Renile and Ava. We are going to have a presentation on the topic virtual ethics. In our presentation, we will mainly focus on the first reading. Here comes to the summary of it.

The author, Alkison Adam, has tried to illustrate how feminist theory can be used to make a more extended analysis in discussion of computer ethics through examples of cyberstalking.

But first of all, what is cyberstalking? Cyberstalking is actually an extreme form of internet- based harassment. It is also believed that the word cyberstalking was created to describe stalking behaviour perpetrate through some online information and communication technology. Cyberstalking also derives a milder form of behavior - online sexual harassment. As mentioned by Herring, he stated that online sexual harassment tends to mirror the levels harassment that women often find in the real life.

Actually, internet reinforces and magnifies stereotypical gendered behaviours, as cyberstalking is already a representation of a strongly gendered behaviour. Thus, Herring believed that computer-mediated communication does not neutralize gender.

The writer is applying feminist theory in computer ethics. She stated that women feel empowered by the use of information technology. However, in reality, only a small number of women can be successfully achieved. As Winner mentioned, it is originally assumed that everyone has equal abilities on the internet. If both men and women are equal in the cyber world, then why the proportion of women who are being stalked is still high?

The writer also looks into the issue of cyberstalking form the utilitarianism perspective. From the view of Kantian, if an issue can generate the greatest happiness of the greatest people, then it is up to the moral standard and should be worth to do so. By the same token, if cyberstalking just make a few women very unhappy but many men happy, then should we continue to do so? Nevertheless, the writer stated that few people would be comfortable with such argument. Therefore, some scholars who studied Utilitarianism believed that cyberstalking is only treating women as a means to an end but not as individual moral agents with rights.

Then what have been done in order to protect the victims? According to DeCew, the official are unwilling to see cyberstalking as a problem, thus there is no guarantee that the legislation can protect the victims.
Hence, victims felt unhappy because the level of protection is far too little. Besides, all measures seem not effective enough and do not get to the heart of the problem. Therefore, it is believed that only when we have a better understanding of why the behaviour occurs can we then begin to think about policy measures which way is the most effective.

Joey's Blogging

Blogging is a practice that is mundane and yet radical in its potential to transform individual and collective agency and activism. Discuss.

Mayfield, Ross. “The Political Effects of Blogging: Call for Indicators.” Corante. 9 Feb. 2004. 14 Mar. 2010 .

The article argues where the appearance of participatory media like blogs is agreed that will make a change in the political process. Individuals and groups can public their views and reflect the issues even that are not mainstream and causes low attention without recourse to the limits of big media. This influence of blogging towards political process can be used to argue that blogging is affecting the behavior of both politicians and non-political parties such as the activist and individuals. A medium is created where individuals or groups could find each other easily and organize around issues and candidates. This is thus used to argue where there exists a transformation in the medium of communication as the exceeding amount of authors and readers of political and related blogs has caused a greater amount of information transfer, and traditional political and foreign affairs magazines and columns to drop behind. Many of the readers and authors influence the official and also hold opinion of the unofficial. While the medium offers the potential for the like-minded groups, it also provides the potential for public communication and interactive discussion. These can be particularly influential when articulated publicly by those whose views and interests do not fall along trivial party alignments. This blogosphere allowing the public involvement is also transforming individuals in its participation of political activity and are allowing higher level of influence on policy publication.

Bradshaw, Paul. “Blogging journalists: survey results pt. 1: context and methodology.” Online Journalism Blog. 14 Oct. 2008. 14 Mar. 2010.

The article argues that blogs is now part of the editorial furniture. Most of the US newspapers, news organizations and European news organizations offered journalist-authored blogs, and there are signs from editors that these figures are going to rise gradually. In a short history for existing over a decade, the format of blogs has undergone a number of developments. The article is then supported by showing the transformation of blog. At the beginning, it is just lists of links to similar sites, then turning into more diary-like, with along attitude of personality and more recently adopted by news organizations, journalists started to write blogs of their own, teamed up with blogging and citizen journalism operations. Some argued that the generic qualities of blogs has been affected once again, and more recently there have been suggestions that blogging has lost its focus in the jostle for attention or that successful bloggers curb their creativity in the consciousness of a wider audience while much of the personal material that was previously published on blogs is now being published on ‘life-streaming’ and ‘micro-blogging’ platforms like Twitter. While journalism at least aspires to objectivity, blogs treat the audience as a co-creator, while traditional journalism treats them as a passive recipient; and whereas blog journalism is incomplete and fragmented, traditional journalism is structured and closed.

“Blogs Influence Consumer Purchases More than Social Networks.” Marketing Charts. 31 Oct. 2008. 14 Mar. 2010.

The article is about a research study of more than 2,000 online consumers in the US - “Harnessing the Power of Blogs”. It strongly shows that blogs can influence blog readers’ purchase decisions by supported data. Retailer Daily reports that in the past four years, the number of people who read blogs at least once a month has grown 300% and what they read influences their purchase decisions strongly, playing a key role in ushering them to the point of actual purchase. The study aimed to uncover changing behavior around blog discovery and consumption, how blogs factor into consumer purchase decisions, and the nature of blog influence on buying behavior. For example, frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions more than content from social networking sites, the study found. Blogs factor in to critical stages of the purchase process, weighing most heavily at the actual moment of a purchase decision, according to the study: Among respondents who say they have trusted blog content for purchase decisions in the past, over half say blogs played a role in the critical moment they decided to move forward with a purchase. For frequent blog readers, advertisements on blogs are on par with sponsored search results, one of the most prevalent and successful forms of advertising on the web and trust of blog advertising exceeds that around social networking site advertising.

Hurlbert, Wayne. “Activist Blogs: Blogging For Societal Change.” WebProNews. 27 Nov. 2005. 14 Mar. 2010.

The author has reasonably argued that blogging is developing as a new powerful tool that could change the world due to its huge power over business, non-profit organization and among individuals. The passage could be used to conclude that blogging has provide a new forum for which activist could expand their influence or spread their views in a much greater scope with the availability of blogging. Blog comments could be lively and interesting, but at the same time could also be attacking and filled with extreme opinions. It’s important to maintain a balance of comments, and to avoid the temptation to delete opposing viewpoints. This can then be used to argue that the ability to hide one’s identity behind the blog wall allows the comments are left to be view openly and freely, and as well allowing discussions and debates to be greatly exercised through the internet. This is important as in the blogging creates opportunity for individuals to express oneself, as well as an opportunity for activist to spread negative or confronting information. Blogging will enable one to voice out in a crowd of other worthwhile organizations. It can then be argued that blogging transform the capacity of transfer of information, including how far, how much and how fast the information could spread, thus also transforming the behavior and views of those who received the information.

Camson, Josh. “Can Blogs Influence the Supreme Court?” Social Media Law Student. 14 May. 2009. 14 Mar. 2010.

The author states that a student note in the Stanford Law Review has argued that blogs can and eventually will influence the Supreme Court. In Rachel Lee’s article, she discusses the flaws in the current ethics law to handle this form of ex parte communication with the court. Nobody, Lee included, really knows if Justices or their staff are reading legal blogs like Social Media Law Student. Lee suggests that there exist a trend towards citing more online sources, including blogs and the fact that on a recent workday registered over a hundred hits from an IP address registered to the Court. This can thus be used in argument where blogging is potentially capable in transforming the way where new information and opinions persuade the decision making or interpretation process of individuals and court. Although Lee admits that the visits to blogging could be done by court personnel instead of Justices, yet her arguments that the constant visit will be exposed to lists of cert petitions to watch, allowing inflow of views in various other cases, and recaps of oral arguments, along with associations to news stories or other blogs with similar material — all touching on the merits of pending litigation, which the blogging should be considered potentially influential.

Jessie's Webliography

Webliogragy 1

Daniel Pimley. Cyborg Futures: Cyborgs, Cyberpunk and the future of the. Retrieved from 13^th March, 2011. http://www.pimley.net/documents/cyborgfutures.pdf

Summary

In Daniel Pimley’s works, he has obviously offered a two-side view on the issue of cyborg futures. On one hand, Donna Haraway’s “A Manifesto for Cyborgs” and the views of William Gibson’s cyberspace were both referred in the paper. The boundaries between human/ machine or nature/ culture are challenged and overcome in the end. On the other hand, by looking into contemporary cultural products like films, animations and videos, we discover another picture regarding to the issue: it seems that gendered identity presented by the media is still omnipresent. Although the imagination of the future body in media representations have much effort for breaking down the binary between human and machine, gender binary still remain within its boundaries. For example, Japanese Animation Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Björk’s music video and even the use of online communities are full of gendered symbolic meanings. While queer cyborg is often absent, as the author suggests after his observations on the media products, gender is still of great important for our identity.

Webliogragy 2

Esperanza Miyake. “My, is that Cyborg a Little bit Queer”' Journal of International Women's Studies 5(2) 2004. Retrieved from 13^th March, 2011. http://www.bridgew.edu/soas/jiws/Mar04/Miyake.pdf.

Summary

“My, is that Cyborg a little Queer?” was inspired the film which is “Blade Runner (1982)” in which the cyborg characters had led to the start of this paper. In fact the work aims at providing reflection upon the importance of Donna Haraway’s manifesto: “A Cyborg Manifesto”. In order to have a solid foundation for the discussion, the author referred to the other piece of work by Stein and Plummer “I can’t even think straight”: “Queer Theory and the Missing Sexual Revolution in Sociology” (1996). The concept from Stein and Plummer of “Cyberia” and “Queerdonia” were firstly brought up. Regarding to these two concepts, there are three characteristics by which the author discussed the question step by step: “conceptualization of sexuality which sees sexual power embodied in different levels of social life, expressed discursively and enforced through boundaries and binary divides”, “problematizes sexual and gender categories, and identities in general” and “rejection of civil rights strategies in favor of a politics of carnival, transgression, and parody which leads to deconstruction, decentering, revisionist readings, and anti-assimilationist politics” In particular, the author explained that, in fact, how the cyberspace provides us a possibility to challenge, even break the notion of gender binaries or race categories and become a queer cyborg.

Webliogragy 3

Nina Lykke. “Are Cyborgs Queer?”. Retrieved from 13^th March, 2011. http://xoomer.virgilio.it/raccontarsi/presentazioni2006/LIANA.pdf.

Summary

In the paper, the main question that the author Nina Lykke would like to deal with is how cultural imaginary breaks the view of biological determinism in the era of digital age in which human’s body is going to reappear in terms of different symbols and codes in the world of cyberspace. By deploying the two crucial concepts: “cyborg” and “queer” as the players in the text, Nina explored different discourses, narratives and cultural imaginaries and tried to figure out the image of reappear human. As Nina said, “While the cyborg deconstructs dichotomies and hierarchies between organism/machine, nature/culture, sex/gender etc., the queer breaks down dichotomies between different kinds of sexual orientation as well as the link between reproduction and sexual desires and identities.” She found that different appropriation would be exist under different power relationship. The discovery provided by Nina has fill the gap between or the relationship between queer and cybrog.

Webliogragy 4

Theresa M. Senft. “Feminism, Technology, Performance”. Women and the Arts Conference. Rutgers University. May 18, 1998. Retrieved from 13^th March, 2011. http://www.terrisenft.net/writing/rutgers.html.

Summary

The talk which is given by Theresa M. Senft was talking about the question of whether it is good to be cyborg rather than a human/woman. “Ubu Roi” which was being mentioned in the talk by the Theresa was one of French artist Orlan “Carnal Arts” performance in 1988.After watching the performance, it reminds Theresa of what Haraway’s famous line in “A Cyborg Manifesto”,” I’d rather be a cyborg than a goddess” that she was reflecting upon if it is good to be a cyborg. In the talk, she introduced two performances by two feminists which come from Orlan and Sharon Lehner respectively. Theresa compared the two performances and she did not agree with the meanings behind Orlan’s but Sharon’s one. It is because Theresa deemed that Orlan could only see herself in the performance but not a world-wide vision in the digital age. Moreover, Orlan seems to perform how a cyborg returns to a goddess but not a cyborg. Therefore, in the case of Orlan, Theresa still preferred to be a woman rather than a cyborg. In fact, the two sides of the views of Orlan and Theresa are the two imaginations of our future embodiment of our, especially women’s, bodies.

Webliogragy 5

Veronica Hollinger. “(Re)Reading Queerly: science Fiction, Feminism, and the Defamiliarization of gender”. March 1999. Retrieved from 13^th March, 2011. http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/77/hollinger77.htm.

Summary

As the author Veronica Hollinger suggests in her works, “(Re) Reading Queerly: science Fiction, Feminism, and the Defamiliarization of gender”, cyborg as well as queer in the cyberspace is a “zone of possibilities” which is sometimes ironic. The identity in this zone is not static but mutable without gendered or sexed fixation. It is not the matter of whether it is a heterosexual or homosexual identity because sexualities are subject to change in the cyberspace. Indeed, science fiction is a good platform and good resources for investigating into the relationship between sexuality and cyborg. Many of the cyborg in science fiction are represented and quoted in Veronica’s works like "The Mystery of the Young Gentleman" (1982). In the science fictions which were included in the paper, the utopian of cyborg is represented and gender binary was broken under the narrative of the stories. Veronica’s has provided us a multi-perspective and various versions of utopian queer cyborg worlds with rich examples and good analysis.

Webliography(Kit Chan )

4. Is a cyborg queer? Discuss critical thinking on the intersection between sexuality and technology.

1. Maheu, Marlene M. “The Future of Cyber-Sex and Relationship Fidelity: Cyborg Theory”.
http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/article/node/1337 (accessed 15 March 2010)
This article is called “The Future of Cyber-Sex and Relationship Fidelity: Cyborg Theory”. Firstly, the writer, Marlene M. Maheu explained that the development and the relationship between technology and people. He claims that the technology can be a powerful tool to affect people living in the society.
There is one example which is illustrated by Marlene. A young woman named Rebecca. She always meets strangers from online chat room. Then, she also has cyber sex and telephone sex with strangers. However, she never has sex partner and she doesn’t have sex with people easily in real world. She believes that it is not to be moral and safe for her. This example shows that Rebecca becomes a cyborg, because Rebecca’s sex life tied to the technology. The boundary between the human and the technology has been blurred.
He concluded that technology has comforted human life. People are searching for the communities and relationship from the cyberspace. This situation is not considered in common understanding of relationship commitment and fidelity. Marlene believes that technology created cyborg and it lets people can extend themselves to engage meaningful but unfaithful relationships.
2. Hyperborea(2007). “I'd Rather Be A Cyborg Than A Goddess”. http://aeconomics.blogspot.com/2007/06/id-rather-be-cyborg-than-goddess.html (accessed 15 March 2010)
The article, “I'd Rather Be A Cyborg Than A Goddess” talks about how technology affect human life as introduction. The writer claimed that technology has blurred the boundaries between artificial and natural, human and machine, male and female.
The writer has discussed the unequal power between the sexes. Technology has a sexual politics to solve this problem. An example in the article has explained above view point. Some people say the “culture” of cyberspace is more like the men’s change room at a football match. It is not a good and friendly place for female. However, this views has dissolved with the existence of new generation of girls who are quiet a home in cyberspace. It is because no one knows your true gender in cyberspace. The technology encourages women to make themselves up as they go along on the internet.
The writer concluded that sex, sexuality and gender can be constructed and reconstructed at will. The cyborg pushes the boundaries of people ideas about gender and identity. He also mentioned that if human body can be transformed, everything can be open to change, like plastic surgery. The artificial and natural got blurred relationship. The “natural” idea and gender concept will be obsolete.
3. Packman, Carl (2008) “The Cyber Future of Enjoyment Part”. http://raincoatoptimism.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/the-cyborg-future-of-enjoyment-part-55/ (accessed 15 March 2010)
This article is talking about cybersex. The writer ask that how do people have sex on the internet as cyborg enjoyment. He believes that cyborg theory can be a guideline for women to embrace relationship and partial identity on the internet.
He used Rebecca’ s story as an example to explain how Rebecca become a cyborg and enjoy her cybersex life through the online chat room and telephone. He also claimed there is a new emergence which makes cybersex become outdated; electronic products, “sex toys” are available that simulate the body. It is better than simulate the physical engagement. Jouissance means physical or intellectual pleasure can be delivered as cyborg enjoyment. This is how technology influenced the sexuality problems.
The writer concluded the cyborg can be defined as a part of masculinity and it can support the existence of rational behavior. However, there is no gender for cyborg in cyber world. It is opposite to the reality problem. According to cyborg theorists, the problem regarded the real world reality principles would be impermanent.
4. Hower, Ed . “Hooked on Cyber Sex”. http://ezinearticles.com/?Hooked-on-Cyber-Sex&id=136179 (accessed 15 March 2010)

This article is talking about the writer who are trying to know what cybersex is and how cybersex work out from the cyberspace. The writer shared his experience on five dating and hook-up websites. He interpreted the process of website member application and how to flirt with other members. He explained the result if you put your picture to your profile. People will have response to you easily and the comments usually contain sex.
He has examined that his profile included a picture, his profile can be found easily by the members and those member will be more passionate to know him. By the contrary, the profile which is without picture in it, there will be no one to check your profile. This situation showed us that technology can let people find trustworthiness to identity people that they do not know.
He found that although having cybersex online is time consuming, people would like to do it. First, you search for partners or playmates. Then, you communicate with them. At last, you join the cybersex. If you lose your partner, you have to do above process again. It is a time spending procedure. Moreover, personal safety is also a crucial problem which people always ignore. Therefore, the writer reminded people think clearly when they try to participating cybersex.
5. Lykke, Nina (2000) “Are Cyborgs Queer? Biological Determinism and Feminist Theory in the Age of New Reproductive Technologies and Reprogenetics”.
http://www.women.it/quarta/workshops/epistemological4/ninalykke.htm (accessed 15 March 2011)
The article discuss biological determinism and feminist theory in the age if new reproductive technologies and reprogenetics.
This paper has discussed gender, cyborgs and new reproductive technologies. For the introduction for this article, it brings out what are bodily makers, such as, sex, the bodily phases of ageing, skin colour, physical and mental outfit, mother tongue etc. The article also explained the history of the feminist theory and talked about queer theory briefly. The writer also explained the relationship between the cyborg and the queer. He claimed that the cyborg is contrary to the queer, because cyborg seems to be bent on variety in the sexual performances of bodies.
About the emergence of the queer in the cyborg-world of clinical conception, the writer used an example to delivery the message. He thinks that the embroyos, eggs and sperm can be forzen and sold now, maybe they can be producted without a body one day. Therefore, the definetion of sexuality identity of mother and father would also be changed.
For the concludsion,the writer stated that feminist has to fight with biological determinism and get together with the monocausal links, like from sex to gender and also combined with the desexualization of reproduction. She emphasised that the queer cyborg can rearrange the feminist agenda to consider of tehnologies.

Webliography by Oscar

Guiding Question 1:‘Why should our bodies end at the skin?’ Asks Donna Haraway. Discuss the idea of skin in relation to how we might imagine our future embodiment.

1. Atzori, Paolo. Woolford, Kirk. Eds. “Extended-Body: Interview with Stelarc”. Ctheory.Net 1995.

http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=71 (accessed 12 March 2011)

This journal article is an interview with Stelarc, a Greek-Australian performance artist whose works focuses heavily on extending the capabilities of the human body. By interviewing about his studies and performances, it helps to know more about how he defines the body. Basically, most of his works are centred around his concept that the human body is obsolete. He stated that body is an impersonal, evolutionary, objective structure. Without any changes of our human outlook through the history, we should consider the fact that our body will be radically redesigned and end up with significantly different thoughts and philosophies.

He thinks that our philosophies are fundamentally bounded by our physiology; our aesthetic orientation in the world; our five sensory modes of processing the world; and our particular kinds of technology that enhance these perceptions, thus we shouldn't consider the body or the human species as possessing a kind of absolute nature. He further explains that most of our body may be made of mechanical, silicon, or chip parts, only if we behave socially acceptable, the society would still make us a kind of human subject.

His latest work is to insert a sculpture of stomach inside the body as he tried to move beyond beyond the skin as a barrier. He wanted to rupture the surface of the body, penetrate the skin.

2. Mertz, David. "Cyborgs". International Encyclopedia of Communications. Blackwell 2008.

http://gnosis.cx/publish/mertz/Cyborgs.pdf. (accessed 12 March 2011)

This article mainly focuses on the study of cybernetic organism (cyborg). The writer first defines the term cyborg, which is “a biological creature–generally a human being–whose functioning has been enhanced through integration of mechanical, electrical, computational, or otherwise artificial, components.” Then it is stated that the organic capabilities (human capabilities) can be enhanced in cyborgs vary in kind, as well as in extent. With the inventions in genomics and nanotechnology, visions of cyborgs often discuss augmentation of human health and longevity.

Generally, all humans from past to now have been intimately shaped by the utilization and presence of technologies around them, or physically manipulated or attached to them. A spear extends human capabilities for hunting; writing extends human memory, it is the intention of extending human-machine interactivity.

The writer then turns our attention to the cultural imagery of cyborgs. Nowadays Cyborgs have acted as super-heros in numerous American comic books. Still, beyond the cartoonish heros, many intellectuals have seen liberating potentials in cyborgs. Recent fiction around cyborgs tends to focus on cognitive and communicative enhancements over physical ones.

3. Gandy, Matthew. “Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City”. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Volume 29, Issue 1, pages 26–49. Wiley 2005

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2005.00568.x/full (accessed 12 March 2011)

By utilizing the idea of the cyborg, this research journal takes it as a means to explore the contemporary urban condition. It is actually a macro view of how a body can be extended into the cyborg city. It is “an ontological strategy for extending the limits to human knowledge as well as an opposite means of describing those phenomena that appear to reside outside conventional frameworks of understanding.”

The idea of cyborg urbanization has emerged as a way of conceptualizing the body-technology relationship that constructs the contemporary city, to correct those perspectives which seek to privilege the digital or virtual realm over material spaces. The cyborg concept can therefore ‘re-materialize’ the city and establish substantive connections between the body, technology and space. The writer tries to develop the idea of the cyborg as part of a more meaningful vocabulary for the critical interpretation of cities, therefore the cyborg concept can be defined such as neo-organicism, rhizomatic space and distributed cognition, begins to enable a more precise discussion about the technological characteristics of contemporary cities.

Lastly, it is warned that new communications technologies may be increasingly common but the numbers of people without adequate access to safe drinking water have grown simultaneity. It is fear that our future embodiment would create a monsters rather than a monster creates our fear.

4. Muri, Allison. “Of Shit and the Soul: Tropes of Cybernetic Disembodiment in Contemporary Culture”. Body & Society 9.3 2003: 73–92.

http://headlesschicken.ca/archive/Shit&Soul.pdf (accessed 13 March 2011)

This research article highlights the fact that the natural body in the postmodern condition has already disappeared, and what we experience as the body is only a fantastic simulacra of body rhetorics. The writer quotes Stelarc famous saying: The body is obsolete.

The writer stated that physical embodiment are eventually eliminated and that individual identity, self or ‘spirit’ will be completely changed due to the union of technology with the body were views that became increasingly prominent in popular media and cultural studies. By using the example of the film The Matrix (1999), it helps us to understand more about the theories of Jean Baudrillard to explore the obsolescence and virtualization of human enslaved by machines.

The writer further elaborates the idea of human-machine relationship of the cyborg and suggests the notion of the "Body without Organs" introduced by Gilles Deleuze that the body must not let itself be reduced to the level of an organism but must become instead a Body without Organs, which means a desiring machine connected by physical, intellectual or emotional flow to other bodies (BwOs).

Thus, since the recent theories of postmodern human identity have both questioned the continued existence and reproduction of ‘natural’ human bodies, it is worth reminding that the construct of the disembodied subject is actually the result of the abstractions of digital computation or the daily lifestyle of people engaged with technological tools.

5. Chislenko, Alexander. “Technology as extension of human functional architecture”. sasha1@netcom.com 1997.

http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/articles/techuman.html (accessed 13 March 2011)

As the title has shown, this article mainly focuses on how the technology revolution can lead to a human extension of functional architecture. This may be able to guide us to think about the future embodiment.

The writer points out that as we have many tasks to perform in our life within one body, thus functional bodies have to specialize with different species performing different functions. In human society, where most humans are similar with two arms two legs, yet our generic bodies can learn and integrate different skills.

However, it is still insufficient for unlimited growth of future embodiment. Since the physical abilities of an organism are limited, we have to attach different specialized tools. Thus, evolving such a body would also be difficult, as changes in each function would have a smaller and smaller influence on the survival of an organism, slowing the evolutionary process.
Also, we need to extend our memory and intelligence as well, that is what we are doing now with the information technology.

He further point out that the human looks natural only from outside, as we hold all kinds of artificially created concepts loaded into our heads. Humans without downloaded knowledge do not exist anymore.

Lastly he predicts intelligent entities will be extremely fluid and highly independent from the physical substrate of the world in the future. The world will represent a mix of a superliquid economy, cyberspace anarchy and distributed Artificial Intelligence.

Serena's Webliography

Guiding Question: ‘Why should our bodies end at the skin?’ asks Donna Haraway (p.36, Manifesto). Discuss the idea of skin in relation to how we might imagine our future embodiment.

1.Parthan, Baiju, “The Cyborgs Are... Coming” Life Positive Magazine
http://www.lifepositive.com/mind/evolution/technology/cyborg.asp (accessed 15 March 2011)

Nowadays, the advancement of science and technology affect our view of lives, body and the machine.With the change in the properties of the machine, we change our attitude remarkably. In our future, the author thinks our brain can in an entirely artificial body, just like the other parts in our body. Besides, the author also mentions Gibson’s man-machine symbiosis that means people connected to the Internet through the surgically-implanted chips in order to be capable of wireless communication with the Net. And it is a direction that we are moving towards in future.

In addition, since the machine is continued to develop rapidly, it miniaturizes the structure as well as increases its functionality. Thus, the human intelligence can be upgraded through the machine into a human body and it may a viable approach.

However, the human brain is enormously complex connections among our billions of neurons. If you want people's thoughts shifted to the machine, it involves the two processes which are 'migration through silicon' or ‘uploading’. ‘Once a mind is successfully transferred on to silicon, one could modify that mind by increasing the scope of the senses or even add new senses.’ Then, it will change people’s memory and the way of living in past, present and the future. In the end, we will combine with intelligent machines, and coexist with them in this world as our future.


2.Joy, Bill. "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us". Wired 8.04 (2000). pp.1-11.
http://www. wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html (accessed 16 March 2011)

This journal article is mainly about our future embodiment that if the computer scientists develop successfully the intelligent machines that can replace human beings to do all the things and better than human beings can do, it will occur two cases in our human future.

First one is that our fate finally is controlled by the machines and we are dependent on their decision because we believe them can make a better decision than the humankind one. In order to be effective to control those machines that keeps their complicated system running, we will not capable of making them intelligently. Eventually, we cannot just turn the machines off as we will rely on them too much that turning them off would correspond to suicide.

And the second one is that, human work will be redundant as the advanced elite will have more power to control over the masses. The elite may simply decide to exterminate people’s humanity or reduce the birth rate until they become extinct. At that stage, the machine is a leading role that humankind is purposeless with their living and forces to have a healthy hobby to keep busy. The status of humankind will have been declined to the status of domestic animals.


3.Ben-Tov, Sharona. “The Cyborg and American Technological Transcendence”. “The artificial paradise: science fiction and American reality”. pp145-147.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=AtLBNHh6WWwC&pg=PA146&dq=%22why+should+our+bodies+end+at+the+skin?%22&hl=zh-TW&ei=PYODTaXUNtDzceP84JED&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22why%20should%20our%20bodies%20end%20at%20the%20skin%3F%22&f=false (accessed 16 March 2011)

This chapter is a good introductory study for people to understand the concept of “skin” from Haraway as well as to guide your thinking about cyborg embodiment. The most important thing is that the image of the “skin” is not talking about human skin with various senses and the cognition, but it is “a passive shell between the Cartesian self and the object world”.

Besides, it talks about Haraway’s idea that many people are alive because of the prosthetic devices and techniques, and then Moravec queries that whether the artificial organs and other body parts will be better than the any originals of humankind or not. And he triggers off a question from Haraway that if there is a possibility to achieve the mind-body dualism, separates our brain from our body. Furthermore, he believes that scientists can be inspired by robot bodies to achieve the high technological transcendence. “It is not a science fiction but, rather, a leading expert’s thoughts about how cyborgs would actually be made”.


4.Ward, Peter. “The Future of Man--How Will Evolution Change Humans?” Scientific American Magazine (2009) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-future-of-man (accessed 14 March 2011)

At the beginning of the article, it explores our species evolved from the past to the present. We are just like the other organisms that our body shape and our behaviour underwent the dramatic changes when our species first appeared. Some scholars believe that human evolution has fundamentally stopped. With the advancement of the society, however, we follow the species from a subtle change.

To the end of the article is also a key point that is talking about the ultimately evolution of human as well as it is one of the several ways that human in the future will adopt, which is man and machine symbiosis. That is about a relationship between manipulating and being manipulated. We may link to our bodies and the robot or uploaded our minds into the computer. Integration of production machines and the collective intelligence of the human brain may or may not retain the human characteristics that we can now recognize as a human.

Advanced artificial intelligence can package the various components of human cognition and re-combination of these components, things and makes us no longer is human. “For example, the quality that give human life much of its meaning— humour, love, game-playing, art, sex, dancing.” In future, “as much as we build them to meet human needs, we have structured our own lives and behaviour to meet theirs.”


5.The Future of Human Evolution Website: The Future – Post Human Future s. Humans Future Organisation. http://www.humansfuture.org/future_post_human_futures.php.htm (accessed 14 March 2011)

We will be the second most intelligent organisms on Earth and the number one ranking is the computer. In the paper, it discussed the future of humanity and it urged us to evolve into different species as materials and cybernetic technology advance. The first is that homo cyberneticus. Since the development of silicon chips in 1995 that can directly interface to human nerve cells, science and technology integrate into our lives. And technology integrates into our bodies inside through the way of implantation, putting the silicon chips into our human skin. Then, many people are willing to accept their genetic improvement because of the enhancement that it can reinforce their ability as well as their offspring.

Besides, the second species is that the Homo hybridus. When a direct link from the computer into the human brain can be achieved, the thought transmits to us to communicate not only with machines but with other people. We will be able to enjoy the sense of sharing with others. Thus, we evolved to Homo machines. Due to human brain gradually further into the world of the machine, it will become apparent that the organic body is unnecessary. In the future, the new species retained some elements of early humans, but a lot more intelligent.

Carmen's Critical Annotated Webliography

Guiding question 4

Is a cyborg queer?
Discuss critical thinking on the intersections between sexuality and technology

Critical Annotated Webliography

1. Carstensen, Tanja. "Gender Trouble in Web 2.0: Gender Relations in Social." International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology 1.1 (2009). Carstensen. Hamburg University of Technology, Germany.12 Mar.2011.

http://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/18/31.

The writer discussed the issue of the gender relations on some social network sites in the paper. She provided many examples of active networks, solidarity and participation in the field of queer-feminist politics as well. Besides, the article presented that there was a reinforcement of stereotyped representations of masculinities and femininities, experimentation with a variety of gender identities and the possibilities for queer politics without recurring to singular identities. By providing a platform for tough struggles about gender issues in the social network sites, this paper supports the argument that the technology has certain impact on gender relations. This can also explain even if the technology has been advanced, the binary gender roles can still be obviously observed in contemporary society. Moreover, it is a good piece of work to develop an argument that cyborgs can hardly manage their gender identities so they are said to be queer in the society. As one of the ideas of cyborg suggests that the world would be without gender boundary, it is definitely opposite to the existed stereotype of binary gender in contemporary society. This can then be more justified why people think that cyborg is abnormal.


2. Gillis, Stacy. "Neither Cyborg Nor Goddess: The (Im)Possibilities of Cyberfeminism." Third Wave Feminism A Critical Exploration. By Gillian Howie and Rebecca Munford. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.185-96. 12 Mar.2011. http://www.revalvaatio.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/gills_et_all-third_wave_feminism_a_critical_exploration.pdf#page=200.

This essay demonstrated how significant the internet affects the feminist movement. To be brief, the internet is a platform and tool to shape the “third wave feminism”. It also raises the question what is the role of internet in regards of “global women’s movement” and the future of “global women’s movement” is imagined to be. It also developed the idea of Cyberfeminism – feminism in cyberspace. However, it stated a major problem that cyberspace, this specific term cannot be easily defined while many people cannot access the internet. The essay finally concluded that under the rooted traditional concept, women would have a long way to be empowered herself even if in the cyberspace. As the technology is going yo be more advanced, people are going to be more easily access the internet and participate in the cyberspace in the future. Yet, the boundary between the internet and reality is becoming unclear. This article also emphasized the intersections between the women and internet. Thus, it is useful for extending to elaborate the relationship between technology and sexuality in my essay.


3. Lykke, Nina. Are Cyborgs Queer? Senza Nome. 12 Mar. 2011. http://xoomer.virgilio.it/raccontarsi/presentazioni2006/LIANA.pdf.

This paper was based on a research project on gender, cyborgs and new reproductive technologies. It used the framework of queer theory by Judith Butler and cyborg theory by Donna Haraway. Lykker mainly discussed the biological determinism and feminist theory in the age of new reproductive technologies and reprogenetics. She introduced the biological determinist arguments which are being used as tools to legitimate the social inequalities and power differentials of human characteristics such as gender, race, sexual preference etc. Applied different discourses which are suggested by the scholars, Lykker then used the cyborg and the queer as the examples selected from the wealth of feminist theories that deconstruct biological determinism. It is crucial to note that cyborg figures indeed give an opportunity to question the importance of human attributes such as gender, race and sexuality. The writer has well linked the technology and sexuality as the project subject. It is helpful to illustrate my argument that there are the intersections between sexuality and technology. As Lykker also mentioned that the identity is constructed by the culture as well as the intersection among the people, this can strengthen my argument that cyborg is not as abnormal as queer in my essay.


4. Miyake, Esperanza. My, Is That Cyborg a Little Bit Queer? Esperanza Miyake. 09 Mar. 2011. http://www.bridgew.edu/SOAS/jiws/Mar04/Miyake.pdf.

This article researched some feminist issues including body, sexuality, identity and representation while correlating with the notion of the cyborg and queer theory. Besides, it was suggested that people can now both literally and physically change their bodies with fluidity under the advanced technology. Queer cyborgs were then proved to separate their public persona with their physical body by the writer. This strengthened the argument that gender and other categories are just a stage act which is unlinked to the physical self. It finally argues how feminism can benefit from cyber-queer ideas in rethinking through these issues in the world of material ramification. This essay is good to point out that there has been the relationship between the technology and sexuality. It is definitely helpful to explain the interrelation and intersections between these two aspects. Moreover, this article provided a good connection between the cyborg and queer theory. The queer cyborgs the writer mentioned that were recreating unconfined and unrelated genders. This has certainly challenged the preconceived ideas about man and woman as well as the notions of masculinity and femininity. Thus, it is a good evidence for me to use as a counter-argument of cyborg indeed is a queer in my essay.

5. Sundén, Jenny. Keynote Presentation at 5th European Feminist Research Conference: Gender and Power in the New Europe. Proc. of What If Frankenstein(‘s Monster) Was a Girl? Typing Female Machine Bodies in the Digital Age, Lund, Sweden. 12 Mar. 2011.
http://www.iiav.nl/epublications/2003/gender_and_power/5thfeminist/sundenkeynote.pdf.

This essay emphasized on the questions of online embodiment and cyber subjectivity by using examples of female Frankenstein’s monster and by participating in the creation of online bodies in MOO, a text-based virtual world. Also, it argued the power relationship between sexuality and gender in regards of gender. For instance, in most of the Hollywood movies, machine bodies focus on the notion of masculinity, which is strong, hard and tough etc. Even there would be the existence of female cyborg in the movies, they are usually considered to be the weak portion, the part that bleeds and menstruates. The author used the examples in the movie, the false Maria in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in 1927; the movie illustrated the danger of female sexuality whereas women are always considered as evil. In short, as the technology being more advanced, there are more people participated in the internet. In order words, it enhanced the online embodiment. Besides, the information of technology illustrated the gender inequality among men and women in terms of sexuality. Thus, the essay is appropriate and related to my essay in order to support my argument.

Renile's Critical Annotated Webliography

Q5.)Blogging is a practice that is mundane and yet radical in its potential to transform individual and collective agency and activism. Discuss.

1.) “The year in issues: Role of the blog” BBC News. 29th December 2004. (retrieved
on) 15th March 2011.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4092611.stm


A recent research which was held by Nielsen Company has found out that there were already over 156 million public blogs in existence. As there are more and more people writing blogs these days, it seems that writing blogs is just as usual and simple as writing a piece of diary. However, the presence of blog has not only changed the way how we expressive ourselves towards different issues but also provided us an alternative medium to share our views. The writer in this article believed that blogs have become particularly prominent in countries where there are few outlets for political expression. That is really true for the people for instance in China. They cannot afford to buy any printing presses or launch any press conferences in order to voice out their political opinion. Yet, through blogging, everyone’s voice could be shared by each other. Thus, the writer also quoted words from the famous Baghada blogger, Salam Pax – “Blogs provide food for thought not just for reader within their own country, but a gateway into their world for foreigners.”

2.) Cairo, W. Lindsay. “Why Egypt is cracking down on bloggers?” TIME magazine.
1st June 2006. (retrieved on) 15th March 2011.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1199896,00.html


It seems that there is nothing wrong to blog our personal opinion on our personal website. However, it is not always true. Even though it is posted on the internet, you are supposed to take your own responsibility. In some countries, you might need to pay a big price on what you have written. Thus, in response to the question, blogging is radical in its potential. Here comes to an example which was printed on TIME magazine, the writer has reported a case in Egypt. An award-winning Egyptian blogger - Alaa Abdel Fatah, was arrested at an anti-regime in downtown Cairo because of his drastic opinion on the government. Besides, there was a tendency that more activists are now increasingly using the blog to mobilize and protest against the regime. Hence, they have become the targets for arrest and abuse by the police because of the online activism. Another blogger activist Mohammad who was also arrested at the protest said the police had cruelly beat and assaulted him. Nonetheless, he mentioned that he had developed a taste for freedom of speech as there was still a core group of activists who would continue the blog because they all believed the blog really helped to raise the awareness among the people. Thus, he said that there was nothing to fear anymore and would not give up so easily.

3.) “How governments censor the web?” BBC News. 22nd March 2007. (retrieved on)
16th March 2011.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6475911.stm


From the previous article, it is believed that different governments have been starting to put their eyes on the bloggers particularly to those political activists’ bloggers as they have recognize the potential influence of the internet. The writer in this article stated that many of the countries have already prioritized their work on controlling what people can and cannot see on the internet. Thus, internet censorship is now spreading all over the world. As information is power, being able to access to information can be threatening to the country rulers. And the ways that different countries have tried to deal with it are various. Here are some of the examples. In North Korea, only selected government officials can get access to the internet. However, the connections are just rented from China as it does not even have its own national net. In Burma, computers in internet cafes automatically take a screen capture every five minutes to monitor what users are viewing. In China, it has one of the most sophisticated and ambitious internet censorship programmes. An enormous sum of money have been spent on building the Great Firewall of China and around 30,000 internet police were hired to filter sites between China and the rest of the world. Regardless of the risks, there are nearly 20 million bloggers in China when compare with just 2,000 in 2002. Just as the same as the case in Egypt, those who spread their anti-government opinion would probably be put into jail. Not only in China and Egypt, a report which was released by RSF also stated that bloggers in Iran, Libya, the Maldives, Syria and Vietnam have also been jailed. In consequence, bloggers have a real power and influence over politics.

4.) Cullen, Lisa. “More thoughts on cooperate blogging” BBC News. 7th February 2007. (retrieved on) 16th March 2011.
http://workinprogress.blogs.time.com/2007/02/07/more_thoughts_on_corporate_blo/


Blogging about your company can be dangerous. As mentioned before, not only for the political activists’ blog, but actually all bloggers need to take their own responsibility on what they have written on their blog. It is because people might lose their job because of what they blog. The writer of this article has cited two cases. Mark Jen, a former Google employee, who wrote critical comments about his company and writing about Google future projects. Since then, he lost his job. Another former Google employee - Alas, also being sacked because of what he has written on his blog. However, the reasons for him to start a blog were simply for keeping in touch with his friends and family, and to record his daily work. As he has undermined the power of blogs, he didn’t realize that his company would read his blog. It was only eleven days after he started his blog, he was fired. Thus, the writer has criticized that although the company is just trying to guard trade secrets and intellectual property, whether it is appropriate to corporate spying is still controversial.

5.) O’Reilly, Tim. “Blogger’s code of conduct” Oreilly radar. 11th April 2007. (retrieved on) 15th March,2011.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/04/code-of-conduct.html

As the author thinks that bloggers should have some code of conduct around what is acceptable behavior, he has proposed some codes for the bloggers to follow. Besides, he also hopes that it will not come through any kinds of regulation yet by self-regulation. Here are the seven ideas.
1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
4. Ignore the trolls.
5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
7. Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.
Actually,I am wondering why the author asks us not to say anything online that you wouldn’t say in person. Is it related to the online identity and offline identity? Should we need to have the same online and offline identity? As people now addicted to blogging, it seems that we are now becoming a cyborg. It is hard to clarify or determine who you really are as it blurs the boundary of real and unreal. Hence, blogging might transform an individual’s identity and thus codes are formed for bloggers to follow.

Charlotte's Critical Annotated Webliography

Guiding question 4: Is a cyborg queer? Discuss critical thinking on the intersections between sexuality and technology.

1. Breen, Jennifier. “Cyborg DB.” Cyber Gender. (retrieved on) 16 Mar. 2011 http://www.cyborgdb.org/breen.htm .

In reality, we all may only have one identity and gender but not in the case when we are on the Internet. The author had used her personal experience to clarify that it is so much easier for us or cyborg to change their identity just pressing a button. The reason why we have a desires to change our gender on Internet because we just curious about what if we turn to be a girl or a boy and we want to experience the feeling of our opposite gender; even we might use our gender as a mean to get more benefits (especially when we are playing online games). More interestingly, those online games are actually assumed the gender setting and these can also strengthen the boundary between male and female.

However, the author found that, it is much different from the real life, if you want to change your gender in reality; you have to do the “reassignment” surgery and pay a large amount of money to achieve this.

I found this article is so relevant to our week 5 lecture about the identity and what the author said in the article was actually simulated my mind to re-think what is sexuality means to us? Why we treat our gender so much trivial on Internet.

2. Lykke, Nina. Are Cyborgs Queer? Biological Determinism and Feminist Theory in the Age of New Reproductive Technologies and Reprogenetics. (retrieved on) 16 Mar. 2011http://www.women.it/quarta/workshops/epistemological4/ninalykke.htm.

This is a research paper which tries to mainly examine two things, could cyborg be an element to break the norm in other to let people know the biological determinism is not something nature, but social constructed. In this paper, Dr.Lykke had mentioned about some approaches which referred to two scholars, Judith Butler and Michel Foucault. They both agree that sex and sexuality are not that neutral, they are all culturally and socially constructed, therefore, cyborg can actually deconstructs the dualities of men or women and human and machine etc.

Apart from this, another point that the researcher wish to look more deeply about is how the sexuality and technology could influence the new form of reproduction? Since most of the people assume that human reproduction is something regarded to heterosexual couple, but how about those queer or even cyborgs desires to make babies? With the development of technology, reproduction is no longer only related to sexual intercourse but also could happen in the laboratory. Who is the “real parents?” and how to decide the gander of the baby may becomes the most challenging question to all of us.

This research paper is very relevant to my guiding question; it had not only provided a lot different view points form different scholars for my reference, also it had given a lot of ideas on is a cyborg queer.

3. Maheu, Marlene. “Self help Magazine.” The Future of Cyber-Sex and Relationship Fidelity: Cyborg Theory. (retrieved on) 13 Mar. 2011 http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/article/node/1337.

In this article, Dr Maheu illustrated that human cannot live without technology and we are now more and more depend on technology or Internet. She had also used two examples to explain her argument.

The first one is about a well-known scientist and writer who suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This disease would causes muscle weakness and hey cannot use their own voice for talking, so they have to rely on a special microphone to make sound and talk, the sound which generated by this microphone sounds like robot talking. In this case, technology can help human to get over the problem of health difficulties or disabilities.

The second example is about a girl who called Rebecca. Mr. Robin Hamman had considered that Rebecca as a cyborg because most of her sex partner were came from Internet (AOL chat rooms). However, she would only engaged phone sex and cyber sex with her online sex partner as she thought that if it happened in the real world, it was an immoral problem that she could not accept.

The two examples that mentioned in this article is actually explaining technology could blur the borderline between human and technology and this article could become my back up reference if I will focus on what the differences when people act in cyberspace and reality.

4. McGinnis, Kati. Gender Performance, Transgression and the Cyborg in Battlestar Galactica. (retrieved on) 16 Mar. 2011 http://www.dsq-sds.org/index.php/juros/article/viewFile/1256/1267 .

We are all cyborg, the boundary between animal and machine is blurred, and however, the traditional gender performance like women are subordinated and they are always be objectified etc, these kind of stereotyping are still exiting especially in movies or TV dramas. Ms McGinnis then used a TV series Battlestar Galactica as an example to explained how we could breakthrough all these traditional stereotypes. In some extent, these kinds of traditional stereotypes could also reflect some of the social reality.

This TV drama is a super-fiction that “challenges gender construction, and plays with the cyborg identity”. Female cyborgs in the TV show are more likely to be marginalized, they are not belonging to any human discourses, and they are just an object to be assigned some mission to achieve. Nevertheless, female cyborgs in Battlestar Galactica had empower to be a dominant characters, they are no longer that subordinated. Therefore, the TV drama can actually blur the boundary between science fiction and the reality; it also could be one of a way to liberate gender identity.

It is a detailed paper on how we can re-identify our body and gender with sound arguments. She also used example to explain the theory from Donna Haraway which I think this paper not only can help a lot on my guiding question but also let me have a deeper understanding on Haraway’s work.

5. Syd, M. “Mbiim Blog.” Are Cyborgs a Trend/Threat for Humanization?. 22 Apr. 2010 (retrieved on) 13 Mar. 2011 http://simonmbiim.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/are-cyborgs-a-trendthreat-for-humanisation/ .

This article is mainly about what does cyborg means to us? Are they just as a tool for protecting us during the war or for the scientific needs? Also, the whole article is chiefly based on the approach for Donna Haraway.

The author first try to let the reader had a more clear idea of what is cyborg. Cyborg means in Oxford dictionary is “a person with mechanical elements built into the body to extend their normal physical abilities.” This meaning form the dictionary had led to the author thinking if cyborgs are necessarily is human. It really can help me or most of the people to let go the mistaken impression of cyborg that we made in the past.

The author also illustrated the influences of the science fiction movies, books or TV drama on how we perceive cyborg’s identity. For example, in most of the science-fiction movies, cyborg is a creature that just subordinate to human being, why they are exist in this world because they need to help the human to achieve their political goal. However, we are always neglecting the gender and sexuality of the cyborg…

I have a more concise understanding on what is cybrog after I read this article and the dominant assumption which made by those movies and book are really useful which can let me look more deeply in my guiding question as well.