Hi everyone!
Firstly I'll just give you the link for Barry Deutsh's blog on The Male Privilege Checklist (a take on Peggy McIntosh's The White Privilege Checklist, and a quote from the site : "The first big privilege which whites, males, people in upper economic classes, the able bodied, the straight can work to alleviate is the privilege to be oblivious to privilege."
I found this point interesting as I fall into some of those catagories and in a way have no alleviated that myself. The most powerful and at times concerning thing is that we are oblivious to our privilege. If you do have time to read through the whole checklist there are quite a few interesting ones (that I did not read out in our tutorial today).
Another point I wanted to bring up was about the 'intelligent dolls' Alison talked about in the lecture. Roxxxxy is advertised as the "first life-sized robotic girlfriend" which I found understandably concerning. Its fair enough to label Roxxxy as a doll, as that is what she is, but calling her a girlfriend is taking it another step further. What also concerned me is that Roxxxy snores when she sleeps. How/why do you feel this was added?
In regards to Jerry Kang's article, I found some more of his work and one sentence really resonated with me.."Then, one day in cyberspace, something remarkable happened."
Kang said that cyberspace presents society with three design options:
Abolition "which challenges racial mapping by promoting racial anonymity"
Intergration which promotes interracial social interaction, thus reforming racial meanings, and
Transmutation which disrupts the notion of fixed racial categories "by promoting racial pseudonymity".
Do you think any issues have not been raised?
Do you think these apply to gender, too? Or it is just racial?
I also wanted to ask how Kang's article, and issues of identity (and lack there of) on the internet made you feel? How that had repercussions in many forms, good and bad. For example anonymous bullying, stealing, identity theft etc, but also the ability to talk to anyone, not be judged by looks.
Leura
Hey Leura,
ReplyDeleteI appreciated what you bought in for your presentation as it made me think about the privileges I have inherited and how lucky I am. It puts things into perspective and I think that's really important. I sometimes get caught up in having a bad day rather then taking a glass half full aproach.
I think Roxy is made to snore to move her away from machine and toward human. I guess the birth of roxy is testament to what 'The Crisis of Authenticity' article in week 2 addressed- that human beings are "too hard." I must admit, I have wanted to "turn off" some of my boyfriends. I don't know if a male version of Roxy is for me but it may be for some people.
In relation to Kang's article, I read it as both interesting and problematic. I think he comes up with some great ideas about using the internet as a way to delay discrimination and encourAge intergration. However, I wonder how successful this will be in abolishing prejudice online and offline. The problem with delay is that it's fleeting - once people meet face-to-face, mapping inevitably occurs. In our tutorial someone raised the issue of tolerance-for example; "I don't like Greeks, but you're a good one." I worry that Kang's suggested methods might only make people more tolerant rather then address the underlying problem of racial injustice.