Lecture 4: Gendered MUDs

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Lecture 4 Gendered MUDs
Julie Sweeneys Pat

• Professor Daniel Bernardi

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In the last lecture

• Turkles MUD?
• Whats the relationship between role playing and
  identity?
• MUD Genders

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In this lecture

• Primer on MUDs
• Bruckmans MUD
• Course Business

Amy S. Bruckman, Ph.D.
Lecture Hint Pause the lecture and click on one
of the hyperlinks (text that is underlined).
Return to the lecture after you have visited the
site.
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Primer on MUDs

• Lecture 4 Part 1

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Remember Turkle

• Internet-Based Multi-User Domain
• AKA Multi-User Dungeons
• Origin in Dungeons and Dragons
• You Play as You or as a Role
• You Can Be Any Species or Alien
• You Can Be Any Gender or Race
• Fuzzy Boundaries Lead to Parallel Lives
• Form of Identity Construction
• A Construction of Self

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More Prime Information

• Earliest from Late 1970s Based on DD
• Text Based Space is Metaphoric
• When Logging On, Create Character
• Selects Name, Gender, Description of What
  Character Looks Like
• Interact (Talk) with Other Characters in Rooms
  Move From Room to Room
• Characters are Played Anonymously - You Dont
  Know the Real Person

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Todays MUDs

• Space is Often Graphic (thanks to WWW)
• Increasingly Used for Serious Purposes
• Enhance Professional Development
• Communicate w/ Specific Groups (Navy)
• Educational Environments
• International Global Communities
• Work w/ Other Online Environments
• Bulleting Boards
• Chat Rooms
• Blogs

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The Big Points

• Early Instances of Virtual Reality
• Virtual Reality is Networked
• Cross-Cultural
• Global
• History is Revealing
• Autonomy is Respected
• Virtual reality masks identity in ways that
  facilitate experiment and learning (even
  adaptation and understanding).

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Bruckmans MUD

• Lecture 4 Part 2

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Bruckmans Thesis

• In these virtual worlds, the way gender
  structures basic human interaction if often
  noticed and reflected upon. Gender swapping is
  one example of the ways in which network
  technology can impact not just work practice but
  also culture value.
• - Amy S. Bruckman (1991)

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What is gender?

• Gender is Not Biological
• Gender is Social
• Gender is Cultural
• Gender is Historical
• Gender is Normative
• Norms are Political
• Norms Change w/ Time and Space
• Gender is performance rooted in history and, like
  identity, is at stake in the future.

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Understanding Gender

• Fundamental to Human Interaction
• Remember Pat
• Know anybody without gender?
• Know anybody that plays with gender norms?
• On MUDs, You Can Create Gender-Neutral Characters
  (or to be ambiguous)
• How do we relate to them?
• Is it even possible?
• Gender Interaction Requires Negotiation
• To Negotiate is to be Political

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Understanding Gender in MUDS

• Phenomena that are subtle in real life become
  obvious in MUDs, and are a frequent topic of
  discussion on USENET newsgroups about MUDs. For
  example, men are often surprised at how they are
  treated when they log on as a female character.
• - Amy S. Bruckman (1991)

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Bruckmans Gender Politics

• Female characters are often besieged with
  attention.
• Unwanted attention and sexual advances create an
  uncomfortable atmosphere for women
• FabulousHotBabe almost always a man.
• Male characters often expect sexual favors in
  return for technical assistance.

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MUDs Provide Advantages

• Offering technical help, like picking up the
  check at dinner, can be used to try to purchase
  rather than win a womans favor. While this can
  be subtle and sometimes overlooked in real life,
  in MUDs it is blatant, directly experienced by
  most, and openly discussed in public forums
• - Amy S. Bruckman (1991)

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Resistance

• People Experience Opposite Gender, Including
  Discrimination, and No Gender
• As Opposed to Observe
• Without makeup, special clothing, or risk of
  social stigma, gender becomes malleable in MUDS.
  
• We Can Challenge Our Own Gender Norms
• MUDs allow us to reflect on the impact of gender
  norms on others and ourselves.

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The Big Point

• Gender swapping is an extreme example of a
  fundamental fact the network is in the process
  of changing not just how we work, but how we
  think of ourselvesand ultimately, who we are.
• - Amy S. Bruckman (1991)
• And that is the essence of Halls theory of
  identity.. Historical, political and about the
  future.

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Course Business

• Lecture 4 Part 3

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eBoard

• You should post two substantive comments or
  questions per Lesson. These posts must keep up
  with the progress of the course. You cannot, for
  example, go back to the eBoard and post to a
  Lesson after it has been completed and expect for
  the posts to be counted toward your participation
  grade. We will keep track of your participation,
  including assessing the value of what you bring
  to this interactivity. Refrain from flaming or ad
  hominem comments. Please be rigorous but
  constructive.

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Critical Review 1

• This assignment asks you to analyze a sexualized
  Web site. The paper should be double-spaced,
  three pages long, and include
• Clear Thesis Statement
• An evaluation of the site's design.
• Discuss of the Ideology of the Site
• See the Special Directions on the class website
  under Syllabus/Assignments/ Critical Paper 1.

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Why am I reminding you of your assignments?

• Dont Wait to the Last Minute
• Write in Drafts Get Feedback
• Follow the Special Directions on the Website you
  will do well.
• Remember, I was a student some 80 years ago. I
  know a paper thats written at the last minute
  when I read one and I teach my Teaching
  Assistants to pick them out!

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Critical Review 1 is Due Soon

• This is Lesson 4
• Critical Review 1 is Due the Day After Lesson 6
  (which usually, but not always, means in five or
  so days).
• Did I mention that we HATE papers that read as
  if they were written at the last minute? We hate
  it almost as much as we hate gender
  discrimination!

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End of Lecture 4

• Next Lecture
• Sexualized MUDs