Drawing on Lisa Nakamura’s “Head-Hunting on the Internet: Identity Tourism, Avatars, And Racial Passing in Textual and Graphic Chat Spaces”, I am going to address identity and stereotypes on the internet.
Lisa Nakamura begins the chapter by liking the internet to a theater, an analogy that I agree with. There are many performers on a stage. These actors and actresses, who are of various ethnicities, ages, and heights, are able to portray any character the director requires thanks to make up artists, costumes, and the facial expressions, accents, and behavior of the actors themselves. When you’re watching a play or musical, such as The Lion King, you forget that the animals prancing across the stage are people. Being on the internet is very similar because you can describe yourself in any way and as long as your actions reflect that of your description, people will believe you.
Before images were available online, usernames reflected what a person wanted others to think of them. Just by reading someone’s description, I argue that you can tell whether or not the person you are talking to is what he/she claims they are in terms of race. Using the example mentioned in the chapter about the young Japanese girl who devotes “her life to perfecting the tea ceremony and mastering the art of lovemaking”, it is obvious that the user is definitely not a young Japanese girl. The description draws upon the user’s inner desires and imagination of what a Japanese girl should be in terms of appearance and talents.
Users use stereotypes they have heard from the radio, seen on the television, or heard from others. Like most stereotypes, the descriptions are not all truth and are offensive. For example, a clip from Family Guy has the family going to Chinatown and every Asian person the dad sees, he shouts “Oh, Jackie Chan!”. The clip ends with an Asian man going up to the family and shouting “Oh, Ethan Hawke!”. This reflects the stereotype that people of a certain ethnicity look the same. With many people using stereotypes in their descriptions, others who read the descriptions will believe that it is true. We can become a less ignorant society by getting rid of stereotypes by not using them in our descriptions.
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While I agree that many people use stereotypes when describing themselves as others on the internet, what about the people who depict themselves? Do they use stereotypes to describe themselves? Are other people able to tell what race they are without the use of stereotypes, or do they fall under the blanket "whiteness" of the internet?
ReplyDeleteI agree that stereotypes are negative in many respects, however, generalizations and thus stereotyping on the internet as described by Nakamura are much more harmless than she depicts.
ReplyDeleteNakamura argues that without specifying race people assume whiteness, and Nakamura speaks of the racism of this assumption, however, she says herself that the majority of the players in the virtual worlds are white, middle class men. If the great majority of the people playing the game are white men, it would be safe and only rational to assume that people are generally white unless the specify otherwise. Also, the assumption of whiteness doesn't necessitate an assumption of ethnography, the idea of whiteness is probably the assumption that other players are similar in terms of social backgrounds, whether that person is in fact white or not.
When she speaks of the stereotyping done on her when she specifies her race, she speaks as if it is blind stereotyping of asians in general, however, by satating a race she is saying that it is important to her. Of course many Japanese Americans do not know Japanese or aren't even all that familiar with Japanese culture, however, by explicitly stating her race she is saying that it is something that defines who she is. The "default whiteness" is the assumption that people are similar to other players in culture, but by choosing to state race it says that there is another culture separate from the middle class American Internet culture that divides the player from the rest.
Nakamura reads the stereotyping online as a way of deliberate or ignorant racism, however, the prevalence of seeming hostility or indifference to racial differences are possible due to cultural concerns more so than ethnographic prejudices. The stereotypes used online are probably due to people's fantasies that they play out in their fantasy worlds, however, they do not argue any more stereotypes about minorities in the real world than Nakamura's article and her frequent references to the ignorance, indifference, and racism that she attributes to white males that play these games.
After all, what type of person does a typical person imagine playing such a game?
I agree that stereotypes can be detrimental and can even lead to racism or discrimination. However, where does one make the difference between stereotypes and generalizations? I feel that the biggest difference between stereotyping and generalizing is that stereotyping have negative connotations and racism. On the other hand, generalizations can be seen as a learning tool. Generalizations usually do not have negative connotations and are based on facts or persistent trends. So while stereotypes can be used negatively on the internet to discriminate amongst users and make a description of a user believable, generalizations can be used by other users on the internet to understand people who describe themselves in their descriptions. For example, a person who is not familiar with different cultures such as Asian cultures, African cultures, or Middle Eastern cultures would find it helpful to generalize Middle Easterners with Muslim culture. This would lead to a higher understanding of the people and make it easier for the user to relate and interact online with the individual. In contrast, using a stereotype to understand a user who is of Middle Eastern ethnicity would be less helpful and can even lead to ignorance as Katie stated. An example of a stereotype would be considering Middle Easterners as terrorists or mercenaries which would clearly be an ignorant and hurtful statement that would not help users to build an online relationship with Middle Eastern users. Thus, the use of generalizations in online descriptions can vastly strengthen a users understanding of different cultures and ethnicities that they formerly were not familiar with. As Katie stated, not using stereotypes in descriptions will lead to a less ignorant society and less discriminatory society.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of something I learned recently in psychology known as deindividuation, which occurs when people are in crowds and lose their identity. Some people online, because they choose to be anonymous, do lose a sense of who they are. People also cannot tell who they are. According to this principle, I think that people can behave quite impulsively and not like their own selves when they are online.
ReplyDeleteI do like your analogy to Lion King. Some can get really into playing the role of the Lion King and not act like him or herself. People will also temporarily forget who the actor was, thinking that the actor is indeed the Lion King. This can be said about any passionate actor or someone in a crowd portraying certain type of behavior. People can quite easily lose their identities, acting not like themselves.
I also agree that our society will be less ignorant if we get rid of stereotypes, but I don't see that as a possibility. Unfortunately, some strong trends that are almost irreversible already exist in society today. It will take a long time to get rid of stereotypes. I don't think I will wake up tomorrow and of "default blackness" or anything like that. While stereotypes do exist, I think society will be better off minimizing it by probably making different races interact more and helping some races see that they are productive with others.
Katie's post and the ongoing discussion of default whiteness remind me a frequently appearing theme in my Gender and Women's Studies class. We often talk about the "marked" and "unmarked" categories. The "marked" category tends to refer to the other, whereas the "unmarked" refers to the default. My definition does not do the terms justice, so hopefully some examples will help: men (unmarked), women (marked); white (unmarked), black (marked); middle-age (unmarked), old-age (marked). Often descriptions of other people tend to solely mention qualities in the marked category. Other characteristics are assumed unmarked.
ReplyDeleteThis is relevant to online personalities because in describing oneself, one will usually feel the need to mention their marked qualities. Depending on the site in which one is navigating these features can shift. In other words, the typical person using a specific website may vary. A violent video game site may be more geared towards males while a bridal website may be skewed toward females. Based upon the assumed audience, users may feel the need to describe attributes of themselves that are not expected of the typical user.
I just want to respond to a few of the comments. Quetzal: I think you're right to make a distinction between what you call generalizations and the more pernicious stereotypes. Certainly, we couldn't function on a daily basis without generalizing about others to some extent, and applying "old" information to "new" situations is part of how we, as humans, make sense of the world. At the same time, anyone who has ever been the recipient of an improperly applied generalization (e.g. someone assuming that you're "handy" because you're a guy, someone assuming that you write neatly because you're a woman, someone assuming that you're scientifically oriented because you're Asian) knows how annoying it can be when people wield preconceptions with a heavy hand.
ReplyDeleteNika, thank you for bringing up the concept of marked/unmarked categories, as it is extremely relevant here. I really like the way that you've applied it to the nature of online descriptions of oneself, though I'd be curious to see if your thesis held true after a random browse through Facebook.