yeager – Gender, Race, and Labor in the Digital World

Final Reflection

This course helped me see social justice, something that was already important to me, in a new light. Before taking this class, I had never considered how digital media interacted with cultural operating systems. I think that this course taught us to be knowledgeable of the Internet and technology’s effects on social divisions and inequality – something that is only becoming more important as sites like Twitter and Tumblr become organizing grounds for social change.

Unit 1, Play, Power and Privilege, introduced me to new activist voices on the Internet in the form of video game zinesters and Twine creators. It was interesting to play the different games and get familiar with popular content creators like Anna Anthropy and Porpentine. It was interesting for me because, as someone who doesn’t play many video games, the gamer activist community was one I had never heard of or considered. I also thought it was important to learn more about that community because I think gamer activists receive especially vehement backlash, perhaps for reasons discussed in Arthur Chu’s “I’m Not That Creepy Guy from the Internet.” My favorite part of this unit was definitely creating our own Twine games. It was fun to embrace a concept for a game and present it as well as possible through choices about the structure, formatting, and color schemes, and I think the final project was one of the things I’m most proud of producing in this course.

The most interesting part of Unit 2, Social Media and Social Justice, for me was danah boyd’s article “Inequality: Can Social Media Resolve Social Divisions?” I liked her discussion of segregated spaces in American high schools and how those transfer online. The focus on high school students encouraged us to reflect on her piece in terms of our own school experiences, which I think made our thoughts and discussion much more personal. Often, when I engage with activism, it’s easy to feel personally removed or detached because we’re taking on systems of oppression much greater than any one individual. This unit was a reminder of how social justice can also exist on a very personal scale like by being critical of personal social media use.

Before we discussed digital activism in Unit 3, my understanding of it was mostly related to campaigns like Kony 2012 and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, two movements that do not have very good reputations for producing real change. Our discussion of hashtag activism changed my perception of digital activism because a lot of the hashtags we looked at were only intended for discussion: they united people to raise awareness of an issue through discussion and then died out in popularity when people lost interest. I also really enjoyed our conversation with Suey Park, especially when she talked about the social justice projects she was working on. For me, Unit 4 expanded on the idea of creative activism with projects like the Feminist Phone Intervention and the Queer Rebellion. I liked becoming more aware of critical projects like those and movies like Sleep Dealer and Desert Lullabies.

Overall, I enjoyed the new perspectives on social justice and activism we discussed in this class. I’m not usually one to participate in classes but I think our meetings were especially engaging and open and I really appreciated that. As I move forward in learning about social justice in college I want to create more projects like the ones we discussed in Unit 4. Above all, I want to remember that activism should be approachable and accessible – something that I think was reflected in this course through the ease with which we were all able and encouraged to contribute.

Design Camp Reflection

Joseph Meyer’s design camp was an introduction to WordPress. I learned the basics of creating my own website, including creating pages and posts, choosing themes, and tagging and organizing. I also learned how to locally host a website in order to play around with and make changes to it without those changes being published online immediately.

I can see myself using what I learned at the design camp in a lot of ways. For one, I believe that we are expected to create WordPress blogs as part of our capstone projects next year. Additionally, I may look into making a personal website with a resume and portfolio to be able to show to employers someday. In the short run, I’ve started putting together a fashion blog on the site I created during the design camp. I’m interested in collecting information on fashion trends that are linked to empowerment and presenting them there. I could see there being gallery pages that are just photographs as well as more text-heavy pages that go into greater depth about what makes different styles empowering. Ideally, I would like to create a site that anyone could post to so that different people’s interpretations of feminism and fashion could be collected together on one big mood board or photo blog.

Learning how to create a personal website reminds me of our class discussions on Twine from earlier this semester. Laura Hudson discussed how Twine opens up video game production to a larger group of people in “Twine, the Video Game Technology for All,” reflecting on how Twine’s easy to use software allows more voices and perspectives to be shared through games. In the same way that Twine expands the perspectives shared through video games, WordPress could change who controls content on the Internet by making creating a website more accessible. Although in my experience WordPress was a little harder to use than Twine, given time I think people can create really professional-looking websites, an option that we don’t always have on other blogging sites like Tumblr.

Unit Four Project: AI Therapy

What steps would you take to access therapy? Admitting that there’s a need for it, seeking out a therapist, and scheduling an appointment can all seem overwhelming to someone struggling with a mental disorder. Now imagine that a new technology allows people to access therapy conveniently anytime and anywhere that they have Internet access. With artificially-intelligent therapists, this new access to mental healthcare could become a reality. Born of sites like Web MD, therapy forums, and the self-help content already available online, the AI therapist is designed to make mental healthcare more widely accessible.

The AI therapist is accessed over the Internet from any phone, tablet, computer, or other web-enabled device. It provides talk therapy by listening to the user’s voice and responding intelligently in a human-sounding voice, according to pre-programmed psychological knowledge. The software that determines the AI therapist’s responses is written by a conference of psychologists in order to decide the optimal treatment for different disorders.

The AI therapist was designed by researchers and developers at the University of Maryland. It was intended to be made available for free on the Internet in order to make mental healthcare more accessible. Similar privatized AI therapy services are being introduced that may threaten the easy availability of web therapy.

Several problems are presented by the development of the AI therapist. One is an inherent design flaw: although the therapist’s voice may sound convincingly human, anyone interacting with it will be aware that they are not actually speaking with another person. As we discussed in class, patients might feel uncomfortable talking with the AI if they feel that it is not truly able to empathize with them because it lacks human experiences. Other problems that arise with the development of the AI therapist have to do with labor. For one, the AI would be able to replace many therapists and force them out of jobs. Actual human therapists with in-person sessions may be reserved for only the wealthiest people and come at high prices, leaving AI therapy to the majority of patients. Another issue that arises is related to ethics and AI. Do we consider the AI therapist a person? Is it self-aware, and does it need to be compensated for its labor? For all the good it could do, the AI therapist presents issues when it comes to effectiveness and ethics.

The AI therapist both challenges and reinforces social divisions. For one, it challenges social divisions in terms of the unequal access to therapy and mental healthcare between social classes. AI therapy could make mental healthcare accessible to a greater number of people, expanding its reach beyond the current privileged few. On the other hand, we cannot assume that making the AI therapist available free of charge over the Internet will make it available to everyone. Patients need to have some wealth in order to access AI therapy; for example, they need an internet-accessible device. Additionally, people would need to have access to the Internet in their homes in order to use the AI therapist. The practice of going to a library, coffee shop or restaurant with wifi would most likely not work with AI therapy because people would probably not be willing to share their thoughts and feelings openly with their therapist in a public space. For this reason, AI therapy will probably be limited to people with Internet access in their homes. And just having Internet access at home does not guarantee that users will feel free to share their thoughts and feelings with the AI therapist; people will probably also require privacy within their homes to make use of the technology. For these reasons, AI therapy could reinforce the inequalities present in accessibility to therapy depending on wealth and class.

Another way that AI therapy might, unfortunately, reinforce social divisions is by fitting in to the narrative that mental healthcare is something to be ashamed of and kept private. While it’s great if more people get access to therapy due to the AI therapist because they feel more comfortable sharing with a computer, the nature of the technology also allows people to get mental healthcare more covertly. In so doing, it circumvents the need to fight against the systems of power that tell us to hide use of mental healthcare. Though the AI therapist might tend to reinforce the stigma surrounding therapy, the spread of therapy to a wider public that might result from its introduction could fight that stigma.

The AI therapist has the potential to change how society views mental healthcare. Instead of being an elusive service reserved for a small group of people, the AI therapist could open up therapy to a much greater number of people. However, as with any technology that relies on the Internet, it’s important to remember that although the service doesn’t have a price tag, it’s not necessarily free. AI therapy could reinforce the limited access to therapy based on wealth and class, even as it tries to expand the reach of mental healthcare.

Response to “Race and Labor, Unplugged”

“Race and Labor, Unplugged: Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer,” by Dale Hudson discusses the social issues addressed in Sleep Dealer by focusing on one of the director’s earlier and related works, Why Cybraceros? The piece was published on Flow, an online journal of television and media studies, and is likely geared towards readers who are engaged with social issues and look to media and pop culture to gain a better understanding of them. It explains how Sleep Dealer is a continuation of the themes represented in Rivera’s Why Cybraceros?, which itself satirized a film that advocated for migrant labor called Why Braceros? Hudson argues that both Sleep Dealer and Why Cybraceros? undercut dominant attitudes about migrant labor by depicting an exaggerated future where remote labor makes it possible for Americans to have “all the labor without the worker.” Hudson likely hoped to give readers a better understanding of the issues addressed in Sleep Dealer by raising awareness for the context surrounding Rivera’s films.

I appreciated how Hudson used Rivera’s earlier film Why Cybraceros? to give context to Sleep Dealer. Why Cybraceros? responded to attitudes about migrant labor presented in films like Why Braceros? that emphasized the economic benefits of migrant labor and attempted to erase or ignore race from the discussion about it. Why Braceros? applauds policies that allowed braceros to do the “tough, dirty, or unpleasant” labor while only appearing “in the right place at the right time.” Hudson’s inclusion of Rivera’s earlier work, the film Why Braceros?, and information about the braceros program helped me connect our world to the one presented in Sleep Dealer.

Reading “Race and Labor, Unplugged” reminded me of criticisms of dystopian novels and media like this one:

I think that Hudson touches on the lack of people of color in dystopian media at the end of the article when he compares Sleep Dealer to other movies like The Matrix.

A question that I still have after reading this article is about gender in Sleep Dealer. I think Hudson discussed gender in the film some when talking about the comedias rancheras, but I wasn’t sure about his argument. What is Rivera saying about gender in Sleep Dealer?

#DudesGreetingDudes and #AllMenCan

View my story here.

Response to “Hashtag Feminism, #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, and the Other #FemFuture,” by Susana Loza

In “Hashtag Feminism, #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, and the other #FemFuture,” Susana Loza describes feminisms on social media by exploring #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, #NotYourAsianSidekick, and #FemFuture. Loza focuses on critiques of mainstream feminism expressed by WOC feminists on Twitter and backlash from white feminists who call their tweets “toxic” and “bullying.” Her article argues against silencing WOC feminists with accusations of bullying. Loza’s goal is to improve the feminist movement by calling out white feminists. Loza is probably writing the article for other feminists, because her article tries to shape how we talk about each other’s feminisms.

One thing I enjoyed about Loza’s article was that it referenced and cited a lot of other works. I liked that because I can see it being really useful for feminists who want to learn more about intersectionality, and I know that there are a few books mentioned in the article that I want to learn more about because of reading it. I also liked that the citations showed how Loza was being extremely careful about explaining where different thoughts referenced in her piece came from, especially because the failure to do that was one thing she criticized about the #FemFuture report.

Loza’s article connected to my own experience by reminding me of other ways that mainstream feminism leaves out discussion of racism or is otherwise missing intersectionality. One example that I always think of is Meghan Trainor’s music, especially the song “All About That Bass,” because of how it gets body positivity wrong and is problematic in other ways as well.

While reading Loza’s article, I wondered whether mainstream and intersectional feminisms are really as divided as she envisions. From my point of view, they don’t seem to be, because the Women’s Studies classes I’ve taken have taught intersectionality and the feminist media I consume is intersectional (although a lot of it is coming from tumblr, which has a strong intersectional community), and some mainstream figures like Nicki Minaj include intersectional feminist messages in their work. Is mainstream feminism getting more intersectional?

Response to “I Liked Everything on Facebook for Two Days.”

Mat Honan’s article “I Liked Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days. Here’s What It Did to Me,” is an experiment in manipulating the content Facebook decides to show on the Newsfeed. Honan’s argument is that the Facebook Newsfeed is created to sell things to its user by appealing to their interests. In other words, Facebook and its advertisers have a profit-driven incentive to insulate the Newsfeed by only showing the user content that they agree with.

The article’s audience is ostensibly Facebook-users in general. However, give that it is published on Wired.com, I think it’s mainly targeted towards men in their late 20s and 30s; a quick scan of the site’s top stories reveals an interesting combination of articles about video games, international news, and public schools and children. Honan’s piece treads the line between entertainment and serious discussion, examining the social implications of Facebook’s algorithms while poking fun at some of the mindless content circulated over Facebook. For example, Honan warns that “we set up our political and social filter bubbles and they reinforce themselves,” something he believes can lead to extreme beliefs and an inability to interact with people who don’t share our views. I think Honan’s goal with this article was to make people more mindful of how the content on their Newsfeed is constructed.

One thing I especially enjoyed about Honan’s commentary is when he calls out the “sensational garbage” all over Facebook Newsfeeds: quizzes like “Which Titanic Character Are You?” and articles like “Katy Perry’s Backup Dancer Is the Man Candy You Deserve” that content mills like Buzzfeed and Upworthy churn out constantly. As someone who enjoys talking about pop culture, I really dislike seeing articles like those on my Newsfeed. To me they are exemplary of the worst way to talk about pop culture because they’re not challenging or productive, and ultimately boring in their sameness. After reading this article, I would like to know if it’s possible to curate “likes” on Facebook to get a good Newsfeed. Is there any way to encourage Facebook to display content that appeals to the user’s interests without isolating them from opinions different from their own? Should we even look to Facebook as a source for news and new perspectives?

Let’s go for a swim!, Game and Reflection

You can play my game at http://philome.la/Eyeagz/lets-go-for-a-swim !

My game is about a mermaid who is on her way somewhere in the ocean. As she swims through the sea, she is forced to interact with cat-calling mermen. The goal of the game is to get to the mermaid’s destination, which could be a coral reef, Poseidon’s castle, a sandbar, or the ocean floor, depending on the player’s choice. As far as possibilities and constraints, the player has the option to appease, ignore, or confront the cat-callers, but is not able to win the game if they choose to appease the cat-callers. I wanted the game to be understanding of how talking back is not always an option because sometimes you don’t feel safe doing it or you just don’t have the energy to confront street harassers; however, I wanted to discourage the player from appeasing the cat-callers. The concept for the game was for it to work as an exercise in empathy for people who do not experience cat-calling and as a rehearsal for possible things to do when cat-called.

In our class discussions we talked about forms of harassment other than street harassment. Our discussion about Gamergate, for example, looked at women like Anita Sarkeesian’s experience with harassment over the Internet. While the street harassment in my game never reaches a very threatening point, in the real world it can be much worse.

I think my game was successful in communicating some of the frustrations cat-calling can pose to women and how those situations can affect how they feel about themselves. For example, the main character feels good about herself when she confronts her cat-callers. If I were to continue working on the game, I would like to add more interactions with the cat-callers that explore how those situations affect the character’s feelings about herself. Other interactions with the cat-calling mermen I might add include having the main character give the mermen a fake number, which always kind of makes me feel guilty and embarrassed, or having the mermen follow the main character or act aggressively and looking at the feelings of fear and panic that come with that. I would also like to add more creative ways to stand up to a cat-caller; the player sometimes has the option to make weird faces at the cat-caller when they are asked to smile, but I’m sure I could think of many other ways to subvert a cat-calling situation and make the harassers feel uncomfortable. I think adding more interactions could make the game more useful both as an exercise in empathy and as a rehearsal for what to do when cat-called.

Response to Anita Sarkeesian’s TEDxWomen Talk

Anita Sarkeesian’s TEDxWomen talk about online harassment and cyber mobs describes her experience with harassment after starting a Kickstarter to fund a video series about the representation of women in video games. She tells her audience about the misogynistic hate campaign she endured and tries to imagine the social contexts and thought processes that could have driven her attackers to lash out at her as they did, comparing their hate campaign to a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO).

Given that she’s speaking at a TEDxWomen conference, Sarkeesian’s talk is likely intended for an audience outside gaming culture. She introduces an audience unfamiliar with video games to the culture surrounding them. Despite her focus on how misogyny and harassment are prevalent in gaming culture, Sarkeesian is optimistic and believes that over time the culture surrounding games will become more open to women. By giving her talk, Sarkeesian may have hoped to raise awareness of the problems with gaming culture. She may have even given a wake-up call to people who empathize with her harassers.

I appreciated Sarkeesian’s dissection of the “game” her harassers thought they were playing. It was interesting, although somewhat sickening, to look into how they were able to rationalize their behavior and encourage further harassment from some people in the gaming community.

It’s hard for me to connect Sarkeesian’s talk to my own experience because my experience with video games in very limited, aside from playing Mario Kart and the Sims with my siblings as a kid. On the other hand, my limited experience with video games is likely due at least in part to the problems in representation and acceptance of women in video games that Sarkeesian points out in her talk and her video series. The fact is that, for the most part, video games are not made for women and girls like me.

As we continue to discuss Gamergate and the representation of women in video games, I’d like to know more about games that do a good job of developing female characters and appealing to women. Are they becoming more prevalent? What do they look like? I think it would be interesting to look more into the change for the better that Sarkeesian believes we’re beginning to experience.

Introduction to Emma

Hi! My name is Emma and I’m an Economics major at UMD. Outside of class, I like watching movies with great costume design and reading articles about feminism on the Internet. You can find me on twitter @eyeagz.

https://www.tumblr.com/eviequeenie/108265069708

I like that this tweet expresses the frustration that sometimes comes with being a feminist and that it comes from the amazing Tina Belcher.

I’m looking forward to learning about MITH’s archive of #Ferguson. I think it will be interesting to learn about an academic perspective on social movements going on right now.