ThatCamp Digital Pedagogy: Tension Between Digital Humanities and Feminist Pedagogy

  • Does DH assume a universal participant?

  • Why is English the default language of DH? Reminds me of session back at ELO2007.

  • Are there identifiable feminist communities in DH?

  • What is it like to code if you are African American, queer, transgendered, etc.

  • DH becomes a much bigger deal when NEH funding produces DATA in business cultures of higher education.

  • Reference to "Why Is DH So White?"

  • Role of Afro Futurism as an influence on DH.

Resource For Transgendered Students

I found this on Tumblr and I wish I could find where it originated, but this is a really good resource for transgender students who want to get in touch with their professors before a class begins to make sure they are called the correct name. Spread this far and wide.

Dear Prof. XXXX,
My name is XXX. I will be taking your XXX course this semester (XXX). I am writing because I have a unique situation that I feel as though you should be aware of. On your roster, my name appears as “XXX.” That is my full and legal name, however, I go by the name XXX. Please do not misunderstand that this is merely a matter of preference. I am a transgender individual, and therefore, being addressed as my proper name and use of (TYPE) pronouns is essential to my academic success at the XXXXX. I would greatly appreciate if you would kindly respect my name and use (TYPE) pronouns, starting with roll call on the first day so that there is less confusion for the other students. Please do not hesitate to e-mail me back if you have any questions or need me to clarify this further. Thank you in advance, and I am truly looking forward to the first day of class.
Respectfully,

XXXXX

 

Gender & Avatars

Via Terra Nova comes word that King Of The World, a Chinese MMOG, is suspending the accounts of male identified gamers who play using female avatars.  This is done, according to Terra Nova, by requiring webcams to “verify” gender.  This is problematic for a variety of reasons.

  • A lot of female identified gamers I know play as male avatars so they won’t get hit on constantly.  This can become very annoying and quite frankly disgusting after awhile.  I’ve played in Second Life using a female avatar and the amount of creepy flirting and sexual innuendo makes me wonder why anyone plays as a female avatar at all.

  • If someone is exploring where they fit in the gender spectrum, restricting their movement between genders is pretty asinine.  What gives the managers of any game the right to tell people what gender they can choose?

  • Playing as another gender might only be a simple case of escapism.  I don’t see a problem with that.

  • I am really curious as to how the managers of King Of The World define “male” and “female.” What happens if a gamer doesn’t meet the requisites for what they deem “male?”  Requiring a webcam is just another way to shame non-gender normative gamers.

  • For the most part, I would argue that almost all avatars are a performance that isn’t quite replicated by the Real Life gamer’s appearance or build.  Do you really think that hulking, muscle bound, six foot male avatar is the same in Real Life?  Do all females have gigantic, gravity defying, breasts like a lot of female avatars have?  How is fibbing your avatar like that any different than changing genders?

  • Voice Chat in MMORPG’s is a great idea, but using it to pinpoint gender is so problematic. This addition to the gaming experience, which is supposed to upgrade and enhance that experience, ends up making games more restrictive and gender normative.

I don’t play many MMORPG’s, and news like this doesn’t make me want to run out to buy any.  No American games seem to require anything this restrictive, as far as I can tell, which is good news.  There is so much that can be learned via a gamer’s use of avatars; restricting them to normative gender binaries is just plain wrong.  If that is the direction MMORPG’s are heading, I’ll stick to 8-Bit games.

Names

So it seems Madonna is trading in her name for a new name, Esther. Wow, it must be nice to be a celebrity and be able to just randomly do that. I wish my transgender friends could do that and not have to deal with the courts, asshole relatives, "friends", and other nonsense. I wish they could sue every time someone fucks up their correct name as I bet stupid Muggle celebrities do.