glassbonez

[glassbonez]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNVx1cX4cug)

I give online bloggers so much praise. This was definitely a bit awkward to film but was such an easy way to get my thoughts into the world. Everyone enjoy your summers! xo

[glassbonez]

The image I chose depicted links to children and how they are developing by themselves. I believe that a child has the mindset to better themselves in the path that they are meant to go on. The digital economy while still being a new concept, is what the next generation is going to thrive on. They are able to figure out digital content, coding, art, engineering at a monumental rate. In the Learning to Immaterial Labour 2.0: Myspace and Social Networks, is states that myspace is not just a place to have a conversation - but it is a network of friends. Not only are they learning for themselves, but they are able to connect with anyone they choose and for whichever topic they pick. Growing up my father always told me how incredible it was seeing technology advance and how my generation picked up on it easier than his could, at times it would take him months to grasp a simple idea that took probably 10 minutes for myself. Learning to Immaterial Labour also suggests that each individual site becomes a unique construct of public persona that is continuously maintained by the user who develops his or her ideas but again is connected to a network of relations to which he/she feels they belong in. Upon our readings, there was quite the negative connotations in place due to biopower - which is to quite literally have power over others. There are multiple online platforms that allow expression of empowering and even exploitative concepts. In Learning to Immaterial Labour, according to Lady Doyle (2009) - ladies tend to share their interests more socially than men do. Thus resulting in girls becoming extremely valuable to publishers as both marketers and content creators. Instagram has become a huge source of income for some companies by having fashion bloggers, health fitness models and celebrities endorsing their products whether being the credible product they state it is. This leads to the concept where children do not require “gate keepers” to relay information to them while they can easily research or learn about a new idea on their own. I believe used properly… the digital economy can be quite useful but I also feel that there are a number of companies that abuse youthful ideas and personas that are still being molded in adults.

[2amcookies-deactivated20170820]

naked women doing things

Cam Girlz explicitly portrayed cam girl-ing as a financial economy that is not just driven by sex, but also by affective economies in a digital realm. Numerous women throughout the film echoed the sentiment of being an entrepreneur and running their own business. In contrast to the amateur porn performers described by Ruberg, cam girls are paid for their services, for their labor. The financial economy of cam girl-ing places values on the services the women can provide and situates the women as the commodity itself. The financial exchange between cam girls and their viewers enabled many women to feel financial empowered and independent, as was mentioned endlessly throughout the film. However, as only mentioned by one cam girl, there are weeks when the financial economy crashes and her value as a commodity fell, like any commodity in a market.  

Affective economies, such as those described by Sara Ahmed, were also demonstrated by the film. One woman discussed how her family changed their feelings towards her once she became a cam girl, which demonstrated a “slide”, as described by Ahmed, between her and associations with sex work. The exchange of value through a “like economy” on Facebook is mirrored here through tipping and viewer counts (Kant, 2015). This was further supported by Sean Dunne as he described, cam girl-ing combines technology and the ability to connect with a need for connection. While women throughout the film contended that they were able to be themselves, the mime cam girl’s perception that cam girl-ing “reflects who you are, it’s a mirror” more accurately describes an illusion of self. While the men who were watching also mentioned that the women were genuine, it can be asserted that cam girl-ing is an identity performance, as described by Kant. The women continually stated that they were in control, which extends to their ability to control how they perform their “self”. Especially as the women receive real time suggestions and feedback, they are able to alter their performance of self to increase their affective value. The viewers align themselves with the women based upon what the performances of “self” mean to them affectively. The men who were interviewed said the experience was more than sexual, that rather they were searching for intimate, emotional connections. Therefore, the financial exchange is not just driven by sex, but also by an emotional economy.

Works Cited:

Dunn, Sean. 2015. CAM GIRLZ. 

Ruberg, Bonnie. 2016. “Doing it for Free: Digital Labour and the Fantasy of Amateur Online Pornography.” Porn Studies 3(2): 147-159.

Ahmed, Sara. 2004. “Affective Economies.” Social Text 22(2): 117-139.

Kant, Tanya. 2015. “‘Spotify Has Added an Event to Your Past’: (Re)writing the Self through Facebook’s Autoposting Apps.” The Fibreculture Journal 25.

Interview with Sean Dunne, director of Cam Girlz (Vice.com)

[glassbonez]

http://thoughtsonliberty.com/yes-i-am-a-cam-girl-and-i-have-self-respect

This entire assignment personally made my mind lead to MFC. I am familiar with MyFreeCams since a friend I have known since high school is actually a member. This realm that individuals partake in is not only “virtual” but a “reality” that become this blurred area. Now while the majority of this website is for women to embrace their bodies and make a living off of just being a cam model, there appears to be much more than just that.  According to previous class readings, Brophy states “for some feminist scholars, the potential of the internet as a space to explore the ‘pure’ sign has opened new vistas for personal exploration and growth” (p. 930). The audience, whom would you expect to be white washed males (as Brophy states in the article) isn’t entirely the case. Other women join and watch others to empower ladies on this website and help each other grow positively and genuinely. I have never come across an online community where woman are rooting each other on side by side to better their lives. The internet is an embodied experience because the possibilities are truly endless. Although the work is aimed as strictly sexual, there are often times where yes these men just want to have genuine conversation with a gorgeous lady and feel good about themselves. Online relations are even made between regulars and a connection is oddly enough made. Most ladies keep this an anonymous part of their lives because since it is essentially all based online, there is no reason one must tell people. However, power to the people and I believe women and who ever choses this lifestyle is taking risks that can better their lives… why wouldn’t someone take advantage of the options available to them. In the vice article, it states that camming is more than porn but allows these women to be their own entrepreneurs and filmmakers of their own lives. It was interesting to see where Johnson believed the future of camming was going, as advanced as holograms for the clients to the cam girls. Cam Girls is quite the informative film for this taboo industry. The digital economy is only at its beginning and women are catching on to this trend. I have even noticed an increase of new sites created for camming that are aimed to the model since a majority of the websites now take a large cut and do no have the models best interests at heart.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/everything-is-awesome-with-camming-according-to-cam-girlz-documentary-798

[glassbonez]

GIGI GORGEOUS

(@gigigorgeous) on Instagram: “Celebrating the last day of #TransAwarenessWeek in style🏳️‍🌈”

I found out about this vlogger through the Happy Hippie Foundation. She has become a thriving cyberfeminist not only for herself, but for all the people that need that influence in their lives. The youtube star started her channel before the start of her transition, so she let the world see her life from the inside and out, as long as the bad and good. In Back to Blaque it states, “While the media is making progress with representation, we still have a long way to go. With shows like I am Cait, Transparent and I am Jazz, visibility is at an all time high. However we must ask ourselves, is what we’re shown through the lens what’s really happening out there?” This statement is entirely true. While transgender has finally been put into the spotlight, there is still much to be done for acceptance and the actions of why people chose this path. Gigi Gorgeous has been entirely open about her process, and you can view this transition from the start to end of her current videos. In an early video of hers, I remember her saying that these videos were basically her journal of expression but to allow others into her life. Her activism in the LGBTQ community is very strong and is creating allies and friends along this journey. I can only imagine all the young boys and girls who watch her channel as a way of understanding their own life if they are questioning who they want to be. Unfortunately a few months ago, I remember watching a video that Gigi posted regarding her trip to Dubai and how they held her in security because they do not accept transgender humans and that her passport was still under her old name. I remember thinking how upsetting it was to watch the tears as she explained how she has never felt as unsafe as she did for those hours of holding. For someone not to be accepted because of their gender is still prevalent as we can see with situations like this still occurring. In Surgery, at the end this caught my attention - Throughout my life I have encountered coercive commentary and questioning about my body. Again, I will never understand why people have such a problem with another human being that has nothing to do with them. The amount of negativity in American is still heavily pushed on the trans community, but I do believe with it being in the spotlight and people becoming more educated that it has to and will get more acceptance over time.

[superwoodlandwoman-blog]

Thou Shalt Not Become Attached

(Her Campus)

I have chosen to write about Marie Hick’s article, “Computer Love: Replicating Social Order Through Early Computer Dating Systems.” In the article, Hicks recounts the beginnings and subsequent history of computer based dating - what we consider today to be online dating. Although it may seem like the development of this technology was revolutionary, it simply helped “entrenched structural biases proliferate rather than breaking them down,” by “re-inscribing conservative social norms about gender, race, class, and sexuality” (Hicks, 2016). This was done by the cultivation of dating databases and algorithms designed to streamline dating, but only did so for white, straight, middle-class men. The technology of computer-based dating seemed to offer hope that “both parties could find their perfect complement and shift with ease into a long-term relationship,” but alas, this was not, and is still not, the case.

Now, fifty years since the development of computer-based dating, it still caters to white, straight men. This is not to say that online dating has not evolved, it surely has. With the creation of dating apps such as Tinder, Grindr, and OkCupid, online dating has evolved to “engage in highly sexualized and emotionally charged cultural projects to normalize particular behaviors and roundly condemn others” (Hicks). The current project? Proliferation and acceptance of Hookup Culture.

As college students, I’m sure we have all experienced Hookup Culture. It’s the idea that when a connection or hookup occurs through a dating app, the experience is only physically intimate. Causal sex should not be emotionally intimate. A hookup is nothing more than sex and there should be no expectations of a romantic relationship by either party.

So where is affect in the hookup culture created by online dating? Well, it is certainly not found in the hookup. Instead affect is often one-sided and internalized. In heterosexual relations, this is done primarily by the woman. Emotion lies within the prospect of finding a new person to hookup with, as well as the absence felt after a hookup or noncommittal relationship has ended. The hookup, although an emotional and intimate act, is supposed to be void of affect. But, there is an inherent fallacy behind Hookup Culture, illustrated by Nancy Jo Sales in her Vanity Fair piece titled “Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse.’” Sales states, “In a perfect world we’d all have sex with whomever we want, and nobody would mind, or be judged, or get dumped; but what about jealousy, and sexism, not to mention the still-flickering chance that someone might fall in love?”

[glassbonez]

Oddly enough before reading your post, the picture is what caught my attention. The company I work for has an ad that says “wanted: one night stand” since its for furniture and oddly this just made me connect my mind to your post. This weeks readings regarding online dating and websites/apps that have paved the way for this creation makes me question our development as humans. Since we sexualize the humans we view on online profiles, we will sexualizes them in person and just create a constant steam of hook-ups as opposed to what real dating is. As you stated, being college students we have all gotten our mix of this whether we wanted the situation it or not. I have personally wanted one to be nothing more than a hook-up and he did not end up being happy and vise versa. Its difficult to adhere to another humans needs when it comes with such an intimate attachment as you stated. Some people view sex as just sex, some view it as love and some view it only special when you are in love. Back when these dating “websites” were first created, some even started in stores with binders of applicants that wanted to be apart of it. Oddly enough, this is how my parents met and have been happily married for over 25 years. Compared to the stories of what my father has told me to how It is in our day and age, the differences are mind boggling. Tinder and Bumble are based on seeing a photo and either swiping yes or no to them, yes they have little intro areas but realistically we are looking at how sexually attracted we are to them. This is what dating culture has become, to find someone who actually wants to go on real dates is a rare commodity in the world we are in.

[glassbonez]

female fashion advice - reddit

Upon picking a topic, it was difficult to pin point one post since reddit gets thousands of posts each hour. I chose the female fashion advice column because as opposed to the “American Reflexxx” video done by Signe, the reactions and comments from humans are to better one another than bring them down. I love how we got to connect to this because I have actually known about her for years (googled my name on more than one occasion) and she always popped up and I first saw this video when it came out a number of years ago. I laughed because it is something that I would definitely do to get a rise or reactions from people. While this was difficult to watch, it speaks a broader picture of how humans react in our country. I adore reddit since you are able to follow as many subreddits as you wish, and the topics can vary from just about any subject. The specific post I chose is titled “How do you stop caring what others thinking about your outfits?” because at one point I could relate to this. This young beautiful lady whom is 14 is asking strangers on advice to how to feel confident on wearing anything she wants to but doesn’t want others to judge her. Comment sections are vital to social media especially when it comes to anonymity. Having a younger sibling at about her age, I know she would not ask people if she couldn’t be anonymous to those she seeks advice from. All the comments on this post are genuinely helpful and boost the confidence of this gal. The impact is knowing that the simple advice you can give a younger soul is to be a “bad bitch” and just be true to herself. I grew up dressing all over the place and feeling awkward but once I found my specific style, I wear things that people stare oddly at but I feel comfortable in my own skin. This post relates to cyberfeminism and our texts because to grow together we need to be there for eachother. Being strong online is just the same as being strong face-to-face human communication. Race, gender, class, religion will always be prevalent for people to judge others as we have learned in multiple texts but as we continue to mold and shape our next generation we need to put the concept of judging people based on how they treat others and nothing else.

[chromelips]

This topic hits close to home because my youngest sister is determined to create things that many others can’t. She is just at the mere age of 13 and is already learning how to code. This brings feministic intervention beyond just my age group and into all age groups. To push young ladies and even teenagers to learn that they are able to do what was mainly thought to be a mans job for how many years now. The topic I chose relates to our course material because it is a social following that is helping the growth of women who code. I learned about this campaign through social media, which means it is hitting the masses that are involved in using technology. The usage of technology can be as simple as using instagram or twitter to get connected with women all around the world who are pursuing careers in tech. Statistics show that there is a major gender gap when it comes to working and development in tech. For example, according to a 2011 report from the Level Playing Field Institute , “82% of men in startups believed their companies spent the ‘right amount of time’ addressing diversity, while almost 40% of women believed not enough time was devoted”. While women are 56% of the individuals holding profession jobs, the numbers drop down to 5-28% for women in different roles in the tech industry. This campaign links directly into the readings about resisting inequalities online. While the entire tech industry is based on new developments and start ups, the way for tech to technically grow and flourish is through social media. Another section is digital feminist interventions, especially the revolution of black girls code. Black Girls Code’s vision is to increase the number of women of color in tech by empowering girls of color ages ranging 7-17 to become innovators in a variety of fields. I adore this campaign but I enjoy following Women Who Code since it is directed to all women. Upon our readings, I was surprised to see the amount of different campaigns that all promote feministic views on getting women into this “bro-tech” culture. I strongly believe that with all of this mass media attention for this specific cause, it will allow women to have such a larger part in the next coming of years. There has already been major improvement within the last 25 years which is beautiful. Teaching young girls that they are able to do whatever they set their mind to should be a given, not something we must push more than other topics. This reminds me of a video I saw on Facebook a few years ago with young girls being asked what it means to be strong, and their responses were actions humans do regularly but for some reason are more frowned upon for women. Another woman I learned about in recent years was Margaret Hamilton. She was the scientist that was behind coding for sending the first humans to the moon and yet I never once read about her in my textbooks growing up. All I read was all these different men that were creators or inventors, and yet this one woman invented the software itself for the moon landing. The world is an ever changing atmosphere that is molded and shaped by our words and actions, the amount of positive influence that is being shed on women in the tech industry has brightened our future for equality.

The Latest Stats on Women in Tech. (2012, December 15). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-latest-stats-on-women-in-tech

[glassbonez]

http://www.happyhippies.org

https://www.plannedparenthood.org

I feel that for the most part any type of feminist activism has grown exponentially based on the help of social media. A big advocate in this category is Miley Cyrus. I had mentioned her in a previous post in regards to the Free The Nipple campaign but this post is focused on her positive perspective in regards to equality for all humans. Happy Hippie Foundation is a non-profit that she created to help youth in Los Angeles on being apart of the LGBTQ community. Her foundation has grown to be much more than that by her being simply herself and being able to endorse to her followers something that she loves and truly believes in. Not only is she an advocate for LGBTQ rights but she also stands behind Planned Parenthood. This is such a prevalent topic in todays times as just under a month ago, millions of women stood up for their rights and marched in cities around the United States to provide support for Planned Parenthood. What I adore about Miley Cyrus is that she not only shows her support and pushes the issues to the public through her own social media, but she also attends events and takes part in the activities. This march for Planned Parenthood has brought quite the amount of positive attention that it needed for people to see. In the article Feminisms and the Social Media Sphere, it states “social media alone cannot carry and implement the entire political process of change. It requires the help of those offline and those with access to academia and other venues where individuals are informed and  educated about these issues.” This links to the march perfectly as the amount of social media attention it received, would not have been viable if all those men and women did not march for the cause. I stand behind Planned Parenthood and the many ways they help women daily for medical needs and services. The crazy part is that I even educated my own father on the things Planned Parenthood does and he was amazed at everything they actually offer as opposed to those who only believe they offer abortions for women.

[blogemilybrooke-blog]

WST394: Been Catfished?

This week we were able to learn about the virtual world and reality. When reading our in class text, I was curious as to what a corporeal cyberfeminism truly meant in regards to a virtual world that can not only incorporate a sense of reality, but blur the lines of virtual compared to a real reality. “The anonymous freedom to “try on” genders or sexualities without social recourse is often cited as one of the most liberating dimensions of life online;however, a user may reify and enact stereotypes, thereby reinforcing the normative understandings of gender, sexuality, race or ethnicity” (Brophy, 140). When having a virtual and real reality, it is easy for one to change or simply fake their sexuality or gender online.

Unlike other dating websites, okcupid.com, does not force you to have an existing social media profile. Therefore, when filling out a biography and entering information about yourself, as well as uploading new photos, it is quite easy to either over exaggerate, or flat out be another person. With recent times, becoming a different person online and making a virtual world really one’s own reality, there has been an increased amount of risk in online dating. The television network, MTV, actually filmed a show titled, “Catfished”, which gave different “real” scenarios of online partners being tricked by other online partners when meeting them in real life. Situations varied, but ultimately showed that people who were pranking or lying were holding a virtual persona, but was becoming actual reality for them. After the filming the television show, the term “catfished” has been a term adopted not only into pop culture, but as well as Webster’s Dictionary.

Although there are many more examples to when virtual worlds can be blurred into real actual reality, the internet shows us it’s power on the human emotional intelligence.

[glassbonez]

I never personally watched the show “catfished” but have heard multiple stories through friends and bystanders. Virtual worlds and realities are ever changing as its an open book with scenarios that change based upon the person, the environment and even the website or app itself. Being with the generation that has grown up with technology progressing more than ever has been very interesting to watch and be apart of.  According to Brophy, “for some feminist scholars, the potential of the internet as a space to explore the ‘pure’ sign has opened new vistas for personal exploration and growth” (p. 930). This is a good example of taking what could be tremendous for exploration and personal growth as a foolery game to some. The mere fact that a television show was created just for this issue is astounding. I will never grasp why people lie who they are online. I can see why some may exaggerate their qualities and hide certain aspects of ones like, but to full over pretend to be another human being is just absurd and frightening. The audience, whom would you expect to be white washed males (as Brophy states in the article) isn’t entirely the case. I feel as though catfishing has become an equal issue between the sexes. The blurred reality has become so far from what it was essentially created for, it will be interesting as it progressing throughout our life span.

[jwhall-blog]

Tumblr 3

I think a space where inequalities are reproduced is when it comes to different color foundations for certain makeup brands. This came to my mind because of something I saw on twitter recently. There was a makeup line that came out and it had mostly darker skin tones and someone with a lighter skin toned commented on it saying it was unfair because there were no lighter colors.  Others were commenting back saying plenty on makeup lines carry lighter colors.  Hannah Rosefield said in The Politics of Emoji Diversity as a solution, “Another possibility would be to provide a wider colour palette, enabling users to choose from dozens of realistic skin tones.”  Even though they are referring to the small emoji color palette I think the solution could work for both.  Having all lines carry more colors for everyone to choose from. I neither agree nor disagree I think there are a lot of brands that carry enough of different colors but It could be a solution to avoid the controversy like the picture and comments below.

The comments on the pictures were just really a bunch of people going back and forth saying that there weren’t enough of each color.  The caption at the top of the picture says that all other brands carry enough of the light the other colors.  I don’t think this tweet should’ve gotten the negative comments in the first place because its just someones opinion and women love makeup so if this is someones idea of a broad shade range then thats their prerogative and I’m sure there are other people who think other brands have a batter color range.  It’s twitter a place to express your thoughts and feelings and be open and liberated. This tweet came to mind when I read the prompt and the article in the case studies. 

[chromelips]

Your post definitely stuck out to me because for the most part I do very natural makeup, but I oddly enough enjoy watching a gross amount of makeup videos on youtube. The best part is that the majority of the ones I actually watch happen to be males in the beauty industry. (I find this amazing by the way.) Have you seen Cover Girl’s first male cover boy? He’s only 17 and is changing the entire game. I think its ground breaking that as a society we have come so far in accepting humans for whatever they want or choose to look like. However, being very pale I have noticed that many brands do not actually sell very light or darker pigmented makeup. Its strange because between all the different types of skin tones we have, there is always this negative persona pushed upon darker pigments. In one of the readings, it mentions that when you “include” women of color and/or trans women into feminism it radically transforms it. Can someone explain this to me. Are we not all fighting the same fight? For some reason, people have this mindset that caucasians are running this feminism wave but instead all women that care are. This also links to men being apart of feminism and how some women treat men as lesser equals in this same exact fight for rights.

[glassbonez]

W1

My name is Signe (pronounced as sig-knee), female pronouns. It’s odd being on tumblr again. I have another account that I have had since I was in high school and I admit I have not used it much over the last year. I do on occasion go through my “likes” section because seeing all of those posts tends to put me in a brighter and happier mood. I did not want to use it for the class but if anyone would like to see it you can just message me on here :) I have mixed emotions when it comes to technology and the internet. I am a semi-private person who does not like to disclose my personal life into technology but I also fancy the visual effects that some of it provides. I try not to spend much time online unless I am researching something or have a definite purpose because I will just get sucked into it all. I see people post the most intimate details of their lives all over Facebook and I just shake my head because I do not understand why some say some of the things blatantly to the public. I like that people question who I am as opposed to figuring me out through technology. I suppose my favorite thing about being “online” is virtual shopping. I find something I like and then I am able to look elsewhere for it and find it much cheaper. What scares me is how reliant we have become to technology being there for us at any moment. I have friends that can’t even put their phones down for more than ten minutes. Meanwhile, I like to cherish conversations with humans in person and have life experiences without being glued to the internet. I love how I can easily connect with people but I always hate having the expectation that I am always reachable. I am taking this class because I always enjoy a Gender Studies class each semester because it grounds me and my thoughts. What better class than having technology and gender study put together.

http://naturalsociety.com/5-ways-recharge-enjoy-life-without-technology/

Everyone needs time away from their phones,etc. and I have enjoyed hiking or going on runs to clear my mind and step away from this day to day life of it all.