Week Four 10/14

Research Question progress:

- Met with Professor Bitzer 

Leads from the meeting: 

Very concerned about similar backlashes/responses as Anita Sarkeesian's efforts.  Recommends contacting Anita directly regarding project.  Professor Bitzer has worked with Indian feminist efforts and student study abroad programs.  She has also worked with the afro/latina culture at University of Delaware creating podcasts held in Second Life.  Specifically focuses on racism, how they felt empowered, and the very limited representation of women of color.

Tailhook Scandal 1991: a series of incidents where more than 100 U.S. Navy and United States Marine Corps aviation officers were alleged to have sexually assaulted at least 83 women and 7 men, or otherwise engaged in "improper and indecent" conduct at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Military critics claimed that the scandal highlighted a hostile attitude in US military culture towards women in the areas of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and equal treatment of women in career advancement and opportunity.

Cynthia Enloe's Gender’ is not enough: the need for feminist consciousness discusses the invisibility of women in military measures and the political disregard for the needs and ideas of women and girls are highlighted and given proper context.

Sharon Collins' teaching in Second Life: How E-learning With Second Life, an Online Virtual World Technology System, Affects Teaching and Learning



- Met with Professor Nora Madison (Gender Studies and New Media) 

Leads from meeting: 

- Find articles about game designers predominantly producing games that are targeted towards heterosexual males, resulting in objectified female video game characters.

- Find further literature on female gamer experience with unrealistic characters

- T.L Taylor from MIT has written Play Between Worlds: She looks at the women who play Everquest and finds they don't fit the narrow stereotype of women gamers, which may cast into doubt our standardized and preconceived ideas of femininity. And she explores the questions of who owns game space—what happens when emergent player culture confronts the major corporation behind the game.  She played a female gnome necromancer because the other female avatars were all hypersexualized to the point where she didn't feel like she identified with any of them.

- Bailey C. Virtual Skin: Articulating Race in Cyberspace (1996)

- Gayle Rubin: several articles on gaming

- Justine Cassell & Henry Jenkins: From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games (2000)

- Norah Madison: "Are you a ‘real’ female? Gender and authenticity in Asheron’s Call.”

- Looking further at objectivity when it comes to video game character proportions.  There may not be objectivity at all.

Meeting with Dr. Andre Carrington (English Department focusing on gender) Wednesday 10/16 at 3pm.

Final Fantasies - Virtual women's bodies: http://fty.sagepub.com/content/4/1/51.full.pdf+html

Mega-fiers link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BeKrGRy3jo

Unity Multipurpose Avatar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0cyN7k1zww