[Air-l] virtual rape?

[Ren Reynolds]

Kathy Mancuso > Who writes about virtual rape and sexual harassment
other than Julian Dibbell (or people arguing online about the mr bungle
case who get their facts from dibbell)?

I write on the same Blog as Julian Dibbell i.e. TerraNova. I've not
commented in writing on his case but I have written about virtual rape
in the context of digital games / virtual spaces. 

In one piece I think I raised the thought experiment of the difference
between the graphic nature of the so call 'hooker cheat' in Grand Theft
Auto III (where one has virtual sex with a prostitute, pay her, then
kill her to get your money back, which both increases you heath and
retains you cash - thus while this is not forced game play it is a good
option if one is interested obtaining in the stated winning conditions
of the game) and a hypothetical game where the point is to commit as
many virtual rapes as possibly in a given time, but all that is
represented is turning a blip on the screen from one colour to anther by
contact with your blip. I think the point I was making was that from
some deontoligal stances (one can imagine ones that support the line
that any use of rape in the context of a game is wrong) the graphic
nature of the game does not make a whole lot of difference when
ethically evaluating them. 

Secondly I've written about a game called Sociolotron
(www.sociolotron.com/) which is a fairly hard core BDSM type game, The
original piece MMO Sex Please we're Avatars
(terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2004/06/mmo_sex_please_.html) was picked
up by Wired News (www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,63997-2,00.html) and
the UKs Guardian
(blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/virtual_worlds/2004/07/the_underbel
ly_of_computer_gaming.html). Further down in the blog entry I added some
more commentary as although I was interviewed at length very little of
what I said got to print. In this I essentially argue that 'play'
spaces, in particular digital virtual ones, should not be infantilised
and emasculated even though some forms of adult play may very well be
disturbing to many.

Ren
www.renreynolds.com
terranova.blogs.com

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Kathy
Mancuso
Sent: 25 March 2005 19:33
To: air-l-aoir.org at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-l] virtual rape?

AoIRers,

Who writes about virtual rape and sexual harassment other than Julian
Dibbell (or people arguing online about the mr bungle case who get
their facts from dibbell)?

Thanks,
Kathy Mancuso
University of South Carolina
Department of Anthropology

-- 
"Sometimes, I get so sick of fighting.  I have to slay the dragons of
the myth of heterosexual European [able-bodied] male society in my
dreams, then get up in the morning and be an activist . . .  What if
there really was a level playing field? I would love to see how far I
could actually go. What if all I had to show off was my mad skills?
Wouldn't I really be able to fly then?"  --Margaret Cho

Websites for my projects:
Anthropologists and labor unions allied: http://AAAUnite.blogspot.com
Orphan Films (22-26 March 2006, CFP): http://www.sc.edu/filmsymposium
Social software/blogging research (ask for CFP):
http://del.icio.us/museumfreak
SC Student Anth Conf (CFP):
http://www.cas.sc.edu/Anth/events/scconference.htm
USC does Britten's War Requiem: April 19, 7:30, Koger Center
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