Hi & welcome to my NEW blog! I have chosen Second Life as my virtual world to examine Identity, Gender, Race, and Sexuality. I decided to choose Second Life because I have heard about it a lot from other people and have wanted to check it out and figured this was the perfect opportunity. I chose Second Life because it looks the most "real" if that is an okay word to describe it. I wanted to become involved in this world because I am sure other people around my own age and older are involved. I don't know if many younger children would be involved in Second Life and for my first virtual world I don't want to feel as "creepy." I was attracted to this world because the graphics of the locations and people are so vivid and look almost real. The whole "virtual world" thing is totally new to me so I am looking forward to this experience and learning more. I want to see how people communicate and interact through the virtual world and if real life stereotypes and categorizations occur also in these virtual worlds. When signing up for Second Life it allows you to pick a first name and then picks a last name for you. So my Second Life name is "Krysten Yordstorm" -- classy sounding, I know! haha. They also give you about 8 faces/bodies you can choose from so I decided to pick the blonde hair girl wearing a skirt. I figured this would be a good Avatar to pick to analyze the four major themes we are dissecting in this class. I look forward to this experience and also to reading about everyone else's experiences with these virtual worlds!
Post #3 Do you think that many minority groups/ethnicities lack representations in media outlets like virtual worlds, television, novels, films, and on the web? If so, why do you think there is a lack of minorities represented in our popular media/pop culture and why?
ReplyDeleteThere most certainly is a lack of representation in media outlets for racial groups. For example, the video we watched in class were ALL white women going through a transformation. Also the pictures we brought up on the web of past surgical procedures still did not show any evidence of any other racial groups. Most barbie dolls are white females that supposedly are living the American dream of big house, nice car, husband--Ken!, and the glamour of being young, skinny, and beautiful.
It sort of shapes young peoples ideas of gender, what is socially accepted, and what they might possibly want their future to be. Barbie has all these nice qualities -- I WANT TO BE LIKE BARBIE! Kids want to identify with Barbie because she has it all. Kids glorifing a doll could lead to plastic personalities, but maybe that's a stretch? If the average woman would rather have beauty than brains, that's because the average man can see better than he can think. Haha but who knows. I believe that minorities and other racial groups are excluded from media because whites are still somewhat of an hegemonic group. Although media lacks in representation of minority groups, I still think that the racial barriers are slowly deteriorating opening up the doors for more products that appeal to diverse people. Creating products that appeal to a broader scope of racial groups can result to a larger consumer base maximizing profits. Ohhhhhhhh Capitalism
My question is: What kind of sexual innuendos does Barbie display?
Does Barbie promote certain cultural norms? or is she simply a product for consumers?