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@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Kathy Mancuso Sent: 25 March 2005 19:33 To: air-l-aoir.org@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 _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/