Jack Pinder

gqid:

I’m currently reading Wired Women: Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace (1996). While some may consider the material it covers “dated” (a big focus in the book is on mailing lists and Usenet), I think it is an interesting exploration in how gender, particularly women and the dynamics between men, have functioned on the Internet. It is a mixed bag of articles on the topic at hand, some I have found to be more engaging than others. Something that caught my eye was this in Lori Kendall’s piece, on pronouns in MUD (multi-user domain, “text based, interactive forums”:

In theory, choosing a neutral gender designation would mean escaping the dualism of male and female gender expectations. (After all, in our face-to-face interactions, we don’t meet many people we would designate as gender-neutral, and therefore we don’t have a clearly assigned rle for such persons.)…GammaMOO, for instance, has the followig choices: neuter, male, female, either, Spivak, splat, plural, egotistical, royal, and 2nd. “Neuter” designates the character with the pronoun it. “Either uses the s/he and him/her convention. “Spivak” uses a set of gender-neutral pronouns such as e and em. “Splat,” similarly uses the *e and h*. As might be expected, “plural” uses they and them, “egotistical” uses I and me, “royal” uses we and us and “2nd” uses you.

…But almost all the gender-neutral characters I have met were guest characters who had not yet set their gender designation, so it is unclear to me how well this strategy works. My guess is not very well, for the very reason that we do expect everyone to be either male or female. No one encountering someone using the pronoun e is likely to believe that this expresses their “true” gender and is thus likely to treat the character’s gender designation as a mere mask. Some may respect this desire to “hide” gender, but others probably will not.

It is a little difficult to gather from the passage whether the author is being somewhat sarcastic about non-normative gender possibilities, or if they were lamenting the lack of space for these possibilities (also, “splat” pronouns with asterisks were new to me and it is interesting that “they” is not understood as a singular option here). This was in an essay on women in MUD spaces and how and when choosing alternative gender designations for characters arises (largely framed as a way to blend in with the crowd and/or avoid sexual advancement from male players). Nonetheless, I am a little surprised that the angle of alternative actual identity possibilities (rather than “masking) wasn’t explored further. Kendall also had this to say:

…it also depends on the wider cultural beliefs that certain behaviors are feminine and certain behaviors masculine. This puts all MUD participants in the position of “masquerading” as their chosen gender, regardless of their “real life” gender identity. Everyone is in “drag” on MUDs…

…gender, in fact, has a great deal of meaning online. Although individuals can choose their gender representation, that does not seem to be creating a context in which gender is more fluid. Rather, gender identities themselves become even more rigidly understood. The ability to change one’s gender identity online does not necessarily result in an understanding that gender identity is always a mask, always something merely performed. Rather, there can be increased focus on the “true” identities behind the masks.

Other than the bad reading of gender-as-performativity that Kendall has given here (gender is not always about or signified by performance, even though it can have performative aspects), what has been on my mind is - have things changed since 1996, when this book was published? I would argue that there is considerably more space to occupy beyond-the-binary territory. Space that was perhaps unimaginable in 1996 such as through fluid communities like Second Life, trans* message boards, role-playing spaces…the list goes on. There are often certain expectations of communication styles and the standard “A/S/L?” (age/sex/location?) question from the outset when communicating with new people, but I would argue that in 2012 the landscape has changed considerably in many ways, while still remaining the same in others (gender-based communication style stereotypes and expectations, again, die hard).

nickdrake:

Trainspotting.

(via wellthatsadorable)

american-sublime:

vizzz:

this is Leah B. of EX by V. she’s the one who started the Gender Edge collective and who organizes the shows. her band is fucking brutal, totally not the kind of music i listen to on my own, but probably my favorite band to see live as of right now. she is a powerful and fucking brilliant human being. i’m stoked to even know her.

on a related note… Gender Edge is an extremely important collective that gives trans and queer people a voice. artistic expression for queer/trans/gender variant people is encouraged and celebrated. the shows and events are fucking amazing. the collective (but namely Leah) put out a zine every so often, and funding is always needed and appreciated. if you’d like to donate at least a little bit of money toward zine production PLEASE don’t hesitate to do so. contact me and i’ll hook you up with leah’s info, i don’t want to just be tossin’ it around on the internets without asking her first. but i do know that funding for Gender Edge is needed now more than ever.

if you had any doubt in your mind that Gender Edge is a collective full of rad, beautiful, militant, angry queers, just look at the picture above, for reals.

^^^^^

(via queerotic)

zitterberg:

Thomas Moran (1837-1926), Gilcrease - Shenandoah River, 1900.