Sex

It's amazing how learning works. Sometimes your a-ha moments come when you least expect them. In my post about Gender, I had talked about how when choosing my 2nd Life Avatare I immediately began to select those features that I identified with...making my Avatar a black female. It has never been a question for me about my Sex or how I subscribe or what my subscription means. My sex was biologically determined and as a result society assigned what gender role I should subscribe to and I complied because I felt that all of these were a good match for me. That being said, I do understand that everyones process isn't that simple.

I believe that it would be nearly impossible to talk about Sex without mentioning Gender. While former is biologically determined and the latter a social construct, they are often viewed as one in the same. It drives how we are socialized and what the expectations of us and our behavior will be. We have pre-determined assigned traits for what feminine and masculine sexuality and for that matter personalities will entail. The problem with this is far too many times there are situations where you can not necessarily apply the "label" and as a result are stifled when attempting to just deal with the person. I can't help but to think about the old Saturday Night Live skits with the androginous Pat character who would would be put in a variety of situations where she would be asked questions in attempts to identify her sex and s/he would cleverly provide ambiguous answers never allowing the other actors or the audience to know her Sex.

These series of Pat skits brings to light the problem or maybe even our obsession with sexual distinction. We are forced to ask ourselves do these static definitions of sex and gender truly hold up??? If not, why do we allow ourselves to be consumed by them?

Concept of Race

Race
I am an African- American (because that is how I am defined within our social construct) who is of Blackfoot Indian and Irish decent (and probably many others which I do not have the pleasure of knowing). Its interesting to me that when we begin to consider the concept our race
having been born and raised in Cincinati, Ohio, USA, my subconscious constant is White. So even though I am "African-American", my perspective or standpoint when discussing race or making the comparison is that of my own race (because I am me) but truly that of my own race as it relates to the White race. This isn't exclusive to African-Americans...I think that all races do it. At least in the area where I am from. I think that race provides a lens through which we are categorized, be it wrong or right. Keeping in mind my 2ndLife Avatar was damn near exactly like me...for the most part (excluding a few direct sexual advances) my experiences and interactions weren't that out of the ordinary for me. Come to think abt. it I've had quite a few inappropriate advances in RL too. LMAO. But, I digress...If we have learned that peoples initial perception of you is determined in less than 30 seconds after seeing you then Race has to play a factor. We all have been guilty of re-telling a story to a close friend or family member and either volunteering or having them ask, when inquiring about the story characters..."What color was s/he? Why? Because we have learned that it means something in terms of the context. It lends to the complete understanding of the story. There are prejudices that we all project on one another based upon what we see... one of the things we see being race. Within the university setting...despite having been here from 1992-1997 and again for the past year, I know that when I hear the wheels of the custodian's trash can rolling down a UC hall...there's a 99.99999999% chance that they are going to be African-American. I know that when I go to one of the many computer labs on campus, theres an 80% chance that the lab attendee is going to be of Indian decent (and male) the other 19%+ will be white males. I know that UC invited students to test their 2ndLife world for pay a few months ago. Now, while I couldn't figure out enough about 2ndLife to immerse myself into college life online because I was unwilling to pay, it would have been interesting to see if these specific positions were available and to see how the 2ndLife employees compared to the RL employees.

What this means to me
I have been very fortunate to have had an exposure that has allowed me to be all of who I am and as a result have a firm, sound grasp on Race, what it does and doesn't mean to me but more importantly what it does and doesn't mean to others. I grew up in a middle class mixed race neighborhood (Silverton, Ohio), went to a mixed race school (The School for Creative and Performing Arts) where all genders, races, talents and forms of expression were not only welcomed but learning about one another was not only welcomed but encourages. However, II went from this experience to Brookhaven, Mississippi to spend each Summer on my grandparents farm with all of my other cousins. This was a place where as a child I have a vivid memory of my grandmother (who at that time was well in her 60's) was referred to as "girl" by the White store clerk who appeared to be all of 18 years old if that. I noticed how my grandmothers posture and tone would change when engaging Southern whites and didn't quite understand at that time, but now I get it. While there is nothing that is real about the social construct of Race because we have all seen individuals myself being one of them who do not appear as one or more of the Races that they are...it becomes "real" because we acknowledge it to be so. With this acknowlegement comes the pre-determined adjectives that determine how we define it and results in how we deal with it....wrong or right. Moving beyond our own concepts of Race will foster our own growth that will hopefully lead to a collective progression beyond....what we think we know to what it fact and actually known.

Gender

Gender and 2^nd Life

I don’t think that I have ever been terribly progressive or went against the grain much. I have usually conformed and done what was expected of me. The exception being my teen years (certainly I get a pass on that one). It was interested to me that when I had an opportunity to create an Avatar that would live in another world and when I could be anyone or gender that I wanted to be that without giving it any thought I automatically subscribed as female. I did not ever recognize my subconscious choice until I began interacting with classmates in 2^nd life who had changed their online gender.

These findings about myself caused me to examine the importance of the role that gender plays in my life. If any at all. This question becomes that much more profound due to the fact that I am expecting my second child (my first is 16…yeah can you say surprise baby 16 years later) and I have found that in the past 16 years things are very different. When I had my daughter there were lots of unisex room décor, bedding and clothing available….in a variety of colors including pink and blue. Now EVERYTHING seems to clearly subscribe to one gender or another. Clearly blue or clearly pink or even when there are vast patterns available…they have oh so cleverly worked the stereotypical color schemes into a progressive pattern. So this has caused me To ask, What is Gender in 2^nd Life Virtual World, What is Gender in my real life does if differ, how do I subscribe and why do I?

I began this quest with searching for definitions of “Gender”.

“Gender is determined socially; it is the societal meaning assigned to male and female. Each society emphasizes particular roles that each sex should play, although there is wide latitude in acceptable behaviors for each gender” (Hesse-Biber, S. and Carger, G. L., 2000, p. 91).

“Gender is used to describe those characteristics of women and men, which are socially constructed, while sex refers to those which are biologically determined. People are born female or male but learn to be girls and boys who grow into women and men. This learned behaviour makes up gender identity and determines gender roles” (World Health Organization, 2002, p. 4).

“Gender is the division of people into two categories, “men” and “women.” Through interaction with caretakers, socialization in childhood, peer pressure in adolescence, and gendered work and family roles women and men are socially constructed to be different in behavior, attitudes, and emotions. The gendered social order is based on and maintains these differences” (Borgatta, E.F. and Montgomery, R.J.V, 2000, p. 1057).

Gender Relations, Definition of
“Gender relations refer to a complex system of personal and social relations of domination and power through which women and men are socially created and maintained and through which they gain access to power and material resources or are allocated status within society” (IFAD, 2000, p. 4).

Gender

2nd Life

Okay, I have always thought myself to be reasonably tech saavy. I won't be creating the next I-phone but I used to think that I knew my way around a computer and it's applications pretty well. I have since learned that the former is NOT TRUE!
I AM COMPLETELY LOST IN SECOND LIFE. I have done the tutorial however I seem to wander aimlessly around. Now granted...this may be due to my being unwilling to spend any money to get 2nd Life currency. Nonetheless, I feel that I am learning 2nd Life is not for me. Out of all of the choices I thought this would be the one that may most appeal to your average Joe. It seemed to be most like real life ...not off fighting wars, creating armies or reverting to childhood doll play. I think maybe it would have been more interesting if I had chosen one of the other virtual worlds because maybe my expectations wouldn't be so high...LOL

Introductory Blog Entry

Hello. I am Shawna. I chose Second Life as my virtual world and my Avatar's name is Shayla Kalil. I really did not spend a lot of time going from virtual world to virtual world. A few friends and family members are absolutely addicted to SecondLife so I thought that this would be an ideal opportunity for me to find out what it is all about. They have businesses, go to work, have sorted affairs in Second Life and they love it. I hope to learn what their virutal world attraction/addiction is. Now, granted these particular family members are kind of wierd to say the least but hey...I will give it a try.