Masculinity on the web

What do you think of the author’s claim that the expanded constructions of masculinity in these spaces can lead men “naturally, to uncertainty and even anxiety, but eventually to a greater level of self-awareness and personal freedom” (78)?

Gauntlett and Horsley’s view of how masculine websites can affect a man’s sense of self may apply to those men who already are uncertain or anxious concerning their masculinity. The web is a great tool in which these men can express their confidences and concerns to other men that are likely to understand their questioning of sexuality or masculinity.

For example, http://www.manhood.com.au/ is a site that was created for expression of those men who find themselves being freed from the traditional view of masculinity and want to speak about a variety of issues concerning the modern man. The design of the website is simplistic. With scenery as the background of their logo it is obvious that the site designers are still appealing to the manly notion of connecting with nature. I think that this site may attract those that Gauntlett and Horsley describe as uncertain and anxious, but the site also welcomes those who are at different stages in their spectrum of understanding “self-awareness and freedom.”

Sites such as http://www.menstuff.org/ are much different than http://www.manhood.com/. On the MenStuff site there are no discussion boards for users to comment on the numerous news articles that the website features, or books that the site advertises. However, the site does offer tips for men who want to improve themselves or want to host events in their area with other men with similar concerns or interests as themselves. This site provides a significant amount of information for men through their articles, but the audience is very broad, and is certainly not narrowed down to those men who are trying to discover their personal “construction of masculinity.”

http://www.askmen.com/ focuses on the masculinity of men mainly in relation to sexuality in heterosexual relationships; the site only mildly highlights the interests of sports, cars and money. Although the authors of Web Studies use this website to illustrate their point, I do not think that this site portrays an expanded construction of masculinity, but rather emphasizes the already prominent view of the man as the dominant sexual predator. Even though this site has sections such as “Fashion and Lifestyle” the articles in this section mostly pertain on how a man’s fashion or lifestyle will help them with women.

In-Class Blog Prompt

Excerpt from Web Studies by David Gauntlett and Ross Horsley: “Fans are not fringe extremists with an unhealthy and unrealistic interest in a particular media text, but savvy consumers who are able to use popular culture to fulfill their desires and needs, often explicitly rearticulating that culture in unique and empowering ways.” (82)

Popular culture, with its diversity, is a conveinent way for people to “fulfill their desires and needs” because generally people feel that they can either relate to or despise characters, or go into a fantasy world that they could never truely experience themselves.

One of the reasons that Dawson’s Creek, which is basically a teen soap opera, was so popular was because teens wanted to be able to connect with the show’s characters, who were not “cool,” but still have severely complicated lives. As well, the values of friendship and trust portrayed in the show appealed to the naive audience.

Writing fan fiction is another way in which the audience can express their approval of the characters in a particular show. Fan fiction allows the audience to play an active role in their own fictional story involving the characters that they have come to understand and watch develop.

Dawson’s Creek’s fans are not “obsessed” with the show, but rather want to relate to its themes and characters in their own lives and fictional situations.

Personal Homepage Identity

In my personal homepage I would want to include information about the experiences that I have had traveling, the books and movies that I love, as well as some of my religious and perhaps political beliefs. I would want to articulate my love for travel through pictures and descriptions of places that I have been thus far, such as Paris and Cancun. I love a variety of different types of fiction books, from Harry Potter to Dan Brown to Mitch Album. I would not mind including a place on my homepage for other people to recommend books, maybe on a discussion board.

Despite being a college student and not having access to a kitchen, I do like to cook, and I enjoy using my Grandmother’s recipes. Sharing favorite recipes may be another way to express myself to my audience. 

When I am not doing homework, I generally try to relax by watching Law and Order (SVU or Criminal Intent). So having some part of the website dedicated to a comparison of these two subcategories of the same show would express my interest in the show. Because I attended a Law and Public Policy magnet high school, I have a small amount of legal background. Between this background and my aspirations of becoming a lawyer, I could use this knowledge in the legal field to show readers parts of the show that are not accurate.

I am not really sure what contradictions I would include in my website, other than maybe I am a Christian, and yet loved reading Harry Potter. However, with the hype and excitement of the Harry Potter books, this may not be as much of a contradiction now, as it was when the books first started becoming popular.

Websites:

http://www.mcdaniel.edu/

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/

http://www.valleybaptistchurch.org/

http://www.imdb.com/

http://www.travelchannel.com/

http://www.travelchannel.com/

http://www.danbrown.com/novels/index1.html

Book Options

  Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig

Lessig is of the belief that although cyberspace was originally intended to be a place of freedom, due to factors such as commerce and the government, it has become a more oppressive, controlled space. Although this sounds depressing and restrictive, Lessig believes that cyberspace presents users and creators of web-spaces the option between an oppressed or an unrestricted cyberspace. And even though he understands that businesses will have a significant presence on the web, he believes a happy medium exists between a totalitarian state and anarchy.

What Video Games have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee

Gee argues that video and computer games can be an effective tool not only for learning, but developing problem solving skills, and understanding what it means to have a personal identity. He mainly focuses on those videogames in which the user develops his or her own identity in the game as he or she explores the fictitious world or in which the user has control over “a complex entity, like an army, a city, or even a whole civilization” (1). Gee claims that because people can think about something from different perspectives, it is like having a different identity for each of these perspectives. Each person has his or her own core identity in which all of these other various identities sprout off from, and as our social groups and practices change (such as the games we play) we are able to understand situations from different points of view.

Social Bookmarking

The original social bookmarking site is del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us). The user can store bookmarked pages online and organize them by labeling their sites with multiple titles or tags.

Tagging allows the user to be more organized and allows he or she to attach more than one title to each bookmarked site in order to fully explain the site’s purpose. Users can also search for tags that are similar to their own interests. This resource could be used to find information about a particular hobby or for scholarly research.

Harvard H20 (http://h2o.law.harvard.edu/index.jsp) was created for strictly academic purposes and has extended the idea of social bookmarking. This is a way for students to be taught exclusively online. Faculty can upload necessary reading, links, visual aids, and course note outlines through the Idea Exchange. Students can still work collaboratively through these online classes via the Rotisserie discussion boards. In order to prevent certain classmates from leading all of the discussions, the boards are broken into smaller groups made up of people with similar opinions. Students can also create groups to spread information to their peers who are in similar fields of study.

RawSugar (http://www.rawsugar.com) is similar to del.icio.us in that it focuses less on scholarly research, and more on the common user. RawSugar allows users to catalog their bookmarked sites and search for tags pertaining to their interests. This social bookmarking site seems better than the previous two because of its additional features. RawSugar allows the user to create a Watchlist of other people’s bookmarks with similar interests. As well, when a user catalogs his or her sites he or she is able to put these sites in a hierarchical order within each category. The account of a user is more personalized with RawSugar, because they can upload a picture and more personal information so that a viewer of their profile could understand that user’s interests.