Blog 10

Villanueva discusses how to him biculturalism does not necessarily mean that someone has an equal ease with two cultures and that biculturalism is just as imposed as assimilation (p. 39). I tend to agree with Villanueva. As an American of Mexican decent I am often asked what “I am”. If I reply that I am an American I receive a polite laugh and asked again really what “are you”. So I can relate with the idea that people of different cultures may not always fit into the definition of American no matter how much they may wish to. I believe I can use biculturalism in both assignment 2 and 3 to show how people of different cultures use these forums to express themselves. It would be interesting to note how people interact with different cultures and how biculturalism comes into play when people are trying to fit into two or more different cultures. Do people try to tone down their ethnicity in order to fit in with another group of people? Villanueva also points out that often people will try so hard to fit into one group that they alienate themselves from the other, but they are not fully accepted in either so they go it alone. He calls this racelessness (p. 40). I look forward to discovering any indication of this in assignment 2 and 3.

Works Cited:
Villanueva, Victor. "Spic in English!" Bootstraps: from an American Academic of Color. Urbana, IL: National council of Teachers of English, 1993. 34-50. Print.

Multiple Choice:
According to Villanueva, choosing to speak the language of the dominant:

A. Bears a price, which is alienation for an individual
B. Will help people of different cultures better assimilate into American culture
C. Should be avoided at all costs
D. None of the above

T/F
For Villanueva in Bootstraps: from an American Academic of Color, racelessness is the ability to fit in so well with two cultures that race is no longer a factor.

Blog 6

In the movie Avatar, the dichotomizing of gender is shown in the way that Jake is portrayed. Traditional characteristics attributed to males are “aggressive, independent, unemotional, objective, dominant, active, competitive, logical, adventurous and direct” (Rosenblum and Travis). Jake displayed most of these attributes throughout the entire film. Some notable examples are 1) His portrayal as a strong military guy 2) his carefree attitude towards his avatar body. By taking extreme risks when learning the Navi ways, particularly when he learned how to fly the Navi dragon he showed his competitive, dominant and adventurous side. On the other hand the dichotomizing of the female gender was also portrayed in the film. As her Navi self, Grace was portrayed as a kind, gentle and caring woman. She was nurturing and cared deeply for the Navi people. All of these characteristics have been traditionally attributed to the female gender.

Cheung states that the personal homepage “is a self-defined ‘stage’, upon which we can decide what aspects of our selves we would like to present” (p. 275). Jake uses his avatar as a stage where he creates a new identity and a new life on Pandora. Jake was a bitter and angry person as a human. He was resentful of the fact that he could not afford to get his spine fixed after serving his country in the military. However, he was able to create a whole new identity with his avatar. He was a carefree person able to walk, run, and learn about a new world and their inhabitants. At first, the Navi people saw Jake as a jerk that did not belong with them, but eventually Jake gained their respect. In the end Jake was seen as a hero by the Navi people because, he was able to ride a Navi dragon that had not been ridden in hundreds of years. This turn of events changed Jake’s identity again. He went from a fallen veteran, to a curious and adventurous newcomer, to a Navi hero.

One way avatars can be seen as personal web pages in the movie is the sheer fact that the avatars were created by using the user’s DNA. The avatars had both the DNA of the Navi people and the DNA of the human controller. The avatars looked a lot like the Navi people, but their facial features clearly displayed a lot of the facial characteristics of the human user. Another important fact was that not anyone could use any avatar. Only the human who’s DNA was used to create the avatar could link and control said avatar.

Works Cited:
Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. Perf. Sam Worthington and Zoe Zaldana. 2009.

Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy, eds. The Cyberculture's Reader. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2007, 275. Print.

Blog #5

Lupton states that “the overt reasons for portraying computers as human is to reduce the anxieties of computerphobia that many people, particularly adults, experience”(Lupton 428). The Terminator films are a great illustration of this concept. The first film has the terminator as a destructive force out to kill John (the one person who stands in Skynet’s way to destroy mankind). In the film, Skynet is portrayed as a form of artificial intelligence out to conquer the world and destroy mankind by initiating a nuclear holocaust. The concept of this film is a prime example of how some people feel about computers, especially the older generations that have not had much exposure to technology. There is a small portion of the population that believes in the possibility of an artificial intelligence being able to take over the world someday. The film definitely portrays computers as villains that threaten humankind. However, by the second film the original terminator is now “good” and fighting a more advanced ‘bad” robot. I think the concept here is that computers are constantly evolving into machines that are more and more powerful. This power frightens people. People are always concerned with the unknown and don’t really like not having control over their environment and thus some view computers as frightening and even threatening.

I think that one of the most significant things I’ve learned so far in this course has to do with the constructionist view. Rosenblum and Travis explain that “social processes, such as those in political, legal, economic, scientific, and religious institutions, create differences, determine that some are more important than others, and assign particular meaning to those differences” (Rosenblum and Travis 2-29). I believe that most of our actions, beliefs and thoughts come from personal experience or upbringing and does not necessarily mean we were born with these. How we are raised contributes to our views of the world and those views can sometimes change as people go through life experiences. I think the challenge with this view in incorporating it in RL, is being able to accurately distinguish between genetics and developmental traits and how they affect how we view a person.

Works Cited:
Rosenblum, Karen E. and Travis, Toni-Michelle. “Framework Essay.” The Meaning of Difference. 5th Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008, 2-39. Print.

Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy, eds. The Cyberculture's Reader. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2007, 428. Print.

Blog #4

Bell describes peg communities as “Coat pegs on which we choose to temporarily hang parts of our identities” (Bell, 254). I have to say that I am not an avid user or member of any online peg communities. The only online community that I am a member of is facebook and that is due to the constant harassment and probing from my friends to join. Otherwise, I probably would not have any online connections at all. Although, I have joined facebook I do not accept any friend requests from people I do not know even if they are friends with some of my friends. I am still skeptical of the whole online community life and worry too much about people that I do not know, seeing things about me and about my life. I do have to say that I have enjoyed using facebook so far and even though I don’t check it or post to it very often, it is always fun to check out what my friends and family members have been up to if I haven’t had a chance to talk to them in a while. I would then have to agree that peg communities are a place where people can leave a part of their identity for other people in that community to see and be a part of.  Although, the size of my facebook community is small and limited in terms of members that I allow to see my page, I still am expressing and sharing ideas and events in my life that allow other people in my facebook community to see who I am as a person and get at least some part of my identity that I allow to show up online.

I have chosen myspace (www.myspace.com), twitter (www.twitter.com) and bebo (www.bebo.com) as sites I would like to explore and learn more about by writing about them in Assignment 2. I chose these sites mainly because of their popularity. I have never used any of these sites and I’d like to know what they have to offer, compared to facebook and other online communities.

Bell, David. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd. 1. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000. 254-63. Print.

Blog #1: Rhetoric

In Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric, Foss, Foss and Trapp define rhetoric as the “human use of symbols to communicate” (1). They elaborate on their definition by noting it is widely accepted that humans are unique in their use of symbols and may be the only animals to use them (1). However, research conducted using chimpanzees and gorillas show that they can be taught to use symbols to communicate (1). Regardless of these findings some theorists believe the use of symbols is unique to humans (2). However, Foss, Foss and Trapp believe that this issue is “unresolved” and may be “unresolvable” (2). In my opinion, rhetoric is a means used to communicate with other people and animals. I do not believe our communications are limited to human to human interactions. We use symbols and signs to communication with people on a daily basis.
We use rhetoric at work, home, school and every other place where other people are present.


Digital Culture is all around us. People subscribe to MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and many other websites. I for one, use Facebook to communicate with friends and family. I use this site mainly because I feel it is a little more private and not easily accessible to just anyone. Rhetoric is widely used on all of these sites. Symbols such as LOL (laughing out loud) and JK (just kidding) are widely used and although easily interpreted can be misconstrued by other users if they are not familiar with such terms. I believe these sites and the symbols used therein are rhetorical because such symbols and sites are used to communicate with other people. They are rhetorical because symbols used on these sites have meaning to the people using them and the people interpreting said symbols. Although this is only one example of how I use rhetoric in my life, technology and the world we live in is constantly changing and requires that we learn new and exciting ways to communicate with each other.


Works Cited:
Foss, Sonja K., Karen A. Foss, and Robert Trapp. Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric. 3rd ed. Waveland, 9.