Communiqué #18: "Miss eRepublik?" Not Likely!
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by Johnobrow
First of all I should explain what happened to Communiqué #17; it was censored by the big daddy capitalist patriarchal matrix. It is inevitable when writing subversive tracts that you will face censorship from time to time, but it is especially inevitable when there are pig snitches like Iain Keers around who will report and denounce if it serves their racist Zionist agenda - and often even if it doesn't. Anyway, it's still available to read on the PCP forum if you have access (if you don't then you can ask for it): Communiqué #17: eIsrael, Fantasy and the Pillar of Cloud
Onwards and upwards.
Let me ask you some questions.
What gender am I?
What race am I?
What age?
What height, weight, colour?
Am I disabled?
Am I extroverted or introverted?
What do you know about me?
How do you know it?
Probably every female-identifying person who has spent some time conversing with online gamers, and not least the erep community, will have been told, "There are no women on the internet." It has become a cliché, a tired meme, and a tragic repetitive truism. But it is an interesting statement all the same.
Firstly, it is interesting because we in fact do not know the gender of anyone on the internet. The internet offers a powerful liberatory potential to allow users to identify as whatever. You can be man, woman, genderqueer, or an outright singularity, a deliberate non-gender. Gender potentially becomes entirely self-determined, unconstrained by physical prejudices. If you say you are a man or a woman; regardless of your sex, physical attributes, or assigned gender in "RL", as far as anyone is concerned that is what you are.
Secondly, the statement "There are no women on the internet", is interesting because it demonstrates an inherent sexism. When we do not know someone's gender online, there is a tendency to assume they are a man. The default gender in patriarchal society is male. In dominant discourse and language gender neutral pronouns are rarely used - 'he' and 'his' are the default that are usually inferred when actually one doesn't know if one should be using 'he' or 'she'. On the internet this default-ism is especially intense - people online are assumed to be male all the damn time.
The internet has the potential to be a great equaliser. However, we have seen that in most instances it has become anything but:
"Every social issue that we are familiar with in the real world will now have its counter-part in the virtual one." - Spender, D., Nattering on the net: women, power and cyberspace, 1995.
In an insurrection there is no gender.
We can draw a parallel here with the black blocs of the anti-globalisation and anti-austerity movements in North America, Europe and the Mediterranean. When people participate in a black bloc action, when they all dress alike in plain, black, baggy clothes with masked faces, they anonymise certain aspects of themselves, not just their names and faces, but also their race and gender. But again, just as on the internet, there is a general assumption among many outside the bloc that all its constituents are white adolescent boys. Now there is an added gendered dimension here in relation to violence (which black blocs commonly adopt), but I believe we can also say that this assumption of maleness is very much related to the assumed maleness of anonymous individuals on the internet. The same potential for liberation from gender and other constraints, but simultaneously the same sexist externally imposed constraints.
I have said previously that the freedom from constraints and the potential for active fantasy offered in eRepublik is key to the question of revolution here. The counter-revolution takes the form of the reinforcement of externally imposed constraints and the re-linking of people's online personas with their "RL" personas.
"Miss eRepublik" is a part of this counter-revolution. This erep-based beauty pageant encourages female users to link their profiles with their real identities - their faces and assigned genders. This pageant entails the active objectification of women. It turns women into nothing more than objects to be compared and ranked in terms of their physical attractiveness for the amusement of men. Furthermore, it perpetuates racist as well as sexist stereotypes. The dominant conception of beauty in patriarchal white supremacist society is white. This contest will inevitably lead to an array of sexist and racist comments being made about and towards participants - indeed it already has led to sexist and racist slurs. This is a space that could be used to deconstruct gender and racist beauty stereotypes. Instead it is being used to proliferate them.
In a space like this - a potentially insurrectionary space - where established norms and oppressive representational certainties like gender begin to unravel, it is hardly surprising that certain forces do their utmost to counter by inscribing the "real" world and its prejudices onto this new virtual one.
We have to strike back with playful rage - launch an online insurrection against this sexist bullshit. Live without constraints in the face of their attempts at categorisation and objectification - their commodifying matrix. Treat erep as a playground for our ideas, desires, and how we relate to people and things. Let that playground leak out into your "RL" - patriarchy must be destroyed everywhere if we are to ever be truly free as whatever we want to be, as self-determined individuals. Smash patriarchy.
"So,
from human strike
to human strike, spread
the insurrection,
where there’s nothing but,
where we are all,
whatever
singularities."
- Tiqqun
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Comments
Smash patriarchy!
Free Pussy Riot!
You take life far too seriously bro...
Voted.
I disagree with your silly nonsense, but I also disagree with the Miss Erep thing.
Ps, I didn't even see that article that was deleted, but thanks for accusing me of being a racist. I could probably report you for that, but I won't. I'll just let you get on with your left-wing anti-Semitism in peace.
Well it's good to see you actually not arming him with more Ammo to fire at your head later Iain since with your usual attitude towards controversy you do sort of bring it on yourself.
IRC log from Dec 27:
09:56
Ivan_Kersovic
Reported for spam
Get a blog you arse
09:57
johnobrow
iain obviously didnt read it all
09:57
Ivan_Kersovic
It's at least half to do with rl politics
Voted it up because I believe in being who you are not what you are. Anyone who has any idea how Standalone theory works would agree since to be in a standalone state you need to shed the labels and categorisations others place on you for what ever reason they have because before any and all of that you are you and that's what matters most and that being said once you figure out who you are and have a full understanding of yourself finding the proof of your own existence is easy after that.
Voted comrade o7
Voted, because while it's pedantic claptrap, it's at least well-written claptrap.
I'm never one to cast implications about someone's personal life based on their own postings, but dude, you need to get a LIFE. This is the exact type of thing that can sour the eRepublik experience. Moreover, you're completely wrong about eRepublik - it doesn't resemble one of your treasured black blocs in the slightest. We're not a collection of faceless identities - we're individual actors within an active community that know each others' identities. eReppers exchange pictures. Add each other on facebook. Race and gender aren't ignored for sacred anonymity, they're often known and disregarded because they don't mean shit.
With that in mind, Miss eRep isn't counter revolutionary. It's dealing with a human difference that, in a respectful and advanced community like ours, isn't sexist in the slightest. So keep your nosexout if you don't want to participate.
And as for your article getting banned, there's a fine line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism and if you crossed it, your article deserved banning. This one will probably get banned also, but not because it's dangerous to the establishment. It's because it contains the most offensive word in the English language which is, ironically, very sexist.
Wow that was pretty long, sorry folks.
A number of points need to be made here.
1) You think it is me who doesn't have a life when all I do here is post an article once every few months and you log in every day to click some buttons that you all take very seriously?
2) My point is exactly that erep isn't anonymous, but could be.
3) A beauty pageant is necessarily objectifying and inherently sexist. I could have focused on this point more but it seems to me to be self-evident.
4) "nosexout"?
5) There isn't a fine line between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism - that it a myth. Anti-Zionism is a form of anti-racism. I'll happily share the article with you and you tell me if you think there is anything anti-semitic about it: http://pastebin.com/wN2izwtb (The version I published was formatted slightly differently but the content was the same)
6) 'Cunt' is a very sexist word when used in the context it usually is - it is the female body as taboo, as intrinsically negative. However, the usage here is purely anatomical and used positively - it is an active reclaiming of the word. I took that image direct from a site from the early days of "cyberfeminism" - it is a feminist statement.
Thanks for replying, I always enjoy feedback. 🙂
1) I meant get a life in regards to taking things less gravely serious.
2) I don't think a black bloc could ever work. We give alot away with our community interactions. Through your citizen name I know you are male; that's part of the ski mask off anyway.
3) If it's self-evident, then why are you the only person that thinks this? In RL so-called enlighteneds always try to interfere with pageants and can never explain why strong, intelligent women participate.
4) Sorry, the x was meant to be a space. I blame the phone.
5) Thanks: this I will read, and read with interest, then PM you my response. What I meant was that you can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Jewish. I'll let you know (for the little it's worth) whether I agree with the mods' decision or not when I read the article.
6) True, but it's being used in this case (albeit indirectly) by a man. Imagine if you were a white guy (I have no idea what ethnicity you are, so I guess some of the black bloc works) posting a pro-black article that used the 'N' word in its most positive, reappropriated form. It would be racist, because you are not a member of that group.
Re 3) He's definitely not the only one. There are plenty of reasons that strong independent women might participate and enjoy pageants but the issue isn't so much with the effects on the individuals taking part its with the overall concept, the context of pageants in wider society and the discourse on gender roles and relationships they form a part of.
I think it's the wasted potential of the platform as a social levelling field that makes something like 'Miss Erep' so depressing. Even if they'd just created a simultaneous 'Mr Erep' alongside it would have been slightly better and less bizarre
6) I don't think it's as simple as X can use a word, Y cannot, its all about context. Obviously the 'group' your in creates a lot of the context but by no means all of it
I'll agree that having a parallel 'Mr eRep' competition would have reassured people that this is about fun and celebration, not objectification. But I honestly don't think the motives are sinister here, nor will it trivialise or diminish the impact of female players. Take a look at the terms of the competition - one of the prizes is weapons, thus highlighting the fact that girls are the same damage-dealing fighting machines that girls are. While I defend RL pageants, they're not designed to reward strength and badass-ness like this, and I can't think of any pageant that offers Kalashnikovs to their winners. Outside of Nicaragua, of course.
As for the use of the 'C' word, I agree it is about context, but it's difficult to use positively a word as a member of a group (to wit: males) whose grossly misogynistic application of the word against women has forced them to reclaim it. Plus, another point of mine is that if the article is banned it will be because of that word, because even in the most positive context it's an incredibly potent swearword. Not that I would report it or encourage others to, because that would ruin a good article, but still.
2) Whilst it is true that my chosen username does imply that I am a man, most usernames are not gendered. People should be able to call themselves what they like though without assumptions being made about their gender and all that entails.
3) There are lots of reasons why people relate to oppressions in the different ways that they do. You've got to consider ideology, privilege, socialisation etc. I wouldn't put it down to intelligence.
6) You may have a point here. I only intended the image as a quote and reference to other feminists on the internet, but I'm sure that reference was probably lost on everyone besides myself. It's a powerful image though and I think it would have been a shame if I hadn't have used it for this reason.
3) Perhaps it's not the sole factor, but you have to at least admit that it is one. I can't claim to be an expert on pageants, but from what I do so, the contestants run the gamut in terms of social status, political belief and thoughts on the gender dialogue.
6) I agree with you there, and it's clear from the context how it was meant. But still...it's a word that's offensive to a lot of people based on its infamy in the English language. I'm not trying to scream "think of the children!" but still.
Also, I don't think objectifying men would solve the problem - it would just widen the problem - equal misery for all is a shit equality. The objectification of men is different though. In patriarchal society, in our society in which we live, women are treated as sexual objects, men are treated as sexual objects as a general category, as a gender. I would be against a male beauty pageant for some, but not all of the same reasons I discussed above.
I'd argue that we've shifted past a patriarchal society, and have been living in a gender-neutral society for at least ten years. The patriarchy's ghost still haunts us occasionally, with the occasional incident of workplace harassment and an unbreakable glass ceiling, but gender relations are much more nuanced now. Men are just as likely to be objectified IMO (individually I mean, not just as a gender) so I think a male pageant would reinforce this. That's assuming that pageants categorically stand for sexual objectification, which I would argue against.
P.S. The primary purpose of this series of articles has been to encourage people to "get a life". It's more explicit in the earlier "communiqués" - they're worth having a look at (I hope).
Definitely will have a read 🙂
3) If intelligence is a factor (though I'm not convinced it is since what is intelligence is highly subjective) then it is a very unimportant one. Ideology functions primarily on the level of the subconscious and is influence by material conditions. I think intelligence can only go so far in overcoming this - it's also a question of being informed vs being ignorant.
Point - let's subtract 'intelligence' with 'ability for critical thought' that's at least far more objective, and is not shaped by other factors.
Well written, v. with a polished fingernail.
If there are females here who'd want to post their RL stuff for such a thing, I think they should go right ahead and knock themselves out. Won't take long before they learn about sharing RL info in browser games 😕
The charge of being "too serious" when talking of things that happen in eRepublik or on the internet generally is just bullshit. Especially when bringing competitions like beauty pageants which include judging people based on their RL looks gets brought into the equation. Because the medium through which this competition takes place is over the internet it becomes nothing which should have a single ounce of seriousness to it? Even though this just reinforces the type of society that we all live in on the outside of eRepublik and will have an effect on people's real consciousness outside of eRepublik? It's like people don't like to think that something they spend HOURS on has any effect in real life, like the time spent in play world fairyland eRepublik has no affect on anything.
Let's get real people. Just because this is a virtual reality does not mean that all the relations between REAL people is of no consequence to their conception of reality.
Also yeah, smash patriarchy, great article.