The Metaphor of the Wild West
I was recently reading New Media: A Critical Introduction by Martin Lister et al. and I was very intrigued by this quote from Taylor and Saarinen’s Imagologies: Media Philosophies (1994):
“Entering cyberspace is the closest we can come to returning to the Wild West…the wilderness never lasts long–you had better enjoy it before it disappears.”
Arguably, this wildness is already over–the internet is too widely known and utilized now. The covered wagons have rolled in, so to speak, and people have set up their saloons and mining syndicates. Once the true wildness is over, what comes next? Let’s have the late nineteenth century western U.S. be our guide…
1. Lawlessness. Colonists of cyberspace “steal” music, tv shows and other media, upload porn and stalk our children on social networks. (Far gentler than shoot-outs at high noon, but still scary enough to cause much anxiety in middle America.)
2. Vigilante justice. Watchdogs break news stories through blogs, often before the ‘official’ media find out about them. (Blogging about bad guys isn’t nearly as fun as shooting them and/or leaving them for dead in the scorching desert, but still, I think the analogy works.)
3. The extermination and/or integration of an older culture. This is likely what is currently happening to 20th century mass media culture. (I realize that it may seem callous to some for me to compare the plight of mass media with the plight of the American Indian, but I myself am 1/4 Indian, so I feel that I can get away with it.)
Be it in the wild west or in cyberspace, all this lawlessness, vigilante justice, and extermination/integration of an older culture sure is exciting, the stuff of films, television series, popular culture studies, and critical introductions to new media. Still something troubles me. And this relates directly to my dissertation project, A Survey of Quilts Online.
Namely, where in the wild west were women, and why didn’t we hear about them very much? Sure, there was Annie Oakley, Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke, and it was understood that every podunk western town had its share of ladies of the evening, but where in the west were the mothers, the quiltmakers, the school teachers? Guess a lot of folks don’t find them quite as exciting. Henry Jenkins sure doesn’t. He barely mentions a woman in Convergence Culture, despite the fact that all of these people have colonized cyberspace too, the mothers and the quiltmakers and the school teachers. I suppose this is why I find quilting and quilters online to be such a compelling topic.
Writer,
tigneram
Topics: New Media | 1 Comment »
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March 12th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Interesting post that brings up some good points to consider. Personally, I think the reason women are somewhat ignored in cyberspace studies is because of the remaining vestiges of sexism within our society – even in cyberspace maleness is still privileged. As Lister and etc. point out, “new media” can be considered an extension of (and reveal) social values. In this case, the lack of attention to women reveals how patriarchy is still very much alive and shapes how notions regarding cyberspace are understood and studied. My question is, can this patriarchy ever be overcome within cyberspace as the creation and subsequent development of the Internet(s) was a direct result of patriarchal values and world views within our society?