Computer-Mediated Anthropology
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An Online Resource Center |
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CMA Methodology: Observation by Pauline Réage, 2004 |
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Observation without Participation: The alt.binaries.pictures.nospam.post-yourself-nude Newsgroup There is a newsgroup called alt.binaries.pictures.nospam.post-yourself-nude which has fascinated me. I'd like to share some of my observations and thoughts concerning it in this section. As you can tell from the name of the group, it is devoted to posting nude pictures of yourself. However, if you were to assume that every single post on the group is only intended to show off one's naked body, you would be mistaken. Let me categorize some of the other posts I have found there: 1. Personal musings. For example: From: monty9mm@webtv.net (Monty Mclaughlin) Reminds me of the service..........(sigh) Also:
what does it feel like to get a hole put in your cock how much pain
From: nunya biz <nunya@here.com> !!!!! THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A POST YOUSELF SITE NOT A GENERAL POST What I found especially interesting about this post is that the original message was not cross-posted to other newsgroups, nor did the picture have the URL of a porn site stamped on it like most spam posts do. However, I think this person still recognized it as spam because of the professional look of the picture. I am reminded of Ruth Barcan's article about reality porn: Many years have passed since MacCannell's book first appeared, and some would say that the tourist - desperately seeking the real - has been well and truly replaced by the post-tourist, happily (or at least resignedly) enjoying the fakery (Feifer, see Urry: 110). And yet, I believe that MacCannell still hits the mark in two crucial ways: first, his insight that we haven't lost our desire for authenticity holds good, more than ever. In a world in which we are all encouraged to perform our subjectivity in public, "the private" becomes even more strongly fetishised as it disappears. We long for a glimpse of private things, knowing full well that we help change or destroy the realm of privacy the more we consume it. Of course, this desire for the ever-receding real is matched by an awareness of, and often a joy in, performance itself. Postmodern culture is thus characterised less by a simple desire for and romanticisation of authenticity (although this still very much exists) as by a complex mixture of attitudes - desire for the real, fetishisation of the real, resignation to the fact that the real is always elusive, fun in fakery, and celebration of the delights of role-play and performance. In the case of reality porn, both these impulses are evident - it is popular because of its "truthfulness," and yet no participant could be unaware of the performative dimensions (indeed, for some, this is the pleasurable part of the process). In that sense, the product itself and the process of its making call up different relations to reality, and the various forms of reality porn offer up different forms of participation. MacCannell's second relevant insight is his insistence that reality is experienced via genres, and that the attempt to escape genre produces only another genre. Clearly, even such intimate genres as reality porn are produced in relation to erotic ideas, staging conventions, narrative conventions, ideas of character that come from elsewhere - not only from classically produced porn, but also from a range of other genres, from Hollywood movies to high art paintings. Put together, these two insights - the never-ending quest for a reality that always eludes the searcher, and the genre-savviness of the questor - suggest that reality porn can never be an endpoint. The desire for authentica will continue and will eventually make the current genres seem stale and artificial. In the case of television reality genres, it is clear that audiences are already savvy. Certainly, the reaction of my students to programs like Big Brother and Survivor shows that they are well aware how such naturalness is staged and produced. This is why these genres evolve so fast. One of the questions that reality porn poses, then, is what lies beyond it? When this "authentic" porn no longer feels authentic, where will porn go? What will prove to be more authentic than reality? We will have to wait and see. Another example: From: "Wile E Coyote" <removeredsrule5@hotmail.com> here's my comment put "M" in your post "BoB" <mynameisbob@mail.ru> wrote in message
From: "Sam" <samori@shaw.ca> Yes Angela you are right. And also the straights and females don't always Sam, A gay man. Yet another example of pointing out rule/norm violations: From: temta1@aol.com (TEMTA1) NOPE!!!! 3. Asking for rule/norm clarifications: From: "Angela St.Aubin" {bodah@sympatico.ca} Does this group have a charter? 4. Encouragement by written compliment Comments of this nature have included: · "SWEET!!!!" · "Very Nice!!!" · "Great pic!! More please - and thanks for posting *this* one......" · "Wow. Fantastic picture. What a great pair of breasts, and nice erect penis. I could ejaclate loads of sperm over this picture - and I will! Got any more like that. Would love to see them. :-p" · "Man, if your dick was detachable, you could use it as a weapon, for self defense!" · "Great Cock!!! Post more w/skin......" · "man I wish I could give you some head" · "Very Nice, wish I could deepthroat him" · "beautiful" · "Nice lil titties! Great pert nipples!" · "A little furry, but real nice..." · "a very nice package indeed mmmm !!!!!" · "man what a nice dick. nice feet too ;)" · "BEAUTIFUL cumshot" · "nice pubes, wonderful cock." · "wouldn't mind bobbing on bob :)" · "Fantastic. It is so great to see a woman who likes the natural look. I'd be eating that in a heartbeat." · "Bring her ass to Ft Lauderdale Florida and let me have a round with her" · "Wow!!!! and nipples to boot. I don't know what I would want to put my mouth on first." · "Damn I could burry mt face between her pussy and make her gush in my face when she cums" · "wow! looks great! let me know if you ever make it down to LI :)" · "AWESOME body" etc. It's easy to imagine that someone may be insecure about sharing their body in this manner, so I believe these compliments serve to create a symbiotic relationship. The poster receives psychological validation, while the repliers will presumably be getting the pleasure of seeing more erotic material from the poster in the future. Perhaps they are just motivated by the golden rule-- they hope for a positive response when they expose themselves (in both a literal and figurative sense), so they are treating others the way they want to be treated. 5. Encouragement by "tribute": From: "Wile E Coyote" {REMOVEredsrule5@hotmail.com} Now that's what I would like to see on top of me! Sorry I don't have a camera to show a tribute "Hot Lady" {ydaledun@yahoo.com} wrote in message 6. Technical problems/suggestions · "take the grain filter off the lens" · "the post shows half the picture with crazy colors and disappears.......i don't ever see anything" 7. Setting up trades In televideo cybersex being a body is a prerequisite for preserving the integrity and dignity of the self. Although long-term friendships and intimate real-life relationships can and do sometimes emerge from televideo encounters, most of the time the experience is eeting, anonymous, and casual. Being seen naked (and often masturbating) in anonymous and casual semipublic social situations is, after all, taboo, and therefore, as Douglas (1977:58) reported with regard to nude beaches, many people are “afraid of being seen by friends or associates and branded a weirdo or a sexual pervert.” So as not to implicate the self in the promiscuous virtual encounters, great efforts are usually taken to keep identity detached from the body. Because televideo cybersex participants can control the angle and zoom of the digital camera, this delicate dramaturgical task is most commonly achieved by simply not showing one’s face. As one man explained, “It’s all very anonymous, at least for me. I rarely show my face, therefore I am just another body. Once I show my face, it becomes too personal—I’m not just a body anymore!” [Waskul 2002: 216] Sometimes there are also technical limitations motivating such trades as well: From: hot2tch@aol.com (Hot 2 Tch) I'd love to trade pics of my girlfriend with you. If you'll send me an email |
