Slide 4:Jodi Dean argues, "It's not that feminists are left out of cyberia, it's that cyberia…seems left out of feminism!


Micro-celebrities :Micro-celebrities The Cam Girl Culture Massive Entertainment brought you by: Jessie, SYDNEE, Chelsea


Life….Online Clearing the air on what a cam girl is :Life….Online Clearing the air on what a cam girl is Cam girl- slang for a woman who uses webcams and interactive journals for autobiographical self-branding “Cam girls" rule the world of amateur Web sites, attracting thousands of hits daily. Some have become self-made celebrities. Ages vary 14-20’s Sites range from crude to the sophisticated and are so diverse it is risky to make generalizations. Most feature live cameras and/or digital still shots, links to other places on the Internet, diary entries and biographical information. this youth phenomenon began in Japan. a practice known as enjo kosai (roughly translated, "compensated dating") * now an illegal practice in Japan


Many face of Cam Girls :Many face of Cam Girls Aged 13-25 They project nice girlish image. Defines herself through cultural icons (ie bands music) Aged 18-25 1 dimensional Sexually provocative images. Still photo’s and web cam images are close up of specific body parts Cam girl “ the girl next door” Cam Whore “ The Whore next door”


Feminist Cam Girls? :Feminist Cam Girls? Older girls aged 18-30+ Aggressive persona (iconoclast persona) - fuck the world attitude. Her fashion is unusual and subculture fashions (i.e. Goth, raver, punk) Prides herself on being true to herself. Images display power and pleasure. Her gaze is often direct and smiling at her audience. (flirtatious yet uninviting) Sexy alternative/Goth/Punk/Raver/Retro/ Mod Chicks Cam Artist: individualism


Slide 11:JenniCam (or JenniCAM) Jennifer Kaye Ringley "life, online“ was a popular cam girl from April 1996-2003. Jennifer called herself a ‘conceptual artist’ (art in which the concepts or ideas involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns.) Surveillance became conceptual art, as noted by Mark Tribe in "New Media Art Jen set up the her web cam in her junior year of college. Ringley viewed her site as a straight-forward document of her life She didn’t filter anything on her camera, she was shown nude or engaging in sexual intercourse and masturbation. She stopped sexually performing. But she received death threats telling her to reconsider (turned out to be teenagers.) She was the first female web-cam in the US


How popular is popular? The camgirl as a reality micro-celebrity :How popular is popular? The camgirl as a reality micro-celebrity Similar to that of “Girl Power” The female power ideals are much more appreciated due to this Consumerism is the factor with the Cam Girl culture. Celebrity status symbols and power is a main goal. Surveillance To be visible is to attain power such as a celebrity The constant image exposure and visibility is a value of identity to young girl culture and is made possible through Cam girl culture. “The highest compliment being that one is worthy of being watched.” Display Honesty, authenticity, and disclosure are highly valued The authenticity of their sites Focused on being themselves The maximum disclosure of self and personal life = Goal Created for their personal fulfillment not their viewers


A Portal into Other Worlds :A Portal into Other Worlds Bedroom is where a large amount of time and growth takes place for young women This where the cam girl culture is largely set including the backgrounds and fonts are usually stereotypical of young girls bedrooms Combines intensely public with the intensely private Usually conduct same activities as if no camera Consumerism is again an issue as girls produce “wish lists” Thus reinforces and broadens the parameters of traditional “girl culture” Confession The need to be exposed and displayed is valued as true to one’s self. The idea that transformation can take place on the camera due to the process of the exposure of one’s confession


ARTIST or MODERN DAY HOOKER? :ARTIST or MODERN DAY HOOKER? meet Natalie: Or better yet, don't meet her, just buy her an RCA CC9370 AutoShot compact digital camcorder ($450). If you do, this 14-year-old girl from a small Kentucky town "will love you forever." Or so she says on the link from her site to her Amazon Wish List. cam girls can hope to win fans and fill their virtual shopping carts. If they want to have any chance on the cam portals, cam girls need to put on their very best show. most cam girls are as interested in garnering attention as they are in gathering Wish List merchandise or PayPal "donations." Natalie says having fans "makes me feel good about myself.


The feminist aspect of cam girls? :The feminist aspect of cam girls? * Today’s Cam Girls http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=webcam%20girls&search=Search&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&spell=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wBAjPWnkCg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HR6SYncJ_0 (zeitgeist performance) Zeitgeist" is the ethos of an identified group of people, that expresses a particular world view which is prevalent at a particular period of socio-cultural progression. Ana Voog


Another Angle :Another Angle Luce Irigaray suggested that for the personal as political to become more than a slogan, an “ethics of sexual difference” is required, in which we un-learn our divisions between the individual and the social and begin to understand the multiple networks that now connect us Irigaray’s work to argue that an ethics of sexual difference in cyberia challenges feminists to acknowledge all relationships as both personal and political, including those we don’t intend as such, those not yet recognized by the state, and those declared by others as “unreal.” In other words, the personal is political.? In this study, I attempt to insert cyberia into feminism by arguing that cam girl communities represent the ethical challenge of sexual difference in the age of the global brand.


Slide 17:“ For this rising millennial generation, constant surveillance can be a dream come true- an affirmation of identity. Today it seems you’re nobody id you’re not on camera…Cam girls make manifest the post-modern desire for omnipresence through communication of technologies. If you have a life that is constantly recorded, you are culturally inscribed as someone worth watching. In today’s media culture, to be ‘mere’ images is to be empowered.” (Hopkins2002a, 4) ”


Things to Think About :Things to Think About Web-cams have been considered an erosion of privacy. Rather than the web cam being an erosion of privacy, and interesting question is whose privacy are we talking about? Would you ever consider setting up your own web-cam? do cam girl communities represent the ethical challenge of sexual difference in the age of the global brand. How can one combine intensely public with the intensely private? Is it healthy for the viewer or broadcaster?


Credit Goes To :Credit Goes To Harris, Anita. Next Wave Cultures. p.132-148. Routledge Publishing.2008. The JenniCam, which existed from 1996-2003, was at http://www.jennicam.org Clay Calvert, Voyeur Nation : Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture, Critical Studies in Communication and in Cultural Industries (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000). Arturo Escobar, "Welcome to Cyberia: Notes on the Anthropology of Cyber culture," in Cyberfutures: Culture and Politics on the Information Superhighway, ed. Ziauddin Sardar and Jerome R. Ravetz (New York: New York University Press, 1996).