Blog 8: Cybertypes

In our readings, the terms cybertyping and identity tourism are introduced to us. Nakamura sets up her article, "Cybertyping and the Work of Race in the Age of Digital Reproduction", by stating that software engineers and academics both enjoy creating new words and jargon to describe something new. Using the example of "new media", she explains how they require their own set of descriptive terminologies and conceptual frameworks, stating how they are so inherently different from their precursors. She coins the term cybertype to "describe the distinctive ways that the Internet propagates, disseminates, and commodifies images of race and racism" (pg. 3). Different from stereotype, for those describe the machine functions, cybertypes are an even faster way to translate information. Identity tourism on the other hand is used to describe a "disturbing" occurrence that Nakamura began noticing in Internet chat communities--in essence, it's a term to describe the ability to temporarily "take on" someone else's identity to fulfill some sort of "lived truth" (pg.14).

Street Fighter II, the application.
Nakamura targets the while male as the main audience for identity tourism, crossing over racial boundaries for a short period of time via play or recreation (Nakamura 2007, pg 299). Street Fighter II seems to be the epitome of this, using cultural knowledge to create stereo (or rather, cyber) types of different nations. Characters such as Dahlsim exhibit exaggerated traits of what one thinks of concerning India. He is a skinny monk with supernatural powers which allow him to stretch his limbs. All the characters exemplify this sort of cybertyping not only from their appearance, but to their way of speech and the settings they are surrounded in. Nakamura would argue that every time we play as one of these radically cybertyped characters, we are in essence partaking in identity tourism. The characters represent different avatars, and if I chose to, I could fantasize about roleplaying the character of a buff military dude or the lone Asian female.



As you can see from the video, Street Fighter II serves to perpetuate already existing stereotypes through the virtual realm. It also allows users to "travel the world" through each tournament, giving them an experience of each and every culture. Thawk, the Indian character, is portrayed outside among a circle of other native Americans.

Works Cited

Nakamura, L. (2002). Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge.

Nakamura, L. (2007). Race in/for Cyberspace: Identity tourism ad racial passing on the Internet. In D. Bell and B. M. Kennedy (Ed.),The Cybercultures Reader (2nd Ed.) (pp. 297-304). London and New York: Routeledge.