T EDITORIAL
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With a variety of sites,
women are making the
World Wide Web their own
\
It’s no hidden fact that com
puters and the Internet have
traditionally been, and still are to
an extent, dominated by men. The
rise of the Web and Internet cul
ture has made a way for women
to speak out like never before. <£■
There are several websites
now devoted to women, but
these are no sissy, feel-good
sites. These are screaming
sites that seamlessly blend
feminism with humor, scathing
wit and a little bit of patriarchy bash
ing. One of my favorites is the
Heartless Bitches International Web
site at http://www.heartless-bitch
es.com, Bitch being an acronym that
stands for “Being In Total Control,
Honey.” It’s a graphic-intensive site
A
OPINION
Amanda
Erickson
complete with frames
and tons of links to
other pages and funny
stuff.
Their icon is a red
heart with an ax embed
ded in the center, and
one of the icon “but
tons” is animated with
the ax cheerily hacking
away. One of the linked
pages is a list of things
that annoy. One of my
favorites is: “Any writer who refers to an
intelligent, well educated, powerful,
take-charge female in a position de
serving of respect as ‘feisty,’
‘perky,’ ‘zippy’ or any other term
best applied to a little yappy mutt
with a how in its hair.”
Another site, less-subtly titled
than the former, is the All Men Must Die website.
This was done by a girl in England who just got
dumped by her boyfriend and decided to blow off
some steam at the other gender. It has received a
lot of attention by Web pulse-takers and is replete
with stinging diatribes and a form that invites men
to “Beg Like a Dog” to be spared their lives. And
there are a lot of guys begging out there.
What makes these sites cool is that they exist.
Women are the constant brunt of sexist jokes, put
m/.
downs, stereotypes and other cultural crap. Basi
cally, what it boils down to is that women can fi
nally speak out on the Web. The Internet is an ac
tual place where you can say, “Sticks and stones
can break my bones, but words will never hurt
me.”
In other places, women are making their mark. If
you are at all familiar with the testosterone-plas
tered, blood and gore that are the first-person,
fighting computer games “Doom,” “Duke Nukem”
and “Quake,”
then you are proba
bly familiar with their
cult-like following and
their cult-like, or
should I say, clan-like
players.
—~ These online
games can be
played individual
ly or as a group
with people 1,000
miles away. “Quake”
has a system of clans
who play against each
. other. One of the newest
is the PMS Clan, or Psycho
Man Slayers. They say that ini
tially they got a lot of obnoxious flack
from their male competitors, even having the
guys they are playing against stop the game to
ask, “What do you look like? Are you cute?”
The group of eight women let these things roll
V off their back as they crush the competition. You
can see their website at http://www.under
ramp.com/~pms and be greeted with the welcom
ing quote, “Under every floral print dress lies a
lady wearing black garters, carrying a big f~king
gun!”
The surge of women on the Net parallels what
computer companies and game designers are ex
periencing — more women. Due to the over
whelming success of Mattel’s interactive CD-ROM
Barbie Fashion Designer, as reported in Wired
magazine, many developers are trying to tap in to
the female market. Unfortunately, they can’t get
> away from giving their programs overtly femi
} nine names. While that works for some peo
ple, I think that they will have little success if
they market them like tampons: “It’s a breath of
spring air on your girly computer.”
The world of computers and the Internet is
an area where I think we will see women suc
ceeding. It is a truly unique area in that brains
are worshiped over brawn. And, as technology be
comes overwhelmingly a part of our daily lives,
women will be able to assert a lot of power and be
the unabashed movers and shakers of the very
near future.
Amanda Erickson, a senior majoring in journal
ism, is a columnist for the Emerald. Her views do
not necessarily represent those of the newspaper.
E-mail: aericks@gladstone.uoregon.edu
Women
on the
■ FOXY MAGAZINE
http://www.tumyeto.com/tydu/foxy
Lots of tongue-in-cheek articles including a “mega
index of dumb chick stuff."
■ gURL
http://www.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~gURL:
A simple online magazine that has fun graphics (a la
Maurice Sendak) and is great for the older high
school or young college girl.
■ CyberGrrl
http-7Awww.cybergrrl.com: Off-kilter and amusing;
it’s the “premier place for nice Jewish goils.” It even
has a matchmaking service called Cyber Yenta.
■ BRILLO
http7Avww.virago-net.com/brillo: Another online
mag which features pop culture graphics and arti
cles ranging from Ebonics to privacy to AIDS. A lot
of useful information here.
■ CUPCAKE
http://www.cupcake.com: This is actually done by a
guy but it’s pretty funny and you can read about how
he duped the media royally into thinking he was a
girl. Obvious womb-envy here.
Here’s pages of other chick-related links:
http://www.dogpatch.org/women.html,
http://www.webgrrls.com/directo(y.htmi,
http://home.dmv.com/--olcs/wweb.html
Up ID
Top 10 signs it's
time to get out of
your cult
-10
You notice the
words “mass
suicide" written
in black marker
on the events
calendar.
-9
Social highlight of
the week is
“Monday Night
with the
Moonies.”
-8
Your dress code
includes black
Nikes.
-7
You get a 10 per
cent “suicidal cult
discount” at par
ticipating stores.
-6
Your leader
preaches absti
nence, but all the
temale members
seem to sleep in
his room.
-5
Despite the fact
that you area
“pacifist” group,
you have an
alarming amount
of AK-47s in the
basement.
-4
When you
mention your
group in public,
people say “That
crazy cult?!" and
run away.
-3
You have to pack
your suitcases
every night before
sleeping.
-2
In every speech,
your leader slips
and declares,
“We’re all going
to diet"
-1
One word:
castration
LETTERS
Racism not dead
I am writing in response to the letter sub
mitted by Ed Madrid (ODE, March 17). I am
both saddened and deeply frustrated by the
tone Mr. Madrid chooses to adopt. Mostly, I
am appalled by his assertions of the “utter ir
relevancy” of “race issues” and by his por
trayal of “those few outraged individuals”
who have nothing better to do than “cre
atively invent instances of racism” either on
this campus, in this state or in this nation.
1 find myself actually agreeing with Mr.
Madrid that instances of racial harmony do
exist on this campus (as they do in the larger
society). I even agree with his concerns that
focusing only on the negative is not only
counterproductive but unfair to the hard
work so many of us (of all colors) have put
in to unlearn our “isms” (racism, sexism,
classism, homophobism, etc.) and look past
these smoke screens to acknowledge our
common humanity.
But I must stress that it is even more dan
gerous to assert that race has reached a point
of irrelevancy as well as callous to dismiss
instances of racism either on this campus or
in the larger society as "invented.” 1 am re
minded here of the young black couple who
were gunned down by ex-paratrooper and
self-professed skinhead fames Burmeister in
North Carolina, the ridiculous uproar that
developed after a black actor was cast in the
role of Jesus in the annual Passion play in
Union City, New Jersey, my own experi
ences recently while driving along the Belt
line Highway and in IHOP and yes, the
racial slurs targeting UCLA basketball play
ers. In short, racism is not dead.
Speaking directly to Mr. Madrid, I ask
what is so threatening to you to believe that
other people on this campus experience
pain based on their perceived racial differ
ences? I invite you to take one of my classes
(with an open mind to being exposed to
ideas/experiences that may not sit well with
you since they clash with your belief that in
cidents of racism are “creatively invented”).
You have truly lived a blessed life as a Fil
ipino-American if you have not been sub
jected to racial taunting, hate stares or dis
crimination. I only wish the same could be
said for all people of color. I challenge you
to systematically study the significance of
racial dynamics in this society, both past
and present, before summarily dismissing
the existence of racism.
Mia Tuan
Assistant Professor
Sociology