Blog 8

Blog #8

Cybertyping is a term coined by Lisa Nakamura in the text, “Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet” to describe the distinctive ways that the internet propagates, disseminates, and commodifies images of race and racism (Nakamura 2002). Cybertyping is a modern form of gender and ethnic or racial stereotyping that occurs online.

Identity tourism is when the typical white and westernized user of the internet adopts an online persona different from their own and most often based on cultural stereotypes. The user interacts with others online as the adopted persona would in order to enact gratifying scenarios.

The most notable form of identity tourism taking place in the awesome game, “Street Fighter II” is in the way that selecting a character allows the user to “become” the character. Players view an elaborate back-story that gives them the impetus to fight. Then they take control of a monstrous automaton stereotyped by their country of origin and essentially live out a horrendous life of hyper realized violence.

Cybertping happens when players take on the life of characters that fit into very easternized (Japanese) notions. All of the world’s people who are represented are done so in very stereotypical ways. Every character and even their fighting location or home turf is cybertyped. The game was produced by the Japanese so they may be given the fairest treatment in terms of character traits and back stories, but the Japanese culture is typed as well. There are cybertypes of Americans: the rich white punk and Barbie’s boyfriend Ken, who fights in his own dojo and Balrog the egregiously named black boxer from Las Vegas who has his own red carpet and legion of gambling supporters in stretch limousines. The fighters from Japan are portrayed in stereotypical ways as well. There is the karate hero who fights for honor, not fun and a fat sumo who quests for honor as well but fights in a sweaty bath house with pictures of kimono wearing people draping the walls. Even the end of fight trash talk features very typical wordings.


Works Cited

Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity
on the Internet. New York Rutledge, 2002. Print.