the reality of the implicit risk and
>danger of physical harm is virtualized away and the saying-field
>leveled at the level of the body.
But that seems to me an oversimplification of the effects of a
virtualized space. Although it (what may be born in the absence
of bodily harm) is true in this sense, that whatever dangers are
projected onto a computer screen can be subjected, in the absence of
actual harm, to reflection & critique. But there are other aspects
of virtual reality, the absence of the visual field (I'm not
sure what was meant by "the saying-field leveled at the level of
the body"), which frees us (women) from the gendering gaze (of men)
and frees us all from the brutalities and titillations of the
summing-up glance. (Since the visual field is rich in resources to
exploit, communicatively, its absence can be disempowering for some of us
as well.)
As for this ("quasi-true") story,
(Imagine the shy Asian female
>student shouting down the interrupting large white male Australian
>military officer)
it could be that verbal displays in non-real time are more easily
subjected to strategic interventions - a virtualization of the
martial arts.
- Judy
Judy Diamondstone
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Graduate School of Education
]10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08903