Womb Envy?

Freshmen at Berkeley are taking “The Cyberculture Imaginary –– From Login to Disembodiment.” They’re reading Donna Haraway. They’re studying Cyber Culture. They’re learning how important programming is in media culture. They’re learning about cultural constructs and how we’re designed and programmed to express ourselves. They’re being taught to ask questions like, “Does new media help us explore new patterns of behavior. They’re learning how we are in a “post biological period,” and we’re shifting away from the experience of the body, and they’re discussing the “boundary between human consciousness and computational consciousness.” All pretty heady stuff, and I say good for them. So why is it that the most I remember from the introductory pod–casts has to do with “womb envy?”

Womb envy was conceived as a reason why computers have been bestowed a feminine nature, and it’s “problematic.” It allows for the question, “Is the computer a submissive tool, or is it a device that has secret power?” As proof of male womb envy, I’m told, the first screen saver said, “take me, I’m yours.” And the whole idea sounds like a joke to me, mainly because I simply don’t believe that men have been advancing technology because they somehow felt their creative efforts were a substitute for giving birth. Men have been inventive mainly because they wanted to make whatever job in front of them easier on their bodies.

There’s an old saying in the construction trade –– “Show a lazy man a job, and he’ll find an easy way to do it.” It’s a joke of course, because there is a big difference between lazy and smart. A perfect example of making a job easier is the pneumatic nailer, and you’d never know how much easier it makes nailing unless you’ve actually spent some time nailing things together by hand. Of course, all technology becomes a tool of greed eventually. If the workers can nail it down faster then they should be able to put down more material for the same pay… right? I’ve watched technology go that greed–based route in more than just the building trades. Our “computational consciousness” is being used right now for amassing wealth more than anything else. And amassing wealth comes from one source: pure envy.

No, I’m not buying “womb envy.” It’s not even a good rationalization for the fact that the first computer screen saver said “take me, I’m yours.” Did you know that screen savers came out in the early eighties and a song by the New Wave Rock band Squeeze called “Take Me I’m Yours” hit the charts in 1978? It certainly leaves me wondering if that guy who programmed the first screen saver was into new wave rock music, because it sounds likely. But whether that’s true or not, womb envy, especially when applied to the invention of devices that just make work easier, sounds like a supercilious response to penis envy, and I don’t give either one of these ideas any real credence. In fact, I think ideas like this just get in the way of examining the much greater “problematic” consequence of pure envy, which can afflict anyone of us.

Games

Games. Do they affect how we perceive life, and if so in what ways? I remember playing a lot of chess at one time, and when I was on a roll, the diagonal a bishop could travel to take an unprotected pawn would pop into my head while I was changing lanes on the highway. I used to dream about knights leaping rooks to take the queen, and chessboards swimming sideways, like angelfish in a fifty gallon aquarium. And I couldn’t wait to get my hands on another book about how to be a better chess player. Although I doubt that there exists a game player in cyberspace who can’t wait to get his or her hands on a book that will explain how to be a better cyber–killer, I do think that after hours on end of gunning down cyber opponents, the player would be prone to seeing bodies shot to hell in the minds eye at every other stop light. I also think that people who spend a lot of time shoot’n ‘em up on a computer screen, dream a lot about shoot’n ‘em up when they’re asleep. Unless of course, I’m the only person on this planet who flashes on, and dreams about things I’m totally immersed in.

A good source recently told me that there’s no way to measure whether video games contribute to violence, or desensitize us to it, so I haven’t bothered looking into studies on the subject any further –– especially since I also heard recently on a national TV news program the ridiculous statement that smoking three cigarettes a day will cause 70% of the damage to a human body as smoking 2 packs a day. Studies… who can trust them? So, when it comes to cyber games, I prefer to believe what my eyes tell me and let that be the basis for my own conclusions.

We live in an extremely competitive and violent society. In the white–washed news that shows us little of what goes on out there, it takes something “newsworthy,” a synonym for “marketable,” to occur before we get a glimpse of our reality. For instance, the young girl who got her head kicked around like a soccer ball when she was on the ground in that bus terminal. Now that was marketable, yet violence of this kind goes on undocumented and unnoticed in every city in our country every day. Young people have always been prone to aggression, and anyone who knew me when I was younger knows that I have no room to point a finger. However, I’m not pointing a finger, not at our youth anyway; and although I have strong feelings about the effects of computer games, I haven’t really come to a definitive conclusion yet, because I’m still wondering.

I’m wondering if our games have become so competitive and violent because they are just a reflection of who we are. I’m wondering whether instead of being an outlet for aggression, they actually help to perpetuate our competitive violent nature. I’m wondering whether the moguls who are raping our society have recognized competitive violent computer games as a wonderful way to appease the masses, much like the gladiatorial games were used in ancient Rome. And, of course, I’m wondering whether competitive violent computer games actually do contribute to our competitive violent nature. About the only thing I never find myself wondering about is whether competitive violent computer games promote a collective sense of empathy and cooperation.