[-empyre-] re-skinning?

["Melinda Rackham" <melinda@subtle.net>]

hey ive been enjoying the discussion and sites so far..
when i was looking at  keiths auction site for this blackness
http://Obadike.tripod.com/ebay.html#DESC
and the descriptions of what the blackness may be used for, eg using the
terms nigga , sista etc  dating black peopel without scrutiny, etc  i was
reminded how i have been trained thru gender politics that i can never speak
for another persons perspective of culture, gender or race so i find the
fantasy of  temproary reskinning appealing..  a relief from my white female
australianess.

 i have to agree that satire is  a very  powerful  tool. years ago when i
was at art school and was discovering orientalism/postcolonoicalism   i did
a performance work called "the wedding feast- beauty loves the beast"  on my
wedding day to an north african man in a very large antique display case in
the underground museum station in the center of sydney ..i was beauty (of
course!) and he was the beast..there was lots of mirrors and fur , exotic
flowers and lush drapery, sexual metaphores and fainting and fanning,.and
lots of well dressed wedding guests  standing round partying whiel we were
on public display., much to the mystery of commuters who coudlnt work out if
it was a real or not..   this sort of seems a bit naieve now and we are
long divorced, but i could only have done that performance then on thoes
issues around interracial sexuality because of my temporary proximity by
marraige to blackness other wise it would have been read as an appallingly
raceist.. so the color of speaking position seems to be everything..

 thre have been numerous debates in australia over the last few years about
in authentcially speaking from an "other" position.. one was  where a
novellist have claimed to be of a specific ethnicity and had written a high
profile prizewinning book form that persopective but when it was discovered
she was a white middle class woman the prize was withdrawn and she  was
publically discredited,. same with some dot paintings made by the koori
artist's white partner ..the paintings were the same paintings but they
dropped in value becuse the artist wasnt authentically the percieved artist
or wasnt authentically black.. ? i couldn't quiet work out the politics of
that misrepresentation.

ive also been pretty interrested in  representations of gender and race on
the net in 3d multiuser worlds and note that most are tall white and male,
or women with impossible breasts..and wonder if anyone does reseacrh into
race in online worlds.  i know edward castronova just did a study (which i
habevent read all of)  which found women avatars (with identical skills )
are worth 30 percent  less in $ terms than male avatars when sold .. i was
wondering about african, japanese chinese, arab,  koori, sami, native
american, maori, etc  avaTars ?


Melinda Rackham
net.artist
http://www.subtle.net