Re: e-mail tutoring

[CONDON@siena.edu]

From:	SMTP%"wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu" 28-FEB-1997 21:48:03.22
To:	CONDON
CC:	
Subj:	Re: e-mail tutoring

Hi All,

I just wonder what's so great (and what's at stake in claiming
that there is something great)  about there being "no bodies. No 
genders. Just minds."  What's so wrong with my body (or 
any of our bodies, for that matter) that there is 
a (cyber)space place in the world which is better because
or our physical absence (or the absence of physical difference)??

Can we imagine or construct a cyberspace writing center where difference can
be maintained, celebrated and integrated into our ways of 
speaking, writing, and being? 

(David's reply)
> -->  True. Did you see the latest MCI commerical for the internet?  It
> pictures old folks, young folks, men and women, all different ethnicities,
> all saying the same thing:  "There are no bodies. No genders.  Just
> minds."

(Sara Kimball's reply)
>But I wonder how well these assumptions hold up when subjected to some
>kinds of scrutiny.  Is it really possible to efface all aspects of one's
>identity in writing?  We all display some aspects of our linguistic
>background even in the most standard edited to wherever and back kinds of
>prose, if only in word choice.  In an informal, relatively unmonitored
>context, like that of much online writing, especially in synchronous
>media, I'd expect more markers of regional, ethnic, and sociolinguistic
>background would be apt to show up. I've seen it happen in MUDding.