VINCENT VIGIL'S

                   HYPER TEXTUAL             

ESSAY

Index to Hyper textual Essay

Virtual Misconduct:  Rape and Violence in Cyberspace

By Vincent Vigil

“When we write in cyberspace we create...But also creating a space where one’s words really do create reality, where the  only world available is what members have chosen to describe.  The agreement to create a world on the MOO, then, and to create a belief, becomes imbued with the weight...and the question comes to bear  on how participants create, relate to, react to, and interact with this world of “mere” words, mere narrative”

         Cyberspace gives individuals an opportunity to become immersed in technology.  This essay reflects how the power of text-based worlds, MOOs and MUDS, utilize the power of the imagination and language.  It is through this power of imagination and language that individuals participate in virtual misconduct as seen in the acts of violence, cyber rape, and deceit.  In this essay, I am going to show how pseudonyms, acts of the imagination, and the power of language are catalysts for virtual misconduct with in the domain of cyberspace-MOOs and MUDs in particular, especially in LambdaMOO.  Virtual Misconduct is an important issue that must be discussed in order to understand cyberspace as well as the direction we are progressing technologically.  Also in this essay I examine how far individuals" generate experiences, relationships, identities, and living spaces only through the interaction with technology" (Turkle 21) which renders some of the participants as victims, cyber victims.  I am not arguing that cyberspace is entirely detrimental in nature but I want to focus on the malicious acts that occur within cyberspace.

Cyber Rape: Acts of Imagination or Malice?

         Individuals or the participants in the MOOs or MUDs collaborate to shape and create language.  The collaborative narration shows how individuals
communicate through written text.  In cyberspace “rape can occur without any physical pain or damage" (Dibbell).  Actions are conducted through words.  Cyberspace constitutes a freedom of speech in which some individuals engage in a narrative discourse that is negative and harmful.  Individuals take it upon themselves to extend themselves on the screen and conduct themselves in virtual misconduct.  The power of language and imagination enables individuals to  indulge themselves in any form of narrative discourse-even if some participants become victims to violence and rape in cyberspace.  The essay Virtual(ly) Law: The Emergence of Law in LambdaMOO ", Jennifer L. Mnookin defines virtual rape as:

"A virtual "rape", also known as "MOOrape", is defined within LambdaMOO as a sexually-related act of a violent or acutely debasing or profoundly humiliating nature against a character who has not explicitly consented to the interaction. Any act which explicitly references the non-consensual, involuntary exposure, manipulation, or touching of sexual organs of or by a character is considered an act of this nature".

The individuals who manipulate and partake in the sexually related acts of violence can use "special “verbs” or Moo code, on their characters that allow people to “do” things to them, producing amusing output" (Cherney).  According to Jennifer Mnookin in "Virtual(ly) Law: The Emergence of Law in LambdaMOO", she contends that violence is commonplace, but the actions are constructed of mere words:   

“In Abaxas vs. lucifuge2, for example, a player initiated a dispute against a character who was frequently insulting and using "violent" verbs against other players; repeatedly moving them without their permission to places within LambdaMOO such as "the cinder pile" and "Hell." In this case, nearly everyone agreed that lucifuge2's behavior was obnoxious”.  

The redundant acts of violence are not consensual in nature, thus become detrimental to the victims because the acts of violence may be seen by other on the MOO or MUD.   The essay "Cyberspace, Or, The Unbearable Closure of Being" by Slavoj Zizek affirms that these acts of violence are conducted on a basis of regularity because there are no limitations or repercussion for the reenactment of violence in virtual worlds or Virtual Reality.  The VR activity of victimizing a woman (for example) is performed because the are no real life anxieties (punishment/jail) to deal with:

“Acting out a fantasy scene in VR allows to bypass the deadlock of the dialectic of desire and its inherent rejection: when a man bombards a woman with flirtatious promises about sexual favors he would like to bestow on her...In VR, I can do it, act it out, without really doing it, and thus avoid the anxiety connected with RL activity...the inhibition or shame is  suspended(136)

Cyberspace-MOOs and MUDs are a free for all for violent acts.  Violence in cyberspace follows with in the continuum of rape as seen in "Building a World with Words: The Narrative Reality of Virtual Communities" by Beth E. Kolko.  Kolko asserts that  a random act of violence "would most likely look something like the following:  Marin walks over to Reina and slaps her.  Reina has several choices at this point in the narrative.  She can ignore the action and continue as if it did not occur.  However, the action was witnessed by every one in the room".  The question remains "Are these acts of Virtual Misconduct formed through the imagination or of malice intent?"  The violent acts that occur in cyberspace like virtual rape and violence are a combination of both the extreme imagination and malice for those who want to violate others without consent. 

THE MR. BUNGLE AFFAIR

         The character of Mr. Bungle is the epitome of how an individual’s extreme imagination on a MOO, specifically LambdaMOO, fostered victimization.  The essay “A Rape in Cyberspace or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society" By Julian Dibbell contends how "a  story of a man named Mr. Bungle, and of the ghostly sexual violence he committed in the halls of LambdaMOO, and most importantly of the ways his violence and his victims challenged the 1000 and more residents of that surreal, magic-infested mansion to become, finally, the community so many of them already believed they were”.  The Mr. Bungle Affair is a landmark illustration in how both RL(Real Life) and VR(Virtual Reality) transcends into one another.  Cyberspace enabled the character of Mr. Bungle to participate in sadistic fantasies while on the Lambda MOO.  He manipulated his victims with a ``voodoo doll,'' a subprogram that served the not-exactly kosher purpose of attributing actions to other characters that their users did not actually write” (Dibbell).  Even though the violent acts of misconduct and violence were done in a virtual world they affected the victims in real life:  "Months later, the woman in Seattle would confide to me that as she wrote those words posttraumatic tears were streaming down her face--a real-life fact that should suffice to prove that the words' emotional content was no mere playacting" (Dibbell) 

Julian Dibbell argues that "No bodies touched. Whatever physical interaction occurred consisted of a mingling of electronic signals".  The Mr. Bungle affair was sexual and violent in nature thus the "crime provoked such powerful feelings, and not just in legba…Even players who had never experienced MUD rape (the vast majority of male-presenting characters, but not as large a majority of the female-presenting as might be hoped) immediately appreciated its gravity and were moved to condemnation of the perp"(Dibbell). Mr.Bungle committed a crime on the Moo violating virtual bodies but in no way touching the physical  bodies of the individuals.  Do actions speak louder than words?  Not in the worlds of MOOs and MUDS.  The word or written text is supreme.

        The appropriate punishment for Mr. Bungle's crime ( sexual acts) was to be toaded from the LambdaMOO.  Only wizards are vested with the power to toad individuals like Mr. Bungle:

“The oligarchs -- MOO-founder Pavel Curtis as well as several other players who had participated in LambdaMOO since its infancy Äwere known as "wizards"; they were responsible for both technical integrity and social control on the MOO. The wizards were benevolent dictators. They set the rules of conduct within the MOO; they decided when to increase a player's quota (the quantity of disk space reserved for objects and spaces of her creation); they attempted to resolve disputes among players. Occasionally the "wizocracy" meted out punishment, the most extreme form of which was to "recycle" (destroy) a player for incorrigibly antisocial behavior”(Mnookin).

Toading is the a solution to end cruel acts like the ones performed by Mr. Bungle:  

 ``toading'' still refers to a command that, true to the gameworlds' sword-and-sorcery origins, simply turns a player into a toad, wiping the player's description and attributes and replacing them with those of the slimy amphibian. Bad luck for sure, but not quite as bad as what happens when the same command is invoked in the MOOish strains of MUD: not only are the description and attributes of the toaded player erased, but the account itself goes too. The annihilation of the character, thus, is total".

Mr. Bungle was ostracized for his evil acts of cyber violence and rape thus toading was the ideal and only punishment because it occurred via the MOO.  Even though the character of Mr. Bungle was toaded from the LambdaMOO, he amazingly reappeared through the character of Dr.Jest.   Is there any real punishment for repeated offenders like Mr. Bungle?.  I guess not in cyberspace.  This is where pseudonyms in the virtual world contribute to virtual misconduct and are problematic.

        Does a MOO crime like The Mr. Bungle Affair have real life implications?  Yes, of course.  In fact,  the Mr. Bungle case spawned a anti rape measure in the MOO:

“An anti-rape measure, spurred in part by an incident, infamous in LambdaMOO, in which a character named Mr. Bungle spoofed several players in a public space, forcing them to engage in violent sex acts and making it appear that they were acting voluntarily, represents the opposite extreme. This petition recommended that "toading," or permanent expulsion, become the recommended punishment for confirmed virtual rapists”(Mnookin)

In cyberspace violent acts occur all of the time.  MOOs and MUDs are constructed of mere text(words).  It is through the narrative discourse that individuals like Mr. Bungle participated in violence.  It is when these words become violent and offensive that must be addressed and furthermore stopped.

Pseudonyms: The Catalyst for Misconduct

        The concept of pseudonyms promote the participants in cyberspace to participate in virtual misconduct.  The construction of identity and the body in a virtual world enables individual to explore and take fantasy and imagination to the extreme. In "Body Language: The Resurrection of the Corpus in Text-Based VR"by Candace Lang Body asserts that the concept of pseudonyms greets the participants in the Moo immediately:

"When you first log on to a MOO, you are assigned a guest alias (or pseudonym), and you find yourself in a virtual architectural space, such as a room or public square. You know where you are because a detailed description of the place reads out on your screen, along with the names of the other characters who are currently "present". (Let me distinguish from the outset between the player, or person sitting in front of the computer screen, and the character she manipulates, who is in the virtual space.)".

              Pseudonyms are a catalyst for virtual misconduct because the participants are able to manipulate their bodies and objects that surround them in the virtual environment.  Lynn Cherney's essay "Objectifying" the Body in the Discourse of an Object-Oriented MUD" asserts the power of pseudonyms through the collaboration of the imagination and narrative that takes place in the MOO environment.:

"identity-shift, even to nonhuman or abstract discourse entities, is commonplace in the course of playful conversation in a MUD. Even in nonplayful conversation, the user is subjected to the split identity of being physical and corporeal at a terminal, and being an entity of code which can be manipulated by herself or other characters. Some manipulations are amusing, part of collaborative fun; others are more sinister, and raise profound questions about the ethics surrounding construction and use of bodies and the identification of the location for agency in interactive spaces. The self is constantly in question and open to redefinition in such an environment, even through the narrow bandwidth of text, and this experience may be exhilarating or terrifying".

  The laws of nature in the MOO are strictly unconstrained and the concept of the pseudonym leaves the door open for mischief and malice:  

"A...character need in no way correspond to a person's real life identity; people can make and remake themselves, choosing their gender and the details of their online presentation; need not even present themselves as human. Of equal significance, LambdaMOO need not be bound by the institutional structures of real life (or, as it is often known within the MOO, RL.). Indeed, LambdaMOO takes to the hilt the notion of reality as a social construction"( Mnookin).

Pseudonyms demonstrate the power of  language and the imagination.  Cyberspace enables individuals to create and construct the body as " something apart of the true self" ( Hawisher and Selfe 271).  Pseudonyms permits individuals to participate immerse themselves not only in a virtual world be also in acts of misconduct like deceit, violence, and cyber rape.

   F-email or Male?

        The online identities in the various MOOs and MUDs are constructed through narrative discourses.  The manipulation of words enables individuals to participate in the manifestation of crossing gender.  In “Objectifying the Body in the Discourse of an Object-Oriented Mud” by Lynn Cherney asserts that in MOOs/MUDS:  “The position of the body is problematic”.  The concept of identity and the body  in  virtual worlds such as MOOs and MUDs, gives individuals and endless amount of possibilities to virtually reconstruct themselves.  The female and male binary in the virtual worlds are truly ambiguous and difficult to differentiate and this is where it becomes complicated. In cyberspace the "persona in a physical body, is meaningless, men routinely use female personae whenever they choose, and vice versa. This wholesale appropriation of the other has spawned new modes of interaction. Ethics, trust, and risk still continue, but in different ways" (Stone). The transformation into a virtual body enables individuals to participate in cross gender roles without warning.  The transformation of genders opens up the door for deceit, another cause of cyber victimization.

        In a virtual setting, the concept of male and female is left up to the imagination.  Individuals transcend on to the screen to become what ever they please.  Cyberspace enables individuals to experiment and it is through this experimentation that fosters deceit because a woman can easily portray a man, and vice versa. In "Body Language: The Resurrection of the Corpus in Text-Based VR" by Candace Lang confirms how indefinite the body and gender becomes once in a virtual setting: 

"John, as I'll call my protagonist, met Victoria on LambdaMOO, and fell in love with her. They built virtual homes together on Lambda and Chiba MOOs, had an intense virtual sex life (so much so that Victoria was fired from her job for doing it on the office computer), and even talked frequently on the telephone. They were considering leaving their respective real-life partners for each other (John was engaged, and Victoria was married, with one child), when suddenly Victoria got cold feet and confessed to her husband, who logged on and told John to keep his virtual mitts off his real wife. Various complications ensued, but the whole thing finally blew up, and as you've no doubt guessed, Victoria turned out to be Victor".       

Crossing genders becomes problematic when individuals participate in netsex or relationships and one of the participants is deceived by the illusion of a partner's gender.  The sexual experience on the net "Netsex, tinysex, virtual sex--however you name it, in real-life reality it's nothing more than a 900-line encounter stripped of even the vestigial physicality of the voice. And yet as any but the most inhibited of newbies can tell you, it's possibly the headiest experience the very heady world of MUDs has to offer" (Dibbell)  The transformation of gender roles may cause one of the participants to become deluded because he or she identified his or her partner with a particular gender " [i.e., the male-having-sex-with-the-ideal-female]" (Lang) 

Another prime example of deceit is seen in the essay "Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?"  by Sandy Stone.  The following is a passage from Stone's essay that captures how easily one can be mislead and become a victim of deceit:

“Let us begin with a person I will call Julie…Julie was a totally disabled older woman, but she could push the keys of a computer with her headstick. The personality she projected into the "net"--the vast electronic web that links computers all over the world--was huge. On the net, Julie's disability was invisible and irrelevant. Her standard greeting was a big, expansive "HI!!!!!!" Her heart was as big as her greeting, and in the intimate electronic companionships that can develop during on-line conferencing between people who may never physically meet, Julie's women friends shared their deepest troubles, and she offered them advice--advice that changed their lives. Trapped inside her ruined body, Julie herself was sharp and perceptive, thoughtful and caring.  After several years, something happened that shook the conference to the core. "Julie" did not exist. "She" was, it turned out, a middle-aged male psychiatrist. Logging onto the conference for the first time, this man had accidentally begun a discussion with a woman who mistook him for another woman... A totally disabled, single older woman was perfect. He felt that such a person wouldn't be expected to have a social life. Consequently her existence only as a net persona would seem natural. It worked for years, until one of Julie's devoted admirers, bent on finally meeting her in person, tracked her down...The news reverberated through the net. Reactions varied from humorous resignation to blind rage. Most deeply affected were the women who had shared their innermost feelings with Julie".

In "Embodying Technesis: Technology Beyond Writing"  Mark Hansen affirms in how virtual deceit transcends into RL (real life):  "When it was revealed that "Julie" was actually a middle-aged male psychiatrist,, the women "she" helped reacted with out rage, employed the rhetoric of rape"(16).  The women who confide in the online persona "Julie" were fooled emotionally and personally.  The interaction of  Julie and the violated women were predicated on deceit.  After the previous examples, the big question is "Are you female or male?".  In a virtual world, gender becomes fragmented and vague through the power of the imagination.

CONCLUSION

           Cyberspace-MOOs and MUDs, enables individuals to create reality through words.  The power of the imagination and use of language generates new experiences, identities, pseudonyms, and bodies thus the concepts become ambiguous.  This interaction with technology allows individuals to indulge themselves in this ambiguity which promotes virtual misconduct-cyber rape, violence and deceit.  A final question remains, Is cyberspace a catalyst for virtual misconduct?  When one participates in a virtual world, one will never know what is going to happen but hey I guess we will have to leave up to the imagination.

Works Cited

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