Talk:Jennifer Wei

Jennifer referred to her personal experience with identifying as an American, and being looked at by others as an Asian female as one outside source of information to anchor her reflection. The challenge of self-identifying with one ethnicity, and being considered another ethnicity by society was critical to which templates she selected from Evolver for her personal avatar. In addition, she refers to her Women’s Studies major and education when explaining her thought process on gender specificity and feminism in creating her avatar. This gives insight to the reader on the purpose of her physical features and selections she chose for both her avatars. Overall, she brought outside sources of information to anchor her reflection, but I would have liked to see her incorporate a movie, TV show, or pop culture reference with her reflection. I found it very interesting that Jennifer began her reflection referring to gender issues and stereotypes in social identities and how they were reflected in Evolver through the “white, male norm.” However, I thought she could have expanded the idea of Evolver’s emphasis on gender-specificity, and elaborate more on what physical features or clothing empowered men? In describing the construction of her avatar, she mentions the personal conflict she faced in terms of defining her identity through ethnicity. This is an important cultural issue in relation to social identities in virtual environments. Another issue Jennifer denotes is her challenge in creating a “feminist” look for her fantasy avatar. As a society, we associate men with power, strength, and mental toughness; therefore, it was difficult for Jennifer to incorporate these traits and expressions in building her female avatars. Because feminism relates to gender specificity, I thought this was a great way of linking your reflection on constructing your avatars to social identities in virtual environments. All in all, Jennifer explicitly expresses her opinions on gender issues in avatars among virtual environments and connects them to the construction of her avatars well. However, I felt she could have added more on her personal goals, self-identity, and ambitions in real life and how they were represented by her avatars.