Seeking Mavis Beacon

Going into this documentary, I knew that “Mavis Beacon” was a created character for the software program. How I learned that I don’t really remember. I do remember seeing the program on the shelf at Best Buy back in the day and thought that she was a real person who figured out how to take her love for typing and make it accessible to the masses.

On to the documentary… the documentary is about Jazmin and Olivia’s search to find the true true story and/or the true person behind the original iconic image of who a lot of people see as “Mavis Beacon” - Renee L’esperance…

But in away it is about a lot more… what rights do you have about what is out there in cyberspace and do you have the right and ability to correct or remove it.

Also it is a discussion and a meditation on the topic of representation and how that is used and by whom and how that can help or hurt.

It was way deeper than I was expecting and some of the detours that they took I was not expecting.

In the end it was an enlightening experience that shed light on topics and parts of culture that one might not even think about… as a white guy… there where discussions that they had that I didn’t think about.

I would highly recommend this documentary.

And look up a new term - “Cyber Doula”