SecondLife Gender Experiment
Well I gave it a shot and I can’t believe the impact it had on me and the way I see my avatar as an extension of myself. First, even though it was my idea in the first place, I couldn’t believe how nervous this made me. I had time to do it but I was putting it off and then Kate Spatula “double dog dared” me and who can resist that?! I then felt that I immediately had to go hide to do it by going back to my SIM (Middletown) which is currently closed so I knew no one could see. Why be so modest and self-conscious about an avatar?
The next big realization I had was that I was highly invested in being “attractive.” It was tough for me to tolerate my avatar being ugly in any way. As I made changes to make Intellagirl into “Intelladude” I caught myself thinking about whether or not he was attractive or not. I’m still trying to figure out why that was important to me.
I will say, however, that once I’d done it, once I’d made my male version, I was rather pleased with how I looked. It seems that as a male I feel much more comfortable being silly. Is it true that in real-life men are a bit more willing to look silly in a hat, a funny t-shirt etc? Whereas women are more concerned with how they appear?
My thoughts about my reaction to the experiment are still cooking and I still intend to put on my “dude” avatar (as I’m calling it) and troll around a bit to get some more reactions.
Have you tried changing the gender of your avatar? How did it feel? Drop me a comment!
July 22nd, 2006 at 5:22 pm
At first I was surprised you wanted to hide. You seem so uninhibited about expressing yourself through your avatar. But then I thought about your last podcast and wondered if the investment you’ve made in cultivating your Intellagirl image had made it harder for you to try on a different look.
I switched, too, last week. Seeing me in female form, Danielle offered to take me shopping. I’m sure she had the best of intentions, but the thought of shopping for women’s clothes nearly made me break out in a sweat.
My switcher story is on slfarley.blogspot.com
September 16th, 2006 at 3:19 am
I have not completely swapped out genders, but have experimented with gender based items such as clothing and their effect on others. What was funny is that I, too, teleported to a barren rural-based camping site to make the switch before emerging back in more populated areas.
October 30th, 2006 at 3:56 am
When i was an sl noob i lost my male av and so quickly tricked up a fairly andro female one. It’s become my SL identity and I think represents my personality more now. Recently I re found my male av and wore it around for a while. It made me feel extremely self-conscious. People reacted to me differently. Friends who know I’m male underneath had a hard time relating to it. Though it might seem strange i get the feeling that i look more effeminate in my male av, and the female one is more of a roustabout personality. Maybe there’s something in the sex of your av that you relate to, and maybe partly it’s that by changing sex your av becomes unfamiliar. I think it’s a bit of both. I made my own hair, and i feel that if i changed that or my skin, i’d just cease to be me recognizably me.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:28 am
hi
a brit here
just wanted to say i think your research is very interesting
haven’t looked at all you have been doing, these experiemnts are interesting have you thought about re-inventing more social pysc stuff like miligram and measuring the differnce
perhaps i’m taking it all to seroiusly - uk research have just been putting out calls to fund this kind o stuff http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/rapp0607/
sorry you prob cant go for it but good luck with work
jim
January 11th, 2007 at 5:36 am
Interesting comments. I got bored with an avatar that looked too much like myself (male). What’s the point of having a second life if you are the same as IRL? So I created a female avatar (I didn’t really want to be a rabbit/Darth Vader/Dinosaur etc). She’s not very remarkable but much more fun to be than my realistic avatar - interesting to see life from the other side now and again.
I have no intention of using SL for hanging out/ dancing/dating and so on, mostly just checking locations to see new applications. In an academic situation I’ll turn up as (roughly) myself of course but the rest of the time (when exploring) it’s surely up to me if I am a woman/furry animal/robot/dinosaur.
If SL was full of exact representations of RL it wouldn’t be so intriguing. The whole point is to try out new roles isn’t it?
All this does raise questions of what happens when you use SL for serious purposes (teaching, meetings) and your class is full of rabbits, monsters and superheroes. Can you have a serious discussion with someone who looks ridiculous? I find that difficult. Maybe people need 2 personalities on SL; one that is relatively realistic and one that is pure escapism.
The whole issue of race and gender in SL is an eye-opener - it shouldn’t matter but it does to many people. Reasearch needed on how many women choose to be men and how many non-whites choose “white” avatars - or vice versa of course. And most importantly why?
September 13th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I have two accounts, my main one is male and my other one is female. I’ve invested about the same amount of time and lindens developing both avatars. I think I’m the opposite of you, because I’m more comfortable goofing off and socializing on my female account. I guess it’s because I still consider my male avatar to be somewhat an extension of myself, and it carries the same shy, antisocial tendecies that I do in real life. However, to me my female avatar is like a compltely new personality that I can shape and mold into any image that I want.