Nip/Tuck

Second Life Gender Blog Post

One of the factors that make virtual worlds, such as Second Life, so interesting is that one is no longer bound by the physical constraints that come with being a human. In real life I would never be able to experience what it would be like to live life as another race or gender, short of cross dressing or wearing a lot of skin makeup. Normally I can only read about the chronicled experiences of such a person. However with programs such as these, we are able to experience daily life through their eyes. In the past two weeks I have changed my avatar to first resemble a person of different ethnicity than my own, then to resemble a person of female gender. My first experience of being a different race was interesting, but written more in detail in my previous post about finding racism in a virtual community. What I would like to write about right now is my experience of being a woman for a day in Second Life.

My first true female experience came when we were exploring in our class groups to which we were assigned. While walking around the island of Royier I encountered an avatar who inquired about selling my newly female character a gun. Having zero lindens and wanting to test my new attributes, I asked if there were any other means of payment that could be arranged for the virtual weapon. At first the male avatar declined, but after some conversation he gave me the weapon item as a gift. This was quickly followed by a friend request and an offer to join him on a Wild West role playing island named Tombstone, Arizona. I explained that I was busy at the moment, but offered to join him after I was done with my class.

For the rest of the class I explored Second Life as a female avatar, but noticed nothing that differed from any of my other experiences in Second Life. Perhaps this is because I was surrounded by classmates. After class I did take the aforementioned male avatar up on his offer to join him in role-playing on the island of Tombstone, Arizona. Upon going there he presented me with a female Native American outfit to match his character dressed as a Native American male. I got the feeling he was looking for some female companionship for his role-playing escapades in Second Life. For awhile I complied, trying to find out more about what it was like to virtually be a female. I wore the outfit and followed him around Tombstone, Arizona. He told me about the local citizen avatars as well as some current events that occurred within the island. After some time he attempted to make a pass at my character by telling me that I was beautiful. I thanked him, but not liking where the situation was going I bid him farewell and went to explore other locations. For the remainder of my time on Second Life that night he would send me instant messages asking my whereabouts and what I was up to. I didn’t respond and logged off soon after that.

As a male I have never been pursued in such an eager fashion. Second Life allowing me to switch my gender gave me some insight on what it might be like to be a woman. While this was certainly a very interesting experience, I not sure that it is something that I would be inclined to do again. I know nothing about being a female and something about deceiving others and having them show sexual interest in a digital female representation of myself does not sit well with me. While being able to easily switch your appearance in the online worlds is definitely an enticing option, why one would do it for reasons other that of research or experimentation is beyond me.