Are you a gender bender?

Currently I am preparing my degree in Media Studies and working on my dissertation. I am writing about communities in cyberspace, particularly about gender bending. 2nd Life offers here a unique chance for all of us, to play with different roles and masks without having to undergo a lot of preparation and without having to suffer from real-life consequences. In effect, cyberspace and in particular online worlds like 2nd Life offer us the chance to play with different facets of our identity.

I would like to ignite a discussion here, because it would be interesting to know what people think about online gender swapping.
Have you done it yourself or is it out of question for you? Do you maybe even regard it as a deception if someone lies when it comes to his sex?
Did it ever happen to you that somebody you met and socialised with online turned out to be a totally different person in real life?
For those who like to get into the the other sex: why do you do it and what are your personal experiences?

I furthermore would like to know more about yourself, like your age, where you come from, your job and roughly how many hours you spend in 2nd Life per week. You can also send me an email if you do not want to contribute to the study and the discussion in a public forum, which is understandable due to the fact that there is in fact a comforting anonymity surrounding cyberspace.
My email address is: [email]j2j@gmx.de[/email]

Do not regard these questions as written in stone, so feel free to give your opinion and say whatever you think was relevant.

I hope that many of you find these issues as relevant and interesting as I do and I cannot wait to read your comments. Please excuse if there are some grammatical errors, but English is not my mother language and sometimes mistakes are unavoidable…

Important information: Please be aware that I might quote you in my study. Therefore I would like to ask for your permission to include you in my study. Of course I will mask your identity by changing your name, age etc. If you do not wish to be quoted, please say so explicitly in your post/email.

Edit:

Changed my mind on this one.

You can't start any study or ask any questions until you clear your research through Linden Labs.

I do all my gender-swapping in RL.

You will also find that I have conducted an extensive study on the subject and written a dissertation of my own right here (I recommend firefox, IE is dropping one of the graphics):

http://www.dragonscoveherald.com/blog/index.php?p=746

Don't be intimidated by some of the hard science used in this article, and feel free to site me.

I assume all men are women and all women are men. It works. Try it!

For other reference, you might check out this thread or this story to get some more info and thoughts from residents and about residents.

Aimee, you haven't run this test on me yet. I tend to fool everyone given the proper chance. =P

FYI, on a funny note, Trinity Serpentine (my RL gf) and I were up last night, and she suddenly made the observation that she was sitting down, putting together furniture with tools, and asking for a beer and a smoke, while I was standing with my hands on my hips talking about finances.

Just struck us both as yet another reminder who wears the pants in our relationship.

I'm going to lock this thread until I make sure that Julian's research project is in line with our Research Ethics Policy.

Julian has returned a signed agreement saying he will adhere to our Research Ethics Policy. Anyone he interviews will be informed about the project, and nothing anyone says will be published in an identifiable way unless the Resident agrees in advance.

Well, Julian, feel free to interview me or we can discuss the merits of assuming males are females and females are males.

I actually think if you're not looking for a date (or, even if you are) it creates a lot of fascinating possibilties for changing your outlook on reality.

Eeeee! I was hoping they'd open this back up so I could tell you..."Get in the kitchen and make me a sammich!" hehe

Good luck with your dissertation, Julian!

I'm an egg. I bend genders preemptively by not even having one!

I am a genetic female, live as a female, and consider myself femme. I have never portrayed a male or even a butch woman online; I'm not opposed to the idea but I simply prefer to be myself online. Easier to keep things straight that way! I do have a great many friends who present online as genders other than their biological one, and also friends who are deliberately vague or ambiguous about their online gender. (I have friends who are gender-neutral or gender-benders in real life, too, but they usually maintain that online rather than choosing to be male or female.)


Yes, a very dear friend of mine is genetically male but generally plays a female online. He was into cross-dressing for many years and the online role stemmed from that, but even though he no longer dresses he still plays a female online. It was surprising to me to find out that he wasn't female in real life, again because I am used to playing myself and so I assume other people are until I have reason to believe otherwise. I wouldn't say it bothered me in the slightest, though. I'm pretty liberal and open-minded when it comes to gender, gender-bending, and trans issues, so I don't have a problem with shifting a person's gender in my mind.


I am 24 years old and I have been with my current partner (also female) for more than seven years. I have been active online since the age of about eight - I clearly remember celebrating "double digits" with my online friends! I am a college dropout and a professional sign language interpreter. I'm new to SL but not to online interaction - I have been in text-based worlds (primarily MOOs) since late 1995. I'm not spending much time in SL just yet because I don't have a high-speed connection at home yet, though I'll be getting one soon.

I'd be happy to answer more questions via PM or e-mail - [email]meredith@amanita.net[/email]. Sexuality and gender are a particular interest of mine and I look forward to hearing more in this topic.

I was hoping this thread would be reopened.

I am a MTF transsexual. I don't know what you are trying to accomplish with your research, so you may or may not want to IM me online, I am on CET.

I am currently conducting my very private, and very unscientific, experiment. I use two ALTs, one where all can see that I am TS, the other is not informing others of this fact. I am trying to find out how this information will affect how others react to my AV.

I have met others people, who bend their gender, either because they have real gender issues, or because they just have more fun in the opposite gender role. Some of those, do a great job, and are hard to detect, at least for me, others are less convincing.

Just as in real life, there is a great diversity, in why and how residents do their gender bending.

Please we'll talk privately

Thanks to all of you for your numerous emails, posts, ideas, links and general input. It is nice to see that people are actually interested in the issues I try to cover in my study. I will try to answer every email I get, though it might take a few days for me to reply, as I am almost drowning in work

Thanks also to Linden Labs (especially Robin) who gave me great support and who reopened my thread so quickly.

I cannot wait to read more from you all.

I have a female av(child female even) but I don't pretend to be female ;0 I just like my old cosplay av... emotionally attached you might say! Usually i'm using my male av

IM me some questions (I'm on CET too), I may have a few things to say on what advantages can be found at portaying self as a woman instead of a man (I don't really know about the opposite).

I'm just curious, this question isn't related to Julian's research - do you think it is easier for a male to portray a female online, or a female to portray a male? (Assuming the typist is not transitioning IRL, that is, because that indicates they are already adapting to new ways of acting, thinking, and speaking.)

I can tell you this much, RL chickies make really BAD male AVs They all come out too femme.

You say that as if it's a bad thing!

HAHAHAHAHA this thread has me written all over it. :D

Feel free to IM me in-world whenever the grid goes back up. I'm happy to answer any questions or whatever.

:D

My avatar is not me, it is a puppet. I am usually found in a male, tiger striped avatar but I will occasionally play a female. Not because I have a desire to crossdress in RL or have any desire to roleplay a female. I simply get tired of looking at my male ass. Plus, since shopping is a major activity in SL and there is relatively little clothing and such for a male. My Pandia loves to shop and I want to spend time with her so I shop a lot. If I were strictly male all the time, shopping would be an almost pointless endevor for me.

I have a friend who is male, married and straight who plays a female alt for the same reason, SL really doesn't cater to males that much really. It is getting better though, it is far better now than it was when I started back in May.

LOL, that is an awsome article!

to address the topic at hand, I have a male and a female av. I use the female av when I want to shop or dance, or if I'm feeling out numbered as a guy. I use my male av when I'm building not because of any stereo type but because thats where I started all my projects. my fem av changes clothes about once a week, guy av about once every 2 months. irl I'm an introvert and don't genderbend at all. I just can't modify my rl av enough . without invasive surgery that is and I think my mental and physical gender match anyway. Oh, and I play on average 2 hours a day.

you know, I have such a hard time differentiating between this and normal social interaction and curiousity that doesn't require an agreement or is already covered by the tos.