Being the Opposite sex, do you notice a big difference????

Guilty.

Well then...do as you will! Lol...what can I say? Your world, your imagination.

What every guy does... Ask them to cam.

I'm firmly in the camp of it does matter when it comes to rl gender (far moreso than sl gender if I pause to think about it), so I'd say tell them.

But the chances of such an approach are somewhat slim, if my year and a bit are anything to go by...

Do the emo thing of course.

Pep (Go to the mens room and slash your wrists.)

PS But not so much that you couldn't use your cell phone to txt for help, cc all your friends.

You're right, but that's not the "only right".

IMHO, it's fine to play an av that doesn't match your RL sex any way you see fit, as long as it's engaged role play and not intentionally deceitful. If someone wants to experiment with walking the other side of the street, well, good for them: SL is the perfect place for it.

To clarify: People shouldn't assume anything about your RL that you haven't said or pretty clearly implied (in your RL tab or conversations explicitly about RL). If they do, it's their bad, not yours. You're entitled to play a role to your heart's content, as long as it's not fraudulent.

Note that I'd say that guys who av-up as girls, seduce or get seduced by women at women-only places, and then say "haha, fooled you", are being fraudulent. Men who are honestly playing a lesbian female character are not. Yup, there's a fuzzy line between these.

The fully honest approach is laudable. However, I find it a bit of a buzz kill to learn that the hot vixen I'm chatting up is actually a fat bald old man living in his mother's basement. (I consider that a weakness of mine, but I can't deny I'm that way.) So, I prefer the "don't ask don't tell, unless you really want to know" approach.

When I feel like sharing my RL side, I offer it (either as conversation about RL or maybe a pic), and leave it to my playmate offer likewise or not. If she doesn't, I prefer to assume it's because she's a world famous supermodel.

I know a number of guys who were quite upset to find that their lovers weren't actually RL females. Understandable, but if they care, they should ask. If asked, you should either answer honestly, or refuse to answer.

Ok... THAT was teh funniez

I was wondering this very question about gender, and its importance in SL. When I first logged on to SL about a month ago I was a complete space case about my avatar. "I wanna be a pixie! No a regular girl! Ooo theres a a wood elf!"

So somehow I ended up as a male wood elf and then a few hours later as a male human, because in the gaming world gender seems largely irrelevant, and so silly me assumed that went for SL as well.

I was also honest in my SL conversations with my new friends, talking about my husband in between chasing shiny things. So the assumption was made by one of my very kind new friends that I was a gay male in RL (fwiw I am female in RL). I felt so bad! If she had asked me, or if I had know to put that information in my profile, there wouldn't have been what ended up looking a lot like deceit - even if it was unintentional.

I immediately went and made a female avi (and a tiny, and a dragon...) and I am only just now beginning to realize how, and more importantly where and when, gender is actually an issue (besides the nekid wrestling places ).

I find it interesting here in this thread that if someone is running an avatar of the opposite gender, it is usually considered an alt? Is that generally true of SL? That there is an expectation that your main character is the same gender of yourself in RL?

No.

An alt is an account that is different from your 'main' or first/most often used account (either/or/both.) It has nothing to do with gender or type of avatar.