An avatar’s gender

I have been reading a lot of posts about individuals using an avi of the opposite gender. I have seen all the reasons some people do it (more business ended ones like poses or animations) and some just for fun. But I have also read a few times that a lot of the female avis are really male, and I read somewhere that escorts are male (supposedly) also. Is it because the men want their "female avi" to be a lesbian, and have sex that way, or what are some reasons you have heard why other people do this. I am just curious. Thanks for your input!

Gee, it's been two or three weeks since this topic's come up in the rotation. I guess we were due.

Cat...before the hooraw starts, let me draw your attention to the Search function in the upper right corner of the forum window. Entering "gender" there will get you an afternoon's worth of reading enjoyment.

I did- and unless the title is somewhat misleading- from what I looked at nothing really stood out- just that data collection from the person about avis and gender- the word gender is used a lot throughout the forums and just wasn't specific enough for me to find a thread I was looking for. Maybe there are bits and pieces scattered throughout threads that I didn't see- but the titles of the threads weren't specific enough for what I was looking for. sorry I missed something.

hmm...I see what you mean, although a lot of those threads do contain interesting material relating to your question. But you would have to do a good bit of digging in some of them to find it.

You could also try a search on "Voice", especially the long rants against it back last summer, say around May 07 - Aug 07. Cross-gender issues featured in a lot of those threads.

But I'll toss you a bone. Try this one:

/327/13/228649/1.html

No problem,I went for a year not using an alt but then in these forums began seeing that people were using alts for traffic ,testing and stuff so.I decided to do the same.First alt was male like me but blond ,second ginger male,looks like Chris Evans LOL.I then decided to have blond,brunette and ginger female alts to even it up. I do not relate to any of my alts and drag them out if I need them or get bored.

Search is a pain in the ass. You get 500 pages of things that don't apply to what you are looking forn when you use it.

I think people view the little avatar on the screen in many different ways. From what I gather in my experiences in SL and reading things in the forums these are my opinions.

Some take the avatar to be themselves and they make sure to look the same in RL as in SL and to only put RL things in their profiles. They're like Thermians.

Some people roleplay and they are actors to which SL is their stage. I'm a gangsta. I'm a cowboy. I'm the lead ballerina in the Bolshoi. Getting their 'character' perfect is their main concern and they try to maintain a consistent look and behavior.

Some view their avatars as dolls or as other people who are not them that they are in control of. Sort of like sitting back behind another person and having a remote control to move them around. They're not specifically roleplaying a certain character but they are playing as just someone else.

Some just think of the avatar as the interface to this 3d program called SecondLife. They don't invest any humanity into the avatar and may as well just have a flashing cursor or box representing themselves in SL.

Some think of their avatar as a representation of their inner selves. It's them... but it's what they feel like they really should be but don't look like in real life.

Some just need an extra employee or two and really don't invest any humanity or personality. For them the avatar alt is just like setting up a mannequin.

You created 5 new SL accounts just to account for different hair color???

Thank you... I did try!

Absolutely ,although I did consider green

The best reason I ever heard was a few guys said they created females so they always had a cute ass to look at.

Thats true too

Which is why they changed the lead character in Tomb Raider to a female. Lance Croft would have been *rubbish*.

I'm sorry, I know it's very immature of me, but given the subject of the thread and your female av, that just made me snicker


.

I think the cute ass reason is probably popular My brother, who is not really into gaming at all except to play a few with his son on xbox..... got himself a golf game for his laptop.......because...he could make his own players and he was obsessed with making female golf players and giving them the perfect ass LOL He would just sit there with his laptop and watch his little female player bend over and swing. LMAO

This shed a whole new light on my brother for me, hehe.

But truthfully....I don't really get actually wandering around as the opposite gender. It's one thing to create just for the fun of it.....and when I make my male shapes I enjoy the process. But I couldn't 'be' a guy in SL.... I have zero desire for anyone to see me as anything other than female.

As for creating alts... I don't do that either. If I want to change my hair or skin or shape...I just do it. I could care less about consistancy of character cause I'm not RP'ing anyway. I'm just having fun.

The thing that fascinates me more than the fact that there are guys running around as girls....is the fact that other guys actually fall for it.

/me whispers: I'm not actually 10. (^_^) .... *Presses Shout button*

ROFL

Why not just buy many colors of hair for one avatar? By "alt" do you mean "Independent Second Life account" that you have to create whole new name, etc? Or do you mean "avatar" where in one account can have many different shapes, skins, hair?

There is also lot of people who think you should be same gender, race as your real life self for whatever reason.
This avatar is fairy elf, he is white. I got others one is black and was design by rl boyfriend who black one day as he was looking over my shoulder. (And no he doesn't know my password)
I have female for testing clothes when I can't find female friends to model or try them on.

/me makes a note to go find an ass avi for the next time she is dancing at the Hangout and Yosef is there.

I had a couple of hecklers in my SL Sex class last week, who kept harping on the theme that all the girls (especially the escorts) in SL were really guys, and how oooogy that was. Your phrase, "...other guys actually fall for it" is, I think, the key to this attitude.

It implies that someone playing a cross-gender avatar is out to trick other people, to play a joke on them, to "get them to fall for it" and embarrass them. I'm sure that there are some people out there who actually are doing this.

But IMO they're in the minority. The cross-gender players that I've met (the ones I know about...I've probably met many more who haven't told me) are living a version of themselves that they can't do in RL. It's the avatar that's the "real" person, and the oddly-gendered physical body back there in RL that's the "trick".

Which is why I take everyone I meet in SL at face value. You are who you choose to be, here. I think for a lot of people that's the very greatest feature of SL, better than flying, better than teleporting.