Living in the Metaverse
gonzo phenomenology of virtual worlds
In today's blog post Letizia made a little surprise to all of us. She even posted the photo of her and her human. Physically, they are not alike. They are both wearing glasses, but he is taller and has longer dark hair. And yes, he is… well, he.
So what’s up with this? Am I a compulsive liar? Am I a gender bender, or gay, or a perv? I don’t think so.
I don't think so either. I rumbled about second life transgendering before. As long as I am quite clear with myself that transgendering is not a crime (nor something to be considered bad behaviour) it seems that many people consider it a lie. But then, isn't being a furry, or a cyborg or a dolphin a lie? Or even having a pair of wings? Nobody said we should make our avatars resembling our look to the closest detail. It is "our world, our imagination", so, I hope, it is a place to run your imagination to the extent. And… what happened to artistic license?
Just consider that one can make a self-portrait better if not insisting on RL look. And then, there are people who are not into representing themselves in second life. This is not MySpace, this is second life. Why not trying to play somebody else? Do you consider actors liars? You know, Brad Pitt is not a pirate with crazy make-up while taking a breakfast.
Problems may arise if one is speaking about real self as about the avatar. One can lie in 1st life tab on profile page. Keep out of that, you are not obliged to place a photograph there. If you do upload a photo of real person, let it be yours. But, how often we do want to know who is behind the avatars we meet, play with and who we love?
Yes, I know the voice is coming on and, like it or not, it will change the look of the world and how we behave in it. For sure, lot of people will "out" them selves and continue their lives in different shape. But, considering the number of the avatars that does not look like their humans and many other factors, many other will make their ways around. Beside the incoming problem of voice, have you ever thought of going out with your "real" identity"? Or you are in panic that your friends will delete you from their lists? Have you ever wanted to share the other half of yourselves, the one that handles mouse and keyboard, with the residents of second life? If you find that your friend's RL identity is not what you saw in metaverse, how would you react?
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7 Responses for "Giving Your Gender Out"
It is not easy to answer this post.
Probably that’s why I never understood why lots of people seem to feel this urgent need to know your real being.
Maybe they hope to meet you in RL someday and have real sex with you or maybe they’re just homophobic, it’s not me who can tell.
As for me, no I never tought about giving my personal RL info and ID on SL…
I took this experience as my second chance to find joy, happiness, and why not, love in a virtual world.
I don’t feel this need to mix the two tings, I’d like and I force myself to keep my RL and SL well separated.
It is not *that* easy, I know. It requires a little of “expertise”, a firm balance, and well a little malice too, I think.
It gets even harder when you find someone so special that drives your imagination crazy and afetr you logoff you can only lie on your bed staring at the roof wondering where he/she/it has been hiding all this time…
It’s just like heavy-daydreaming, but this time it’s not only constricted in our mind.
It’s virtual and real at the same time, and we, the people are those who make things so real, feelings so good…
Yes I was looking a way to drive my inner speculations alive when I was in RL only.
I found this world, I met its residents and now I do feel happy as hell!
Does really your gender mean that much to me until I feel this way?
Not for me, thanx.
I’ve readed Letizia post and, since he/she says there where no sentimental relations, I think nobody should protest… ok, maybe somebody had a wet dream and now feels dirty… grow a bit, you knew the risk :-p.
When personal feelings are involved things get complicated… I don’t give a damm if there is a men or a woman behind the keyboard but, being married, I whould never think about meeting in RL. Some people wants a “full” relation and can be dramatically affected when they discover their partner gender; *smiles mischievously* I imagine sometimes both partners can be surprised.
Voice is a mess. I’ve heard dozens of reasons to avoid it, but it seems logical to think the ones who reject to use voice at all will be tagged as transgenders.
Voice has it’s good points. Not everybody have 200 pulsations for minute, and sometimes a true wisper is worth a hundred words (hummmmm… both hands free, the possibilities ;-).
But at the end, I cannot approve voice at SL; it is a change of rules that brings too much pain. Broken hearts, people socially impaired because they don’t use voice, and people socially impaired because they use it but aren’t native, have hearing problems, etc. It is a brave new world, but not the same brave new world.
(Btw, not only I am not going to use voice at all, I’ve asked my partner to do the same :-p).
*looks at how much she wrote and sighs, noticing it could had been a good idea for her own blog :-p*
I also have the same gender as my creator, be it female. I have no problem with creators having different genders then their avies as long as they don’t lie about that, with which I mean do not state that they are female in RL when they are actually male there. Or vice versa. If you don’t wish to speak about it, don’t, but don’t tell lies.
Well for a nice laugh about gender-bending, take a look at this and following comics…
http://www.slprofiles.com/secondlifecomic.asp?id=15
http://www.slprofiles.com/secondlifecomic.asp?id=16
:)
Reactions so far - and we’re early in the game - have ranged from the disinterested through the ‘my world collapses, nothing is certain’ to a confession. Mind you, the girl whose world collapsed did not blame me - it was just the surprise.
Nobody reacted angrily at all - maybe those not reacting are the angry ones, I have no idea.
Thanks for sharing that.
Now when Eidur linked to Genderman and that epizode with all the questions that should reveal the RL gender… not so long ago, an avatar I met couple of times was about to make me confess my RL gender. I was, and still am, so sorry that I missed to save that log. It was so funny to play that game. And it was so interesting to see all the stereotypes like: you spend time building not dancing in clubs, hence you are biological male. ROFL
I know that many real life transsexuals are using SL as a transition aid, and there’s nothing deceptive about that. They’re choosing avatars that match the sex of their brains. The voice thing could actually benefit these people. Male to female transsexuals (transwomen) would have a safe environment to practice their voices. Most transmen wouldn’t be affected because the testosterone we take deepens our voices.
So the only trans people who would opt out of the voice feature would be pre-transition transsexuals and non-transitional gender benders. But the vast majority of people who would get labeled as “transgenders” for not using the voice feature would in fact be non-transgendered people who are just experimenting with gender roles.
Wolfgang
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