Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - June 2015 | Page 73

Photo

rightwingnews.com

“Of equal importance
is the realisation that
behind every avatar is a
real human”...

alisation that behind every avatar is a real human, of whatever sex or gender role behaviour
set.

Of course verification processes can be faked by the most
devious of humans in order to
enable an avatar to engage in
activities that the ‘real’ human
operator desires. It may well be
that that extreme effort goes
on in some cases. But the average human usually doesn’t
bother, and writing that they
have been voice verified may
well be a ruse to enable them
to slip under the average viewer’s radar.

days too, however I will choose
to remain very simple here and
only refer to male and female),
and gender, which is the collection of behaviours associated with being female or male.

The opportunities for people
to explore how ‘the other half
lives’ in terms of sex and gender roles are unparalleled in
immersive environments such
as SL. I distinguish here, as is
usual in sex and gender studies between sex, the biological
facts of being male and female
(but yes, I know there are multiple variations on that these

So by using an avatar of the
opposite sex in SL to one’s RL
sex, it is possible to experience,
at least as far as a virtual reality (VR) environment allows,
what a person of the opposite
sex experiences in RL. But, being VR, the experience is never
precisely identical to RL, and
hopefully all users realise this.
Of equal importance is the re-

Some stereotypic gendered
behaviours are dressing in pink
as a girl and blue for a boy, or
wearing long hair to indicate
femininity and short spiky hair
to indicate masculinity, for example.

If, let’s say, a male user is seeking to gain a more full experience of a slice of life as a female, then they may take their
female avatar and hang around
a shopping mall and try chatting to the ‘girls’ (other female
avatars) there while shopping,
getting a feel for the social life
of females. However if more
than half of the ‘girls’ are in fact
fellows, then the experience is
rather unreal in more than one
sense.
So at least for the sake of clarity about one’s individual SL
experience, having some reliable knowledge of the real sex
of the human behind the avatar could come in handy. Next
time I will explore the more
emotional and sexual side of
this dilemma.
sometimes saying they have
been voice verified, or even
verified by cam (using camera). Such verification is