I found
the article Second Life very
interesting as it was from a woman's perspective. The article focused on gender in the Second
Life online environment. While reading
the article, I was surprised to see how uneasy the women felt about creating an
avatar and joining the rest of the people in the Second Life world. One of the women, Georgia, feared interaction
with others and kept to herself while Delia opted to go in with a male avatar
for "the fear of being woman in a world where she didn't know what that
would entail, but where her (real) life experiences suggested the particular
possibility of being rendered a sexualized object" (p. 10). This fear of being objectified and harassed
in an online game made me think about how screwed up things really are. These women have come to expect to be harassed
because of their gender.
Another
thing that surprised me about the article was how many people followed the
stereotypical views of gender with their avatars. Women had "slender bodies, tiny waists,
big breasts, long hair, revealing clothing," and men had "broad shoulders
and muscular upper bodies" (p. 18).
It was startling to see how many people abandoned their real
characteristics and followed society's view of perfection. This online atmosphere seems like a
reflection of the stereotypical views we have in society. People were still afraid to be themselves
even though they were hiding behind a computer.
Hey SCbaseball!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting point you brought up about the women’s perspective in this article. The real life experiences these women had can be tied to the choices they made in the Second Life program. Its sad how the even in the digital world, being harassed and objectified is a concern for some people out there. I also found how many people followed the stereotypical views of gender in their avatars grabbing my attention. It makes you think how society has influence many of the participants on what the ideal body is. Although I can understand where this may come from, and if one would create an avatar, they may want to create an image that they strive/dream to be. Its funny how you put it, “people were still afraid to be themselves even though they were hiding behind a computer”. It is so true.
-Rob
Nice post SCbaseball, I like the perspective you bring in regards to the avatar based world of Second Life. I also agree with you on how sad it is that many women already have the preconceived notion that they will be objectified based on their gender. It seems to me that in a virtual world like Second Life, women would be subjected to even more misogyny because many men would feel more powerful behind a computer screen. It is much easier to objectify women when there are no consequences that would normally occur in a face-to-face interaction. For this reason I feel that the virtual world is not the ideal place to deal with gender roles and stereotypes because people gain so much false-confidence and often become arrogant and rude. I also liked your comments regarding peoples inability to be themselves. It seems true that behind a computer screen it becomes to tempting not to create the "perfect avatar".
ReplyDeleteHello SCBaseball, I really enjoyed your post about this article. This article really poked out to me. I like that it was on the whole Second Life online world. I enjoyed reading about second life in the previous article Just Like ME only better. This article was about how gender roles are on this online cyber world of Second life. I like how it was from a women's perspective.
ReplyDelete