Second Life © has proven to be a powerful platform for
people who wish to explore life on the other side of the gender spectrum, as for
instance transgendered avatars. For many, play-pretending to be the opposite
sex is just a trifle, for others it can be an insult to all avatarkind. It is a
common complaint among male avatars that they fear being preyed upon by other
males in female avatar form, and many female avatars can attest to the begging
of men to “go voice” as it seems to be a common perception that any female
avatar could be a G.I.R.L. (“guy in real life”). Stareyes Galaxy went out to
interview some avatars who came forward as cross-gender experimenters.
“Jane Doe” does not wish to volunteer her real avatar
name. She states good reasons for this: “I
have found that not only will people help me more readily when I ask them as a
girl, but that they also better accept being helped by a female avatar,”
she says. As a real-life male, she has worked as a consultant and helped
corporate avatars get up to speed when first entering Second Life. “I once was specifically asked to appear as
my female self in a strategy seminar,” Jane continues. “Using local chat, I helped people teleport to the location, find their
seats, get started on instant messaging, and so on. I even ran treasure hunts
with the goal of getting the newbie avatars acquainted with navigation, object
manipulation, and camera control. In the [strategy] group discussion, using
voice, it was interesting to hear the reaction toward my robust male voice. I
think it opened the eyes of many with regard to the range of possibilities of
Second Life.” Another use for going female for Jane has been seeing how other
males behave in social situations. ”There
is a lot to learn about both honesty and deceit,” she concludes.
“John
Doe” heard that I was working on this article and wanted to tell his views on
the subject, having experimented on sexual relations as a female alt.
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