Multiverses, Gender Stereotypes in

“Traditional” Gender Roles in the Multiverse

Although the numbers of female video game players within the multiverse have risen over the past decades, currently making up about 40 percent of all participants, a number of gender stereotypes remain. This is so partly because gender roles in the multiverse are largely a function of the stories, films, and video games that are the influences behind its worlds, and as such, are often made up of detailed, customizable, computer-generated stereotypes that move about and interact in environments that can range from mundane to fantastical. Pictures of well-muscled, fully armed, aggressive male avatars and [Page 988]of scantily dressed vixens are common, but so are nonhumanoids, many of whom nevertheless retain some male or female identities and characteristics. Within the universe of Second Life, participants are initially given two choices of avatar gender-male or female-and are offered ways to design and redesign their avatar once its gender identity has been established. Given this choice, a number of participants who decide to customize a female avatar (regardless of their real-life gender identity) tend to design a body with exaggerated features, such as a large bust; a tiny waist; long, flowing hair; and overly long legs. Those who choose a male-appearing avatar tend to create, among other things, a muscular, tall, broad-shouldered body. The female-appearing avatars will often pose and move in a more seductive manner, and their sitting and standing positions are often deliberately designed to signal their femininity, as often does the higher pitch of their “voices.” Indeed, Second Life's visual, highly interactive, and customizable platform often serves as host to a variety of stereotypical gender modeling that emphasizes not a broad spectrum of gender identities but hypersexualities.

Body types and manner of movement are not the only elements of game play that seem to retain much of the physical world's gender-based stereotypes. Avatar behaviors and interactions are also often assessed and interpreted through the lens of gender stereotypes. Research has shown that in EverQuest, players offer more assistance to female-appearing characters than they would to male-appearing ones, to such an extent that a number of (real-world) males choose to appear as female avatars. Other studies have suggested that while within the multiverse, one might retain strategic advantage if playing as a female character because one is perceived as a player of lesser ability (and thus lesser potential threat or competition). However, players have also indicated that certain disadvantages still exist in game play as a female avatar, including sexual harassment, unwelcome propositions, insults, requests for cybersex, and assumptions that a character's female identity signaled lesser abilities or intelligence.

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