In the article, Auto ethnographic Reflections on Gender and Technology in Second Life, Delia Dumitrica and Georgia Gaden discusses, “the experience and performance of gender online in Second Life,…”(Dumitrica 3) Second life is a popular virtual environment. Second life is described as a creative, virtual world. It is less like a game and more like a “second life.” Dumitrica and Gaden explores if gender affects the experience and performance in Second Life. “We understand gender as being performed through our actions, behaviors, and choices; we do gender: “But it is a situated doing, carried out in the virtual or real presence of others who are presumed to be oriented in its production... [gender is conceived of] both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements and as a means of legitimating the one of the most fundamental divisions of society” (West & Zimmerman, 1987, p. 126).
Studies suggest that in most cases gender does affect behavior, as well as enhance the fundamentals and the experience and performance of the virtual platform. I learned that as time has passed Gender and Technology is becoming interlinked. For example, when creating an Avatar an individual is more likely to choose the original sex. I found it interesting that, “Our own gendered vision had helped us make sense of the world and of our positions in it.” (Dumitrica 12) Our gender helps us to choose our positions, choices, and even appearances. “To pass as a woman for any length of time requires understanding how gender inflects speech, manner, the interpretation of experience” (p. 212). The way many people talk or their mannerism doesn’t change over the internet or Second Life. Gender predicts the way an individual would carry themselves in the virtual world.
Studies suggest that in most cases gender does affect behavior, as well as enhance the fundamentals and the experience and performance of the virtual platform. I learned that as time has passed Gender and Technology is becoming interlinked. For example, when creating an Avatar an individual is more likely to choose the original sex. I found it interesting that, “Our own gendered vision had helped us make sense of the world and of our positions in it.” (Dumitrica 12) Our gender helps us to choose our positions, choices, and even appearances. “To pass as a woman for any length of time requires understanding how gender inflects speech, manner, the interpretation of experience” (p. 212). The way many people talk or their mannerism doesn’t change over the internet or Second Life. Gender predicts the way an individual would carry themselves in the virtual world.
I found this article interesting because I agree that gender established behavior. When I create an Avatar, I pick my gender and enhance my feminine features that way that I want them as well. As a female there are certain choices that I make and positions that I choose specifically based on my gender. For example, I am more likely to support help with domestic violence, teen pregnancy, or a feminist movement because of my gender. The author states that Second Life is not like a game; it is more like a Second life, so I believe that I would make some of the same choices or have the same positions that I would have in real life as I would in my virtual world. I can definitely see how gender affects the performance and experience of Second Life.
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