...THE END*

Throughout this virtual world experience I was able to explore sexuality, gender, race and identity in a new context. This was the first time I had ever joined an online world, and at first I was a bit apprehensive. I have always heard many stories about people meeting online and the bad things that can happen, so I have never joined a virtual world. The sexuality in online worlds was interesting because of the boldness of the participant’s actions. The protection factor allowed people to feel safe and open to everything in these worlds. Even vulgar language and ridiculous requests where spoken without fear of ridicule from others. I think this connects a lot to identity in virtual worlds, which was apparent in the boldness, dress, color and actions of avatars. A person’s identity online could be very different that that online because of that same protection felt behind a computer screen.
One of the most interesting things about this project quite possibly could have been the responses to my “online relationships “question at the end of my Gender blog. The 6 responses I had all varied and where quite interesting to me. Some said no, some yes; but the explanations where the most appealing. I don’t think I would ever have an online relationship, and I was curious to see what others thought. In the media, online relationships are considered dangerous and a big risk, so I wondered if the people in our class felt the same. The idea of gender swapping seemed to trouble most, and I believe is one of the biggest reasons people are so apprehensive of online relationships, other than the chance of them being crazy.
Another aspect I found particularly interesting was that of sexual attractiveness and race. I think these two factors went hand in hand in YoVille because of the lack available skin tones and the overall attractiveness of the ones that were offered. This limited some customization, along with body shape, which was all standard in YoVille. I believe the skin colors and (lack of) body type offered were those of overall attractiveness. This being said, most people in YoVille appear white to be white and female judging by avatars. These avatars represented many participants, despite the inaccuracies of the representations. I don’t believe all of my classmates experienced this problem during customization, but YoVille was definitely not as advanced as other virtual worlds.
I think questions surrounding identity, race, gender and sexuality are even harder to answer online because of the same safety factor mentioned earlier. I think this factor makes things a lot more difficult to study because of the fact that people can hide in virtual worlds and be whoever they want, whether they are similar to the human them or not. The fantasy aspect I experienced in YoVille was fun, and now I understand the appeal of such virtual worlds to people all over the world. It would be interesting to see what other worlds such as “Barbie Girls” and “World of War craft” have to offer and see how they compare to my virtual online experience.

SEXUALiTY

Sexuality was one of the most interesting subjects to look at in the virtual worlds. When thinking about sexuality, I started thinking about sexuality and sexual attractiveness. I started thinking about how in YoVille there are no options for body shape or size. This was interesting to me because the default body shape is skinny. This being the default size for everyone in YoVille leads me to think that skinny is seen as normal, and most attractive. The colors available for skin tone also show attractiveness toward tan white/ light skin. These two preset factors in YoVille made me think of sexuality in a new way. I dressed my avatar in a rainbow shirt to see if this made a difference on who approached me, but it did not. I know rainbows are a symbol of the gay community, so I tried to experience this in YoVille. Men and woman came up to me, most asking “what is your name/number”, no matter what outfit my avatar had on. This communicated to me that the fear of rejection is almost absent while in a virtual world.

In YoVille, people seem to be bold about their sexual preferences behind a screen of a computer. I think it is like we said in class about the safety people feel behind a computer or in an online world. Many people came up to me (in YoVille) and asked for my number. I didn’t give it to anyone, but males are normally not that bold in real life. People are so quick to try and “hook-up” or say they need a boyfriend/girlfriend, but I believe these conversations would be completely different in real life. Gay and bi people are just as open with their sexuality in virtual worlds as heterosexual people are. There are countless events in YoVille that call for gay/bi people, and they are very open and proud from what I’ve experienced. I took a screen shot of some of the events of YoVille, which included event titles as “Gay & Bi Guys”, “Single & Looking”, “Adult Freakfest” and “Girls Night Out- No Boys”. These event titles show how open people are in virtual worlds regarding sexuality.



In online worlds, sexuality is an open concept. I think this is because there is no one to judge your avatar or the words you type on the screen. Why do you believe people are so open online about their sexuality? Do you think this helps people be more open or closed in real life about sexuality? Interaction in virtual worlds can either help or hinder a person’s ability to openess in real life, what is your opinion on this matter?

RACE

YoVille seems to be a bit more simplistic than some of the other virtual worlds classmates joined. This is quite apparent when looking at gender and race. When creating your avatar, you can only pick a male or female character, with gender specific outfits and hair. Going deeper into designing your avatar, you have to pick a skin color. You have a choice of “light, light brown, tanned, brown and dark brown” in YoVille when making your avatar. Most of these choices look exactly the same, and the only one that really looks “black” is the dark brown. So for me being light skin, if I want my avatar to resemble me, it really has the color of a tanned white person. They have no representations for people who are not the basic black or white skin tone.

Going beyond the basic appearance, I looked at the representations of colors in actual game playing. I visited different events and noticed that race is not very present. Most of the avatars were the same color, which is the “tanned” white look. This could be because of the lack of variety while choosing skin tone, or due to the lack of minorities actually playing. In reality, most people do not strive to be the lightest or the darkest and this was apparent in the game, which lacked a wide variety of colors. This fact made it hard to actually look at race in YoVille. The only thing I could really focus on was the absence of diversity when choosing your own avatars skin color, and interaction with other avatars.

Going along with this idea of the lack of representations of minorities, do you think if YoVille (or any other virtual world) offered more skin color options tomorrow, there would be more of a representation of minorities, or do you think the player s would continue to choose the tanned white/light skin look? Why or why not? Do you think this has anything to do with the ideal media representations that we see today?

GENDER

Adventures in YoVille have been interesting as I compare them to real life. Gender is especially interesting while noting differences from the virtual reality to reality itself. One of the first things I noticed was the lack of males actually in each room I visited. Normally there were only two or three guys in each room I went to. Maybe males don’t really get online that much during the day or something, but they seemed like a true minority while I was online. In a lot of the rooms I visited, males would walk around while females sat on couches and chairs around the room. This happened a lot while I was online, and I think it reinforced the fact that we live in a male dominated society. The ideals that women are the submissive and men are the dominant are defiantly demonstrated in this virtual reality event rooms on YoVille.

Even though there were a limited number of males online, I was able to have a few conversations with some people, who at least portrayed themselves as male avatars. During these conversations, the males dominated. The male asked all the questions, moved on from conversation and initiated it from what I saw. These goes along with the ideas of our society that males are in charge. Another interesting factor in this virtual world was that I saw some male avatars with female clothing, hair and other accessories. At first I didn’t think much about it, but after a while I started thinking about the freedom to choose your avatar’s gender and other factors. This made me think that maybe I was talking to a male, or maybe it was a female experimenting with the options of gender swapping. This sense of uncertainty in virtual worlds is part of the reason I was skeptical about joining at first. You always hear stories about old men meeting young girls or someone thinking they are talking to someone of a different gender. These stories are all too common, especially the ones surrounding gender disputes.

Online relationships are very common, despite the uncertainties surrounding strangers. Would you ever have an internet relationship? Meet someone offline based solely on virtual world experiences? Does the idea of gender swapping make you more or less apprehensive about these online relationships?

iDENTiTY

During my experiences in YoVille I’ve noticed some interesting factors in the identity of avatars. Everyone has a different perspective which sometimes does not completely come out in everyday life. Virtual worlds, such as YoVille, allow people from all over the world to come together and act however they want because of the safety behind a computer. Along with this sense of safety, people seem to exert a strong confidence throughout virtual interactions in the event rooms in YoVille. These event rooms in YoVille are where people meet and you can jump from event to event, meeting new people. The events people create in YoVille are a direct representation of their identities. Simple titles of events rooms ranged from “House Party” to “Prom”, while some where more extreme like “I’m single & pregnant “and “Married and looking”. Not only do the event names say a lot, the people who visit these rooms also give hints about their own identity.

I visited almost all of the event rooms in YoVille, and for the most part, nothing changed. The confidence and boldness continued to appear in conversations in the room. Normally if someone said something you didn’t like, you wouldn’t necessarily make a big deal about it, or even say anything. In these online conversations, people have the ability to escape the situation, so they are more open about what they will say. I think this boldness stems from the ability to be able to close the page, log off, leave the event or any other simple and fast way to leave to confrontation. Throughout conversations I was involved in, simple questions were asked. Most people asked about age first, which is one of the most controlling factors of your identity. Other questions asked were “what is your name”, “where are you from”, and “what are your interests”. These questions are all about identity, and the key components of what makes you, you.

Another aspect of identity is how you want to appear online. Your avatar represents you online, and you are free (within the sites boundaries) to make your avatar appear any way you want. Clothing, hair, eyes, shoes, and other accessories make up your virtual world identity, which is an extension of your true identity. By looking at my avatar you can gather that I am (or maybe want to be) light skin, wear bright colors and wear my hair down. I made my avatar a lot like me, but some people choose to extend their identity even further. I entered an interesting room that was full of people who believed they were vampires. I was lost with most of their conversation, and stood out while most of them dressed in all black. They spoke about being in their human form and all though it was strange to me, that is their virtual identity. Why is identity so hard to write about? Virtual identity and true identity vary quite a bit, yet aspects are still demonstrated online from true life. Do you think people join virtual worlds to extend their true identities or to create an identity that is totally foreign? Why?

YoVille Virtual World

My name is Kamiya, but I go by Miya in YoVille on Facebook. I chose YoVille because I already had a facebook page and I didnt have to sign up for anything new. I joined YoVille today and have been on there messing around. I customized my home, appearance and other aspects of the virtual world. Many of my facebook friends, and others from around the world are on YoVille, but I am still trying to learn how to work and manuver around this world. I hope to experience the appeal of these virtual worlds, and understand why so many people all over the world participate in them.