Second Lives

You’ll probably remember the article from a couple of weeks ago about octopus gender-bending. Simply put, some members of the Abdopus aculeatus species will present themselves as female in order to lull genuine girl octopi into a false sense of security. And there’s a human version of it to. But it has nothing to do with singles bars and nightclubs.

MSNBC.com has a report on men pretending to be women when they play online games, like World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, or even The Sims.

There’s a similar article on the Daedalus Gateway.

Both posit that men do it because they like looking at women. Digital or not. It’s more fun for guys, straight ones anyway, to create a sexy, scantily clad female character than to make a big hairy ox, and have to watch it.

The latter article cites feminists who suggest that it’s a way for men to control women. Imaginary ones, anyway.

But, then I found a release about the opening of the Transgender Resource Center, in Second Life, a 3-D virtual world.

TRC Mission Statement:

The mission of the Transgender Resource Center (TRC) is to foster the development of a positive and helpful community to support those facing the unique challenges that confront the transgendered and to engender the acceptance and support of transgendered individuals within society at large.

Following from this broad statement a more specific list of relevant goals can be enumerated:

1) Recognizing that individuals are often more willing to experiment
with gender identity in the relatively safe and anonymous environment
afforded by Second Life, we will provide resources to help such
individuals make constructive and rational decisions about how to
proceed with their exploration of gender identity should their
interest intensify to a more serious level.

2) Foster awareness and acceptance of the transgender community, both
within Second Life and without, by providing educational resources and
events open to the general public that promote awareness of issues
relating to gender identity and the discrimination and indifference
often faced by this community.

It is our hope that through our success within Second Life that many
individuals with undiagnosed or unrecognized “real life” issues
relating to gender identity will be better prepared to address them
and that many individuals heretofore unaware of the presence of
transgendered individuals within their “real life” communities will be
more supportive of their decisions to live in gender roles that may
not match those traditionally dictated by their chromosomal makeup or
anatomy.

So, it makes you wonder, how many people are bending gender in the virtual world, and thinking about it a lot more than most? Are the curious stumbling into the TRC and asking questions? And even if the TRC isn’t “recruiting” per se, how many normally “straight” individuals are they educating? And will the lessons learned online continue into the real world?

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment, Transgender Opinion