Access to technology.

Do you think young users of virtual worlds are better off than those who are unable to access virtual worlds? In other words, do you think there is an advantage to having the means to virtual world experiences versus those who don't have the opportunity? Why or why not? This question stems from our reading assignments due November 23rd.

Classy Makeovers

Today in class we discussed Makeovers and how they related to "class" (as in the socio-economic level). I'm wondering if you noticed any sort of "class" issues on your virtual world? Also, what do you think about the concept of "makeovers" as they pertain to your avatar? Could you relate makeovers to avatar creation? How do you think this effects virtual world users?

Online race

Last week we discussed how the media frames race, in other words how the media defines race--what it means to be a member of a certain race, what that race is about, what the problem of race is. This week we talked about how the media informs or influences identity just as those in power influence or inform identity. My question is how are these notions working in your online virtual worlds? How does Habbo Hotel or Virtual Barbie define race? Does race exist in virtual worlds? How? Is there a race "problem" online? How?

Questions you want answered . . .

This might be a good point to check in and see if you all can offer up any advice on your virtual worlds, or find answers to questions bugging you about your experiences so far. You may use this post to ask questions to classmates about their virtual worlds or find out "how to" in the online spaces.

Benefits and drawbacks to the Internet

Yesterday in class we discussed both benefits of the Internet in terms of allowing/encouraging a queer community to develop a safe space for sexuality construction and expression. In Taiwan and Korea queer individuals are able to turn to the internet for support, information, and place to meet others like themselves.
However, we also learned about cyber-hate and anti-gay speech on the Internet and we discussed how the Internet allows for anonymity and encourages like-minded people to join in on hateful sites.
My question is how do you see your virtual world contributing to these two sides of a coin when it comes to sexuality? In other words, do you feel your virtual world is a positive use of the Internet or do you see negative ideas generated from your virtual space?

Virtual Worlds for Kids

This week we are covering sexuality and the theme for one of your journal entries is "sexuality" so how are you exploring this in selected virtual worlds such as Webkinz, Club Penguin, and Virtual Barbie? Can you help your classmates out here by giving other suggestions of things to look for? Perhaps what sort of lens are you using when you explore your virtual world designed for younger audiences?

Gendering technology, gendering virtual worlds

Based off of our readings today, "Women and Games," do you think it is possible to "gender technology"? How is technology socially constructed? Do you associate certain virtual worlds to certain genders? Why or why not? Did you select your virtual world because a gender you have assigned to it?

A question about gender . . .

If you are able to self-invent and play with multiple identities, are you still confined to dominant hegemonic ideology? Why or why not? How so?

Finding Place, Making Face

How's the creation of your online identity going? What sort of interesting choices did you come across in the construction of your avatar? Any questions you had to ask yourself as you perfected your avatar's appearance? Beginning pictures you'd like to share?

So Sexy Second Life

It’s my first day on Secondlife and everything is pretty confusing. I’m also very frustrated because I can figure out how to get my avatar to look how I want her to look. My avatar started off very plain looking but I got another user “Nylon Pinkney” sent me some pretty cool clothes. After getting my avatar to look for I want it I decided to search for a pretty cool place to hang out and talk to other avatars.
On Secondlife you can pull up these little maps that show you where there are a lot of other avatars, and most of the other avatars are on the “mature” locations, so since I had to write a journal about sexuality I decided to check out one of these “mature” locations. I teleported myself to the Sexy Islands to see if Secondlife is a scandalous as everyone says it is.
When I got to the Sexy Islands I notice there is a nude beach and a lot of the other avatars are hanging out around the beach. I also noticed that there are these little magenta and blue bubble or balls everywhere that have different things written on them, like cuddle, and kiss and sit down, and some of the have pretty explicit sexual poses. On the beach there was like a huge crowd gathered around two avatars and they were engaged in sexual acts on the beach. It was really weird to see that because I just cant possible see how people get any kind of sexual satisfaction from seeing virtual people having sex. Every different world or location I went to that night had some kind of sexually explicit thing, may it be some kind of dance mover, to a make out session you can engage in with another avatar, to different kama sutra-esque sexual position you can perform with an avatar. I think people get on Secondlife to fulfill their sexual fantasies.
Secondlife is so sexual almost everything on it revolves around sex. People make their avatars look as attractive as they can. I have not seen one over weight or ugly avatar. Secondlife is definitely a sexual outlet for most people that can’t engage in these fantasies in the real world.

Jameson Smithson, gamer extraordinaire

My first time on Second Life was very overwhelming. I had no clue where to go or what to do. I created an avatar, named Jameson Smithson, that is a male and had a “gamer” outfit. I guess it is what the people who created the game felt like people who play this game look like. However at first he was tall, skinny, shaved head, sunglasses, and a scarf. I remember when I was a “gamer,“ or loser as my girlfriend called it, during my first year of college that I put on weight, never wore sunglasses, and certainly never wore a scarf, seemingly the opposite of this avatar. Though he may not have been accurate to his nickname it did make for an interesting experience when I decided to travel around.
I coach basketball and love the sport so I figured the best place to go was a basketball court. I search and found a pretty neat place with 5 or so courts and decorated with the all kinds of basketball themed places. The first thing I did when I got to this area was head off to the courts to find people to chat with. Immediately I noticed I was way out of place. Everyone was dressed in urban attire, with fitted ball caps, diamond earrings, and basketball shoes. I looked nothing like the folks and they sure let me hear it. This was obviously the first time I confronted identity in the game. No one would talk to me, help me out with the game, or watch me play basketball, since you can’t play together, but everyone else that was playing was being watched. I was an immediate outcast. I guess in hindsight this isn’t very shocking but being that in reality I am so readily accepted in this culture, probably more so in real life than anyone playing this game, it came as a shocker that I was an outcast in my online life, though I did not purposefully mean to be.
My next move was to try to fit in without changing my appearance. I figured I would show them I know about this game from the college to the pro level and see if it gets me any “street cred.” I approached a group of people who were talking about whether a certain NBA player would comeback his oldself from an injury he had the past year. I figured I would chime in. After I spoke my short peace of “Na dog, na,” I was told to get lost, that I look like a “homo” and that I need to head off with the zit faces, yeah these SL “thugs” actually said zit faces, to play Warcraft.
For a first timer I feel like this baptism by fire on SL taught me a little about the game and gave me some pretty good ideas about how I am going to use identity in the final paper. I can’t wait to create my avatar so he fits in with this group of “ballers” and I also plan on making myself a cloud, or like a blank slate, to see how they respond to both. Honestly, I am still shocked that this world is all about one thing, appearance. I guess its all there is to go by, but it doesn’t seem anyone wants to get to know each other or read a profile.

Creating a Gender Identity

As I wrote in my proposal, I was a little wary and a little intrigued of becoming an online gamer, especially in a virtual world. I’d heard all the creepy stories and, to be honest, was excited to see what I would find in this taboo world. I chose Habbo Hotel because it seemed fairly easy to operate for a newcomer and it still had a lot of variety. At this point I have spent quite a few hours in Habbo Hotel since I first started my excursion into this virtual world.
My first step in becoming a member of Habbo was creating my avatar and since I figured this will probably be the one and only time in my life I can become a boy, I decided to take a spin from the male perspective of virtual reality. I created my first avatar to reflect the dominant, white hegemonic male because I wanted to see if my avatar would exist in Habbo Hotel, the same way he does in our society.
The only thing I suppose that isn’t “mainstream” about his appearance was that he does have longer hair than an average or stereotypical white male. I really didn’t mean for his hair to be any statement in particular, I just liked the hairstyle. However, when I was roaming the hotel I went into two different kissing booths and the first things the girl I went and sat down across from was that they were looking for a boy. I then had to clarify that I was a boy. Both girls were rather cold to me, one of them actually got up and walked away and told me she didn’t want to kiss a “tranny.” I told my friend about this and she said she thought my hair looked kind of girlish because I had no idea why she thought I was a girl! I felt really taken aback when I got those comments. I personally have never fell victim to mistaken gender or sex. So even though it wasn’t personally me being mistaken for my sex, it is still a bit troubling and to be honest the names and rude brush off hurt, so I can’t imagine how people who have to deal with that kind of discrimination and prejudice must feel when they face that in their day to day lives.
After using my male avatar for a while I decided to mix it up and become a female, just to see if and or how I might be treated differently and how people would respond to me as a female.
After experiencing some “people” mistaking my first avatar’s gender, I made sure that my girl avatar was especially feminine; I even dressed her in pink. While I didn’t use this avatar as much as I used my boy one, I found that guys approached me more often, especially when I went to the party rooms. I noticed throughout my time in Habbo that girls seemed to do a lot of the sitting/standing around and guys did a lot of the walking around. It was interesting to me how the gender in which has been socially constructed makes females stand around and wait to be approached by men, while men go around and approach the women. While there were plenty of exceptions to this, it seemed the same situations occurred in Habbo which are supposed to happen in public, when the pretty girl is sitting with a friend or alone, the man comes up to her and initiates interaction.
All in all, I found that gender in Habbo Hotel seems to be similar, if not an almost exact replica of the real world we interact in everyday. People can be very critical if a person does not fit the gender norm and social roles seem to play out the same ways our society does.

Leon's Identity

For my autoethnography project, I have chosen the virtual world known as Webkinz. In order to create my account I bought a small, white Samoyed dog from Hallmark on August 17, 2009, and later registered it on the website as a male, named Leon. I first spent time on the site on August 18, from about 2:00 to 3:45 pm. I felt like it made the most sense for my first visit to build Leon’s identity based on his male gender; my experience with this is what my first journal entry details.
I started by going to his room which I found I had already been given a chair, basketball, activity book, an apple and a present that had inside of it a balloon, a frozen pond (that can only be placed in outside yards or tree top rooms) and a “Chewy Chapon Con Carne” dog treat. I fed Leon the food and placed everything I could into his room and then decided to use the 1,200 Kinzcash I was given for joining, to first buy him clothes: a blue baseball hat, a blue t-shirt, “baggy” jeans, and sneakers, all totaling to 200 Kinzcash. Next, I decided to customize his plain room to make more of an identity for him. Initially, I went to look at the flooring and wallpaper that seemed boyish but then I realized that I was shopping like a girl and that a boy would first buy the basics: a bed, a bathroom, toys and food so I did this first with the intentions of spending any leftover money on flooring and wallpaper. I was really off on how much all of this would cost and so after I was out of money, I decided to play a few games to see what they were like, and to earn some more Kinzcash to eventually finish Leon’s room.
I decided to first check out all of the different aspects of Webkinz which includes an arcade, tournament arena, Quizzy’s Corner, DiceKinz, employment office, travel agency, clubhouse, Magical Corner, The Caring Valley, Code Shop, Curio Shop and Wish Factory. After spending a few minutes in each to familiarize myself, I decided it the most profitable to engage in the games offered in the arcade. I spent about fifty minutes there, in which I began playing games to earn the needed money to further create Leon’s avatar identity. I participated in Webkinz Rally, Bamboo Break, Bananza, Booger Gets an A and Hide N Skunk. After playing all of these games, I had accrued 170 Kinzcash and bought Leon the baseball table and light that matched his bed, and spent the rest on water, vegetables and a cheeseburger; all greatly increasing his health and food monitors.
After creating what I felt was a good start to the precise identity that I wanted for Leon, I decided to sign off. As is stands, Leon is a young, male Samboyed who enjoys sports (mainly baseball), activities, fire trucks, cheeseburgers and cleanliness.

Creeping out the Creeper

Today I spent about a half an hour on Second Life and it was exciting and fun, and a little addicting. I was on the college campus, which is a little “introductory” which was great because I met some newbies like me. I now take back all of the nasty stereotypes I said about the computer “freaks”. When I was online today, I actually made two new friends, and I (earl) was not even wearing any pants! And it was not some weird sexual obstacle to overcome. I some how got confused and managed to loose my pants by carelessly clicking on some button. But, to my dismay, I met two friends, Eric and Brianna who did not seem to mind and accepted earl for who he really is. These two individuals were not sex freaks like I would think, and they honestly thought it was funny, after I explained, and I was surprised. They kept asking where my pants went and I kept responding with “I don’t know, I’m new and I don’t know how to get them back.” They then thought it would be fun to go “find” them and immediately run away. I thought they were running away because I wasn’t wearing any pants and kept asking if they wanted to dance with me. I felt a little bad and creepy myself, and wanted to be accepted by them. I thought asking a guy and a girl if they wanted to dance at the same time while I wasn’t wearing any pants took it a little too far. But they were so cool about it. I was particularly impressed with the man (Eric) who just thought it was funny. Eric see, it was his first time as with Brianna too, so we all decided to figure out together how to put on new clothes. This was where it began to get a little more personal. While we were “changing” I told Brianna she seemed shy, and she contested it. Then as she was changing her clothes I told her I like her shirt and she kept asking questions like, “do you really like it?” “why did you guys join?” “it’s just a shirt”. We were on the same page joking around and Eric even told me “earl, you funny.” We all then told what countries we were from Eric, Sweden, Brianna US and in the desert somewhere. We then divulged our “real” ages and talked openly about why we joined. I naturally told them I heard it was something “cool” to check out. It turned out to be a great “first time” bonding experience for us all creating our own online identities together. Like real friends in real life, we were a buffer for each other in an unusual environment, and made each other feel safe and ok about it. I kept reassuring the self conscious Brianna that “you look good girl” and “who cares! You can be whatever you want!.” Brianna being the instigator of the real conversation, she struck me as an insecure person in her natural identity and wanted to be comfortable in a virtual world, which I had to convince her of. Through out this process I was feeling happy to make people laugh on line and make a girl feel good about herself, who seemed to need a confidence booster. I feel the identity I produced in a short half hour was a solid one, even though I was not wearing pants for 95% of the time. Also I came to the conclusion that people online and online characters struggled with the same everyday insecurities as in real life, which I was not expecting at all. I mean come one, your avatar even has an identity complex?

George Jillybean

Originally, I signed up for YoVille and I was having problems logging in so I decided to swith to a different virtual world. Yoville also seemed too much like Mario Brothers and very cartoonish and everyone in class had been talking about Second Life so I decided to do the Second Life virtual world. Identity, gender, race, and ethnicity are all themes taking place in Second Life but I focused on sexuality.
To be honest, I was sitting around thinking about the journal last night and that is when I decided to switched to Second Life at around 9:30. I named my avatar George and I looked at about five last names that popped up and went with Jillybean. I thought George Jillybean had a good ring to it and sounded original. I decided to make George a black man because I thought I could come up with some good information. George wore a black suit with a green shirt and tie and I also gave him puffy green hair and a green goatee. I don’t know why I made George look this certain way but I thought it was unique.
When I finally was ready to enter the virtual world, I chose Avatar Island because I thought sex would be a big theme. Somehow, I ended up in a space ship looking building with large circular rooms. I was all by myself and one guy with a mask and cape named Icky Ixtar asked to be his friend so I accepted. I realized right there that I wanted George to meet some ladies because I wanted to see the crazy stuff that goes on in Second Life so I asked Icky Ixtar where I could meet some people and he teleported me to his place. I would have never thought that I was going to end up in a Thundercatz themed room. At first I didn’t know what do so I was walking around and flying around and looking at everything. After a few minutes someone started chatting on the wall and I jumped in and just said “what’s up” and asked if there was a dance club because I didn’t see many people doing anything and someone said something like “ yeah, you see people dancing don’t you” and that pissed me off but I didn’t want to say anything mean. Then I eventually realized there were female dancers on little platforms so I decided to make my way towards one of them. Surprisingly the woman danced like a stripper and I said something on the message board like “you look good, hey you want to get out of here” and I think she said something like “maybe some other time”. After that, I looked at the message board and someone began to write comments about the stripper rubbing herself and I guess that gets people aroused but I didn’t really care for it. Then I saw a dark skinned woman who looked good for an avatar hanging out by herself named Abril Spad, and I thought to myself George and Abril would look good together. Abril didn’t seem to care for George and only spoke Spanish which became tiring after a while. After about 15 to 20 minutes I saw a good looking white blonde haired woman dancing named Lollypop Bloobury and decided to talk to her and the conversation didn’t last very long and she asked me If I was new and I said yes and she asked me where I was from and that kind of worried me so I just said the Midwest. I was on Second life for about two hours and it was actually kind of fun. Surprisingly, most of the avatars I met were nice and I guess enjoy their virtual world. Using sexuality as my main theme worked out good because the place I visited seemed to focus completely on sex. Afterwards, I thought to myself that I was trying to make George smooth but after thinking about all of the crazy things being said, I should have cut loose even more.

A Habbo Identity

I’d have to say that Identity is hands down my favorite thing to study on these virtual worlds. Not only because there can or cannot be many options on what to do with identity, but because of what people choose to do/use as their identities.
On Habbo Hotel, like most virtual worlds, you can choose whether to be male or female. However, a difference from other virtual worlds (or so I’ve heard ) is that on Habbo Hotel, you can choose to be a female with a mohawk and facial hair or a male with long hair and jewelry. You can also change the color of you skin, hair, and clothing. The one thing that it does not allow you to do is change your weight. However, the fact that you can choose to have facial hair as a woman seems to be a big deal, because if I remember correctly from class, you could only be a female in Barbie World.
Some of the more different things that I have seen on Habbo Hotel are a lot of guys wearing sunglasses and hats or females with ties on; and a lot of girls that are way ‘underdressed.’ My personal character has on a tshirt and shorts, and kind of looks like me, so I can’t imagine that half of these girls, many of which I am assuming are either way young or suffer from low self esteem, actually walk around like the way that they have their avatars dressed. I also find it interesting that these avatars that are dressed in skimpy outfits seem to be the ones that get ‘hit on’ the most.
While on Habbo Hotel, I tried looking for rooms that were gender specific, but I couldn’t find any. I did find sexuality specific though. The name of the room was something along the lines of Bi, Les and Gays. And when I walked into the room, it was very bright, in all rainbow colors and butterflies and fairys flying around. It was quite interesting, but that is what the people in that room were comfortable identifying with. I also found that there are several rooms dedicated to the Marines or Army affiliated people. I thought that was pretty neat. I also found some rooms that were strictly for British people or strictly for dating purposes. Now, I can’t say that I would ever try and date someone through a virtual world, but I guess if this makes people happy, then more power to you! I also found a room, and couldn’t stop laughing when I walked in, and it was called Ghetto. And avatar in there was dressed ‘gangster’ like and talking in slang lingo that I couldn’t quite interpret. So I suppose there, that people are associating with an identity that they are comfortable with, that being Ghetto.
Another thing I couldn’t believe is what people are willing to say to you on these virtual worlds. I had a kid send me a private message asking where I was from, how old I was, if I was single and if I wanted to dot he dirty. I would NEVER in a million years walk up to some random person on the street and ask that question. It was kind of really super creepy, so I told him he was disgusting and got offline. The nice thing for certain people is that they can hide their true identity online and not worry about censoring themselves when talking to people. Which in my opinion, isn’t always a good thing.
As you can see, Habbo Hotel has many option in ways to form your identity. From the sex you choose to be to the way you choose to develop your avatars gender, you can pretty much be your true self online. You can be a male with female clothing, or be a female with facial hair. You can enter rooms for gays, lesbians and bisexuals, you can go into a room strictly for British characters or choose a room for the military people. You have many choices, and I think that in a way, the virutal world scene can be a good outlet for people who feel that they can’t truly be themselves around friends or family. Online, they can be whoever they want.

Kaneva's Diversity

As stated in my proposal, one of my fears about joining a virtual world was that I would join one that did not fit my profile regarding gender, sexual preference, and specifically race. I’ve been very fortunate in my real world to grow up and make it this far without ever coming across any major racial prejudices; at least none to my face!
Immediately after I joined the World of Kaneva, I was able to do avatar searches and the first list alone reassured me that I had picked the best virtual world for myself. There were more than enough African Americans on the site to make me feel comfortable about interacting in the community and this was a plus, because I was already freaked out about chatting with strangers anyway!
Once I set up my avatar and my avatar’s life, I started to mix and mingle; I went shopping for furniture and job hunting! At each location I saw a variety of different races and everyone seemed to be getting along. To test that out, I tried it myself. I went up to a Caucasian avatar, and immediately after getting his attention, he was willing to have a full conversation with me! It was kind of weird how comfortable he was, but it did help me to understand how people who use these virtual worlds on a daily basis get so addicted to it.
Although the avatars are supposed to represent the actual person working the computer, I think that many times people choose to be their complete opposites and this may be why race is not a big deal in the World of Kaneva. If people are pretending to be people they aren’t or acting out their alter egos, they may be thrilled to mix and mingle with people of different races, because they can’t do it in their real world.
On another end, I think the virtual worlds would be even more relaxed and care- free if the avatars had no color. For instance, when I first joined World of Kaneva, my avatar was gray until I customized it. I actually tried leaving it gray, and that was not an option. To me, this is putting an importance on race. If virtual worlds with human- like avatars do allow people to be “colorless,” I think studying how people interact not knowing anything about the race of the person would be very interesting. In class we talked about how our society constructs gender, beliefs, roles, etc. I think society is often responsible for how people view people of different racial backgrounds. The media portrays each race in specific ways and that it was people see on a daily basis and family and friends influence us as well, so often we take on the views of the people around us. What would happen if everyone was given the chance to make their own decision on race? World of Kaneva and other virtual worlds could test this out!

Budding Sexuality in Habbo Hotel

In exploring the realm of Habbo Hotel, I met many different types of avatars that were controlled by individuals that were predominantly adolescents. This was important in terms of sexuality because of the relative age of the contributors to the site, many avatars showed dominant heterosexual societal characteristics. The character that I created I tried to pattern after my own characteristics as a white, heterosexual male. In exploring sexuality on the virtual world I specifically considered to view the patterns that avatars used in trying to court another mate. I feel that after viewing many occurrences in dialogue between avatars, I believe that virtual worlds such as Habbo Hotel allow adolescents to explore and practice courting rituals that they would be able to use in real life situations. Many of the sexuality practices that I viewed began with a conversation starter such as, “Hey, does anyone want to be my bf/gf?” and would expound from there. It’s not much different than going to bar or nightclub in real life and asking a person if he/she was single. There’s a parallel in the two situations that the former helps the latter in adjusting to real world situations and give the individual a knowledge base to help them predict the responses in future situations.
In my studies I attempted to be more of an observer than an actual participant in exploring sexuality because I was more interested in the development of the adolescent dating experience. I tried to understand how they made sense and what strategies they used in attempting to find a virtual mate. I joined a room on the virtual world that’s description was, “to find a mate or date”, which was created by another avatar. When I entered the room there was many avatars in a confined space and grouped together, as if they were actually speaking one on one and needed to be face to face for the interaction. I carefully monitored the dialogue boxes of the virtual interactions to see what kind of discussion was being encoded and decoded. I could only monitor public discussion as once a connection was made; there is a way to only talk to that individual. What I found was that most adolescents use Habbo Hotel as a practice ground for real life encounters. They are free to bounce ideas or say things that in real life would be to afraid or embarrassed to say. The virtual world allows them to try out their budding sexuality and to see what works and what may not.

Sexy Penguins

While playing Club Penguin, sexuality was the last thing I would think of being an issue in this virtual world. This was by far the weirdest thing to look into, but yet it was the most interesting. It’s hard to show or feel attraction to a virtual penguin, especially when that other virtual penguin is a kid! But whatever floats your boat I guess! Ha! But really, I did run into some situations where I found some interesting sexual innuendos. I found that kids can be a lot naughtier than we as adults think! There were two situations that made me think that these kids wanted to do more than just play games. One situation happened in an igloo, and another happened on the dance floor!
A couple nights ago, I decided to get on Club Penguin with the intentions of interacting more with the other penguins. This incident happened before I knew how to type my own words, so instead I just pick the pre-texted box’s that would say common words or sentences to the other penguins. I ended up running around at the ‘Surf Cove’ and just kept saying ‘Hi Everyone!’ until I got attacked by snowballs. Once snowballs were being thrown at me, this gave me a hint that I was not wanted. For some reason, I stayed and kept using my technique of saying ‘Hi Everyone’ to see if any penguins would say anything. Two Penguins ended up walking over to me asking me to go away and leave. I thought about giving up, but then a yellow Penguin in a dress named Pon N Zi came over to me and asked me to be her friend and to go to her igloo. I didn’t know how to feel at this point, but she saved me from all the hatred I received in the Cove, so I went to her igloo. Once I got to her igloo, she said I was safe, and so I thanked her. Then it got weird and she asked me to give her CPR and I asked her why. She said she wanted a kiss and then showed a symbol of a heart, so I decided to leave!
The next incident happened right after my igloo experience. This is where I realized that other penguins were typing other words in, and so I finally figured out that I could too. One place that I figured ‘Sexuality’ would come out in, if any at all was the Dance Club. Gianetto made his way into the dance club, and of course, I made him dance. This situation was different because I wanted to be the ‘creeper’ instead of being crept on. There was another Penguin there named Brittany12185, so I waddled over to her and asked if I could dance with her. She gave me a big smile symbol and started dancing. This is where I figured I would ‘make the move’ and I asked her if she wanted to go upstairs. Once we got upstairs, she walked over to a corner by a plant and told me to follow her. Once I got next to her, she moved her penguin over to me and started dancing. She asked me if I liked that, and that’s when I realized that kids have ‘sexuality’ going through their mind a lot more than people think!

Barbie's Identity Issues

Barbie World is designed as a place for young girls to go and live the life as Barbie. The whole concept is for users to create a character that most resembles them. But there is a problem with this. The characters that Barbie World gives as options for their users to chose from do not accurately represent what girls in this day and age actually look like. For one, all the characters are skinny girls. Every girl that likes Barbie and wants to join Barbie World are not skinny. This is a time where childhood obesity is at an all time high, so why is it that the characters in Barbie World are not showing this. I feel that this is making many girls insecure about what they look like, giving them an identity crisis. I believe this may possibly make them feel ashamed of their actual looks and use Barbie World to mask their feelings and create a false identity. They possibly get on Barbie World hoping to create a whole new identity that has nothing to do with their life, believing it is making them feel better about themselves, but in actuality it is making it worse.
A person’s identity is what makes them who they are. It helps shapes their personality and helps develop self esteem. If someone is going around with a false identity of themselves and feels uncomfortable being who they are, they more than likely have self esteem issues. They feel the need to conform and fit in with what society considers being acceptable. Barbie World by only depicting those images for girls to identify with is not healthy. They are not learning to be comfortable in their own skin. They are feeling pressured to be thin, have the best hair, and clothes. These materialistic things do not make someone who they are. These young girls need to realize that it is what is on the inside that counts the most.
I hope that in the future Barbie World will transform their characters to look more like the people that actually use the virtual world. They are giving off this false impression that is possibly making many girls unsatisfied with who they are.

Kittycatt v Kaydub

Due to my main goal this was an easy topic for me to discuses. My main goal of my avatars was to see who got hit on more and what people thought of my two avatars. I wanted to see who would get more attention my sexy avatar kittycatt18 or my more conservative avatar kaydub18. I have lots of stories to tell but today’s hit me hard. I was shocked and disturbed by my findings today.
Today I decided to play with my avatar kittycatt18. Remember she is my sexier, scandalous character. I had several men avatars come up to me and ask my age and try and start conversation. When they would ask me if I had a boyfriend I would respond “No, I have a girlfriend.” I gave this response to 10 male avatars. Who claimed to be between the ages of 15-17 Wow, did they get excited. Most of the boys would not leave me alone after that, which is ironic because my avatar was into girls not boys, but yet it was the response I was waiting for. They got excited because they fit into the stereotype of men who think it’s hot when a girl likes another girl. I believe men think that when a girl is a lesbian, they think its code for bisexual. They do not get that it’s possible for a girl not to like a man and to only be into women. The male avatars got so excited that I see them telling other people that I was a lesbian and then five more people came up to me. It was ridiculous how excited they all got. One of the avatars even said “prove it” another said “can I watch” one said to his friend “dude, there’s a real lesbian in the room”. I was very disturbed that these young males were saying these things to me. Here were these guys ages 15-17 saying these dirty things to me, what are kids learning these days!!! Obviously, they are not learning the right information. I got so mad I even wrote out what a lesbian meant in case they didn’t know but that just encouraged them on even more. They did not respect my sexuality; they thought it was a joke.
I realize this is a make believe world but these were not make believe ideologies that these boys had about my sexuality. They are only 15-17 but are these going to be the same gross men in 10 years that can’t wait to see girl on girl action in a bar?

Beach Party Chill

Logged on tonight and decided to spend some time improving my living quarters. Strange how I feel the urge to aesthetically enhance a room that I’m likely the only one to visit, but anyway I now have some very nice plants and a sofa that I’m tickled pink about. After upgrading the room it was time to explore again. After the madness of the dating rooms I thought I was going to play it safe by “Chilin” in the beach room this time. I entered a pretty large room (by Habbo standards) with a clear beach theme that included a swimming area, beach chairs, sand, umbrellas, and palm trees. I sat down in one of the chars outlining the exterior of the room and offered a “how goes it on the beach” to two girl avatars (both in bikini tops, one white with short blonde hair, the other black with longer black hair) sitting caddie-corner to me. Initially the white girl avatar responded hello, and we engaged in the typical pleasantries (how are you etc.). As has become par for the course, one early question posed to me inquired about my age. Also par for the course was a somewhat shocked response to my answer of twenty-seven. It was at this point that that the other girl in close proximity (black girl avatar) chimed in, “JGalt aren’t you a little old to be here?”. Although I have begun to think she is probably correct, I took the opportunity to ask, “Is there an age limit for Habbo?” She responded with an emphatic “yes” and upon further questioning decided that it was eighteen or maybe nineteen (but these ages were “getting close” to being too old). When I asked her about why such an age limit was necessary, she more or less explained that I was probably wanting to get a girlfriend and that some creepy twenty-seven year old dude shouldn’t be hitting on thirteen year old girls. This of course prompted me to ask if the only use for Habbo was sexual, which also generated an affirmative response. When asked why this was so she answered with question, “You tell me”. Not being able to come up with an answer on the spot I redirected with “do you use Habbo for sexual purposes” and she responded no. When asked what she enjoyed using Habbo for she explained that she doesn’t like Habbo at. She claimed that she has gotten really stressed out by the whole thing (apparently suffering from a “hack” in which all of her “furni” was stolen), but in the end declared “its just addictive”. As I was finding out that she was allegedly a seventeen-year-old girl from Pennsylvania another “girl” avatar approached us. This girl was very similar in appearance to the original white girl avatar (who incidentally disappeared after I began talking with the other) only with a different colored top. She walked directly in front of the girl to whom I was speaking and asked if she would move so that she and her boy friend could sit there. The girl to I was speaking replied that she would not move and that the new girl needed to move out of the way. This started a serious argument that continued even after I moved my character to allow for two nearby seats to become available. The argument was convoluted to say the least with my interviewee even bringing me into the argument with comments to the effect of “This guy is 27 and we’ve been having a conversation just fine. Why am I, at 17, more mature than you at 20 (the other girls age had been drawn out already)…” Interrupting something to the effect of “your blocking my sun!!!!” I said that old men need to go to bed early and that I needed to get going. I thanked my interviewee for talking and left.

Second Life Firsts

My first real attempt at exploring second life took place on Monday night for about an hour. First of all I was extremely confused by everything that was going on. Apparently there are beginner’s worlds that I did not enter at first, and the first world that I entered no one spoke English. Finally, I was able to enter a world called the island, which was supposed to be focused on new comers. However, as soon as I teleported to the island everyone seemed to know each other. One man tried to make conversation with me, but as soon as he learned that I was working on a school project he teleported somewhere else. It really wasn’t that easy entering this virtual world.
Second life is by far is more complicated than I would have ever thought. Even entering the beginner’s world leaves a lot to be explained. Most of the time I spent trying to figure out how to change my outfit and look so it somewhat resembled me. Finally after creating an acceptable outfit, I tried to search different places to teleport. I decided that the search button was probably my best bet, but when entering searches such as ‘University’ and ‘college’, I received search results back such as sorority sluts and role play, definitely not where I wanted to be. Eventually I found another search engine that showed popular places that were all PG in ratings, and I ended up in Stanford’s library. By this point in the night I was over Second Life and logged off.
Even entering as a new comer I understand that sexuality plays a big part in this world. When searching different “hot spots” and worlds I discovered most involved sex/stripping/etc. In an online world such as second life it is easier for individuals to act differently than they would in normal life. Therefore, people may be willing to act in ways that are not accepted in their everyday world, whether it is a man using an avatar that is of a woman or even women dressing extremely provocatively. For example, even in the few worlds that I have entered there have been women dressed as vampires and in all sorts of strange clothes. In Second Life it seems that most women are dressed very scantily, and I in my black pants and white shirt, was definitely out of place.
I definitely noticed that most women had large breasts, tiny wastes, and long pretty hair. In this virtual world, women are able to create themselves to look exactly the way they wished they could look in real life. I think virtual worlds like second life are a great way for us to look at what is considered beautiful in our society. Of course there are those off beat individuals, who would prefer to take on the avatar of a wizard, but for the most part I think people portray themselves as what they think society thinks is beautiful. Therefore there are a lot of super skinny, big busted, blond women and tall, muscular men. I wonder who is really hiding behind those ridiculously good looking avatars?

It's a Multicultural Barbie World?

Race is often associated with the term ethnicity. This refers to the idea that your race is what you most identify with. Race is often socially constructed to separate what society and culture deem to show who you are. This isn’t how you look necessarily, but rather your ancestry and your primary biological or genetic reference. You could look a certain way, but be of another race. It’s often hard to identify race based on looks, because not everyone in every race looks similar. The census bureau looks at race rather differently and constructs who you are by your origins. For example, you are considered “white” because of the origins of your ancestors whether they come from Europe or they consider themselves Irish. Another example would be those who consider their race to be “black”. These persons consider themselves black because of their familial origins- whether they come from Kenya or Afro America.
When discussing Barbie World in relation to race, it only allows you to be one of the two races listed above. I had talked with Kelly S. about Haboo World and asked her what race options there were in the world, and she mentioned that you could be several and they were quite a few ethnic looks. Whereas in Barbie Virtual World, you can only be dark skinned or light skin and something in between. There is no Hispanic or Latino, nor is there Asian. It’s very limiting in the sense that you can’t truly be who you are, but you must be what Mattel says to be “normal”. Barbie is basically discriminating against other races to cater to the black or white middle class. Though they must only discriminate on Barbie World because when researching this topic I stumbled across a great site that showed the different ethnic Barbie’s over the years (http://kattisdolls.net/faces/bethnic.htm). Races ranged from “black Barbie” to “Ghanian Barbie” to “Latino Barbie” to the international series called “Oriental Barbie”. There were even Native American Barbies along with Dolls of the World, Indian Barbie. It was refreshing to see such that Barbie has come from all over the world.

Who are these People? Habbo Hotel

Every time I log onto the Habbo Hotel, another aspect or question of sexuality, race, gender, and identity arises. Who are these people? Who are these characters? What do these various personalities represent in this virtual world? What do these personalities hope to accomplish? Each one of these question supply a myriad of answers. I myself am participating in this virtual world for a class assignment. Although I enter this online social realm with various motives and preconceptions about the world, other individuals have other goals as well. I find myself questioning other characters to get a better idea of what they are after. Some are on the virtual world for sex, some for recreation, so for gaming and mere entertainment, but one aspect of Habbo that is crucial to the very nature of the site is discretion. I have been approached and solicited for sex from three women and one man to date. I wonder if they would do the same in real life in such a flagrant and blunt manner. Each individual who approached my avatar had an African American appearance. While I was in the ‘Stadium of Concerts’ Room, I noticed that there was another African American woman in the room. We were the only two blacks present ( at least in avatar state). She walked over to me while I was sitting in at the bar and asked if I wanted a drink. I kindly declined, and she then asked if I wanted to have ‘dirty’ sex. I wonder how she assumed that I might possibly be interested in partaking in intercourse. In real life I can ask the same question. How do individuals know what buttons to push in in social situations? What key cues do individuals work off of when interested in making friends, forming relationships, and even attempting to have sex? Without a true identity in this virtual world, avatars have the freedom to do and say what ever they please without the social and in some cases legal ramifications that society enforces.

Fresh Deed and Race

It is a Friday morning August 21, 2009, and for the last two hours I have been flying around in second life with my avatar named Fresh Deed. I am an African American man with a large build. I am wearing a suit and have on a gamer hat. Right now I am flying over a store and am feeling pretty happy being able to fly. I use flying more than walking because I can get to places faster. Flying also lets you get a better look at what second life has to offer. As a black man in second life I am trying to talk to as many white women as possible and see how they react to me. I am challenging race in second life to see if being a black man will help me or restrict me from talking to white women. Everyday I talk to white women and I am getting mixed results. On several accounts I have been asked to teleport to other areas with white women to engage in virtual world sex. This humors me quite a bit when it happens. I have gone to two of these spots to see what it is like. I talk for a while and sometimes log off right away to see how they react the next time I get on. Being of a different race than I am in real life lets me see things through different eyes. Sometimes when I engage a white woman she walks away and ignores me, or flies away which always gives me a few laughs. Sometimes when I try to talk to some white women their response right away is not interested. Its like they think right away I am trying to have sex with them. Race comes into play a lot in this game, which brings about hegemony quite a bit in this second life game. Hegemony, which is one culture dominating another culture I feel is destroyed in this game. I truly feel that in second life hegemony is disconnected from this virtual world. In second life everyone is free to do whatever they want and there is no one culture or person dominating over other cultures or other people. I feel that this is one of the reasons people play this game, is because they are free to control their lives without as many prejudices being given to them. I still feel though that race is connected with second life. As I said back earlier in the journal some white women are taken off guard by a large built black man. I feel my second life avatar does encounter race prejudice, because sometimes I just want to talk to white women or go flying with them and they are offended by me and seem to ignore me like I am a threat to them. Race is also seen in second life when you create your account. In second life you can create your avatar to match all races. You can even choose the pigment off the skin color of your avatar. When you choose your race of your avatar you can also choose his name. My name is random and is not affiliated with a preconceived notion of a black persons name. My character has even been commented on as looking good by many other avatars in second life. I am still talked to more by black women then by white women. The black women avatars normally come up to me and engage in conversation with me at least three times a day when I am playing. I normally talk to them but I am starting to ignore them and focus my attention on talking to white women. My goal is to pull down the race prejudices and make friends with all of the white women in second life. I also want to have a white girlfriend in second life. I am currently now working on getting in a relationship with a fellow white woman avatar. This is my ultimate goal and I’m not going to stop playing until I have a white girlfriend in second life. Well I'm now finished with his journal entry and imp going to go log off second life and prepare to play tomorrow.

W.O.W. Gender

Gender in World of Warcraft
Be it World of Warcraft, The Sims, YoVille, or any of the other various games I’ve tried playing, I always make my avatar a girl. This relates in part, I believe, to the fact that I was born (sex) and raised (gendered) as a girl, so having grown up as such, I always make my avatar female.
That said, the game itself is geared towards the male gender stereotype: battles, killing beasts, and going on quests, so the mere fact that a player is able to create a female avatar in a world of beasts, battles and Warcraft is impressive. It seems ironic to me that the World of Warcraft is more accommodating to both genders than the website made for Barbie (offering only a female avatar).
When I began logging on to play WOW, I didn’t expect to see many other female avatars, but I was severely mistaken. There are many female avatars, which doesn’t necessarily mean the player behind the avatar is a female, but that they chose to play a female character is interesting in a World of Warcraft.
Throughout the interactions I’ve had and observed, I’ve noticed that the female avatars get hit on and objectified more often than the male characters. This happens for a few reasons, I believe: one, that this is how men treat women in actual life, so why not do it in an online world? And two, the individuals are so sucked into playing online games, that the only interaction they have with females is on WOW, and they could be horny. It’s a lot easier to pick “Emote: flirt” with the click of a mouse than walk up to an actual human being and put yourself out there.
Another interaction I unfortunately didn’t get to capture an image of was between a small dwarf male and a tall, night elf female avatar. The two would simultaneously flirt with each other, blow kisses, and the dwarf would tug on the outfit the female avatar was wearing. After about five minutes of this, the people decided to go to a more “private” place. I don’t think that avatars in the World of Warcraft can have sex (if they can, I wasn’t able to find the function on the conversation menu bar), but they can certainly flirt back and forth, blow kisses and say whatever they like to each other.
I didn’t expect to see any homosexual commentary in WOW, mostly because I have a hard time picturing the stereotypical homosexual male playing a computer game like World of Warcraft; and out of the numerous times I logged on, I didn’t see any interactions that seemed like homosexuals hitting on one another. I could be wrong though, just because I didn’t see two male avatars interacting with one another doesn’t mean that the male dwarf and night elf female had a male and a female sitting behind the computer screen.
Individuals on the Internet using avatars can create whatever persona they want to be. This could be helpful to transgender individuals who, in real life, often face criticism, prejudice and hate; online, these people can present themselves as the gender they feel they are and not be seen merely as the parts they were born with.

The Bobba Experiment

I need a cartographer, I’m so lost (The Bobba experiment)
To test my theory that everyone on Habbo Hotel only want to hook up with one another, I became a temporary hussy. I entered four different rooms, a dance party, the lounge, the hospital, and the salon, and began by asking the general public, “who wants to f#ck.” The phrase seemed generic enough considering I had witnessed countless people do the exact same thing. (An interesting note is that Habbo Hotel censors many vulgar words with the word bobba). I conducted my experiment around 3 pm. The dance and the lounge were very crowded, but the hospital and the salon had fewer people in it.
In the salon, hospital and the lounge, nobody answered my request. In each of these rooms, I went up to about five random people and asked them personally if they wanted to bobba. Interestingly, nobody answered me—they ignored me, walked away or told me to bobba off. I didn’t press my luck. One person even advised me to a specific dance hall where people love to bobba, and I should try there.
On a different note, when I entered the dance and asked if anyone wanted to bobba, I received many willing participants. People began approaching me and talking to me, asking me if I wanted to be their girlfriend and saying sexually explicit things. That was enough for me, so I left with my information.
I find this interesting because it was not what I expected at all. I thought the majority of people would be like those found at the dance; however, most people I talked to ignored me. I think this could be because of the group affect—when I asked this at the dance, everybody spoke up and then acted on it. In this way, it became socially acceptable. However, when I accosted the few people at the salon and the hospital, nobody accepted and this might have intimidated people. The lounge, salon and hospital area also might have found this statement embarrassing or taboo; it is not a space assigned for or accepting of bobba-ing.
I was exhausted and weirded-out by doing this research. Also, I felt like I was turning my avatar into something she is not; I don’t want her known as an online sexual deviant. Interestingly, on a different day when I was conducting research on what people like to do on Habbo, I approached “GlamGurl,” a white girl with a flower in her hair and a cute outfit on, and said hi to her. She did not respond, so I asked if I could ask her a few questions. She walked away saying, “Ew, get away from me, lez.” I followed her and tried to explain that the questions were for a class and that I wasn’t trying to be creepy. She ignored me; I then asked her why she didn’t want to talk to me. She responded by saying, “Cuz your enoying [sic]” and she left the room.
I called her a jerk; she hurt my avatar’s feelings. Maybe GlamGurl is as paranoid as I was in that everyone was trying to have a sexual relationship with her. However, I simply think that she judged my avatar’s pigtails and 3D glasses and deemed herself higher than me socially with her pretty flower in her hair. She’s a hata.

Jorge, Bra Sizes, and 21 and Up

Tonight I came into the “21 and up only” room (which is really strange since they have no way of checking id’s to see if anyone is of age..) This room was completely packed with members of both sexes. I observed for awhile, creeping on peoples conversations about boozing and others about what strip clubs were the best (no joke). I was then approached by a cute little blond haired blue eyed avatar names Jorge. Jorge was very nice and very helpful when I explained to him that this was my first time on a virtual world and I had no idea what I was doing and that this was for a school project (now that I think about it, he probably thought I was making it all up.) He asked me if I wanted to go back to his apartment to hang out so I accepted and off we went. We were still talking about my paper when out of nowhere he asked me if I wanted to go swimming. I again accepted and asked him how we go swimming on here. He explained that first we had to get naked before we changed into our swim suits. So there I was in my undergarments in front of this guy in his undergarments just standing there. He then said cool look we’re both naked, and I thought to myself wow this guy is a complete tool but instead I just laughed and concentrated on examples for this paper. He then asked me how big my boobs, that’s when my absurd lying began. I told him I was like a 34DD and the creepy guy replies “ohhhh.” Creeper keeps asking ridiculous questions about my personal sex life and my body and I continue to give him ridiculous answers. At this point in time my roommates join in and are telling me crazy things to tell this guy, the whole time he’s loving it and practically begging for an online hookup. When I ask him if it is even possible to hookup online and how you do it, he explained to me that you just lay in bed next to each other and continue to talk dirty. At this point in time I removed myself from the room because I was just too creeped out.
It seemed like Jorge was definitely and obviously comfortable with his sexuality and he felt the need to share it with others online. Even though it was my avatar and technically not me in the room, I still felt very awkward, like I was going to get caught by someone and that I shouldn’t be there. I had no idea who the real “Jorge” was, and I couldn’t stop thinking did he have this in his mind when he first said hi to me in the “21 and up only room?”

Sexy Second Life

My first day on Second Life, I had no idea what to do. I walked around for about an hour and no one would talk to me. Two girls finally came up to me (Frangelica and Veronika) and told me that my outfit was terrible and that they would give me some of the clothes they had created. The outfit I created is in the first snapshot and the outfit that Frangelica gave me is in the second snapshot. They told me that being here was all about your image and your appearance and the sexuality your portrayed. I don’t know what they thought I was here for, but I figured we were not here for the same reasons.
From here I proceeded to a beach front dance club. This is where I got my first taste of the different type of people that were in Second Life. The area that I saw the most focus on here was sexuality. The avatars here were dressed in provocative clothing and were as well talking to each other very provocatively. I decided to listen in on others, and I noticed a group of attractive avatars all hanging out and dancing together. When I started to read what they were saying I noticed they were discussing and laughing about raping another avatar because they said she was dressed like a hooker. I could not believe they were saying this about the girl. Then, one of the avatars from the group went up to the girl and was trying to get her to have sex with him. The avatars that were hanging around continued to talk about it and laugh about it right to her face. From the time I came in this girl had not bothered them or even stood near them. It is people like this that who give Second Life the reputation of distorted characters being the ones who hang out here. It did not stop there; a guy and a girl avatar were then talking about their “crotch” areas and things they could do. They then left to go somewhere together but did not return. The avatars emphasis on sexual matters seemed the most prominent conversation in this dance club.
This sexuality role that I noticed in avatars was one that I had heard frequently about in Second Life and was why I wanted to do my autoethnography in this virtual world. I wanted to find out for myself if the things I was hearing about were accurate. For this being my first experience, Second Life was turning out to be everything I had heard about it. There were strange people and inappropriate happenings here which fit right in with the stereotype and stigma that comes with it. I am continuing to keep an open mind throughout this process and going into my next sessions with Second Life and hope that there is something or someone within this virtual world that will change the preconceived notion I had about this.

It's a Barbie World

I entered the Virtual Barbie world at 12:00pm on Friday, August 21, 2009. I stayed for about fifteen minutes and explored a bit. My initial reaction was irritation at the incessant music and overwhelming pink butterfly mess that was that background for the entire experience. After I got over that, I decided to go shopping.

I noticed that of the many activities my Barbie Girl could do, the majority of them centered around the mall and spending money. I chose to enter “Dazzling Designs”. I was dazzled!

Upon entering “Dazzling Designs” I was surprised. I thought I would be going shopping, but actually I was given the opportunity to run my own boutique. The advice given to me for running my boutique was to read the fashion magazines to learn of the newest trends. I would get a screen picture of the cover of a magazine with citations like “look hot in black!”, or “new boots for fall!”. With that I could move on to the next step of the game. I went to the buyer’s store and got to look at the different shoes, skirts, and like items. Once I was done putting together my collection for my boutique I purchased the items and then opened my store for business.

At first, I noticed I really wasn’t making a lot of sales. The shoppers would look at the clothes I had for sale in my store and make comments like “Ouch! Too expensive.” or “I’m looking for something a little different.” I realized I would have to change my business plan when I wasn’t making enough money to pay for the items I bought to sell. After I would finish making sales, the Barbie World would give me tips; one of which was to remember to read about the trends. Ah! The light bulb went off. I started over and made sure to design my line according to what I saw on the cover of the fashion magazine.

Once I began listening to the trends, I began to sell more and more clothes! I was really surprised to see that there was an actual strategy to the game. I liked it and disliked it for a few reasons. I thought it was great that the Barbie world was promoting that young women start a business rather than simply exercise spending money without any concept of income. I liked that there was some real thinking involved with how to earn your money. These are all influences that I think young women need more of.

Conversely, I wish there were stores that were dedicated to things other than clothing and items for the home. Lots of young women play sports, why not have a sporting good store? While it’s great that the Barbie Virtual World promotes entrepreneurship, I think they should expand the boundaries even more. Also, I wish that to turn a profit in the shopping game that you did not have to abide by what the magazines told you were the trends. I feel like the game should promote individuality, rather than trend following.

Summer 2009 Virtual World Experience

These journal entries represent a collection of Gender & New Media students' favorite virtual world experiences throughout the summer quarter. Above I've posted their autoethnographic reports on race, class, sexuality, gender and identity in a new media virtual world.