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.