Delia Dumitrica and Georgia Gaden’s “Second Life” very much reminded me of Suely Fragoso and Nisia Rosario’s “Just Like Me Only Better” in that they both touched on the subject of Avatars and life online in a virtual world. One of the main differences I noticed between the two articles was that while Fragoso and Rosario’s reading spoke on identity in Second Life, Dumitricia and Gadens paper discussed gender and gender roles in Second Life.
The reading opened with discussing how Second Life is now not only a game but is always used in universities and all around the world to showcase virtual versions of famous landmarks and countries. But I what really interested me was their autoethnographic study in Second Life and how the two writers discovered just how gendered and sexualized Second Life could be.
The two writers wrote that upon first entering Second Life they felt scared and ashamed to be a woman in the virtual world. Gaden professes asking herself, “Should I be a woman? This world is unknown to me as a woman. I suddenly feel afraid and vulnerable.”
The writers also mention how one of the first things they noticed in Second Life was the way the other Avatars looked. Both male and female Avatars had gender perfected bodies. The males had six-packs and pectorals while the femails had big breasts, slim waists and long legs. I was also disturbed by Figure 1 of the article which showed a snapshot of the game. The snapshot was a picture of a very sexualized advertisement that was supposedly by a virtual shopping center.
It’s obvious that Second Life was created by and for men aka pigs.
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