Comments on: Digital Genders: A Double Standard?

By: Erica kane

Erica kane — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:59:06 +0000

You right ita a make believe world..but ppl still treat it like the real world, with real world issues..

By: Kid Fleetfoot

Kid Fleetfoot — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:13:22 +0000

HOME is a play acted out by peeps who dress as males and females in plain and fancy clothing and throw in a mix of genderless sci-fi war characters, hamsters, turkeys, and Pillsbury Dough Boys and God knows who/what else.

If males do indeed pay more for female clothing than females it’s may be that there are more males than females?

It’s a make.believe world, have fun

By: yoyo

yoyo — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:22:15 +0000

I dont care if people cross dress but it think that if the goal is to make friends then why start it by deception . Most guys that dress like girls lead you on and vice versa that itself is already a deception and how can you have a nice friendship when its based on deception. Besides if i wanted to make male friends or whatever i would play an online game and add their psn from the ingame menu because i know we both like the game so if he accepts then we already have something in common no deception there.

By: CheekyGuy

CheekyGuy — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:35:55 +0000

I still believe the female population on ‘Home’ have a Male avatar ‘stored’ in their inventory to be used as a defence against unwanted attention, and to a degree this works. (If you have a male avi with default clothing, you are practically invisible anyway as some parts of ‘Home’ society has resorted to a certain snobbery) But I have only recently realised that this can be another form of recreation also.

Burbie and I have sometimes gender -swapped for fun, which I personally think is hilarious. But for me thats all it is. I don’t go into a ‘character’ and roleplay, although i know of some friends that do, and get a kick out of it.

I wouldnt be surprised at all of the men who ‘Cross dress’ on Home. Some of the outfits on female avatars can be absolutely stunning!

By: Tristalex

Tristalex — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:05:22 +0000

As a male, and as someone who has played a myriad of mmorpg’s since Lineage, with both femme and male toons (I miss my femme dark Elf from lineage2), I have never encountered the double-standard that seems to be so prevalent in Home.

I’ve played both Second Life and Entropia, which seem to be the closest thing to compare to Home and the double-standard, while it does exist, does not exist the same way as it does in Home, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why.

It’s easy to blame the usual suspects. Immaturity, youth, noobs, homophobia, or as cthulu pointed out, people using Home as E-Harmony. However tend the bar at Scorpio’s for a few hours and you’ll see the double-standard is applied by people regardless of age, gender, or sexual orientation. Weird….

I do however disagree with the term cross-dressing in the virtual sense. If I’m going to have a femme avi, I’m going to dress her like a girl dangnabbit. Albeit with colored dual katanas that match my shoes.

Great article, great read.

By: Terra_Cide

Terra_Cide — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:55:53 +0000

I remembered (vaguely, it’s been… Damn, almost two decades already?). Still, you have to understand that seeing such a… sight… pre-caffeine will elicit such an emphatic response.

By: NorseGamer

NorseGamer — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:46:57 +0000

I believe the second picture is a depiction of Mari, from Project A-Ko (which is *such* an awesome anime).

If anyone would like to see the scene in question from which this picture is pulled, feel free to visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxgckL87b0 and check out the fisticuffs.

By: Mika

Mika — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 02:39:53 +0000

Omg! great post hun let the truth be told I kinda know sometimes who and what I’m talking to in home,judge the conduct not the avatar that applies to real life also. Wow do men avatars really spend more than women?:)

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:31:52 +0000

I love the article Cynella. I have several friends who dress up as female occasionally and a few who do it almost exclusively. They are by no means homosexual or even transsexual and I have never really asked why they do this, as I accept them for who they are and don’t really care about the why all that much. I stay female almost exclusively myself, but have on occasion become male, mostly as a joke between friends. There should never be double standards either in real life or virtual, but unfortunately this is not the case. Many males will always regard any other male who is not exclusively masculine either in real or virtual as somewhat disturbed as (like chtulu said) it touches on their own sense of masculinity.

By: cthulu93

cthulu93 — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:09:59 +0000

Agreed,that is a disturbing photo.The guys that feel that guys in a female avatar are disgusting,in my experience,are for the most part the same guys that treat home as E-Harmony.They view guys in female form as a form of false advertising,these are for the most part,again in my experience,newer users or guys that are so desperate for female companionship that they have turned to pshome for relationship services.As you saw these types don’t view females in male garb the same,they view them as potential dates and wouldn’t think of alienating them by telling them the same things they do when the situation is the opposite.The ppl that didn’t seem to mind in your experiment were probably ppl that have been on home long enough to know what’s up or rather enlightened individuals.Unless a mic or cam gets pulled out there really isn’t a sure way to effectively know what gender a person is,so ive basically adopted the view that until i know for sure which gender a person is i assume they could be either.As i’m not really looking to”hook up” on home gender is mostly irrelevant to me so this works out fine.But when guys that are actively looking for female relationships on home and find a guy in girl form they feel that they were duped into slightly homo-erotic feelings.This doesn’t explain why some females feel the same way nor is it an explanation for every guy feeling this way,just 1 of probably many reason’s,but then there are few topics that are as complicated as real or perceived human sexuality.

By: Terra_Cide

Terra_Cide — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:54:29 +0000

Before I continue with my comment, I would first like to say that JESUS CHRIST ON A POGO STICK IS THAT SECOND PICTURE DISTURBING!

Now that I got that out of my system…

It would have been interesting in the second test to see how other girls reacted to you if you had come up to them in a female avatar and said you were male.

By: Viennese

Viennese — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 11:32:24 +0000

Wow great post Cynella! I really don’t understand the hang up about male and female avi’s, ecause I have a male friend who has more female clothes than I do (strange but true) As long as the person behind the pixel is nice, I have no problem with what they look like. More people need to be like this!