Avatars & Gender

Had a little discussion on twitter about female avatars in games all sparked because of a thread on the SWTOR forums we both happened to read within a few minutes of each other. I read about female avatars getting 'hit on' quite often but I've never really experienced it myself, even on my half-naked girls in AoC where you'd expect that kind of behaviour. There was only one time in a game, in LOTRO in 2007, that I recall encountering any kind of actual sexual harassment. I was on one of my female characters sitting around Bree for some reason (maybe waiting on my sister or someone else) and a male avatar kept standing on/near me and sexualizing innocent emotes (like pushups). I got up and ran to another location in Bree only to be followed and have the behaviour continue. I can't recall if I reported the person or what I did but I was free of them not long after.

Other than that immature player and one person telling me one of my female characters was sexy, I don't think I ever had unwanted flirts from other characters. Yes, there was another player one time who wanted to cyber with my character and I told them no but they didn't harass me. The only thing that happened with that was the person got mad when he saw me with a group of male avatars (a kin I used to play with often) some time later and he tried to tell me one of them was gay, as if that would bother me. Those are the only things I can think of that happened that were related to the gender of my avatar.

I freely play male and female characters, usually because of looks/voice. No, not the avatar's pixelated rear as so many who claim to be male give as the reason for playing females. My Hunter in LOTRO, I chose because of the hairstyle. My Warrior in SWTOR, I chose for a few reasons. One, I based his looks on Darth Maul and his personality on Darth Malgus; Two, I wanted to romance Vette though I've ended up romancing/marrying Jaesa; and Three, that sexy voice. My Agent in SWTOR, I'm pretty sure I chose because of the voice as well but I honestly don't recall; it's possible I had the thought of romancing Kaliyo though that bitch makes it hard to like her.

Anyway, you never know the gender of the person behind those pixels and, frankly, it doesn't matter. I'm sure the majority of people I've grouped with while on my Warrior didn't know I'm actually a female but who cares, my gender had no effect on us slaughtering our enemies or my ability to effectively tank. I generally don't bring up gender in a game because it does not matter to me but sometimes I do if I get tired of being referred to as a guy. One of those guys I grouped with I did recently make it clear I'm female, though I thought he knew, and he felt awkward about some of the things we talked about. I told him it didn't bother me so it shouldn't bother him. Just because someone is of the opposite gender shouldn't automatically make things 'off limits' because gender doesn't determine awkwardness; a male can just as easily be uncomfortable by a conversation as a female and vice versa.