Second Life

This article was very difficult for me to understand. In the section, "Preparing to think about Gender in Virtual Worlds," it discusses how we have approached gender in second life a post-structuralist feminist perspective. The centrality and complexity of gender in feminist research has been widely discussed. I found this to be extremly interesting. They understand gender to be performed through our actions, behaviours, and choices. Gender is achieved not given. I thought this was really interesting because I thought gender is what you are born as. Male, or Female, not something you choose to be. The article argues, "Butler argues that gender is produced and operates within a heterosexual matrix or hegemony where masculinities and femininities are produced and interpreted in this context, thus placing queer sexualities and gender identities on the margins, in the realm of the ‘other." When it comes to the social technical infrastructure, it is important to recognize that worlds such as SL are themselves the product of particular discursive practices around gender. Feminist scholars believed to have described technology as both liberating from and reinforcing of traditional gender binaries and boundaries. “To pass as a woman for any length of time requires understanding how gender inflects speech, manner, the interpretation of experience to a certain extent, this gender swapping encourages reflection on the way ideas about gender shape our expectations." I thought it was cool to see how everything revolves around gender and no matter what you are, you make up your own gender. This article was very interesting but complicated and complex