First of all, I would like to say I had a slight change of heart about Habbo Hotel tonight. I decided these last couple nights I’d play as much as I could stand, and hope to learn more about this virtual world—and I did! (I’ll get to that later). My next blog will be about gender…which is interesting to observe in this game. When I think of the word gender, I think it’s a hard word to completely define on its own, so instead gender roles in my opinion is easiest to understand. (gender roles are theoretical constructs in the social sciences and humanities that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific gender.)—Wikipedia again.
You can observe these gender roles in every part of Habbo Hotel, but considering most of the players are interested in the opposite sex, lets relate that to gender roles. It’s true in society today, that men are the aggressive group. They are the alpha males, always asserting their power and strength, and do this with the help of finding a lady of interest. Sure in this day and age, women are being more assertive in what they want bla bla bla, but for the sake of this blog, let’s all agree that the majority of women still fall under the category of damsel in distress, so to speak.
Most women are just waiting for men to talk to them, hit on them, ask them on a date, and it is NO different than Habbo Hotel. What’s even sadder, is that I felt myself standing around “cute” boy avatars, hoping one would strike up a conversation. what?! Why?!
To go into further detail, I accepted (yet another) friend request, trying to devote my time to really understanding. His screenname was something like “Chevrita with some numbers behind it”, and he was very cordial, asked me to hang out etc. I was apprehensive considering the inappropriate undressing that tried to happen a few weeks ago. But to my surprise, he was very nice. He wanted to know about me as a person (of course I was posing as a younger girl, and made up every aspect of my avatar ---which I feel guilty for, but I’ll get over it). He didn’t once ask me if I had a web cam, msn, if I sent pictures, or if I was feeling any sort of randy. Which from playing Habbo, you could almost say I put under gender roles for male avatars. I expected for every single one of them to be looking for the hottest avatar tail they could find, demanding girls line up in front of them to pick the cream of the crop (which was obviously based on my previous encounters).
To my surprise, this boy from California- I’ll believe that he is who he said he was- in my opinion- was only looking for a lady friend who embodied what he deemed socially acceptable for females. As embarrassing as this may be ( I committed myself to this), I kept talking to Junior (yes that is the name he told me), and he talked about the ocean, his hobbies etc. He flirted and I tried my best to talk like I’m an expert Habbo-er. Eventually, he told me to follow him (UH OH!) but now…instead we showed up at a restaurant, where we had fake dinner.
My point is, is even though he didn’t fulfill the stereotype of the alpha male, trying to beat out all the others, and be the most desirable, he still took on the role of being a gentleman—which is a forgotten gender role in my opinion.
You can also look at gender in different ways, and in broader terms when making up an avatar. They give an array of options for both sexes, and they also give the players the option of trying to emphasize their genders. The girls get accessories for their hair, jewelry etc, which you associate with girls, and the boys got to wear different belts, have many hat options, facial hair etc, because those are some of the things you associate with boys and gender. All in all, while depressing in some aspects of our lives, this idea of gender is engrained in us throughout our entire lives. But how?
Do you think these gender roles are influenced more by family members, peers, and friends, or are these known from birth?
And/or
This blog posed an interesting question about gender roles, and what influences them. I think all of these factors influence gender roles, especially family. Family members instill almost every value and ideal you hold during your life. This is true about gender roles and ideals surrounding them as well. What is known from birth also has an effect, but as demonstrated in recent years, this can be changed. I think virtual worlds have a slight effect on gender roles, but it is more vice versa. I think gender roles originate in real life through experiences, and are either carried out or changed in virtual worlds based on ideals. Many people use online worlds to carry out things they cannot in the real world. These fantasies are created in real life, and made “real” by the resources in virtual reality.
ReplyDeleteAwesome observations and questions! Thanks, Angela!
ReplyDelete