As I was gathering data on the extent to which the respondents try to pass as female online, I thought it would be interesting to explore how accurate they believe they are in detecting other "gender-benders." Survey respondents were asked whether they believe they can tell what gender someone else "really’ is online, i.e. can they tell when another male is trying to "pass" as female and vice versa. Twenty-six subjects responded to this question.
- 50 % (13 subjects) believe that they can NOT tell other people’s gender online with any accuracy. These respondents believe that most people are too good at "passing," role-playing, or concealing their gender online. Black Rabbit asserts, "anyone who says they can [tell other people’s gender] is lying. Some people are terrible at pretending and you can see right through them of course, but most people are hard to tell and others are impossible."
Slacker speaks of the difficulty in telling who someone really is online: "there were many times I swore I was talking to a girl, when it turned out they would reveal that they were a guy. Now they could’ve just as easily still been a girl, I don’t know."
IceSheild states, "I think that if a person is really careful in what they say and in constructing the profile they use, that it is almost impossible for someone to figure out that they aren’t a female. If a woman asks you a question about female plumbing or makeup, etc those are two areas that would trip up most men."
- 31% (8 subjects) believe that most of the time they CAN tell other people’s gender online. They assert that most people are quite poor at "passing" or roleplaying, and inadvertently reveal their true gender somehow. For example, a male playing a female character will start screaming profanities and talking about your mother when he loses, thus revealing that he is male.
Malaide argues, "Males that usually try to pass for a female are usually very stimulated to a point where their conversation with you is unlike a female (ex. The conversation is completely about sex. Everytime you try to get away from the subject, they bring it back up somehow or another)."
DavPilky: "There’s no way to be certain really. But from what I can tell, men and women do act differently online. Using information from social psychology, and more importantly, sociolinguistic courses, I feel I have a decent bead on who’s male and female [in real life]….for instance…women hedge more, use more tag questions, hesitation noises, and etc."
- 19% (5 subjects) believe that sometimes they can tell, sometimes they can’t, depending on the intelligence and skill of the roleplayer/gamer.
Bier Hunter explains, "some times I can and some times I can’t. If I see a female character running around talking trash and shouting out sex related topics, or saying things like ‘I kick his a** good on that one. What a lamer!’ then I think it’s most likely a male (and a idiotic one at that)….If I see a female character playing as a nice person and being friendly, then it’s hard to tell what the real player’s gender is."
Articles on WomenGamers.Com solely reflect the experiences and perspectives of the author(s). Feel free to agree or disagree in the accompanying forum thread.
