Skin You are In: Examining Second Life as a Stage for Gender and Race Production and Performance through Ethnography and Interview with its Co-founder and Users

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar VII

Abstract

It examines avatar performance in SecondLife by conducting semi-structured interviews with a co-founder and players and ethnography of a seven months period. A close reading of the tension between user’ lived bodily experiences of the identity performance and the sociocultural norms inscribed on its digital body reveals that avatar in the open-ended, ungoverned 3D virtual game world does not epitomize essential, shared characteristics either as a woman or as a particular racial group.

Author

• Yujung Nam, University of Southern California