Silly boys SL is for girls!

[Kelinda]

So it seems to me women out number men 8-10 to 1 in Second Life. Is this because most of SL is about shopping and homemaking? Are the boys off playing War Games?

[JoJo Moeleneaux]

I don't have anything to add except to me, SL isn't about homemaking, maybe some shopping, ok a lot of shopping but I much prefer live music events and killing zombies. Seems to be enough guys at both those activities.  I really only wanted to reply just to say, I really like your forum badge :matte-motes-smile:

[Kelinda]

Thank you so much.  I only ask because right now I am at a very popular club and there are 20 women here and like 2 guys. lol

[JoJo Moeleneaux]

I was at a gig tonight at accoustic meadows and at least 1/3 of the vistitors were male. Dunno, maybe they're all asleep so they look beautiful in the morning :smileyvery-happy:

[Peewee Musytari]

Where is that statistic from or are you talking about avatars? 

If so, did you take into account the high % of female avatars that are in fact men?

[Kelinda]

I am talking about Avatars.

ETA: I guess if I counted Bois the numbers would be higher.

[Dresden Ceriano]

Oh I don't know, a lot of places I've been are almost exclusively men and they are not playing war games either. *wink wink nudge nudge*

Seriously, I've always thought it had something to do with the fact that women out number men in RL as well... but PeeWee does have a point.

@PeeWee: It's strange what sleep deprivation can lead your mind to think of that you've never considered before... like the thought of how many men have had it off with each other as women avatars since the start of SL. *giggles*

...Dres

 

[Ceres]

Apart from shape shifting into females, here are a few other things I could think of:

1. They're in Aditi.
2. They're in Sandboxes, Info Hubs and Help Islands creating traffics and attracting griefers
3. They're in the forums, blogs, twitter complaining about mistreatment from LL
4. They're in furry sims
5. They're in ZIndra
6. They're at home - ZIndra-ing
7. They're at home - creating more junks
8. They're at home - AFK in RL
9. They're at home in RL, offline - WIW (Wife is Watching)
10. They're at home in RL, offline - Kids need a bath 

 

[Acheron Gloom]

It depends on where you go. Most of the places I go are probably about 85% real-life males. 

In turn most of the places you go there are apparently more females.

Statistically I might see its pretty even.

 

In the fourth quarter of 2008 there were more males than females (58.72% versus 41.28%) 

http://static-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/economy/stats_200811.xls

[Peewee Musytari]

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

Oh I don't know, a lot of places I've been are almost exclusively men and they are not playing war games either. *wink wink nudge nudge*

Seriously, I've always thought it had something to do with the fact that women out number men in RL as well... but PeeWee does have a point.

@PeeWee: It's strange what sleep deprivation can lead your mind to think of that you've never considered before... like the thought of how many men have had it off with each other as women avatars since the start of SL. *giggles*

...Dres

 

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@Dres I hear ya, l find it highly amusing that straight men with female avvies, decide their character is gay so that they don`t end up with another guy.  But assuming they are all doing that, there are a load of RL men in gay relationships with each other while RP`ing as 2 gay female avatars?

[Chronometria]

I`m a guy who has a female avatar and have had male and female partners online.

So when you see a female avatar with another female avatar, don't forget that some of us are Bi.

[Venus Petrov]

It is because a good number of female avatars are operated by RL men.  One stat I heard long ago was about 40% of female avies are operated by RL men.  Fewer RL women operate male avatars (on any regular basis).  Go figure.

ETA:  Also, count the alts.  I have one alt who is female.  You?  /me smiles

[Ishtara Rothschild]

---

Kelinda wrote:

So it seems to me women out number men 8-10 to 1 in Second Life. Is this because most of SL is about shopping and homemaking? Are the boys off playing War Games?

---

This boy, for one, is here in SL playing dress-up Or, to say it in lolcat:

 

ETA: I don't think that female residents outnumber male ones. In the parts of the grid where I hang out, it's pretty much the other way around. What we're dealing with in SL is probably gender segregation rather than a shortage of male residents.

While women spend their time shopping and homemaking, and occasionally visiting an M-rated dance club in the hope of being swept off their feet by a handsome stranger, men are having all kinds of X-rated fun in the seedy red light areas of SL. Mostly with other men, if they are aware of it or not

Considering the abundance of female avatars who are willing to go the extra mile on the first date, or even before the first date, there is simply no reason for men to try and woo real women. What the grid needs are more women willing to role-play men in order to make female romantic fantasies come true. Turnabout is fair play.

[Pussycat Catnap]

People love making up all kinds of random statistics to explain away the fact that the women-folk have somehow learned how to communicate without being spoken to first, learn how to read and write on their own without prompting, and can use the complimicated compootor without teh manly-man holding their hands. And it gets worse, needing more random out of thing air statistics to explain away the women-folk being on teh interwebs.

And of course, everyone knows only manly-men play video games, so all kinds of arbitrary statistics are needed to explain away the apparant presence of women-folk in the online games. And of course... even further statistics are needed to explain away women doing teh sexxors without being 'forcibly taken' by teh manly men, cause real women don't like teh sexxors.

Everyone knows teh women-folk don't like teh complicated stuffz. They're not smart enough, too busy making dinner, and are for taken care of teh little tikes.

:matte-motes-nerdy:

 

Or we could accept that maybe there are some of 'teh women-folk' who can do 'stuffz' and like it.

But reality is best ignored or explained away.

 

ps: you can see similar situations in universities and even the professional world today: with women outnumbering men in colleges, all kinds of 'explainations' come into lay to downplay it, and in technical fields - a massive sense of denial over the presense of -any- women.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

I have no doubt that SL and other online games attract as many women as men. The only reason that I don't believe female SL residents to be the majority is that men and women are fairly evenly distributed within the population. I simply think that by and large, male and female SL residents tend to have different priorities.

Point in case: The OP wrote that most of SL is about shopping and homemaking. In my opinion, most of SL is about sex. I guess we're simply seeing SL from different gender perspectives.

Of course women enjoy sex too. But in my experience, it is mostly men that are looking for fast, uncomplicated, and very frequent sex with random strangers. Women are more likely to search for Mr. or Ms. Right, or at least Mr. / Ms. Not-entirely-wrong. In a world where men can get laid without having to prove (read: pretend) that they can be Mr. Right, they're not very likely to waste their time on courtship.

[squashy Beeswing]

@ Ishy 

From another perspective SL is all about building and creating.  That's got to be pretty high on the list, too.  :-)

@ OP

It depends where you hang out.  If it's shopping sims, then you'll almost always find more females than males.  However, remember we're talking avatars, not actual players  ( <--- sorry, can't think of a more appropriate word at the moment). 

 

 

 

[Vladi Hazelnut]

There is no doubt SL seems to be geared towards women, which is why I played as a female avi for over a year. There really isn't much out there for men, or at least there wasn't, it seems to be getting better.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

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squashy Beeswing wrote:

@ Ishy 

From another perspective SL is all about building and creating.  That's got to be pretty high on the list, too.  :-)

---

Yes, that too Building and creating X-rated content that I can't find for sale anywhere

[Dresden Ceriano]

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squashy Beeswing wrote:

However, remember we're talking

avatars,

not actual players  ( <--- sorry, can't think of a more appropriate word at the moment). 

---

Users maybe?

@Vladi: It is getting a little better, but it's always been about knowing where to look. :matte-motes-big-grin-squint:

...Dres

[Poenald Palen]

Uh, I look at the user base of many games. Look at the demographics...yes! They are! Creation you say? OHHH, they are doing that to...creation exists way way outside of SL! Cars are being rendered by the bazillion, GTA mesh cars are being pimped and uploaded, unreal engine has flying guts painted by men sitting in thier corners on computers all over the country...yes, those odd laughter and wierd noises from you neighbour guy? Yeah, he just made an amazing knife anim that allows him to stab the bad guy character right in the face!!! "Oohhhahahah YEAH!!!" another yell happens when someone finally figures out the particle system and makes the bad guys guts steam upon getting thwacked by a chainsaw!!

So, YES...they are all off making first person shooters and working ongame mods for first peson shooters...and chatting to girls in chat rooms that youdont' know about...ones that instantly make them look better than you...yes, it is true...well, at least the lonely guys playing war games part

[Poenald Palen]

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Kelinda wrote:

I am talking about Avatars.

ETA: I guess if I counted Bois the numbers would be higher.

---

OH, I didn't read this part yet....ah. OH...they are all good looking and are all on dates (or preparing for dates) with the 10% of hot girls you and your girlfreinds gossip about and hate and can't understand why men like them and you KNOW they had butt jobs...no xrays needed...of course!

[Void Singer]

I think that in spite of the obviously well known gender swapping in SL, there probably are more women here on average... simply because of cultural and social acceptability... SL is more social and less physical or goal driven which appeals more to the cultural climate of women than men. I think some of that even bleeds over into driving some of the gender swapping (on both sides).

there are counter indicators too though, computers in general still are more social acceptable in male culture, and a large part of SL is drawn from existing gamer culture, however several subcultures also have a higher affinity for computer use, regardless of gender, and find more social freedom here than RL so the effect is mitigated somewhat

[Deltango Vale]

After nearly 5 years in SL, I will offer my opinion. I have no data, just an opinion based on my experience. I would say that women outnumber men for obvious reasons, but I believe gender swapping is equal for women and men. For every guy running a female avi there is a girl running a male avi. I believe gender swapping is much more difficult than it seems - especially for straight men. Even so, a gay man and a straight woman are very different; a bi woman and a straight man are equally different. In my opinion, gender is like culture: difficult to fake (imagine a Brit pretending to be from Texas, mate, or a white guy from New Jersey pretending to be a south London Rasta). I therefore have a strong suspicion that anyone in SL older than a year has settled into his or her natural RL gender (furries excepted).

[Ishtara Rothschild]

---

Deltango Vale wrote:

After nearly 5 years in SL, I will offer my opinion. I have no data, just an opinion based on my experience. I would say that women outnumber men for obvious reasons, but I believe gender swapping is equal for women and men. For every guy running a female avi there is a girl running a male avi. I believe gender swapping is much more difficult than it seems - especially for straight men. Even so, a gay man and a straight woman are very different; a bi woman and a straight man are equally different. In my opinion, gender is like culture: difficult to fake (imagine a Brit pretending to be from Texas, mate, or a white guy from New Jersey pretending to be a south London Rasta). I therefore have a strong suspicion that anyone in SL older than a year has settled into his or her natural RL gender (furries excepted).

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You're forgetting about the large community of transsexual and transgender avatars, as well as hermaphrodites, androgynes, femboys and manga-inspired futanaris And furries of course. A great deal of feminine furries sport male or partially male pelvis attachments.

I have indeed settled into my natural RL gender (in Sociolotron already, long before I joined SL), for exactly the reason you suggested (gender is hard to fake). But I nonetheless have a feminine avatar and people who don't know me perceive me as a woman. The same is true for the vast majority of my friends and acquaintances in SL.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

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Void Singer wrote:

I think that in spite of the obviously well known gender swapping in SL, there probably are more women here on average... simply because of cultural and social acceptability... SL is more social and less physical or goal driven which appeals more to the cultural climate of women than men. I think some of that even bleeds over into driving some of the gender swapping (on both sides).

there are counter indicators too though, computers in general still are more social acceptable in male culture, and a large part of SL is drawn from existing gamer culture, however several subcultures also have a higher affinity for computer use, regardless of gender, and find more social freedom here than RL so the effect is mitigated somewhat

---

 

I've noticed a trend of gamers recreating their WoW or Lineage characters in SL. They don't use SL as their only social / gaming environment but merely as an additional MMO that allows certain forms of RP that are not supported by their game of choice (cybersex, first and foremost).

Aside from that, SL has also gained a reputation as a dating platform, which is equally interesting for both genders. The same can be said about content creation and commerce. And the X-rated part of SL has always been a predominantly male domain, imho.