Reallycuriousgeorge

You are correct; my statements do seem to contradict one another. This is an error in communication on my part; when he first asked the question I thought he was asking in the technical sense. This study is a project for a class and not a master’s thesis or an independent undergraduate study; so there is technically no faculty research supervisor overseeing my project. However, my professor did read and approve my proposal; which means she essentially acted as a faculty supervisor without the official title. Additionally, the term “gender-bending” wasn’t a phrase that I originally crafted. It is a coined phrase used to describe the phenomenon where people portray themselves as the opposite of their physical sex in an online community. The phrase has been used both by my professor and in the literature I have read while doing background research for this project. I do not think the term is meant to be used in an offensive or demeaning way. However, I admittedly do not actively participate in online communities and have no idea whether the term comes across as offensive in these social contexts. If it does, I apologize; it is not my intention to offend anyone. I realize that the phrase also has problems; as it can come across as odd to transgendered, or inter-sexed individuals. On this note, however; I encourage you, or anyone else who may have ideas or suggestions of how to improve this dilemma to post about it. I understand your tough stance and absolutely encourage discussion on this issue.

Asking questions on a message board doesn’t infringe on the rights or welfare of human subjects. It is well within the rights of posters to simply refuse to answer the questions. Additionally the link you provided makes the CITI training seem optional not mandatory. More importantly, a detailed proposal for this project was presented to the professor beforehand; and approval was granted without any additional training. I have faith that if this process was somehow unethical or against university policy I would have been asked to make appropriate changes or obtain additional training. Thank you for your concern. Again, thanks to all who responded, you have provided useful feedback.

Responding to your questions: 1. NC State 2. Women and Gender studies 3. No, but I will be presenting my data to my professor 4. This isn't an experiment, its just gathering information To everyone else, thanks for the responses, please keep them coming and I really appreciate you taking the time to look at this post.

Hey everybody I’m a student doing a research project on the gender bending experience in online gaming and I would like to ask anyone who is interested some questions on the subject. You don’t have to answer all the questions just the ones you are comfortable with. My definition of gender bending: players who create a virtual identity of their opposite sex Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Questions for people who don’t gender bend Why do you think that people want to play as their opposite gender on an online game? How do you think people respond to players who are not the gender they play as? How would you respond? Do you think people who gender bend are forth coming or do they wait to be asked? Questions for people who do gender bend What is your reason for gender bending? What is the reaction that you get when you tell people your real gender is the opposite of your virtual gender? When you play a new game do you automatically do it without thinking? Question for everyone. How do you think the playing experiences differ between playing as a male or female avatar?