Examining Gender, Race, and Body Image in a Virtual World

Here, I was a hispanic female, and tried talking to a girl. 

Here I am trying to talk to a man, when I was a hispanic female.

Here, I am trying to talk to a male goblin, when I was a black male. 

Here, I am trying to talk to a man, when I was a black male.

Here, I am trying to talk to a woman, when I was a blonde white female.

Here, I am trying to talk to a male rock musician, when I was a blond white female. 

For this assignment, I had to socialize with random people in different Second Life virtual worlds. For the first 30 minutes, I used my original avatar, a hispanic female with black hair and black clothes, to socialize with people. When I tried talking to the people that I encountered, most of them ignored or walked away. Some replied, but was generally very unfriendly. Then, I changed my avatar to a black male wearing hip-hop style outfits. When I tried to socialize with people using this avatar, it was better. Although no one walked up to say hi first, but they gave me a nicer reply than the people in the first world. Some also proceeded with simple conversations, such as "I smoke haha. you?" When I changed my avatar to a blonde, white female, socialization was easier. Some walked up first to say hi, and gave friendly replies. This is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc