Chapter 9 - Gender Identities on the World Wide Web

Abstract

This chapter deals with the mutual relationship of gender and virtual social interaction, particularly, on the Web. Psychologists use the phrase “doing gender” to mean that gender is constructed through social interactions. In other words, gender is not a quality that resides within a person, but rather it is a set of behaviors and role relationships that are setting dependent. If gender is “constructed” as people interact, then it can surely become something new and different in cyberspace. The opposing, more pessimistic view is that traditional gender roles and hierarchical status relations are not just being duplicated but even magnified in virtual encounters. The anonymity of virtual interactions leads to depersonalized perceptions of the self and others. Because little individuating information is available in many online interactions, people respond to others as representatives of salient social categories. A person's sex is a particularly salient category in many virtual spaces. The chapter discusses virtual social interaction, which means social interaction that is mediated over a computer network.