Policy Desk: Gender Swapping in Virtual Worlds

As serious games - virtual corporate, as it's called here - gains traction in the business world, one curious phenomenon is how gender-bending, using the expanded fashion repertoire of avatars and virtual worlds, is giving online meetings a whole new dimension.

Hypergrid Business recently wrote a lengthy piece looking into the legal and enterprise implications of cross-dressing in virtual worlds. While cross-dressers undergoing gender transition surgery are protected in the workplace in almost half of US states, those who are not undergoing a physical transition are not protected. And as dress codes in virtual environments are being enforced, gender-switching is, according to the article, not covered by the same rules.

“There are some companies who have just decided that it is good business practice to be accommodating to a person’s gender expression even if they’re not consistent all the time,” said Harper Jean Tobin, policy counsel at the National Center for Transgender Equality.

This is already happening at some companies, as men dress as women, and vice versa, in virtual worlds. Dan Parks of Corporate Planners Unlimited Inc. experienced this recently from contract staff.

“One lady who worked for me last year, putting together a tour vehicle, was a man who had a woman’s avatar,” he told Hypergrid. “It may have even been a transgendered person – I didn’t ask.”

In terms of transgender issues, IBM has always had a progressive attitude, having long ago added sexual orientation to its US non-discrimination policy, and this is also translating into the virtual worlds, where employees routinely show up as their reverse gender. Craig Becker, the global architect for IBM’s Emerging 3D Internet and Virtual Business Enterprise Business Unit, is Jessica Qin in Second Life, but still abides by IBM's virtual world policy of "making the right impression."

IBM's conduct code reads as follows: “When you are using your avatar or persona in association with IBM, however, your judgment in these matters should be shaped by the same general guidelines that apply to IBMers in physical environments … that your appearance be appropriate to the context of your activities. You need to be especially sensitive to the appropriateness of your avatar or persona’s appearance when you are meeting with IBM clients or conducting IBM business.”

Apparently, gender-swapping is not an issue.

“We have lots of men at IBM who dress as women in-world when they are with customers,”  said Peter Finn, a senior architect at the company. “We are proud of them,” he said.

(via Hypergrid Business)

Comments

[Valiant Westland]

Although a discussion on the ethics of gender identity is not the main purpose of this post, the topic of gender policies raises important questions for the SL community. Is there ever a situation where portraying oneself as a different gender is unethical?

Much of the experiential "data" (opinion) on gender switching in virtual world business settings, such as that collected by IBM, was collected during the bleeding-edge phase of virtual world adoption, when everyone involved was acutely aware of the socially avaunt garde nature of the virtual community. These days are over. Mainstream businesses utilizing virtual world tools will NOT tolerate behaviors that are going to distract or potentially offend their clients or partners.

Some people may not like this and it may irritate the hell out of those who see virtual worlds as a tool to further their social agendas, but the fact remains; The vast majority of companies are as likely to support cross-dressing virtual employees as they are to hire the leading "ladies" of Too Wong Foo to represent them at their next trade show!

Excerpted/Related Blog Post - Mutatio Vox Populi (Changing the Voice of the People) - http://theslrevolution.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/mutatio-vox-populi/

[kanomi]

I remember reading an article a while back saying that the only rule for Sun (or was it Oracle?) employees in Second Life was their avatar had to be human.

I thought that was an awesome policy, and I would love to spy on the Human Resources manager: "So Jenkins, we hear you are playing a Night Elf in Warcraft. That's against our Humans-Only policy, you know..."

[Dusan Writer]

Valiant - well, you know where I stand on issues of avatar identity. :P So I'm coming at this with a decided bias. But I'll keep my comment brief - you're making a sweeping generalization that is stated as fact. Some of us are not having the experiences you describe - we're selling to mainstream companies, we're having robust discussions of avatar identity, and not having any of the "WILL NOT TOLERATE" behavior that you describe.

I think you'd like to believe that bland boring corporate America needs to be spoon-fed a hyper-real immersive experience in which we all have avatars that look like "us", that all have our real names, and that all sit around board rooms looking just as bored as they do in real life.

The reality, or at least the reality I'm experiencing, is very different from what you describe.

I'm firmly of the belief, however, that if you go in to a client with the attitude that they just won't get it or won't tolerate it then, well, they won't. If you go in with an attitude that understands the corporate benefits of exploring identifaction issues then they will get it as well.