i was at a presentation/conference in stockholm (i think it was 1990 or 1991) – one of the talks was held by a woman who was involved with the project which later came to be known as the game “Habitat” when it was sold to Fujitsu (sorry, can’t remember her name). according to her, they found out that 12% (i think it was) of female avatars were actually men in RL.

an unofficial figure i got from my SL friend regarding female avatars in SL controlled by men are about 20%. i’ll ask him where he got that figure from.

i have encountered at least 5 female avatars in my short SL life whom i KNOW to be men in RL. (somehow, the opposite (encountering male avatars owned by women) has not happened yet. i know at least three more female avatars i suspect very strongly to be men in RL.

but to avoid misunderstanding, i have to stress i am all for gender-switch in virtual life. i find it very liberating. why shouldn’t one take advantage of the fact that you can “choose” whatever you like to be? the same goes for race-switch. i know two avatars who switched his and her race from RL to SL.

when it comes to male-dominance in SL, it is really nothing but my impression (meaning i don’t have any facts to back it up) but i think it is shared by many women. just the other day, i was chatting with my SL friend (female both in RL and SL)who manages a sim for virtual architects. she felt the same way (in fact, i didn’t bring this up – she brought it up). she has now joined a group in SL whose objective is to develop virtual worlds more sympathetic to women. as she put it “i am so tired of being controlled by men.”

http://sl.markettruths.com/reports/report.asp?1
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/02/09/state-of-the-virtual-world-%E2%80%93-key-metrics-january-2007/