Stanford Study Suggests Sexualized Female Avatars May Influence Women to Self-Objectify & Accept Rape Myths

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

A recent Stanford University study has come out with some unsettling implications about the real-world effects of playing with a sexed-up virtual version of yourself. According to the study, women between the ages of 18 to 41 who are given a female avatar resembling themselves and wearing revealing clothing may be more accepting of rape culture and rape myths, and more likely to objectify women, including themselves, afterwards.

This finding is very disturbing, to say the least, though I wish this study explored how women reacted to self-created avatars. I'll explain what I mean, but first want to unpack the study further:

Here are the details in a nutshell: Stanford researchers provided each participant, women between 18 and 41, with a female avatar. Some avatars were dressed in skimpy outfits and some weren't; some avatars had been modified to look like the subject, while others hadn't.

Afterwards, the women were asked to fill out a survey that contained statements about their avatar, as well as more esoteric subjects, including "In the majority or rapes, the victim is promiscuous or has a bad reputation.". They found that women who had been provided with a provocatively dressed doppelganger were more likely to Agree or Strongly Agree with statements like these, generally accepted to be part of rape culture/rape myths (the "she was asking for it" school of thought). Other participants were asked to write freely after the experience, and women who had played with "sexy" avatars were more likely to objectify themselves in what they wrote, fixating on their bodies and appearance, more than others who had played with more modestly dressed characters.

There are some problems with this study of course (as there are with most studies), but one thing really stands out to me. It seems that the subjects were all given an avatar, rather than creating one themselves and having ownership of it. They didn't choose the clothing for their avatar, nor were they in control of any resemblance that avatar had to them. While the results are interesting, I would be much more interested in seeing how control and ownership of an avatar, even a sexualized one that resembles its creator, affects them.

It's almost a moot point, given how so many games offer so few options for female characters. Sometimes it feels like a stroke of luck to have a female avatar at all, nevermind one that you can truly customize to your tastes, whether you want to be sexy or not. But even so, would it have changed the results? When you choose the miniskirt instead of having it chosen for you, when you are wearing an item specifically because you prefer it, does that ownership alter your perspective?

If you'd like to read more, you can find the study in full here, and there's also a pretty solid examination of the study and its shortcomings on NBC News' website that's worth a read.

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Pussycat Catnap]

Hmmm...

I would like to see this controlled a bit for

- is the result being more open to promiscuity
- or more open to agreeing with victim blaming.

Because I see a critical flaw... if one were to approach women on the street who were dressed conservatively and women on the street dressed revealingly... I suspect you would get the opposite conclusion. That women who dress conservative might think the women who dress revealingly are "asking for it" but that the women who dress revealingly have more complex motives, the least likely of which would entail "seeking to get assaulted"...

Context plays a HUGE role in this too...

In SL, Goreans have created a perception that the less clothed a female is, the less she has a right to empowerment - and where nude = slave. That perception filters out to the rest of SL in a number of ways...

In many an MMO however, powerful action heroines are often very scantily clad, and has no 'slave culture' about them. And weaker peasants can often be seen in raggedy robes that are almost nun-like.

Sailor Moon, that popular anime in the 90s, tied 'bikini top and mini-skirt' to Girl Power. Which was often about being cute, sexy, strong willed, and super humanly powerful. Wonder Woman in the 70s did much the same for my generation.

Conan style fantasy seems to go the other way: the princess needing rescue is typically nude. But then there is Red Sonja in a literal chainmail bikini. And Conan himself has just half a bikini... :)

The study needs to be controlled for preconceptions, and for context.

If I put these participants into a Gorean sim in SL, and then surveyed them, I'm sure they would come away from it very differently than if I put them into an MMO like Guild Wars or World of Warcraft...

[imlazytologinbutyouknowme]

When you control an avatar you made, instead of operating prefabricated one, it's more like "you are affecting the avatar's behaviour" rather than "avatar's look controls yours". Basically, it's the logics of that research running backwards. So I guess the persons who are running almost or fully naked in SL are pretty okay with "the fact", as it is the choice of their own will.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I think Iris is on to an important point. Choosing to dress in a "sexy" mode is an exercise of agency, of free will. Having that mode foisted upon you as a default or as the only possible choice of body type and outfit is a denial of agency -- and denial of agency is a fair description of the underlying motivator behind rape and threats of rape.

The authors of the study caution that this is a preliminary work. But it definitely warrents further investigation, and I would most certainly hope that the major design studios take the findings to heart.

[Emperor Norton]

Bad science.

* No reason for anyone to identify with an avi they were just given.

* The VR set up used isn't how gaming is done.

* The provided avatars aren't dressed nearly as revealing as gaming avatars get.

* avatars aren't associated with the constant violence that happens in a typical game.

The last point is striking considering this is supposed to be a study about rape.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I don't think it's "bad science", just preliminary science. You always control for extraneous variables. Once a baseline is established, then you can factor in those in a controlled fashion.