Gender in Cyberspace

What is gender?
Gender is defined in the dictionary as the classification by which words are grouped as masculine, feminine or neutral; also known as a person’s sex.

Feminine: having qualities characteristic of or suitable to women; gentle, delicate, etc.
Masculine: suitable to or having qualities regarded as typical of men; strong, vigorous, etc.
Neutral: of neither extreme in type, kind, etc.

Gender is more than a persons' sex because gender pertains to the mannerisms and actions associated with a particular sex. The identification of gender helps individuals connect with the people they interact with daily. Without an understanding of gender, an observer has no immediate way to interact with the individual in question because there is no identifying factors for comparison to the known perception of what gender is.

So what does all of this mean? Why is gender important and why should it matter in cyberspace where everything was originally created to be gender neutral?

Throughout this site, we'll take a look at the stereotypes associated with gender/sex and how gender ties into the assumptions about online gaming, particularly gender swapping or transgender play in Multiplayer Dungeons (MUDs) and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs).