ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the question of embodiment and gender explicitly and explores the implications of technology and cyberspace on the way gender identity is or may be constructed in virtual worlds, such as Second Life or Entropia Universe. In accordance with classic theories put forward by the sociologists of culture, such as Zygmunt Bauman and Anthony Giddens, identity is perceived as fluid and changeable, and its creation as a never-ending task. It seems that the human body could be a stable support for the fixed identity. The question of the sexed body has been mostly scrutinized by feminism, from both its sociopolitical as well as academic standpoint. The chapter emphasizes the differentiation between: virtual world, virtual reality, and virtual environment. The notions of embodiment or disembodiment or re-embodiment became particularly important and relevant as soon as virtual worlds moved from the era of text-based ‘chat rooms’ to complex graphical spaces inhabited by avatars equipped with perceptible cyberbodies.
