"Sexing the Interface: Gender, Sex and the Avatar"

Sue-Ellen Case

Theater, UC/ Los Angeles

I would like to consider the avatar, whether it is, indeed linked to identificatory processes with the user, as many argue, or whether it operates within an entirely different economy of signification. I am particularly interested in how markings of gender and class work within the avatar to secure its online focus: whether signs of gender and "race" operate as identificatory functions for users, or as inter-object fetish relations.