Who is behind the avatar? Understanding the Transgender Avatar Phenomenon
Résumé
Avatars function as the cornerstone between the real and virtual worlds, conferring anonymity on consumers, thereby allowing them to engage in new experiences. One facet of avatars’ creation comes up regularly: the fact that a man may represent himself as a woman, or vice versa.
The aim of this research project is to understand the phenomenon of virtual transgendered people, referred to here as ‘transgender avatars’, to enrich the literature on this subject from the perspective of Consumer Culture Theory. Several previous studies have focused on avatars and their repercussions for different concepts: avatar identification, self-representation, the Proteus effect and the identity construction process.
Here, we present a novel research project that has focused on the transgender avatar phenomenon and outline the main concepts that can be used to deepen our understanding of it. We end with the presentation of our future research project.