Gender-bait
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gender-bait is a term used by William Gibson in his 2003 novel Pattern Recognition[1] for the practice of some males who represent themselves as females online to elicit a positive response from other males. This is most common in Internet forums and Massively multiplayer online role-playing games.
A study from the Daedalus Project provides statistics about gender-baiting in World of Warcraft.[2] In this popular on-line computer game, 84% of the players are male, 23% of whom play female characters. Of the female players only 3% pose as male characters, contrary to the belief that the practice is more likely in females who would be avoiding harassment or advances.
[edit] Alternate usage
The term gender-baiting has been in use at least since 1992,[3] mostly in the sense similar to race baiting.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Nothing like genderbait for the nerds, as I'm sure you well know." Pattern Recognition, paperback, page 78
- ^ The Demographics of Gender-Bending, September 3, 2003
- ^ gender-baiting - Google Groups
- Gender bending on MMORPGS, dealing with Everquest, 2001
- Gender Swapping on the Internet, August 1993
|