The Problem of Gender Identity in Cyberspace
The
well-known Peter Steiner cartoon with the caption “On the Internet, nobody knows
you’re a dog” (1993, 61) has an anecdote that holds true in many on-line contexts. As long as
interpersonal communication on the Internet remains largely textual, one cannot readily
determine the demographic and social characteristics of the author of a message. Physical
appearance provides immediate information about a person’s gender, race, social status, or age.
Even clothes and accessories offer allusions to demographic and social characteristics (Lurie,
1981; Cullum-Swan & Manning, 1994). Vocalics (Tusing & Dillard, 2000; Pallilo, 1999) help
identify the race and gender of invisible speakers. But in the absence of visual and aural stimuli
readers may rely on voluntary social identification (e.g. the name of the author) or, failing that,
linguistic cues in discerning the demographic identity of the author of a message, under the
presumption that certain words or language styles are more typical of one gender than the other
(Lobel, et. al., 1999; Guerin, 1994; Smith & Whitlark, 2001).
That presumption may not be valid in cyberspace. While the epistemology of paper-
printed text and hypertextual messages are putatively the same, users in cyberspace often take
advantage of the intangible nature and freedom from regulation of on-line communication. More
often than not, individuals are more outspoken over the Internet and communicate under a
pseudonym (Bechar-Israeli, 1995; Danet, et. al. 1996; Jacobson, 1999), also commonly known as
a “handle”. Anonymity allows individuals to operate under a web of deception by
communicating under the guise of someone from a different social group than one’s own
(Bechar-Israeli, 1995; Danet, et. al. 1996; Lee, 1996).
Identity misrepresentation is rampant in cyberspace and gender is one of the most readily
malleable, and widely abused, social characteristics. In an experimental study in which
Convention