Virtual Queer Worlds: Analysis on Queer Spaces in VRChat
Abstract/Description/Artist Statement
Despite the increased popularity and ever-growing research in Virtual Reality (VR), very little has been done to explore how embodied identity and queer subjectivity are performed and experienced within it. Using a VR headset (Meta Quest 3) and the virtual reality platform VRChat, this study will use an autoethnographic approach alongside surveys distributed through online forums such as Reddit and interviews conducted with users in VRChat. Focusing on spaces that are explicitly queer or queer-affirming, this research explores how presence, hyperreality, and avatar embodiment shape how users understand themselves, their identities, and their relationships to others, often in ways that extend or even create new versions from their so-called real, offline lives. A central part of this research is the use of autoethnography. While the project is approached with a researcher’s mindset, the “virtual experience” often complicates this perspective. By moving through these spaces as both a participant and a researcher, autoethnographic writing will further highlight how identity is both felt and reworked in real time. Overall, this research will attempt to highlight how, even on a small scale, when people are given the opportunity to create a “new world” specifically virtual, they still include human characteristics like identity, community, and ways of expressing who they are.
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Cathleen Rhodes
Faculty Advisor/Mentor Email
carhodes@odu.edu
Faculty Advisor/Mentor Department
Queer Studies
College/School Affiliation
College of Arts & Letters
Student Level Group
Graduate/Professional
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Virtual Queer Worlds: Analysis on Queer Spaces in VRChat
Despite the increased popularity and ever-growing research in Virtual Reality (VR), very little has been done to explore how embodied identity and queer subjectivity are performed and experienced within it. Using a VR headset (Meta Quest 3) and the virtual reality platform VRChat, this study will use an autoethnographic approach alongside surveys distributed through online forums such as Reddit and interviews conducted with users in VRChat. Focusing on spaces that are explicitly queer or queer-affirming, this research explores how presence, hyperreality, and avatar embodiment shape how users understand themselves, their identities, and their relationships to others, often in ways that extend or even create new versions from their so-called real, offline lives. A central part of this research is the use of autoethnography. While the project is approached with a researcher’s mindset, the “virtual experience” often complicates this perspective. By moving through these spaces as both a participant and a researcher, autoethnographic writing will further highlight how identity is both felt and reworked in real time. Overall, this research will attempt to highlight how, even on a small scale, when people are given the opportunity to create a “new world” specifically virtual, they still include human characteristics like identity, community, and ways of expressing who they are.