Gender-Bending in Cyberspace

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The disguise is both physical ("A gallant curtle-ax on my thigh, / A boar spear at my thigh") and emotional ("and—in my heart, / Lie there what hidden women's fear there will").

Rosalind does not endorse an essential difference betwen men and women; rather, she suggests that men routinely adopt the same kind of pose she is now choosing. Biological men have to construct male gender just as biological women have to construct female gender. By making themselves unattractive, Rosalind and Celia end up less feminine; they deconstruct their female gender. Both posing as men and deconstructing femininity are games that female MUDders play.

In addition to virtual cross-dressing and creating character descriptions that deconstruct gender, MUDders swap genders as double agents. That is, men play women pretending to be men, and women play men pretending to be women. Shakespeare's characters play these games as well. When Rosalind flees Frederick's court, she is in love with Orlando. In the forest of Arden, disguised as the boy Ganymede, she encounters Orlando, himself lovesick for Rosalind. As Ganymede, Rosalind says she will try to cure Orlando of his love by playing Rosalind, pointing out the flaws of femininity as she does so. In current stagings, Rosalind usually is played by a woman who, at this point in the play, pretends to be a man who pretends to be a woman.

When Rosalind/Ganymede and Orlando meet "man to man," they are able to speak easily, free of the courtly conventions that constrain communications between men and women. In this way, the play suggests that donning a mask—adopting a persona—can be a step toward a deeper truth. This is also how MUDders regard their experiences as virtual selves.

One young woman, Zoe, describes her virtual experience: "I played a man for two years. As a man, I could be firm and people would think I was a great wizard. As a woman, drawing the line and standing firm has always made me feel like a bitch, and, actually, I feel that people saw me as one, too. As a man, I was liberated from all that. I learned from my mistakes. I got better at being firm but not rigid. I practiced, safe from criticism."

What Zoe's and Case's stories have in common is that a virtual gender swap gave them a greater sense of their emotional range. There was a chance to discover, as Rosalind and Orlando did in the Forest of Arden, that for both sexes, gender is constructed.

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