I’d say it’s also, for some people (whether they realize it or not) a more accessible form of gender expression than crossdressing.
Can confirm, I was born a girl but found myself using male avatars a lot because they felt right. Am now non-binary. :hexbear-non-binary:
Lol I was so repressed I would never pick femme characters because deep down I knew that was what I wanted for myself. I didn’t want to give myself an inch in experimentation or else I’d risk opening the floodgates. Crossdressing was even more of a no-no for the same reasons.
So yeah I totally believe that.
I would always pick female characters in games, but otherwise I was the same- I avoided femme presentation in all other contexts because I was so scared that, like, what happens if I like it? What does it reveal about me?
The irony of ascribing THAT much power to presentation, though, is that at one point I worked up courage to try a dress, expecting to either feel repulsed or like it was 100% correct, only to find that, like, it was just a piece of clothing. The fact that it didn’t have the innate power I was expecting ironically ended up delaying my realization that I was trans by like 5 years.
I think that “digital expression” is its own thing. I’ve never had the urge to crossdress irl, but I always play girls in MMOs, and I know a lot of other guys like that (it’s the plurality in FF14, with over half of the players playing as catgirls). I dunno if there’s any research into this though it’s just the vibe I get.
Worth mentioning that the video makes a distinction about this. There’s a very real and noted difference between how people conceive of characters in traditional games vs avatars in VR, especially in VR setups with enough presence
