True Colours

How do transgender people present themselves and how does Social Virtual Reality provide an immersive experience that not only allows you to choose an avatar of any gender, but also to immerse yourself in it? Matthias Lenz analyses the media dispositive of the Social VR platform VRChat, which allows a great deal of freedom in terms of avatar design. He analyses how transgender people present themselves in the virtual world and construct their gender. Through narrative interviews with experienced users aged between 18 and 25, he makes their perspectives tangible and their hopes, desires, problems, gender euphoria and gender dysphoria understandable. The result is a comprehensive and complex picture of virtual safe(r) spaces.