[Presentation] Deprecating Queerness: VRChat Vs. Performing Avatars

Historically, social spaces have created limited avenues for the performance of queerness. There are notable exceptions for online spheres (ex: Tumblr, Overwatch); however, other online virtual spaces such as VRChat continue to subdue cues for queerness. Primarily, this can be observed through behaviours asserted by users that work to cultivate a territory through transphobic articulations, designating a hierarchy of queerness which determines how one is allowed to display or perform their queer identity. For many female avatars, joining a virtual room in VRChat constitutes being excessively harassed by other players demanding that they speak using their microphones. This type of group intimidation is used to situate them within the gender binary (notably, given that VRChat does not contain text chat). Players whose voices are perceived as dissonant (i.e., a female avatar, but speaking in a rather masculine voice) are exclusively authenticated as crossdressers. Using Deluze’s theory of assemblages, Butler’s heterosexual matrix, and Consalvo’s explorations of toxic masculinity and gamer culture, this paper aims to uncover the ways in which players repeatedly use a heterosexual matrix as a compass for interaction with other players. This works to oppress and single out players which threaten the heteronormative constellation of relationships with other (avatar) bodies within the virtual world (VRChat). This is particularly notable given that VRChat is a relatively new space, with few established cultural norms; new forms of expected behaviour are constantly being re-adapted by heteronormative resistances.