Identity Play

Identity Play

Have you ever thought about living life as the opposite sex? Afraid of the embarrassment of your family finding out? Maybe you do not want to live as the opposite sex; you just want to see how they are treated differently in certain circumstances. Maybe it’s not about the opposite gender, but you want to hide something about yourself such as balding, overweight, too tall, or even too short. Due to the anonymity that is provided by the Internet, you can participate in what is called Identity Play.

Identity Play is defined as pretending to be someone else or portraying different aspects of yourself. If you are a man, on the Internet, you can act as a woman just by creating a screen name that identifies you as a woman. The reasons for Identity Play can be innocent, like the ones that we have already discussed or they can be devious and used for foul play. It can also be used to catch those that are using it for foul play.

One use for Identity Play that has received a great deal of air time on the news is to engage in sex with minors. This can be in the form of a middle age man pretending to be a teenager in order to meet both teenage boys and girls. By time the real teenager finds out that their “friend” is an older man, it is usually too late. The person that is using Identity Play can also pretend to be female. One way that authorities are using to combat this use of the Internet is by using Identity Play themselves. Officers, both male and female, pretend to be a teenager in order to set up a meet and arrest the perpetrator. But not all Identity Play is bad.

In most cases, Identity Play is used to hide an embarrassing aspect of yourself. If you are older and balder than you used to be, you may send an online buddy an older picture of yourself in order to hide that fact. Identity Play has also been used by psychiatrists in order to relate better with their patients. Lindsy van Gelder, a journalist with Ms Magazine, tells the story of an American psychiatrist who used this technique to become a woman and help women deal with problems through an online chat room. (Chester)

Identity Play is like many other items such as handguns, it can be both harmful and helpful depending on its use. The technique of Identity Play should not be blamed for its misuse; those that misuse it should take the blame.


Works Cited
Chester, Dr. Andrea. The Real Me Online: Identity Play on the Internet. 24 10 2008 <http://www.odr.info/unforum2004/chester.htm