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It's a question I've wondered ever since I joined on the forums. There are so many anime profile pictures of girls, yet when you go to their profiles, they are men. Why do men do this? I feel like I can do it because I am a woman, but it's kinda perverted when men do it. I don't know, just my opinion. Why do you guys do it?

Because there are weird, perverted people on the Internet,

Quote from Pwnguin

Because there are weird, perverted people on the Internet,

That was my hypothesis

Mostly because they like the character, but I'm sure some actually are attracted to their avatar (This is my best guess). That's probably a small amount, though. If you liked Bill Cosby, would it be perverted for you to use him as an avatar? (I think someone actually does have a Bill Cosby avatar somewhere on these forums.)

Quote from TheQuickBrownFox

Mostly because they like the character, but I'm sure some actually are attracted to their avatar (This is my best guess). That's probably a small amount, though. If you liked Bill Cosby, would it be perverted for you to use him as an avatar? (I think someone actually does have a Bill Cosby avatar somewhere on these forums.)

Most of the time it's not a character though

I believe that people choose an anime character because they like that character, regardless of the gender.

Why does anyone choose any avatar? Why did you choose the avatar you chose?

Choosing an avatar and a forum name is an interesting thing. It is akin to choosing one's face. Something that resonates with a facet of themselves that they either want to see beside their posts, or want others to see. It's just essentially, what feels "right" in whatever frame of life a person happens to be in, what feels like it meshes comfortably with the patterns their mind follows. It occasionally has to do with "perversion", but in most cases, I would say it doesn't. Besides, it's no more wrong nor perverted for a woman to use a male avatar. Or even for people to choose "inanimate" things.

I don't put much stock in rigid self perception. We're all made of many things regardless of what the body is.

I find it strange that men choose anime girls as their avatar. I mean, if you're gonna pick an avatar, go with one that represents your gender. If you're a guy and you use a female avatar, most people will think you're a girl, and once you've met many guys who use female avatars, you'll think mostly everyone else who uses those kinds of avatars is probably a guy, when they are actually a girl. It's confusing! Yet, I'm unsure why they do it.

Quote from AlphaInventor

I find it strange that men choose anime girls as their avatar. I mean, if you're gonna pick an avatar, go with one that represents your gender. If you're a guy and you use a female avatar, most people will think you're a girl, and once you've met many guys who use female avatars, you'll think mostly everyone else who uses those kinds of avatars is probably a guy, when they are actually a girl. It's confusing! Yet, I'm unsure why they do it.

Exactly! It's confusing and weird. When you see someone with a girl avatar, you expect them to be a girl

on the net, it's safest to assume everyone is a guy, despite what they really are. so in retrospect, having so many female avatars around makes for good lesson and desensitization material to teach this bit of net-life wisdom. if it were a rare occurrence, then it would take longer for new people to 'get it', and increase their chances of being fooled by the ones that deliberately make every effort to trick those new people and eventually cause them some degree of psychological harm.

ps: i have no idea what gender my avatar is, now that i think about it.

Quote from Dextrous

Personal preference. Simple as that. It's just because they like the avatar. Maybe it defines a part of their personality. Let me ask you, why do you not use a male avatar?

(I mean, I'm not a Smeargle in real life (unfortunately ha), I just use this avatar because I like it. Besides, as far as I know, it's genderless, which I am not.)

I know buddy. You want to be a Smeargle. Throughout fourth grade, I imagined myself as Shellder.

So? Then why ask Trippledot why she has a dragon as her avatar.

"Why do so many girls have dragons as their avatar?"


Men can choose what image they like as their avatar. It should be decided by others that they can not have an avatar of the opposite sex.

Quote from VossMaster

So? Then why ask Trippledot why she has a dragon as her avatar.

"Why do so many girls have dragons as their avatar?"


Men can choose what image they like as their avatar. It should be decided by others that they can not have an avatar of the opposite sex.

He*

I seriously don't understand the assumption that girl avatar = user is a girl

(Most) men like girls.
You expect people to put things that they like up as an avatar.
In my case, I like the character Tomoyo, and I like girls, so I put this as my avatar. It also looks nice.
Why is this considered weird? Keep in mind that a person's avatar does not specifically define the person, maybe a part of their likes and interests, but nothing more.

Besides, it's not all that easy to find a nice male anime character for an avatar, since I prefer girls.

Tl;dr,

Quote from Sgt. Traveler

We choose our avatars because for the most part we like the picture, let alone the character in it. It doesn't really has to reflect you, just what you like.

Quote from SilverMx

Exactly! It's confusing and weird. When you see someone with a girl avatar, you expect them to be a girl

No, it's really more like this: If you see a person with a female avatar, you assume them to be male, in fact, you assume everyone to be male by default, then work from there.

Quote from Dextrous

Or just don't assume anything. That way, when they tell you about themselves, it shouldn't come as confusing/surprising.

Now where's the fun in that Dexxy

I suspect it might also have something to do with the tender age of a goodly portion of forum members. Gaming is still by-and-large considered a pastime of the young. Certainly Minecraft much appeals to youth. I suspect that if the forums were inhabited by a more balanced distribution of age groups, we'd see a greater variety of avatars, with less anime in the mix.

I, for instance, am prolly one of the game's older players. Bought it Feb 2012, when I was sixty-one. My Minecraft Forum avatar is a crude self-portrait of myself draw back in 1975.

In the other game forum I contribute regularly to, Bethesda's Oblivion forums, my avatar is a screen capture of the character I created and play. A decent number of participants in those forums use self-created character avatars. They also tend to be an older lot, comparatively speaking, several surpassing me!

I'm not sure what I'm getting at, if anything. Food for thought maybe?

Meh, unless the person is really good, you can usually tell if the other person is a female or a male if you play on the internet enough. However, I used to use girl avatars in other forums. The reason I used girl avatars because a lot of male anime characters either don't look good, have a bad personality, or just gives an overall feeling of crudeness. The chances I can find a good male anime characters is like 1/50 pictures and even then, it's mostly not better than 1/4 bad girl anime avatar. The rest are just plain perverts obviously.

Quote from Dextrous

Oh, and yet another thing (seriously I should just put this all in one post but I keep forgetting), I don't understand what people think is so perverted about having a female avatar. What, do you think people are sexually attracted to their avatars or something?

I just find that kind of a weird thing to think of.

Depends on the avatar I suppose