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Tracing Gender Affordances in Avatar Customization: A Methodological Framework

Han's paper proposes a methodological framework for analyzing gender affordances in avatar customization systems, arguing that gender is not encoded in a single toggle but is distributed across interacting options, boundaries, and defaults.

• Gender in avatar customization systems is not encoded in a single toggle but is distributed across interacting options, boundaries, and defaults, so analysis focused on visible gender widgets misses how gender is actually constituted.
• Han critiques McArthur et al.'s Avatar Affordance Framework for focusing too narrowly on visible widgets, and builds on Butler's notion of performatively constituted gender and Iantorno and Consalvo's work on intersecting class, race, and gender in CRPG character creators.
• The proposed framework rests on four analytical lenses: Gender-Related Options, Option Interactions and Navigational Distance, Boundaries of Gender Expression, and Defaults and Invisible Rules.