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Study of men who embodied a young woman in VR finds they felt disgust & anger when catcalled
(lemmy.blahaj.zone)
this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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A couple of years ago I played VR paintball with my gf’s avatar without a mic and got to experience first hand what it feels like to be aggressively hit on. I didn’t want to play with a female avatar from there on.
But that was real. It didn't artificially reify stereotypes of women being scared in subway stations at night. The take-away was simply that this stuff is annoying.
I thought of something: Anorexia. That condition where people, mainly young women, starve themselves to death. This is often claimed to be the result of unrealistic beauty standards in media. Women are also more often diagnosed with phobias. Why aren't we talking more about a possible role for stereotypes here.
FWIW, I am very skeptical about the role of beauty standards in anorexia. Vague societal expectations seem a poor explanation for something as drastic as starving yourself to death, especially given how most people are overweight. But I am also sure that my behavior would be different in many ways, if I wasn't expected to "man up".
Your takeaway from my experience was that it was annoying? I felt attacked, vulnerable and defenseless, to say it was mere annoying is an underestimation you seem to make quite quickly. Since you are interested in anorexia I might recommend starting from the wikipedia article that lists the causes linked to it, which are numerous in addition to societal pressure.
What made it so bad?