The world is changing. And as that happens definitions of terms are changing as well. Rape doesn’t mean what it meant 20 years ago.
Nina Jane Patel, a psychotherapist who conducts research on the metaverse, said she was left “shocked” after between three and four avatars attacked her in the metaverse.
What is the Metaverse?
The metaverse refers to 3D virtual reality which simulates real-life – containing holographic avatars and video. The term metaverse, which is now a buzzword, is widely believed to have first been used in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash where he imagined avatars assembled in virtual worlds.
While the metaverse is still in its early stages, Facebook has created a metaverse, with Mark Zuckerberg changing Facebook parent company’s name to Meta in a bid to hone his energies on constructing the metaverse.
How was Nina Jane raped in a virtual world?
Nina wrote in a blog post on medium.com “Within 60 seconds of joining — I was verbally and sexually harassed — 3–4 male avatars, with male voices, essentially, but virtually gang-raped my avatar and took photos — as I tried to get away they yelled — ‘don’t pretend you didn’t love it’ and ‘go rub yourself off to the photo’.”
After her initial blog post about the incident, Nina Jane Patel recounts receiving comments calling it “a pathetic cry for attention” and urging her not to pick a female avatar next time. Others have raised questions about whether getting hurt in a virtual world is truly a concern
Brace yourselves
This incident is concerning on many levels. Although we are happy that technological advancements are being made every day, such occurrences are a reflection of the cons of such breakthrough. We used to think that you had to be in unsafe spaces to be raped. For example walking down the road alone at 10 pm in an unlit street. Now the definition of the word changed. You can be raped many other ways emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
This is only the beginning. It starts with googles and avatars and soon we will be wearing virtual suits like the characters in the movie Ready Player One.